The Ditch on 40 — Restaurant in Winter Park

Our first impression:

Upon entering the establishments downstairs door, we were met with an unpleasant odor. I would liken it to musty old cooking grease. However, once at the top of the stairs, it dissipated, and we couldn't smell it anymore.

I gave the SERVICE 5 Stars as we were seated quickly, and our servers were awesome! They were very attentive to us and got our drinks out quickly. NOTE: One person in our party ordered Baileys Irish Cream, which they didn't have/don't serve. I just added this for anyone who might want this type of drink. We were told they are basicly a beer and liquor kind of place, which was okay, we just adjusted our order.

Next came our appetizers and let me rave about their onion rings! Be sure to order them. They were great! The onions were super sweet, not over fried, and just overall really good.

Our entrees were a bit of a hit or miss. Some folks in our party had burgers, with the bacon burger being voted the best. I, on the other hand, had the fish tacos, which were a bit of a miss. The tortilla had been cooked, but it was hard and cold, very leather like, and a tad hard to eat. I canned the tortillas and just ate the inside items, which were tasty. It would have been better if the fish had been hot, but it was barely warm. I love fish tacos, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but I wouldn't recommend them. I would recommend the bacon burgers, though, based on 3 out of 6 people really loving them. The other two folks had a Philly Cheese steak and chicken fingers, which were fine.

I rated the ATMOSPHERE a 3 because it was quite noisy and cold where we were seated. Granted, it was in the high 30s/low 40s that day, so being surrounded on two sides of windows had a lot to do with that. I would say this place has an old-fashioned beer joint vibe to it, kind of like Cheers, which was cool.

Overall: I would recommend giving this place a try. The service alone would bring me back as it was some of the best we had while in town, with the food being decent and...

Ok, I'll admit it. I was a little timid walking into this place and I really can't tell you why. It may be the slight 'biker bar' vibe that it exudes. I'm not exactly sure though.

We stopped mid afternoon and the bar was pretty full with locals and visitors eating food and drinking pints. The interior is well lit and uniquely decorated with skis, license plates, Colorado art and signs. They do have a large patio area outside for socializing and eating if the weather is nice out. The staff was very casual and inviting as we entered the door. We were greeted right away and sat at a high bar table.

We ordered a couple of beers that they advertised on the chalkboard. I totally thought that we were ordering pints of beer, so I was very confused when the server arrived with cans of beer and glasses to pour them in. We wanted to try the Hatch green chile, so we ordered the poutine with Hatch green chile and the sliders to share. This is a lot of food for 2 people. We were looking for a snack and got 2 full meals with this order.

It was a good combo of appetizers though. The Hatch green chile and Philly meat on the poutine was flavorful and saucy enough for the fries underneath. The fries could have been fried a minute or two longer to avoid getting a bit soft pretty quickly. A little more crunch to the fry may help this from occurring. The fries were a nice consistency of potato though. The sliders are 3 thick ground chuck sliders with grilled onions, cheese, Hatch green chile, 1000 island dressing; all served on a delicious pretzel bun. Delicious to the...

Walked in here because the place seemed casual and I was in a casual sort of mood. Turns out this place makes casual seem formal. Attired in what could probably be deemed tacky, The Ditch was covered for n wall to wall puns, sports paraphernalia, liquor/beer motifs and license plates. Lots and lots of license plates.

The guy who greeted me was cool and I sat at the bar where I watched most of the staff take shots between everything else. Make a drink, take a shot. Deliver food, take a shot. Refill water, ... well, you get the picture.

I was sweet-talked into the blackened tilapia fish tacos which were okay, but not great. And a six dollar can of beer. Yes, $6 for a single can on beer.

The restaurant itself was more like hanging out in your friend's basement than a place to go out and most of the staff were extremely friendly. A couple of seemed perturbed i was there at all, but in all fairness those were the ones doing shots.

And, although they had signs telling us to wait to be seated no one seemed interested in actually seating anyone. A lot of people were visibly annoyed.

And the much lauded fish tacos? Meh. The best thing about them was the sauce that...