Balanced Rock Cafe — Restaurant in Manitou Springs

Many good things happening here, but some food mistakes I can't ignore either. Novel uses of flavors. Nice atmosphere and some of their menu is really good prices for a tourist location. Their food presentation is also excellent and they have a selection of alcohol to clear ones pallet.

But in my experience I found some of their menu unexpected in a bad way. For example their "Bison burger", there's no nice way to say that it simply tastes like fake meat. I showed two of the staff my burger and I asked if it's meat and the answer I got was "it's real, we mix it up in the back" and "maybe we put too much spice this time". Ok but who mixes up their burgers? You form a burger, you mix up meatloaf. So what I was served is like a tiny meatloaf burger. I've had soy filler meatloaf burgers in Japan and at least they're honest about it in Japan. But this place claims their "Bison burger" is real meat and it left me questioning that. I couldn't finish it.

And this "Bison Burger"? It's a $15 small burger, I'm expecting at worst at least on par with mcdonalds at best an exotic gamey or dry meat balanced with the swiss to make it work. First bite, first three seconds it's got a mouthwatering smoked salt dill flavor with mushrooms and warm swiss cheese, a nice 3 seconds. But at second 4 I realize that my mouth is filled with dill and salt like I dumped spices in my mouth, where's my hamburger flavor?! I look down at the "meat" and it's a spiced filled mush of what? No meat texture in the mouth, no spring, no meat flavor, just it's smokey dill & salt. Which honestly compliments the mushroom & swiss, but that's not a burger and certainly not a Bison burger. The counter looked at it and claimed it's not a fake meat product, but if I were to replicate it I'd take their unsold impossible meat burgers, mash them with a potato and drown it in smoked dill flavor. Wala, I have replicated their "Bison burger". I can at least confirm their chicken fingers are real chicken. But their burgers, huh? No, that doesn't seem like it's burger.

I give it 2 stars because their use of smoked dill is novel, captures the essence of grill smoke with pickle. If they sold that as sandwich like a big vegetarian portabella mushroom and that smoked dill flavor and swiss, that would be 10/10. But to use these flavors to mask the mush of "bison" they claim is Bison, it...

A nice place to eat while visiting God's Rock Garden, but not a good value and food could be better. Placed order with my daughter and she was prompted for a tip so she entered $7 thinking there would be some service. There isn't any. You go to the counter to order, you are asked for a tip via card processor, you pay, you find a table, you get your own drinks, they call you back to get your food when it is ready, and you bus your own table. I can overlook the mistake in our order, but the bison burger did not taste much like bison and was small. The basket of fries was small and composed mostly of 1" small remains of potatoes. The turkey wrap was good, the pumpkin cheesecake was delicious (though pricey), and it is a nice atmosphere on the back patio. The people who work there are also friendly. I appreciate that they distribute a BOGO 1/2 off coupon, but was surprised that they applied it to the cheapest item on our order when we had several more expensive...

After spending half a day in summer in trails of Garden of Gods, this place was just perfect for a refueling meal. I got the southwest burger with american. It was such a good burger. The bison paddy was such good quality. With all the toppings, cheese and sauce, it made an amazing combination. Got some mac and cheese from kid’s menu. It was good too. We enjoyed their cajun and regular fries as well.

Since they make everything after the order, it takes some time for the order to be ready. But I am just happy to see they serve good food in a high volume tourist spot which is rare in my experience.

Other side of the cafe has Starbucks drinks, ice creams and some bakery items. They don’t take Starbucks membership, but the drinks are legit, since I got the strawberry acai lemonade. We liked the chocolate...