Root Down, Root Down....................

I have been wanting to try this restaurant for ages, and ages.  It is not far from where I live in the Highlands area.  Root Down  is a really "hot" spot if you are fan of the I love foodspotting App then you see tons of pictures of this place.  My friend Michelle was getting married so we decided on this place for brunch.  They do not open until 10am for Brunch, and when I got there the line was in full effect. 

First of all I hate restaurants with lines, I really hate waiting for food.  Thankfully we had a reservation.  I let some girl go ahead in line because I was still waiting on people, I said "go ahead I have a reservation and I am waiting on people."  The girl quickly replied "We have a reservation too!!!!!!"  She was a real snob, it made me want to leave, girl with attitude usually is where stuck up people eat.  We decided to stick it out and it was an overall enjoyable experience.  Our waiter came to the table when we sat down, they brought water and took our drink order.  The service here is a little slow, and I get the overall feeling that the service is not that good, meaning that these people think they are part of the "hottest" thing around.  Now that being said our waiter was funny, kinda stuck up, but funny and did what we asked and that is really all I can hope for.  Now as for the food, it is awesome, so awesome that I can see why there is a line.  We started with a brunch appetizer at the waiters suggestion a tray of homemade pastries. 

This was some biscuits and scones.  It came with a homemade marmalade that I could have swimmed in.  Very very good, also chased it with a blood orange mimosa and latte.



Michelle with Blood orange mimosa

 We all ordered something different but the popular choice was the crab and avocado eggs Benedict.

I had a bite of this and it is great, the avocado is in the crab cake with eggs and sauce nestled on top, served with potatoes and mixed greens.  I had a breakfast burrito with chorizo.  The burrito was amazing, how can you go wrong with any kind of meat product that was made fresh? 

The experience here was overall good and I would really love to go back.  I am hoping that this place doesn't get too snobby as I think the overall concept of this place is to just have a great neighborhood place to eat and hang out.  Next time I am going for dinner, the menu looks very good.



wall decor at Root Down



Hacienda Real outside of Denver

So occasionally I eat in a different city, my friend Brendan moved back from Australia and on 05/05/2011 or Cinco De Mayo we headed off to a Mexican restaurant in Frisco Colorado. 

This is a family restaurant that is located in a strip mall right next to Safeway.  When we walked in the first thing the hostess said was, "Do you have a reservation?" and we were very surprised since this is the slow season in the mountains right now, we said no and the hostess directed us to sit in the bar.  We were given chips and salsa and a pitcher of water which was nice.  Our waiter came over quickly, even though they were busy, and took our drink order, I asked for a margarita no salt, I got a margarita with salt.  When I told the waiter I asked for no salt he wiped the lime around the rim and said, "ok no salt now!"  This seemed very rude, and to be honest the staff was kind of rude, so I will likely not be going back to this restaurant. 



you can still see the salt on the rim

 Brendan and I both ordered the Burrito Colorado, it has large pieces of steak in a chili sauce stuffed with refried beans and covered in cheese and onions.  Overall pretty good burrito but I honesty would have liked one from Qdoba better and that is just a 5 minute drive from this place.  I was not terribly impressed with this place, but it also might have just been a busy night for them.  Will I try it again?  Maybe, if someone wants to pay for my dinner.

My Milkshake brings all the boyz to the yard....................

vanilla shake

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm milkshakes.  Sorry drifted off there.  Yesterday Teresa, Jesse, and Me decided we need hamburgers.  Ok I decided that we needed hamburgers, and fries, and shakes.  I heard of a place called Park Burger. I thought that is was far south Denver, but to my surprise my wonderful sister found that they had a new location in the Highlands.  So I gathered the troops and off we went.  First off never go anywhere when you are so hungry you will eat your own hand, because you will proceed to order the entire menu.  Hi waitress, I need............ a coke, a milkshake, a hamburger, plain fries and sweet potato fries, thank you.  That is how my order went, I am not ashamed, I was hungry.  This location is tiny so I suggest you go early I think we were there right around 11:50am or so, and a lot of people came in behind us.  This is a very simple menu burgers, fries, shakes, some salads, and beers and cocktails.  If you want something else better go somewhere else, go here for a burger.  Teresa and I decided that we needed shakes, I went with good old plain vanilla, and Teresa got a cookies and creme.

cookies and creme

Jesse and I decided on El Chilango burgers, it has guacamole (very very fresh and good), jalapenos (fresh)  and cheddar.  Teresa got the Turkey-Bacon-Guac, she is more of a turkey patty person.  On a side note they have turkey, beef, veggie, and buffalo patties.  We also got two baskets of fries, one sweet potato and one regular.  First off the burger was totally awesome, and was made even better by the sweet potato fries.  Everything is very fresh and that makes all of the difference in the world.  The buns were soft and melted in your mouth and the guacamole should be on the menu in every Mexican restaurant because it was so good.  Overall I will be going back here, a lot.  It is really good and writing this is making me hungry, soooooooooooooooooooooo see ya soon...............

turkey-bacon-guac

ElChilango

regular/sweet potato fries

Sushi meets Hamburger

One of my favorite places to go is the Cherry Creek Mall.  It is in a nice area, and the mall is just more quite, not so many kids and teenagers hanging out, more about people enjoy shopping like I do.

The one restaurant that I return to time and time again is Kona Grill this is a chain restaurant, but not like one I have ever been too.  First of all they have sushi, and it is good.  This time I kind of switched it up a bit.  I started with the Chicken Chili.

It was good, but it is very filling.  I ate half of it and was starting to get full but wanted to save room.  My friend Mike came with me on this trip and he wanted to have a cheese burger.

It looked really good as he had grease dripping down his hands and was tearing at applewood smoked bacon, and was dripping with caramelized onions and aged cheddar.  I tasted the fries they were good, but could have been crispier.  I opted for my favorite salad of all time, and I mean I love this salad, I would eat it everyday, the Sushi Sampler salad. 

The reason I love this salad is that I get sushi and I get a really fresh salad.  You get one shrimp, one salmon, and one tuna sushi, and one California roll.  I usually eat about 1/2 of the fish and all the salad.  It is a great to save some sushi for lunch the next day.  Overall Kona is a great place to go if you love sushi and the person with you does not.  If I was just going to eat sushi with people I would go somewhere else, but hey if I can have chili and then sushi why not!!!!!!

Falafel, I love you

So one thing that I really really really love is Greek food.  I love kebobs, gyros, hummus, feta, olive oil.....................the list goes on and on.  I was recently looking around where I live in Denver and saw some reviews of a kind of fast-food Mediterranean place, I thought at once that is where I need to go and I added it to my list on my iphone of a place I needed to eat.  That place is called Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill and I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ok when you go in the give you a falafel sample for free, and who doesn't love something for free?  This place is kind of like Chipolte for Mediterranean food.  They all sorts of goodies laid out, and you get to choose what you want.  They offer a choice of getting; a pita sandwich, a plate, a laffa, or a salad.  First the meat or protein, they have chicken shwarma, steak shwarma, and falafel...........simple and easy, I wish they had gyros but it is still good.  I opted for a chicken shwarma pita. 

You can pretty much stuff the world into this pita, and I did.  I got vegetable salad, hummus, babaganoush, tabuleh, cabbage, and pickled eggplant.  Ok let's stop for a minute, this pickled eggplant stuff is incredible you have to get it even if you don't like eggplant, because you will love it.  Ok back to the pita, I topped mine with feta (.79 extra) and I got the Mediterranean garlic sauce which is amazing and you must get it.  I also got a side of falafels to go with my sandwich.  This sandwich is awesome!!!!!!!  You will leave filling very, very full but it is the kind of full that makes you happy.  As a side note I went to the one in the Highlands, but this is a chain and they have a few around town.  You must try this place, it is great.  I will eat here over Chipolte any day. 



Red pieces are pickled eggplant