I feel like I’ve been giving a lot of bad reviews lately, but unfortunately I just haven’t been getting the best of service when I’ve gone out.

I went to lunch today with two of my colleagues at Plate World Cuisine because I had a coupon and had been wanting to try out the restaurant. Unfortunately I was very disappointed overall. While the ambiance is very nice (contemporary asian feel), the service was quite disappointing. I ordered a grilled flatbread with artichokes and manchego cheese, while my colleagues ordered prosciuto wrapped shrimp and tenderloins with pasta. I tried all three dishes, and I will say that the other two were really quite good. I wasn’t very impressed with my meal though. Rather than tasting grilled it tasted more like it was burnt. I did enjoy their desert though. I ordered a Asian desert sampler and was very pleased with it.

Now as for the service, during our meal we had to ask for salt and pepper shakers because the ones on our table were empty and then had to ask for spoons to eat the desert with. Our server was nice enough, but was covering far too many tables. It was her manager that I really had a problem with. First he informed me that even though neither the ad or the coupon I had said anything about it, it was only for use at dinner and he would not honor it. He did give us a coupon to use instead for 10% off (my original coupon had been for $15 off of two entrees), he made us wait for about 20 minutes for him to take off the discount. And since we were on our lunch break, that made us late getting back to the office.

Overall I did enjoy some of the food there, but it wasn’t good enough to counter the lack of customer service we received.

This weekend my fiance and I went up to Denver to celebrate one of our good friend’s birthdays. She wanted to go out for dinner, and then go out for drinks afterwards. Simple enough, but you never know what you’ll run into when you head out for a night on the town.

We started off by going to bd’s Mongolian BBQ in downtown Denver. Aside from not having a very nice hostess (she let us know that we had to eat and get out because they had a large party coming later), it was a fantastic experience. If you’ve never been to a Mongolian BBQ before (this was my first time), here’s how it works. First you grab a bowl and fill it up with raw meat and seafood, then add whatever veggies and noodles you want. Grab a cup of sauce, and take it all to a large grill where the cooks mix everything together for you. This particular grill was very big and round. Four or five cooks rotated around it preparing the food. Some of them were very entertaining too, flipping cooking knives and tossing around shrimp. Oh, they do have a vegetarian and gluten-free option if you need it.

After dinner we went to have a drink and decided to try the Breckenridge Brewery. I can honestly say it was one of my worst experiences at a bar/restaurant. The waiter was rude and unhelpful. The few times he did come by to check on us he “kindly” informed us that if we didn’t want beer or water, we were probably in the wrong place. And let me say that right behind him as he said this was a rather large wall of hard liquor. So very quickly we decided to move on.

The Birthday girl recommended the Whiskey Bar because it was very laid back, and not too loud ever. It was a great suggestion. The Whiskey Bar is a nice little neighborhood bar, with some fun extras. Saturdays are trivia night, and the girls from Volta Vodka were there for drink specials and free hand-outs. Volta is a caffeinated vodka infused with guarana, taurine and yerba mate. While that might not mean a lot to you in your vodka, it made for some pretty tasty mixed drinks. And as the name may lead you to believe, they also feature over 115 whiskies. The Highland Park 12 year was the favorite of the night for our group.

As usual for a weekend in Denver for us, we ended up finishing up the night at Dave & Buster’s. What can I say? It’s an arcade for adults, what isn’t fun about that?