Indulge Bistro & Wine Bar

Very friendly staff.  The seating area was a bit cramped.  Good food.  They have Coors Barmen.

2012 review #151: This Indulge location has only been open in Golden for about 3 weeks. We waited until this weekend to try it out, but it seems they have not yet ironed out the opening jitters. In Golden we have very few places like this, and no wine bars at all, but still, you gotta know what you're doing.

The pros: The space is nicely designed and put together. The patio, for being in a not amazing location, is inviting and pleasant. The space is different in every room, has interesting features, like chandeliers, fixtures, etc.. And, the bathrooms feature plaster animal heads on the walls; an ox in the men's room, an antelope in the women's. Also, our flatbread pizza was crispy, tasty, well-portioned, and overall really consistent. The pours on our wine flights were also pretty good, and prices were fair.

The cons: our waiter, bless his little heart, was just not very prepared. Not just with us, but with a lot of tables. Had trouble remembering our orders, had to look at the menu, etc. I was initially very put off because I was really excited to come here just to get the Bold Reds wine flight, featuring The Prisoner, by Orin Swift. We sit down, our waiter comes over, and I order this. Turns out, he says, they're out of the Prisoner. He acted like this was not a big deal, but this really was the only reason I was excited to come here. Also, it's a $50 bottle of wine at a retail store, and most, including Applejack, are out of it anyway. He didn't seem to get it, but offered me a substitute from a more expensive flight. i agreed, but dude hadn't actually asked his manager if this was ok, so he had to back track. Not the best start.

Although the pours and prices on the wine flights were reasonable, I didn't think the wines really complemented each other. They used the same glass shape for every wine, and I just didn't think any of my pours really got to shine or show themselves off. The other flavor pitfall was the charcuterie plate we ordered. It was $12, and was "3 dried meats" with 6 crostini, and some pickles, not home made by any means. What were the "3 dried meats"? Yeah, I'd like to know, too. No one told us and no one really came by so we could ask. All 3 meats, although generously portioned, were cut way too thick for charcuterie. On average the cuts were 1/4 inch, but my husband had one that got progressively thicker. All were very fatty and tasted sort of the same, and, ironically, for "dried meats" one was almost sopping wet.

Our server, after our food came, just totally disappeared. I saw him at other tables, having a hard time still, as we drank our wine and waited for him to return. There were also issues with other staff- 3 people looked at me with my empty water glass, as they held a water pitcher, and kept walking. A food runner tried to deliver food to our table, that our neighbors had ordered, not once, but twice. The only reason the food got to the right table was because I told her where to take it; our server was not present to correct the error. Honesty I would return because the flatbread was good, and the happy hour is pretty solid, but I'm definitely not gonna come back for a serious dinner. They need time, still, to iron things out.

This is a review of the Golden, Colorado location.

We just spent $100 that would have been closer to $60 at Woody's or the Blue Canyon in Golden, and the food would have been better had we eaten at either of those establishments instead.

We went during happy hour and ordered the Ahi Tuna and Guacamole in addition to the Blue Suede Shoes flatbread pizza.  The appetizers were good.

The dinner entrees were another story.  For $14, we expected burgers that would really wow us (they were supposedly Kobe beef).  But instead we got burnt tasting  and over cooked (ordered medium, arrived well done) burgers.  We sent one back, and it came back medium-rare (although medium was ordered) but still had a burnt flavor.  

The decor and atmosphere were a welcome change to Golden, and the patio is setup like a lounge area which is pretty cool.

The service was what one would expect at a restaurant of this caliber, but the food was not.  It is only the second week of operation so hopefully they will improve.  

Will we try it again? Yes, and we hope they work out the kinks.