Strings

While it could have easily played as a backdrop for any of the latter episodes of Miami Vice, alas, it is no longer.
Farewell Strings…

Pssst… come here. Gonna give you a little tip. Strings desserts are actually D Bar’s creations! Minus the wait. Can o recommend a few desserts? Try a float. So heavenly. Not in the mood for nostalgia? Go for the chocolate mousse cake. Love the texture and the creamy flavor is out of this world!

i really enjoyed ‘strings’ and look forward to going back. great food, stylish atmosphere.
we had a 7pm reservation on a saturday night. i was a bit panicked when the hostess sat us right next to the open kitchen, as the noise level didn’t seem ideal. she must have seen the apparent look on my face, as she quickly made things right by offering us drinks at the bar until another table opened up (about 10 – 15 minutes later, not too big of a deal). i appreciated the drink gesture (good sign of keeping your customers happy) and ordered a ‘blooming garden’. a lovely ‘floral-​ish’ fusion to begin the evening.
dinner was delicious. no complaints from either myself or my counterpart. i left with a warm and comfortably full belly, not to mention an eagerness to return.
it was nice to venture uptown for something a little upscale.

Juan Claud Van Damn this place is good!
Pay attention, I rarely give 5 stars.
I get the impression that you have to make 200k a year to eat here, so I qualify but they would never know. I’m sitting here with two kids and in $ 150 jeans, looking quasi blue collar with screaming children and the staff treated us the same as the couple that arrived in the Bentley.
The service is impeccable. The bread is simply amazing. Not to mention don’t pass up the crab cakes. They are fresh and outstanding, oh and I hate crab cakes outside of Maryland.

I’ve been to Strings for both dinner and brunch, and I wish I could rate each separately, because they are such different experiences.
Went for dinner during restaurant week last year, and while the food was really tasty, I thought the regular menu prices were a bit high for the quality. Not to mention we were seating in an overflow room with weird 80s furniture, eye-​crossing wallpaper and a huge 80s aztec-​y mirror. Very strange. My husband had a hard time focusing on me because everything behind me was so distracting. The dinner was good in general, but the ambiance kind of killed the desire to return for dinner.
Brunch last Spring was a completely different experience — and I’m going to rate on that. We had a party of 10+ for brunch and Strings was not only able to accommodate on fairly late notice (got a reservation the night before) — they put us in this little private room that was kind of an atrium. Very sunny, with greenery, and just very charming and cute. The food, on top of that, was fantastic. Huevos rancheros, blackberry crepes, fireman’s eggs, denver omelet, you name it — it was delicious. Mimosas, bloody marys, and other speciality brunchy cocktails were really good.
All in all, I think that String is a little weird, honestly. But the food is delicious — especially the brunch. So I’d definitely recommend giving it a try when you’re in the mood to break the cycle and try something new.

I wanted to love Strings, but I just didn’t. On the way home, I was trying to remember what I ate and for the life of me, could not remember my appetizer. It was so not memorable. There were some odd flavor combinations in my choices — like grapes with mushroom broth. And my «marinated beet salad» hardly had any beets on it. The service was good, not great. My wine glass was empty too often. (OK, maybe I had a rough day and was gulping it down, but still.)
My friend had something burnt served to him. Burnt. How does that even make it out of the kitchen, much less to a table and sit there for a long time? Nothing was comped either.
I will go back for brunch probably, but not dinner.

Worst. Dinner. Ever. Went here for a special Valentines Day dinner and it was freaking awful.
The ‘five course’ prix fixe menu was a joke. One ‘course’ was a spoonful of what amounted to little cubes of canned cranberry mold leftover from Thanksgiving. Really? That’s a course? Really?
The lobster tail my girlfriend has was so small and shriveled we would have sent it back if we weren’t already itching to get out of there. My steak was decent, nothing terrible but definitely nothing special.
The ambiance of the overflow dining room had all the charm of a hastily decorated conjugal trailer at the state jail. We were also seated in a draft area and the table wobbled.
Desert was phoned-​in, uninspired and just blah. All of this would be disappointing enough but the final insult was the bill — $ 170 freaking dollars including a tip less than my standard 20%+ because the service felt like we were in a diner. Our server checking in on our meal sounded like ‘howiseverythinggoodfinegreat.
$ 170 dollars on V-​day is fine, but not for this. Not for this.

I need to go here more often for happy hour. $ 5 martinis and lots of apps under $ 6. Get there early to grab a seat at the bar of the side tables.
Always friendly staff is a plus too.

I’ve come to Strings every year since 2004 for my work holiday luncheon. We have a private room in the back so, in full disclosure, we probably get more than the usual dining experience. I did bring my Mom here for a special birthday dinner one year though. I wanted a restaurant that was upscale without being pretentious, and Strings fit the bill perfectly. Our server that evening was attentive and courteous, as I’d come to expect from Strings.
The food is always top notch. I have never had complaints myself or heard any from my fellow diners. My usual meal for the holiday party goes a little something like this: we begin with appetizers of a grilled chicken and shrimp skewer and a tiny crab cake, then a fresh garden salad with champagne vinaigrette, moving on to the petite filet mignon, whipped potatoes, and veggies, and for dessert, a sumptuous chocolate mousse cake. Spectacular!
I would definitely recommend Strings for a nice dinner. One day I’ll have to make it in for brunch.

Ladies Brunchin Book Club here–
$ 5 Mimosas
Fresh fruit cups– Yum!
Great Service, didn’t feel rushed to eat and leave– Server split out our tabs-​very friendly! I had the smoked salmon and eggs– Delish!
Little pricey-​but worth it!

It’s a fancy place… but also a place for old people.
You walk in and white cloth tables and wine glasses greet you.
As well as a signed picture of Ted Kennedy who has eaten here.
The menu is simple American fare but they offer a 4 course menu for $ 55 bucks that seems like a deal.
Both the grilled brie appetizer and my halibut dish was less than amazing.
My husband’s lamb sirloin was juicy and tasty though.
The only thing that would have made this experience better was the service. It was so slow. I get it, if it’s a fancy restaurant they want you to converse, take your time, and etc but I don’t mind if they come around more than once every 15 minutes and at least take our order!
Either way it was good but I don’t know if it was 30 bucks a plate good.
Also be warned. We were the only table that was UNDER 50 years old at that place.

I had an excellent meal here. Crab cakes with a yummy crispy onion ring garnish, Brussels sprouts fried and with a touch of Parmesan cheese. And a pasta special with crab that was oversized but a little unrefined.
The service was mediocre. The décor is strange with fish house dark wood chairs. When I arrived, they seated us right next to a bus station which really sucked. Especially because the restaurant was ²⁄₃ empty.
I could go back for the food. But I’d like to see a more inviting décor and level of service. Strings, I’ll be watching you.

A good place, but slow service on the weekends. My husband and I stopped in for supper but decided instead to have scallops (him) and a Caesar salad (me). The scallops came with sausage and new potatoes… good meal but a bit expensive at high 20s. I ordered a half order of the salad (they also offer half orders of pasta, a nice option). It came with a Parmesan cheese cracker and a white anchovy. They also have excellent garlic bread sticks and herb rolls that they bring around.
For dessert, I had the Petit Four — which was around 7 items — some were better than others. My husband had the chocolate mousse cake and really enjoyed it.
For these items, and water, the total with tip came to just over $ 60. We did not tip a super large amount as the waiter was slow and didn’t seem to know the items super well.
It was a good alternative to the VERY busy D-​bar we originally attempted to go visit.

Strings is a 4 – 5 star restaurant. Unfortunatley, yesterday I had a 3 star lunch there.
Had their tuna tartare appetizer as my main course. Stole some bites of my budette’s gnocchi, and then split a macaroon tart for dessert. The tuna was OK, but not as good as the same version of the dish I’ve had at a few other places in town (notably, Tables). The gnocchi was better, but not as light or complexly flavored as a 5 star dish would be. It did have great bacon in it and the olive oil slight crispiness of it made it 4 stars +.
What cemented the 3 starrednicity (?) of the meal, however, was the mediocre service and macaroon dessert. Re the service: when told by my dining companion that the coffee was lukewarm, the server informed us that it was as hot as it gets, so he guessed he could take her cup to the back and heat it up (in the microwave, I supposed). Yuck. As to the dessert, it was kind of a deconstructed tart with some fancy pants ice cream («granite») stuck between 2, albeit homemade, tasty macaroons, sprinkled with dark sugar crumb sprinkles sitting on a bit of also dark something or other sauce. Not up to their usual standards.
Having said all that, Strings is still a rockin’ place to eat. Always stylish. Usually excellent service and very very good food. I’m taking this last experience as a slightly gone wrong one-​off, and hoping for better the next time. Strings has been around forever and I’ve had too many superb meals there to write them off with one just OK meal.

I really had two great experiences eating here.
The first one was because of a previous mishap, and it ended up being free, so I don’t think that it’s fair to rate the free meal, but it ALL tasted quite amazing. I was pretty disappointed with the portion size of the cheese platter thing, but the flavors were all great.
The paying time was even better though. The outdoor patio on a crisp morning for brunch was hard to not have a good time. Mom, sis, and wife were all in arms reach which meant that I got to try an additional 3 breakfasts that I didn’t order ;-)
It’s a little more pricey than I’d typically throw out for breakfast on most days, but for the days that I feel like doing something wonderful, this is one of the places that I head to.

Well, last night’s Dinner for Sinners was a bust. We should have done a little more research. If we’d known we were going to be seated awkwardly at long «cafeteria style» banquet tables in the dingy back room, we would never have made reservations. Nothing comfortable or inviting about the setting and we will never attend another event there.
Some of the food was OK but most was pretty blah. The scallop first course was the best of the lot but terribly salty. The second course, duck egg custard with American caviar and chives, was the low point. Looked and tasted like Gerber strained peas — blech. Third course was a crab cake and it was, well, a crab cake — certainly nothing particularly creative going on here. Fourth course — braised short rib of beef with mashed potatoes and carrots. The carrots were the high point of a really bland dish — meat was tough and stringy and potatoes runny. We left before dessert — foie gras crème caramel did not in any way sound tempting and we had been there far too long — pauses between courses were LONG.
Wine pairings were also mas o menos. The Mumm Cordon Rouge was great but they followed it with a really mediocre Cava. Granted we are Champagne snobs but a good French Champagne kills a Cava every time. The Chamisal Chard and Chappellet red blend were serviceable but nothing I’d order again. To their credit, the staff was generous with their pours.
The coup de grace was getting to drive the porcelain bus in the middle of the night — not sure if it was them or me but it wasn’t fun. Either way, this was a meal I won’t forget anytime soon.

Dear Strings,
I can not hide it any longer.
I’m madly in love with you.
Sorry to just blurt it out but your super cute patio, awesome happy hour specials, delicious breakfast options and polite staff make me want to return about 5 times a week, which i must admit, my tummy wants to but my wallet can not handle it.
either way, i love you.
always will.
K

I could not give Strings anything less then 5 stars… If I could I would give more. Why you ask? Well I would never drive 30 minutes out of my way to eat pancakes… But for the blueberry pancakes at Strings I would do it every weekend!
I truly believe there are little blueberries out there hoping and wishing with all their might that one day they will grow up to be in a blueberry pancake at Strings! Yes they are that good!
Apart from having the best pancakes I have ever had in my LIFE (and that is saying something since I eat pancakes at least once a week), Strings also has a really fantastic bloody marry. I truly enjoyed my first visit at Strings for Brunch and I am looking forward to eating here again for another brunch hopefully in my near future!
So we have established that the food is good and the brunch is great but let me also say that our server was very good. I never felt rushed nor forgotten. My water was never empty, even after we paid and sat to chat for another 20 minutes. Truly a classy place to enjoy brunch with family and friends of all ages!

Apparently my reviews are a bit drawn out and maybe a little too detailed. To appease my critics, you individuals should know who you are, I have composed the following review in a suggested style that may be more suiting to these detractors. As difficult as it is for me to abbreviate my reviews, I’m going to give it a shot so here goes.
A few of us met up at Strings for a weekday happy hour which runs 3 to 7 Monday through Friday. We grabbed a seat on the outside patio and here is what I liked:
1. Great patio with adequate size for large parties
2. Attentive service with a bar designated for patrons on the patio
3. Beef Carpaccio was awesome and in a more compact form
making it easy for sharing amongst friends
4. Good small plate options for only $ 5 with the tuna tartar
stealing the show
5. Plenty of specialty drink options at $ 4 and $ 5
Here’s what I didn’t necessarily like as much:
1. Beer options on happy hour only included Coors Light and
Corona
2. A happy hour price for Coors Light is not so happy when it is at
$ 3 and not even on draft
3. Little leafs from the tree above kept falling in my drink
4. They seem to be a bit conservative with their liquor to soda
ratio as their rum and cokes were rather weak
All things about the evening measured out in a clear and condensed manner, shows I had a great time at Strings who offer up a pretty good happy hour.

After all of the great things I’d heard about Strings, I was really, really excited for my first dinner here, but it ended up being very disappointing.
The service was just barely acceptable. We had a reservation, but the hostess was nowhere to be found. Several of the waitstaff noticed the growing crowd, but no one offered any assistance. Once we were seated, the mediocrity continued. Our bottle of (house red) wine took 15 minutes longer than the bread. Our entrees were delivered luke warm.
The menu appeared to be the last hope for a good experience. Every item sounded creative and delicious. But the food itself was good, not great. I would go back if a friend absolutely insisted, but not of my own accord.

I’ve always thought two things about Strings — 1) the food is great, and 2) it’s full of blue-​hairs. My first observation has held true for the 17 years I’ve lived in Denver, and the second may have just been debunked.
As the uptown neighborhood as evolved, the crowd at Strings has changed, getting (dare I say) more hip than hip-​replacement. A recent brunch here proved to be quite the scene, and the food was, as expected, delicious! I had the crab cakes benedict — the crab meat was in such huge lumps you could pull them apart and eat with your fingers (which I shamefully did). That I had a heaping side of bacon with it made it go down all the easier.
I can’t wait to go back!
Oh — the previous visit was over happy hour — a full patio and bar menu of $ 5 deliciousness — yum!