Aspen Creek Grill — Restaurant in San Antonio

Well, this is gonna come on strong. I was gonna be nice and search out the owner on LinkedIn but then I had to buy some subscription to contact him and then even when I did, it said I had used up all my messages for the month, so I’m a little ticked now. To the real issue. Went into Aspen Creek, my parents order from here all the time for the pan seared salmon and I’m not gonna lie, It is fantastic. This is my second time just visiting the bar. First time was awesome. Tonight, not so much. First, bartender watched me as I pulled out a blonde out of my mouth when I used my finger to lick the salt from the rim. I am a red head, no doubt. Now he did do the right thing and poured out the drink and made me another one, but I was charged for it. Second, I had to turn to a server behind me that was waiting on drinks at the well and ask him to kill a roach that was climbing up the wall. I did do this privately because I didn’t want to cause a scene. I told him “thank you“. He replied, “no thank you“. to me it wasn’t a big deal originally. Things happen in the restaurant industry I understand. It wasn’t until I hit the trifecta that all the others became a problem. So upon leaving I put in an order of grilled mushrooms to go. I’ve ordered them before and they have been awesome. Totally love them. Tonight, not so much. The lid on the ranch was held under the heat lamp or heated up so long that it melted and even though I put in a special bag to keep it level it melted all the way through the container and ranch was everywhere. Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem because I love ranch. However, I don’t know if it’s because I ordered them 10 minutes before they close or if the oil was old but they were burnt. And to be honest, I was given crumbs of batter. Maybe a few mushrooms but the rest was like ordering from Long, John Silver and only getting crispies. I couldn’t even find a mushroom till maybe , try number five. I’ve taken pictures just in case anybody thinks I’m being a Karen or over exaggerating. I called up to the store at 10:08 and someone finally answered. I explained I had just ordered and left and I had an issue with my food and I’d like to tell somebody about it. Someoy informed me it would be impossible to speak to anyone in charge because they were closed. However, again being a GM of another restaurant establishment, I know they are in the back checking out servers. They should’ve taken my call or this wouldn’t be as long as it is. Not their fault, I’ll give them that. Either way, I’ll go back because I like the atmosphere and I like the people that work there. However, train your people. If you’re a GM or manager and you are in the building don’t ever refuse to take a call. Poor customer service. Now I’m gonna wait till tomorrow and call up there again as I was told to do by whoever answered the phone. However, now I’m ticked. I have food I can’t eat, I had alcohol that hair in it and I had to ask to ask a server to kill a bug. No manager came to me about either of these issues. I let it go, because again I try my best not to be a Karen when I go into other restaurants. However, I’m just gonna put it out there. If you’re looking for a GM, a bar manager or a front of house manager. I might be interested. I think I could help. I have a stellar record. I’m relocating to the area if I find a job that actually pays me what I’m worth. You can find me on LinkedIn. Thank you for reading this. Charleen...

Arrived on a Sunday around 12:30 in the afternoon. There was plenty of parking and I was seated right away.

I ordered some green chili queso with chips as an appetizer. My drink and the appetizer arrived relatively quickly. The chips seemed fresh and had the right amount of salt on them. They were good. The green chili queso was also very good. It's not spicy, but you can see some chili's mixed in there.

I ordered the Hot Habanero Burger. It took a little long to get my order. From the time I placed the order to the time it arrived, it was probably about 20 minutes. Not too bad. They do have televisions and if you're watching the football games or some kind of games on the TVs, time will probably fly by.

The burger was cooked medium to medium well as you can see. You can request that they could get to your likeness. It is noted in their menu that their burgers are cooked to this doneness, so if you want to cook more, make sure to mention it.

I liked the burger. It was fresh and juicy. However, it was not spicy. The habanero relish they add in combination with the chipotle mayo have a good flavor but are not hot at all. I will say that I have a higher heat tolerance. Maybe someone who's not used to eating spicy foods would find it a little hot, but even so, I expected at least some heat to be present. What they could maybe work on is giving the patty a little char. I don't know how they cook it but it didn't have a nice little crust or char to give it some more flavor.

The french fries were very good. They've got a particular type of batter that makes them taste great. I only wish they were a little hotter. They were warm, but seemed like they'd been ready for several minutes before they were brought out.

Our waitress was very nice and helpful. She dropped by the table a couple of times to see if we needed anything.

I would go back again without hesitation. I've eaten here before and also had a great experience. On my previous visit, I had the chicken fried steak. I enjoyed it. I believe I ordered two gravies, a brown and a white, and found that mixed together created the best gravy...

Diners beware.

I've been in food service a long time and I can tell a nasty place immediately. My full-time job is actually to see these things in my own work place day in and day out. You know people like us go out to eat too, right? We're not all gullible.

First sign was a moldy menu. Clearly moldy. Like I'm not sure how so many people missed it because that's been there a while. Then they brought silverware that was not only obviously disgusting with paper stuck to it (it's required by health code to change dishwasher water every 2 hours and servers should be checking and polishing silverware as they roll it) but the napkin was also covered in white mold spots. So that's a dishwasher or two, a server, and a bartender who all missed the dirty silverware. I checked to see if the napkin mold maybe was powdered sugar, but it wouldn't come off. I sent the menu back with the silverware and a "my dude, these are disgusting," and ordered against my better judgement because my husband had been waiting all afternoon to eat. Both our meals came on greasy plates, meaning they were dirty before they had our meals on them. If you touched a bare spot on the plate you could see the smears. Every single lime wedge they brought for our drinks was brown, so we asked for a few in a cup so we could choose our own. Know how else I can tell they are using old limes? They brought them in a bar glass with bottled lime juice poured over them to make them look better (you can tell by the color of the juice), but the problem was that the juice took up 1/3 of the (very dirty) glass. The couple next to us at the bar found something in their food and walked their tab. Didn't even drink their beers. The bartender couldn't have cared less the whole night as he was too busy making his own personal drinks and some for his buddies. He didn't even notice until someone else tried to sit there. How do you not notice at the bar if you're right there behind the bar? That's next level neglect. I don't know how they are getting by day-to-day like this.

Edited to add that I've reported them to the...