I have been to the Cork House a couple of times now. I was there once before it was "renovated" and the name "Broker" was added. Like others have said, I thought the bar in the entrance was better than walking into people dining and then having to walk through them to get to the bar.
The food is as others have described and I am not a fan. I tasted several wines before deciding on a glass and all of which tasted rancid. Â I played it safe the last time just ordering cheese which our waiter admitted he had forgotten and did comp it. That was a huge plus for customer service.
The energy of the place could be better. Seemed dead and blah. Otherwise, the atmosphere I thought could be something a bit more if the food was better. I love the old booths, wood floors and the charm of the place. The age of of patrons did seem a bit older (which didn't matter to me) and then there were some other interesting characters as well. Â In all honesty I had the cheeses they served me at home and I could have had a fresh glass of wine at home as well.
What a great space but that doesn't matter when the food is bad and service perhaps sketchy ( but friendly) at times. Their patio is something to be admired but unfortunately I can't see myself ever visiting The Cork again.
I should have updated this a while back, but I'm a slacker. I am revising my rating because I was so disappointed with the removal of the front bar when they changed it over to a Broker restaurant. It was such a beautiful bar (what a shame to tear that down - and believe me, I'm not one to resist change when it's for the better). And it was an inviting way to enter the restaurant. Now when you walk in the front doors, you walk right into people eating. The bar is now way in the back and much less charming than the previous one. The food and the staff are still good, I still love wine and cheese and their patio really is beautiful, so I'll be visiting again. I just thought the recent changes warranted a downgrade in my previous five star rating.
Review Source:Do not go here to eat. Â The food is terrible, and nothing is served hot. Â Cold meat, cold potatoes, and cold vegetables. Â The food is as glacial as the room temperature of the restaurant. Â The prime rib was so tough that I could barely cut it, and I had to saw for minutes to cut a forkful. Â The meat was not seasoned, and was blah, dry and tasteless. Â They shoukd give up on a dinner menu, and just serve bar food, but I imagine that would be cold too. Â Can you imagine cold, saltless French fries? Â Can't imagine how this place stays open. Â Thet have an over-60 clientele, and why anyone ever returns after eating here once is beyond me. Â Save your money, and go anywhere else for dinner. Â Your stomach and your wallet will thank you.
Review Source:Our family went for Mother's Day and it was one of the best holidays we've had! The meal was wonderful, very, very good food. The service was outstanding. They ran a Mother's Day special and really was extremely reasonable. Honestly, the staff certainly let us know how much they appreciated our business.
Review Source:STOP! Â Don't go here.... There's no reason to.
The food is terrible frozen crap. The wine is overpriced; $29 for a bottle you can buy 1 block away at Marczyk for $6. I understand the wine upcharge, but 5x the retail price? C'mon! Â The problem is that it is just one huge "meh"...
The happy hour used to be worth it, but now it only goes til 6.
Solera is three blocks away and has HH until 7:00. Go there. FAST.
The Cork House has been around for a long time and has had great food. Â We went there last night and had an ok experience. The server was good, the staff was friendly, but I found that the decor and food was dated. Â We learned that they had re-branded their name to The Cork House Broker at the end of Jan. Â I had the salmon and over rice which was tasty, but the rice wasn't fully cooked. Â The salmon was fine and a large portion. I added a side of asparagus for $5 which I thought was a little pricy. Â Over all it was a 3 star experience, but there are so many more places in Denver that are more modern and updated.
Review Source:The Cork House has had a connection to the Broker but recently the owner of the Broker completely took it over and bravo Jerry! We stopped in again the other night and Eric the Manager is doing a bang up job. Not only does he stop by the tables to see how everything is going he is helping is wait staff too ensuring service is timely. They also hired a new chef Micah and my husband and he talked about cooking a steak Blue which is rarer than rare. Micah attempted this for him and did a great job. Â The happy hour is good and the selection of food during happy hour is also very good. Â Eric stated they are making more changes to appeal to the locals and drive in new traffic. Â They are changing up the wine list and yeah some wines are still a bit overpriced but give it time. Â If you haven't been for a while please pop in.
Review Source:Very disappointing. Â I was there on a Monday night and about half the tables were occupied. Â They staffed only one, inexperienced but friendly, server for the whole place. Â
They took our drink order after about 10 minutes. Â We had to beg to order appetizers. Â We then had to beg to order our meal. Â
The food was good but the presentation was lousy. Â I had a pile of meat on my plate with no vegetable offered, no salad offered, no garnish even. Â There was no bread while we waited to order. Â The appetizers took forever. Â The entree took forever. Â The waiter was literally running to keep up with the tables (poor guy) and therefore never checked on our drinks without us flagging him down.
We had to beg for our check so we could finally leave after a very loooong, meal. Â It was nice to linger and not be rushed out the door but this was a bit ridiculous.
To top it off, the temperature was about 10 degrees to cold in our seating area.
Perhaps it is better on a busier night. Â I won't be around to find out.
?I really wanted to love the corkhouse. Thats why I waited till my fourth experience to review. Unfortunately I can'rt go higher then a 3.  Depending on the night your evening can be anything from a 2 to a 4. The wine selection is  nice with a large mark up over the store so I tend to go on Thursday nights. Â
The food is tasty and I suggest pairing it with wine for an extra kick. Â I've don a taste of almost all their happy hour food and have never been disappointed. Â But what it comes down to is price. The corkhouse is old, the bathrooms and tables show their age. last time we went the table was broken so every time any one leaned on it it wobbled. For the high price they charge I would just expect more. If your going to go I suggest going at night this is one bar that looks better by candlelight.
I have been to Cork House about 10 times. Â My visit last Friday was my last. Â I usually frequented for happy hour, which until this summer, was fabulous. Â They changed the menu, increased the prices, and reduced variety on happy hour. Â Before my first happy hour visit of the summer, I purchased a gift certificate from Living Social or Perks or one of those promotions for a $40 certificate for $20. Â After purchasing, the fine print showed I needed to spend $80 to redeem (kind of an important fine print item). Â
Our happy hour was horrible. Â There is a new waitress that was rude, and inattentive. Â However, we had this certificate that we needed to use. Â We went to the restaurant last Friday night. Â There was only one other inside table that was occupied. Â That is not the kind of ambiance I expect when spending $80 on dinner. Â We could hear them complain to the hostess, who then began to kiss their butts, to a disgusting degree, while somehow not acknowledging any of their complaints. Â My husband and I experienced a very similar experience, but did not bother complaining because we knew it would do no good. Â
Our food was also horrible. Â I ordered the Paella. Â It was much more like gumbo. Â I like gumbo, but that is not what I ordered. Â Again, $80 is far too much to spend for poor food. Â
The one good thing was that our waiter this time was really good. Â Although our food was mediocre at best, he did make the dining experience bearable. Â I will not be returning to this establishment.
The Cork House is officially off my patio rotation :-( Â Not only do they close at 10pm on gorgeous weekend nights, but they've opened the patio up to where you can see Colfax?! No fence, no barrier, nothing. To top it off, they took the fountain out that drowned the traffic noise. I couldn't have been more disappointed with my last visit.
Review Source:Ugh, I really should have read the reviews before I attempted the Cork. Â
I arrived before my friend and unfortunately there was no place to sit, wait, and enjoy a beverage. Â
After the initial disappointment in the brief wine list, we settled on the wine-dinner pairings. Â None of the wine was impressive, but it was the highlight of the meal, the food was even worse. Â
My appetizer was alright, but my companion's 3 meatballs were cold internally. Â We both ordered a wedge salad, hard to mess up, the only remark that I have is that they were not very, um, inspired? Â Chop lettuce, blob of dressing, done. Â Entrees: Way overcooked salmon and a filet Diane, with very salty sauce, and dried mash potatoes. Â So not tasty. Â Finally dessert: Apple cinnamon pizza, which they used the same pita bread that was used for the appetizers, "like something out of a Lunchable" and a chocolate mousse, "Jello pudding". Â We managed to escape without our leftovers.
Over priced, disappointing, yuck.
This restaurant is a waste of a good building in a great location. This building once was home to Tante Louise which was a Denver Landmark. Sadly its replacement begs to live up to its own name. Ok yeah, they have wine... decent wine by the glass specials during happy hour but their attempts at a menu has been laughable from day one.
I kept getting suckered into going here because it's right around the corner from where I live. I guess I kept returning and trying different things either out of morbid curiosity or simply to find ONE redeeming quality.
The first time I ate there with my girlfriend for our anniversary, the food made her sick (after waiting over 90 minutes for it to get to us, it apparently died in the window LONG BEFORE).
Another time our party of 6 was getting blasted by Jimmy Buffet and Fleetwood Mac in the house speaker directly overhead, when we asked the manager to either change it to jazz (you know, common in a fine dining atmosphere.) or turn it down-- she simply said "I hate Jazz, the music is from my personal cd collection".
Wow lady... really? Couple that with your condescending attitude towards the people that keep your doors open and you can go find a job at the Denver Diner if they're hiring.
Seriously, I'm not here to Park Hill bash... I love my neighborhood and maybe I'm a little protective of it! I get a little defensive when someone sets up shop only to do a half assed job and expect us to over pay.
If you want a place that is unpretentious and delivers good food and wine in SPADES, just go a few blocks east to Solera. Goose's crew is the real deal, the food and wine are spectacular for the money and the patio is beautiful in the spring and summer.
This is my first bad review, but the experience was so awful that I have to say something.
First of all, my friend and I went there for a coursed meal with wine PAIRINGS for each course, I emphasize the word PAIRINGS because the wine was not actually paired. In fact our waiter had barely any wine knowledge what so ever. So when we tried to help by asking a series of questions about our varietals to choose from he looked like we were speaking to him in Cantonese. He couldn't tell us any of the flavor profiles of the wines, where they were from, nothing. So we muddled through what we thought would compliment our meals. Sadly the only wine worth it's glass was the Cabernet.
Then the food came out. What a disappointment. I have been in this industry over eight years, and the food was appalling. My salad had no flavor to it, the pears they gave me were unripe, washed and slapped on the plate. No poaching, caramelizing nothing, just watery extra crispy washed out pears. Lettuce was still wet from being washed and the dressing was lack luster. My friend's potato soup with thin, watery and had no seasoning. Salt and pepper really does go a long way. We sent back our entrees because the my fillet mignon's char marks were so deep that the entire steak tasted like a creamy ashtray. My friends lamb was macerated beyond belief and was over cooked. Â Then finally, dessert, we tried ordering them only to be told that one was out and the other wasn't a good choice. So after having one dessert and cocktails to make up for the lack of a second we took our leave. To their credit, the manger was very apologetic about our food and the staff did everything they could to be accommodating. It's just so hard to recover when the meal in it's entirety was so unfortunate.
Sadly I will not be returning to The Cork House anytime soon, nor will I recommend to to my friends and family. I took my friend out to a dinner that cost over $120.00 which would have been fine if our food hadn't been more in the $20.00 range.
I'm giving this place 5 stars just because of the patio. The food is good, not excellent, just good. What makes this place is the huge patio with fountains, trees and flowers. You forget that you're on Colfax and on a warm night its the best place to be drinking a glass of wine with friends.
Review Source:OMG! I've never had such a deceiving experience dining. This place started off really well, but, by the end, we were flabbergasted by how bad the food was.
We had a four-course wine-paired meal. Luckily we had that wine!
The meal did start off promising. Our apps (bruchetta & meatballs) was pretty good. Then it went down hill. I think we only finished one of the next 6 dishes that arrived at our table, and it was only a salad. Fiance's salad was pretty good, with walnuts and orange slices, but mine was down-right terrible. I had a spinach salad with a warm bacon vinaigrette. I don't think the bacon was cooked.
Our main courses consisted of a half-cooked halibut with a bunch of canned vegetables and a tortellini carbonara that wasn't nearly as bad, but still, unfinishable. Luckily, the garlic bread was eatable.
By the time desert came, we were so drunk off wine, we didn't care THAT much that the best course was the flan and the mousse.
This isn't even to mention that our waitress was on crack. Nice, for sure, but def. hitting the pipe.
I will take some blame for trying this place without ever hearing (or reading) anything about it. I had got a coupon on a whim. Hey Cork House, thanks for reminding me not to do that again.
I was going to give it two stars but I had to hit the bathroom as soon as I got home. Â So that brought it down to 1 star. Â
I mean, that pretty much says it all, but there is so much more badness to cover. Â Waiting forever for our food. Â They put grapes in the walnut pear salad. Â The curry duck was just that with a whole can of chopped pineapple in the sauce, and no potatoes, or any other thing besides the pineapple. Â The curry chicken was something I made for lunch the day before. Â I think the waiter took 2 seconds bringing that and a plate of calamari to our table. Â I think that dish was the one that caused it to go down to 1 star.
They served Barefoot wine. Â And they are a wine bar. Â No.
The dessert was good. Â The place was cute. Â The pricing was horrific when you take into account the above. Â And that was with a really nice groupon. Â Outrageous, is what it is. Â Ramsay would totally stomp these people.
This place is what gives good restaurants a bad name. Â But I would respect them if they could pull out of this mess.
We rode our bikes and met some friends here last night. Outside patio rocks! Love the tree cover, good people watching and how easily you forget you are on Colfax.
Friday night hh ALL NIGHT?!?! Nice wine selection - last night tried 3 different sav blancs all under $8 (non HH priced). There was HH on food until 7, and we got a few things (cheese tray, fried ravioli, calamari)
I wasn't particularly hungry, but did have a bit of the cheese dipped in the sauce (it was raspberry & creme fraiche and complemented the cheese quite nicely) as well as a fried rav (which I thought was pretty tasty).
Here's the thing though - the interior is SO dark, SO blah, SO unwelcoming that once it is too cold to sit out on that patio, I stop going. If they just updated interior, this would be a 4 seasons drink spot.
From April 6, 2010
After an incredibly busy weekend, and enduring mediocre Chinese delivery food for Easter, housemate and I decided to go out for a well deserved dinner. After checking menus online, we decided on The Cork House Wine bar on Colfax, they have happy hour prices on appetizers and drinks all day Monday, but the $29 per person special Wine Dinner seemed like a great deal. I've always enjoyed happy hours with cheese flights and apps on the gorgeous patio in the summer, but their main dishes had always been mediocre at best. Tonight they brought "mediocre" to the level of "horrifying."
Well, we get to the restaurant to find out that the Wine dinner was now priced between $35 -$45 depending on entrees, and instead of the 3 wine flight, it was 2 glasses. Ok, I really wanted to try their Steak Diane, mostly because I've spent a good deal of my life wistfully remembering a photo of Steak Diane in my Mom's old Benson & Hedges recipe book from the world's greatest restaurants. I've never actually eaten it, but have seen many recipes for it, I know what it's supposed to taste like.
So, we start with a 3 cheese flight and the calamari. The first warning sign...well, aside from the fact there were only 2 other people eating in the restaurant...was the hardened "skin" on the aioli sauce. Strangely enough, the calamari had the kind of texture and flavor of something that had been sitting under a heat lamp for hours.
The cheese flight of smoked gouda, brie and asiago was larger than before, but the cheese was sorely lacking in flavor...instead of the high caliber cheese I was used to, it was more like discount grocery store cheese. The grapes that came with it were oddly trimmed...as if someone cut out the bad parts in each grape.
The french onion soup was a weird yellowish color, unmelted cheese and chunks of green onion floating on top, and inexplicably hard, rubbery slices of french bread. The only flavor I could taste was salt...plenty of salt. So much salt that my mouth got this weird aluminumy/chemically taste that wouldn't go away even with 2 glasses of water and a pretty decent Malbec. The waitress didn't seem surprised to clear the table of 2 nearly full bowls of soup and most of the calamari.
I was astounded...and not in a good way when the Steak Diane was brought out. There was this odd mound of mashed potatoes with 3 nasty, wilted carrot sticks sticking out from the mound like some sort of alien antennae. Surrounding it were 5 or 6 chunks of what appeared and tasted like...chuck steak covered in bad mushroom gravy. One bite and I nearly gagged. Again, that processed chemically taste and plenty of salt...no other flavor. The meat was definitely not filet unless the cow had died of old age.
The housemate's Chicken Marsala was a jumbled mess of grilled chicken, tomatoes, spinach and other unidentifiable crap mixed with spaghetti. He's usually not one to complain, but after one bite, I saw the look on his face. "How's the Marsala?" I asked. "It's not good." he answered. He wanted me to taste it, I wanted him to taste my steak. We were in the process of exchanging bites when the waitress came over to ask how everything was.
We both blurted out something like "Oh my God it's bad!" The marsala also tasted of nothing but salt and processed sauce.
She was very apologetic, explained that they had a new chef who was still learning the ropes, and asked if we wanted to order something else. We explained that we just didn't feel very optimistic after what we just ate (and heck, you really don't want a pizzed off chef cooking you yet another meal). The manager comped the entire meal and offered her apologies. We offered to pay for our drinks and the cheeses, but they graciously insisted that we not pay (we left a very nice tip). I told the manager how much I love the place, but they really, really need to work on the kitchen.
This review is strictly for the happy hour (specifically on Thursday evenings).
I love their patio during happy hour....a great garden area that doesn't feel like you are right on Colfax.
The have some good wines for $5, $2 beers, etc. Â On Thursday, it is half off any bottle of wine all night!
The food I have had there has not been great (mussels were super fishy, bruchetta wasn't very fresh), but the happy hour cheese plate is awesome!
The have about 20 cheeses and you get to pick 3 for $6...served with nuts, fruit, and a yummy strawberry balsamic sauce.
Wine and cheese for me!
Not rushing there for dinner or indoor seating....
Went back for a second visit and all I can wonder is what the hell took me so long??!  Thursday's is 1/2 price bottles of wine. Not select bottles of wine  -  the entire wine list is 1/2 off! Â
We had an amazing bottle of wine for and a bunch of fantastic small plates for under $100. Â We left stuffed, and slightly loopy. Â I can't wait for it to be warmer so I can A. walk over, and B. sit on the patio!
Went here on a Wednesday night for happy hour with a group of friends, we ended up getting seated in a side room that was pretty secluded. This seems like it could be a good thing but I wasn't thrilled with it-I like being seated in the open rooms and people watching and getting a vibe for the atmosphere. I'd love to come and check out the pation since it seems to get rave reviews but it was windy and kind of cloudy when we sat down.
Our server was good, I enjoyed the cheap wines by the glass and I tried a Malbec that I really enjoyed. Since it's Passover I didn't have much to choose from in terms of the happy hour food but I got the cheese plate and it was really good. You have a good 12-14 cheeses to pick from and you get 3.
Overall this place is alright, I'll probably try to get back here and have happy hour again but I don't think I'll stick around for dinner.
This place is a somewhat hidden gem ESPECIALLY in the summer when the patio is open. The location may initially sound not so fantastic - Colfax & Elm - but this particular area is fairly good. I live in Park Hill and know the area.
Definitely go there for happy hour. The prices are amazing - $5 top shelf martinis and $4 well. And by the way this is not some tiny little martini - it's a just a tad over 4 oz. I know cause I have the same sized martini glasses at home. Great deals on other drinks as well. The patio gets quite a few people in their 30's. Let's just say that I'll be waiting until I turn 50 or 60 to eat dinner inside.
A decent number of apps are half-off - I've had the sliders and toasted ravioli and both were good.
Patio is where it's at - there's a small fountain that is just the right volume to drown out the traffic on Colfax but not too loud. There's also big trees that overhang the patio and nice landscaping. We've had 3-4 of the waiters serve us and all were really cool.
For those who live in Cap Hill, Congress Park, Park Hill, etc check this place out sometime - it's only 5-10 minutes away. The closest patio like it that I know about is the one at My Brothers Bar. All the trees and landscaping are what makes it cool.
The only reason this place gets 3 stars is the patio they have. The happy hour is decent as well-half off glasses of wine and cheap apps. Â However..the service is severely lacking. Our waiter kept on forgetting our drinks or giving us the wrong ones..or not even coming by at all to see how we were doing. They also seemed to have run out of a lot of food pretty early in the night-around 6 on a Friday evening. You think they would have been better prepared.
I really don't have much else to say. I was expecting more but was not blown away at all. Â If you do go, however, definitely go for HH and get a cheese flight.
I like wine, well only dry reds. Â The Cork House serves such wines. Â If the waiter keeps bring me the vino then I usually keep ordering some more. Â
In two + hours at the Cork House I had only two glasses. Â The waiter just never came around to see fit that my wine glass was full. Â So with all of my wine gone and an unquenchable thirst I proceeded to drink all of my water. Â Then my water was gone, the waiter was gone, Â and I was still thirsty :-(
I didn't think that the Paella was great. Â But I do believe that it would have tasted better if I had more wine.
The Patio there is really nice. Â It overlooks Colfax too!! Well, that's probably not a plus. Â Dining on the Patio could be a good experience (except for the chick at the table next to us who got plenty of wine and she ended up throwing it up - on herself).
I think I will one day give the Cork House another chance one day and that maybe Wednesday night was just a bad experience.
I felt like I was in France! Â It was even drizzling outside and a chill was in the air, but inside was a warm welcome from the bartender. Â He graciously seated us near the fireplace and turned it on, as we had requested. Â Geez ... what a guy!
They explained to us that on Mondays (and Thursdays) they have happy hour until close. Â Nice. Â Their extensive wine menu offers half-price glasses and BOTTLES! Â I believe the appetizers are also at a discount. Â My daughter and I shared the calamari and the paella apps ... plenty of food and gorgeous flavors!
Monday nights are not the "cool" nights to go out to dinner, that's for sure ~ we were the only ones in the dining room. Â So come on over! Â A sign on the front of the building says "come for the wine, stay for the food". Â I'd like to add that the atmosphere is super inviting and you will want to go back again and again.
Definitely a contender for the best happy hour in Denver! Â From 3-7 every day with great specials on wine, beer, cocktails, and appetizers. Â Thursdays are the special days for wine lovers, as all bottles are 1/2 off! Â
We got ourselves a bottle, 6 different cheeses for $12, and relaxed. Â It was lovely! Â Sat inside next to the fireplace (as it was a little too cold out on the patio), and enjoyed some very nice and attentive service.
With their expansive patio, this is a perfect place to unwind after work with some friends. Â I look forward to coming back to the Cork House frequently once the weather warms up!
Happy hour is 3pm -7pm. I've been there several times and have always had great drinks and apps and the service has been excellent. You can't beat the prices. The parking is a little bit tight but you can park at the Tire store across the street after 6pm.
I have never had dinner there but the menu looks reasonably priced.
Sandi certainly knows great HH spots!!
Sandi, Nicole and I were seated at a cozy table by the fireplace. Â The atmosphere is so inviting that it feels like you are eating at a friends house. Â
I had a glass of Santa Cristina Pinot Grigio. Â It was just sweet enough for me and very refreshing. Â We ordered a 3 cheese flight. Â We chose Stilton, Smoked Gouda and Havarti. Â Thankfully Sandi knew to ask for extra candied walnuts, they were so tasty. Â The platter was accompanied with a petite basket of crackers and a few slices of french bread. Â Quite a nice little nosh to go with our wine. Â
I am looking forward to coming back.
The Cork House is a warm, friendly place. In my experience, one of the truest tests of food/drink service is dining alone: These folks passed with flying colors.
Went in by myself while waiting for Mr. Tracy A. to finish some fencing bouts at his club, Cheyenne (a bit down Colfax from Cork). They served me a lovely flight of wine, and were very attentive. My apps were good, and I went away happy.
Hubby and I had our date night here on Sunday night! We made a reservation, but it was not necessary at all!! Â
We started with the calamari - unfortunately it was chewy and over done. For the meal I went with the eggplant napoleon. That was an amazing meal!
Hubby started with the cheesy beer soup - which had an incredible taste, and for his meal, he  went with the crab stuffed shrimp. The crab had a great flavor, but the shrimp left a lot to be desires.
We chose an Australian Merlot  - Stone Hill - and that was great!
It was a very quiet location. Could have been very romantic, but the temperature was cold, and the wait staff although extremely friendly, was very loud!
We enjoyed ourselves and might return for happy hour if we were interested in fighting traffic on Colfax. But as far as dinner, it was just ok, definitely not all that and a bag of chips. It's sister restaurant - The Broker - has better food and prices!
Never again will I go back! Â
The servers (we had a couple since it was really dead) had the tendency to make high price recommendations and pushed a lot of bottles on us. Â Instead of offering 1 or 2 bottles to try they would tell us to get 3. Â This business is really only in it for the money only. Â
My friends and I are big wine drinkers and we brought a big group of about 15 people there for dinner. Â The bill came out without gratuity added (they pointed it out, hoping for high gratuity), but the wine and food were bundled together rather than separate. Â We thought the service was ridiculously shady, so tipped 15% off the total. Â They had the nerve to take our ticket back and tell us it wasn't enough, added back 22% gratuity on top of the total and argued with us about it. Â Even the manager was very rude. Â It was to my understanding that gratuity in this country meant a gracious tip in accordance to the SERVICE. Â
Anyways, I actually routinely tip 20%. Â 15% for poor service and 25% for great service. Â Sometimes even higher, so this place just pissed me off to get 15% and now I want to take it all back.
Not worth it at all!
Calamari- Ouch. Small quantity for $12. I am a calamari freak, so I was sad.
Cheese flight-We got a goat, a sheep, and a cow. Can't remember exactly which ones we got but they were all pretty scrump.
Date had the sausage plate which offered all kinds of classy sounding meats, elk, chicken, etc. Yeah chickens classy.
Olive plate-Nothing special, but I heart olives so I was happy. And it comes with roasted garlic so maybe it is special.
Main course was some sort of trout, and by that time I was pretty full, but I powered through some. The trout was good but the accompanying rice was bland.
Drinking wine by the glass is not the way to go if its not happy hour.
I hate to rip on service anyway but dang...we ate apetizers with our paws until I had to ask for utensils. Then hooray utensils, no napkins. I snagged one off another table and we shared for awhile until I asked for another...just little things you would think a server would notice.
To her credit she was very nice and knowledgeable, AND I think she was the bartender and we were on the patio so she couldn't readily see us.
Would return, I like the atmosphere better than Cru.
I spent 4 hours with 3 friends over 3 bottles of wine and an appetizer of sausage, flight of 10 cheese and calamari. Parking was tricky, if you don't know that they have a lot behind the building, then you are doomed to find parking on the street. The patio is fantastic as was our knowledgeable waitress Mimi. Our first order of calamari was greasy and had far to many onions, when we mentioned this to Mimi, she brought us a much better plate and comped the first (that we had already eaten!!) The cheese plate was a bit on the small side as far as the servings, skimpy pieces of cheese, nondescript grapes that no one touched, a few nuts and 4 slivers of apple. BUT the selection of cheeses was as fantastic as the wine selection. The sausage plate was good as were the Kobe sliders.
I'm going back !!!
Best happy hour I've been to in Denver! 3-7 every day, half price wine and appetizers, well cocktails $3, call & martinis $5.
I love deals on wine. Â I have a harder time paying restaurant prices for beer and wine only because it's a lot easier to compare what you're paying to what you'd pay if you just bought it to drink at home. Â This place is great, especially at happy hour, because you can try new things without having to commit to whole bottle. Â I asked the waitress for suggestions and I loved what she picked! Â Super unpretentious service.
The food was great, too! Â I love sweet potato fries, and we also ordered a cheese flight. Â I forget the name, but the soft goat cheese was dee-lish. Â I haven't tried any of their entrees.
The atmosphere is dark and cozy in the front, brighter in the back, and there is a big patio.
I liked it! Â I will be back.
My friends and I are, well, winos. Not in the snobbish sense where we talk about vintage and the difference between real corks and plastic corks or which region of California has the best grapes. We are just people who like to drink wine, we love the distinct buzz you get from it and how it makes you feel kind of classy, regardless of whether or not it was $5.99 or $36.00. If you've ever been to Napa or Sonoma, you certainly know that there are wineries you feel comfortable in and others that you can't wait to get the hell out of because the people providing the tasting are looking at you, fully aware that you can't afford their wine and you're leaving empty handed, and you're pretty much there for the free cheese and a nice buzz. But that is what makes the Cork House unique. You walk in thinking it should have that uber upscale feeling, but the ambiance is more like walking into your Italian Grandma's little family restaurant. I don't have an Italian Grandma, but if I did, I would hope she owned a place like this. It's dark and wine cellar feeling inside, kind of like a secret. The patio is the place to be, with the heat lamps when the night air gets chilly. There are little lights strung about, intertwined with vines along the wooden fence posts. When night falls you kind of forget you're sitting 50 feet from Colfax because it seems like you're at a little family owned winery in someone's backyard in Sonoma.
The only pretentious thing about this place was the "3 Cheese Flight" appetizer that is $7.00 at happy hour. It was 3 pieces of cheese (you choose from about 20 varieties), a couple of pecans, 3 thin apple slices, 3 grapes, and about 10 crackers. Only because I ordered this at a wine establishment, I don't hold that against them. It's kind of to be expected.
The server we had here was probably the best server I've had, maybe ever. He was laid back, unpretentious, attentive but not overbearing, and could care less how long we stayed and drank and laughed. Which is just how it feels to sit with a friend in your own backyard and just be. I will probably become a regualar fixture on this patio.
**Tip: PERFECT for dates! If you're trying to impress someone, apologize to someone, or propose to someone, this place would really increase your chances for success.
I liked this place; I didn't love it. Â The previous poster pointed out a lot of the good qualities at the Cork House. Â My friends and I enjoyed delicious appetizers (chilled shrimp, prime rib sliders, spinach and artichoke dip). Â The entrees weren't as spectacular. Â Two girls got flounder cooked in parchment paper. Â The fish came out cold. Â When they sent it to the kitchen, it still came back just lukewarm. Â My chicken was dry. Â The only person at the table that really liked their entree was the person that got the duck.
I'd go back; just not running to do so.
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