Table 6 - Restaurant Review

So last night was the first stop on our 25 restaurant tour of the Denver Metro area.  The 25 restaurants my wife and I (plus whoever joins us) will try to eat at over the next year are the Top 25 listed in 5280 Magazine.  Yes I realized after the fact it's kind of like the movie Julie and Julia (decent flick, we watched a couple of days after deciding on this project), but purely coincidence.  It did motivate me that it's a decent idea.

So Dana and I decided to try Table 6.  We got reservations for 6 with our friends Susan, Roland, Sarah and Jonathan.  Seating was prompt, no waiting when we arrived.  The waitress was quick to get glasses of water in front of us (I realllllly appreciate that, having just run 6 miles before we arrived).  The restaurant has pretty funky ambiance inside, kind of seems like half restaurant, half market.  The bathrooms were clean, and no overly fancy paper towels.  I prefer this instead of the paper towels that seem more expensive than our cloth towels at home.  My favorite is cloth with a basket to wash and reuse, but cheap recycled style paper works good too.  The only negative thing I would note is Dana slipped a little on the copper sheet metal covering part of the wood floor.

Dana and I shared an order of the Marcona Almond Tater Tots (the theme of the restaurant is modern versions of old school comfort foods).  The almonds were my favorite part.  The horseradish was spicy (or that burning feeling of a vacuum stuck to your nose pulling on your brain a little bit, ala horseradish or wasabi).  Tater tots are still tater tots, good but nothing particularly interesting.  The wine and beer list had some reliables, Ravenswood Red Zinfandel and Za Zin Red Zinfandel for our table, but I may be a bit rusty on my menu reading as I noted nothing particularly noteworthy (blame me more than the restaurant on this).

For my meal I decided on the Black Angus Roast Beef.  Dana decided to try the Rabbit.  The other two guys had the Beef and the gals had the Chicken.  I realize in hindsight I should have taken a picture of the menu (which changes every day, pretty cool) so I would know exactly what I ordered and the description.  Alas this is my learning experience too.  I thought the beef was cooked well and very tender.  The flavor was clean, nothing overpowering in the accompanying vegetables.  Dana's rabbit (we always share) tasted like ham.  I remember rabbit tasting like chicken, maybe how it's prepared, not sure.  Similarly, the meat was cooked well.  It may have been a bit fatty.  But also nothing overpowering.  This brings me to my one complaint about the dishes.  I believe they lack Umami.  For the non-foodies out there, this is considered the 5th flavor the mouth senses.  It is a Japanese term.  It is also real.  Things that can add Umami to a dish, soy sauce, red wine with strong tannins, smoked fish and anchovies, tomatoes particularly dried, dried mozzarella, etc.  It is consider to be "savory" and comforting, which I find odd these dishes lacked, since these are comfort foods.  When I cook at home I guess you can call me an Umami snob as I keep Umami type foods on hand to add a little extra to a dish.

Now the highlight of the night was the desserts.  We all shared the Chocolate Beignets (like little donuts/elephant ears/or just fried dough-goodness) and the Rhubarb Pie.  Both were delicious.  The beignets were very light dough with a smooth and silky chocolate sauce.  The rhubarb tasted incredibly fresh.  Both had nice light ice cream on the side.

So my overall thoughts, one this restaurant suffered a little from outsized expectations as my friend Barb considers this I think her favorite restaurant in Denver and she was very strong in her advertising.  Second, this is my first on the list so I can't go crazy with the rating (like an Olympic judge watching the first performer).  But here are the takeaways, good service, clean restaurant, tasty food but nothing out of this universe, a manageable drink menu and excellent desserts.  That warrants a B+ for my first restaurant on the 5280 list.  I think most ratings will be B- or higher.  I think generally a C or less will be described for an awful experience and I will be open about what in particular caused that experience.

Happy Dining!