Ute City (closed)

I was hungry after work, and had heard wonderful things about Ute City from our guests. I went in, had probably the best salmon I have ever tasted, and the staff couldn't have been nicer, friendlier, and more down to earth. It was a wonderful dinner, all by myself!

Service is always very good and I love the food. Delicious Bloody Marys, of which I could drink a whole gallon.

Last year we liked the Ute City so much we went twice and I wondered if its standards held up now that Martin Oswald had departed for the Pyramid and Rob McClanahan is at the piano. I suspect that like the old Bocuse/Ducasse/Robuchon joke - "Who cooks when you're not here?" "The same guy as when I am" - the kitchen staff is pretty consistent regime to regime. But one never knows. Colette started off with some gazpacho with crab in its center, which she and I thought was super; I had no first, knowing I would not be able to finish my main. Then she had the quinoa salad with artichoke quarters on watercress and I had the shredded confited duck which was just as over-salted as last year, with a ton of veggies and kale. We both expressed an interest in the lemon tart which came with a meringue topping and tasty crust; in fact the whole thing was so good we almost polished it off before realizing we had no photo. With good bread, good service, a good $28 Chianti (the last one of course) and no bottled water, our bill was $78.50.

I have been a fan of this restaurant since they opened their doors. Thank you for such a great experience last night, i will be back again!

I've eaten here a few times now -- once with a large group, the other times with one or two others. In a town with very limited options and quality and service that are often disappointing, Ute City is among the top two or three in Aspen and pretty close to big-city standards. As well as a good variety of seafood and meat, they have some very good vegetarian/vegan dishes on the menu. The sweet-potato/zuchini "lasagna" is excellent! The service, wine, and atmosphere are also very pleasant.

My husband, our friends from L.A., and I had a fabulous dining experience in this lovely restaurant. Over the past 25 years we have eaten at many Aspen restaurants on ski trips here. We ordered a variety of menu items and each was prepared to perfection. We enjoyed a lovely chat with our attentive, knowledgeable, and friendly waiter; the manager even congratulated us on our anniversary after the waiter mentioned it to him. The evening could not have been more perfect.

I live in Aspen full time and I have never had a more terrible experience eating out than at this place. The food was atrocious and the service was severely lacking. Thing is now when I read reviews about this restaurant all the bad reviews seem to mention a terrible waitress, our waitress sucked too. She never came to our table, barely said 2 words to us, we constantly ran out of water, didn't get all the drinks we ordered and I had to flag he down twice just to get the ticket. She seemed too preoccupied to be flirting with her friend at the other end of the bar than to serve us on a busy Friday night. IF this is the same waitress that 4 reviews from various people I've read have complained about, perhaps Ute City needs to get a clue. The food was so disgusting too, we heard rave reviews from friends in town that the calamari is the best, it was soggy, cold and gooey....pretty disgusting. My boyfriend ordered a fish dish, when it came out is literally smelled like spoiled fish, I almost gagged. I had the duck salad which was ok I guess, a bit too greasy but I'm going to say that was just because of the duck. I also ordered a bowl of soup that had no taste to it yet it was $9. I was shocked. Overall, don't go here......it's over priced bad food with atrocious service, there are many, many better options in this town, but do your research, I always say the majority of the restaurants here are over priced mediocre food, but this place is just down right dreadful. Don't even bother.

I sat in the bar area and had both excellent service and food. A basket of WARM bread followed by a perfectly prepared beef tenderloin with a great mix of well seasoned veggies and potatoes. Did not have dessert too full!! Will definitely return. PS to Laura a previous customer I also suffer from allergies and I make it my responsibility to tell the waitstaff about my condition as not all the ingredients are ever listed on any menu. Great job Ute City!!

Fantastic!!!! Walt and his gang prepared a great meal and Gordon our waiter provided great service. I will definately eat there again!

Ute City Romper Room ("UCRR") A Gathering Place... for Children. We had a reservation for three and upon arrival, we were immediately seated. The good news ended there. We were taken into the dining room which brought me back to my nana's living room in western Pennsylvania. From the white stone on the walls to the grand piano jammed into the tiny room (complete with random old man playing the piano) the sterile decor was missing only burnt red shag carpet and an Atari 2600. But what really brought me back to my roots was the "kids" table we were sat next to. Yes, that is right, in this "posh" establishment, a table of ten kids 6-12yrs old right in the middle of the dinner crowd. Lest you wonder where their parents were, the children were sat near the "grown up table"-from which they were often scolded for random hijinx and horse play. If you are wondering why we did not simply leave at this point, you are not alone. I have spent the past few nights agonizing over our decision to stay this poor man's Spago. I am trying to come to terms with the loss of those few hours of my life. On to the meal. Our server was a female, who did not offer her name. Let's call her "Ice Queen" she may have said ten words to us the entire evening. The three of us ordered drinks: one cocktail and two glasses of wine. She brought one glass of wine and the cocktail and walked away. When I was able to get her attention, I told her we had ordered two glasses of wine; she gave me an ice cold stare, scoffed, and went to the bar without a single word. She returned with the wine, put it on the table and then said abruptly, "are you ready to order?" (Here is where a polite "I am sorry about that" would have been a nice touch.) Not terribly impressed by the menu, I asked if there were any specials- to which Ice Queen responded: "NO. Are you ready?" We ordered - and I believe that was the last we saw of our princess non-charming. While we all laughed at how mean she was, her behavior really was ridiculous and unacceptable. Honestly, we get it Ice Queen, your parents lost all their money in the burst and you got stuck in Aspen having to wait tables. Get over yourself Ice Queen. Leaving a tip was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. The host or manager came by the table to ask if we had chosen a bottle of wine, he was pleasant... that is, until I told him that we decided to order by the glass. He said nothing, took the wine list and walked away. A note on the wine list: it is totally understandable, given distribution in Colorado and Aspen, many wine lists are going to be very similar. However, a few local restaurants have been able to include a few cult or interesting wines on their lists, UCRR wholly failed here, simply, we had no interest in its run of the mill wine list. Given its clientele, I half expected to see Welch's Grape Juice on the list. The food was fine, but did not make up for the rest of UCRR's shortcomings. Realistically, in keeping with the motif, I believe dry fish sticks and Cherikee Red Cherry pop should be added to the menu. Finally, I am simply disappointed that Syzygy wasted this opportunity to bring something special to Aspen. What a waste of the great name "Ute City" the last thing Aspen needed was this Ute City Grille. What a total shame.

Horrible customer service! Very rude manager. Had a bad experience when dining with a friend who is allergic to nuts. We ordered an entree to split which arrived full of pistachios! The menu didn't say anything about nuts in the dish. Consequently, my friend had to choose something else to eat while the rest of our table waited for it to come while our food got cold. The staff never brought anything for my friend to munch on so we could at least commence eating. When the bill came, my friend's meal wasn't comped, which would have at least excused the error. Instead, we were charged full price for something we were forced to order due to the restaurant's mistake. When I contested, the manager was very rude, stating that because we ate everything, we had to pay for it all. Finally after much debate, we were given a 50% discount on my friend's entree only. All in all, we were made to feel very unappreciated and deprecated; customers should never be treated the way we were at Ute City.

Good food in a nice space. Excellent service. I enjoyed both the lentil soup and the ahi tuna.

After a night on the town we headed to Ute City for another drink. The bar is wide and very chic. The service was quick and very friendly. I ordered the "Valrhona" hot chocolate pistachio-anise biscotti as a dessert. It was great! If you love chocolate you have to try this hot chocolate made with real chocolate. My friend added a liquor to her's and also enjoyed it. I would definitely go back for dessert. Now I have to try Ute City for dinner.

We had an exellent dinner. I enjoyed Sable fish and a lite salad of baby beets, my husband had the pork tenderloin and a ceasar salad. I had a glass of brut champagne and he enjoyed a pinot noir. We felt as if we were in a New York restaurant, very lovely, but noisy.

Really great service and good food. Price is righ, decor is fabulous.