Door 222 food & drink — Restaurant in Loveland

Lost that loving feeling sadly. This has been our favorite restaurant for quite awhile. I have eaten dozens of times, brought clients, friends, etc. But I am afraid my last experience there, may be my last. It was a Saturday night, where they have the Prime Rib special. We ordered our usual favorite tapas to share and a couple of drinks. For the main course wife orders the Prime Rib, I went for the Short Ribs. We notice the couple at the table next to use got their food, two Prime Rib dinners, and their reaction didn't seem like they were enjoying it. My wife got her Prime Rib and realized why, it was completely cold. The waiter came back to the couple next to us and they sent theirs back. My wife also sent her s back as well. They brought back the 3 plates of Prime Rib and it was obvious they just warmed the entire plate as you could see where she had cut into it when sampling it. Instead of being nicely rare, as Prime Rib should be, it was now brown on top and the texture had changed. Not good... We asked to speak to the manager and she was mildly apologetic, but kind of just glossed over it and said "I hope you will come back to try it again". So I am nearly done eating by now, btw the short ribs were OK, but overcooked. My wife tried to eat the Prime Rib, but it just didn't taste good at all, so she orders another entree off the menu. The couple next to us "pushed through" their Prime Rib, but didn't even finish it. We chatted with them and it was their first time there, but obviously probably their last too. So I am done eating by the time my wife's food arrives. It looks good, but she also commented it was just OK. I sit and watch her eat, we have been there for awhile now, and we try to make the best of the rest of the evening. When we got the bill, the only thing the manager did was give a free ($7) desert. Really? That's supposed to motivate me to come back after a really poor experience? I asked to talk with the manager again, but she was "too busy" and just told the waitress to take off a couple tapas and a drink. That waitress was very embarrassed about the food issue and the poor handling by the manager, but she kept her cool and treated us very well.

Moral of the story - when you screw up, OWN IT and makes amends, which is not a measly $7 desert in this case. I have had many bad experiences in restaurants over the years, the ones who make it right, I return to, the ones who try "get by" with a little recompense as possible, I don't. That simple. So I can't say I will never return, because I have loved it for so long. But, I can't in good conscience recommend it any more and one of the many other local restaurants I haven't tried, just got bumped to the top of the list. It's so simple to get a customer to return and so short-sighted not...

I really wanted to like this place. I had not visited the establishment in over a year and really had high hopes. Unfortunately, it did not deliver. We were seated quickly and our server arrived to take our drink order. It was after this that things went south. A sign on the sidewalk and one when you walked in the door touted a fall menu. When I asked about it, our server said they only had a fall salad on the menu, as the full roll out had not taken place yet. After several minutes she returned with a diet coke and a 1/2 empty bottle of water (did she grab it from someone else's table) and claimed she would return to take our order. She proceeded to the table behind us whose occupants arrived after we were seated, took their drink orders, proceeded to get their drinks, and appetizer order, passing by our closed menus and empty drink glasses three times. Finally, almost as an after thought, she turned to ask us if we wanted to order food. (No, cute girl, I'm here for a glass of water and one diet coke). I asked to start with the beet salad and then order the skirt steak. My husband order a pizza. It was then that she asked if my husband would like another soda. At this time I handed her the empty water bottle and asked for more water as well. After 20 minutes my salad arrives...with my entree. When I said I didn't want the salad now as my entree had arrived she asked, "Did you want your salad first?" Even Denny's knows the salad is served first. Disgusted, she reluctantly takes the salad back to the kitchen. Several minutes later our waitress returns to apologize for the salad mix up, again seems confused that I didn't ask for it first, but says she has discounted it for me. I reminded her that I sent it back and asked her to simply remove it from the bill. She did. After this, she did not return to our table until it came time to pay the bill. A new server cleared our table and asked if we wanted dessert. We handed our waitress our credit card. When she brought the receipt for us to sign, she failed to bring the itemized bill along with it.

As for the food, The skirt steak was served with a flavored butter and the broccoli and potato sides were decent. Unfortunately, nothing was very warm. The butter never melted because the steak and plate were too cold for it to do so. In addition, the bottom of the pizza crust was covered with burnt crumbs. It appears as if they need to clean the oven. I love to support downtown and local establishments, but Door 222 will not be on my list again...

We made reservations weeks in advance for Valentine's Day to have them cancel our reservation only a few hours prior saying they overbooked. Huge oversight especially on Valentine's Day with Loveland festival happening and every nice restaurant needing reservations. We had a hotel booked for the night so changing plans or places to go through a wrench in everything. We decided to leave early and see if we could possibly get a table anyway. Upon arrival the hostess and signs posted said a wait without reservation would be at least 90 minutes to 2 hours and would have to sit at the bar and they would get a text when a table was ready. We stayed on the street in front of the restaurant while we waited and not 30 minutes later I got a text that our table was ready, sent 3 minutes ago because the music from the festival was so loud I didn't hear the exact moment it was sent. Got to the restaurant 4 minutes after the text was sent to have the hostess say they gave our spot away because we didn't come in time. Seriously couldn't wait a whole 5 minutes for us to get there when we told them we would be walking the street festival out front. They then in scramble asked if we wanted to sit on an end bar. We agreed because we were hungry and didn't want just food truck food which was all that was left with everywhere requiring reservations. The end bar was tiny foot wide plank with stools underneath with people constantly zooming by constantly due to the location. The atmosphere was great but man they need to do dusting. Stick on the end bar with pretty much a wall a foot in front of your face gives you nothing to look at if you don't look up or almost behind you. The layer of dust and cobwebs on all the fixtures was bad. May not have noticed had we not been sat where we were. The music was nice and welcoming, our server was nice and attentive and the food I got to say was amazing. But what a bummer to have them not once but twice give up our seats on Valentine's Day of all days. Severely disappointing and took away what could have been a much better experience by the look of the...