Flagstaff House

Wonderful dinner. Service was great, but a bit intrusive. Food was great, except for the accompaniment to the lamb that was very salty. All else was superb.

Unfortunately, the quality of the food undermined the experience, to a much larger degree than expected. We’ve been going to the restaurant every few years for special events, and it’s been obvious for many years already that the food is no longer 5-star. It didn’t usually matter, as the service and the views compensated and made the overall experience enjoyable. So we certainly weren’t expecting a gourmet experience. However, even going in with our expectations well-managed, we were surprised how far the food experience had fallen.

The menu itself looks interesting with a lot of intriguing ingredients, but those ingredients usually added nothing to the dish, and most dishes are bland or mono-flavor. The mono-flavor was a problem throughout the menu – we were a party of 7 and had many dishes, and complaints of “overwhelming smokey flavor” or “overwhelming bacon flavor” were common across all 3 courses (such as the ravioli, squash soup, scallops and filet mignon).

It was a nice touch to get the amuse bouches and intermezzo throughout the meal, but the first “chef’s welcome” included two items of which one was simply terrible (a fish cream on a piece of bread). Shockingly bad. The other ones included a sorbet (a classic intermezzo - but put it on a phyllo pastry?), and then before dessert there was a not-so-small ginger panna cotta (good, but certainly not great, and too large before the dessert). Which brings me to the desserts. Instead of a nice sweet to finish the meal, they were overwhelmingly large (the mediocre crème brûlée was for 3), and the spiced pumpkin custard was one of the most sickeningly sweet desserts any of us had ever eaten (or tried to eat).

The service was good, although a bit cold (are they told not to smile?). Kudos to the sommelier however, who was cheerful, helpful, and steered us towards some great wines at reasonable prices. The ambience is both exceptional (if you talk about the gorgeous views) and dated (if you talk about the décor).

Great time

It was at least 12 years since we'd been to the Flagstaff, and we don't know why we waited so long!
As always, the service, food, and overall experience was top notch, and there is a reason Flagstaff is known as the premier restaurant in town.

Great! Hard to believe this not the top rated place in Colorado. Expensive, but for a special meal; it's GREAT.

first time dining at Flagstaff House and had a wonderful meal and superior service!

food was fantastic - true culinary experience of flavors and balance and selections. service was a little slow and timing between courses a little long

An amazing birthday dinner for my wife. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Food was great, service was even better. Great atmosphere. We will be back!

My husband and I went to Flagstaff House for a romantic date. We asked for a window seat in our reservation and we were accommodated when we arrived. The view over Boulder is always stunning at night. We decided to splurge and get the 5 course dinner with wine pairings. The food and wine were delicious as always; however, the food service was super slow and the wine service for a course always came way before the food! To be served 5 courses took 3.5 hours. Thankfully, we were not in a hurry that evening. I do have to compliment Elizabeth who was overseeing our wine pairing service. She was always right there to refill our wine pairing when the food finally arrived so that we still had the pairing experience. Additionally, all of the host and wait staff were very professional and friendly. Hopefully next time we decide to splurge the Flagstaff House will have better timing from their kitchen.

The service was outstanding! I had never quite experienced service like that before. The view was amazing. Chris went above and beyond to make our birthdays special and unique (:

Amazing on all aspects. Servers Ryan and Corie are superb. Sommalier Elizabeth, the best I’ve ever encountered. Can’t wait to return. Compares to French Laundry and Bouchon.

We were celebrating birthdays for octogenarians and the management did a terrific job of making it festive and as well as thoughtful. Older patrons are not always keen on noisy restaurants, so the ambience was perfect for this celebration.

Flagstaff House has all of the ingredients to make special occasions SPECIAL. The wait staff is friendly, personable, EXTREMELY knowledgeable, and kind. They are prompt with their service without feeling overbearing. They are wonderfully respectful, always prefacing their service with "I am sorry to interrupt", although they NEVER interrupt!!
The food was EXTRAORDINARY, from the eclectic menu choices to the intermittent chef's surprises!
NOTHING was less than a five star performance!!

I have eaten in some nice places in New York, Miami, Beverly Hills, Boston, etc. This is an exceptional dining experience! The view is simply amazing overlooking the lights of boulder. The service is wonderful and we enjoyed the attention to detail. We took full advantage of the sommelier and she made the night even more special with a fine wine pairing and a perfect desert wine, too. The food is superb and the presentation is first-class. Don't look at the price-it isn't about that. It's about being treated like a queen or king for a night. This is now one of our favorite restaurants in America. We shall return!

Awesome! Great, food, great service, great view.

It was amazing. The menu was straight forward. Just know that you will be spending a lot of money, but for a special occasion, the amount of money spent was well worth it.

Very Good impressed

Been many times and this is our last
The menu is so limited now and expensive for what you receive

Great location for seeing the city lights and stars. Definitely great for special occasions. However, we paid $300+ for two people. I expected the food to shine and it did not. Tasty. Just not spectacular.

Flagstaff House does have wonderful, ‘special occasion’ atmosphere and the staff do attempt to make you feel you are getting a first rate experience. Overall, however, we were disappointed. The quality of food, size of portions and course selection was sub-par for the price. Flavors were ambitious but lacked refinement and many dishes seemed like more for show than substance (e.g. table-side pouring of single- portion soup, which cooled the soup to be cold, and served in a tiny portion with very thin, overly salted consistency). There were many, many servers yet service felt slow and not always attentive. Over the 4 courses no one asked how our meal was until we got to dessert- at which point the check in seemed perfunctory. Too bad. We had been looking forward to this experience for our anniversary. We won’t be coming back.

Amazing venue, food, and drinks. We loved it. The menu was thoughtful and food was presented very well.

This restaurant offers a great view of Boulder & impressive wine collection, but I'll not be tempted to return. Our service was lacking: although the restaurant wasn't at all busy (we dined on a Wednesday evening), we were left waiting on beverages and/or food several times with ZERO staff on the floor to offer assistance. If you do decide to visit the restaurant, I advise to choose local, seasonal ingredients and avoid the seafood options as they were poorly executed (chewy connective tissue was left on the Opah in the Hawaiian Poke starter, N.E. Black Bass was under-seasoned, etc.) and extremely overpriced (I was served less than a quarter of a lobster tail, or a quarter of a very small Maine lobster, for an additional $24...seriously!?). With several much better options available in town for more reasonable prices, I cannot imagine that this venue will survive for much longer without an extreme makeover in both its service and cuisine.

Beautiful dining experience. Outstanding views! Very Pricey.

Flagstaff is a wonderful experience and I highly recommend it.

Excellent food, outstanding service and wonderful view. It was a special evening and even on New Year's eve it met and exceeded our expectations. This restaurant may be expensive but it is worth it and they go above and beyond to make you feel valued and to meet your needs.

Incredible food and incredible service. Best restaurant in Boulder.

Our place to celebrate a special occasion for several years now. Consistent quality of food and service. We love the updated interior of the lower dining room!

Went here for my 20th anniversary. I have been to a lot of nice restaurants in Denver and the Flagstaff was the best restaurant I have been too. Well worth the price of the food. Everything was amazing. From the wait staff to the food. I had a wonderful time there with my husband.

One of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had. Service was outstanding. Food was even better. Chefs tastings, wine selection- desert all were top notch. Highly recommend!

I would love to write an unequivocal positive review for the historically good Flagstaff House, but my wife and my anniversary meal was tarnished by noisy heat radiators in the lower patio room. I can not recommend the room on a cold evening. It was a bit like listening to unused frequencies on an AM radio.

The food was excellent and the service well done*. The beautiful night time view to the lights of Boulder was also nice. However, at the price of fine dining, I can not say that it is acceptable to have a radiator heater buzzing so loudly over our heads in dissonance with the back ground music to destroy the restaurant ambience. *Staff looked at the heaters, but acted relatively helpless to solve the problem at an adjacent table, nor offer any form of compensation for the distraction. A bit disappointed .....

Our dinner at Flagstaff house was great, the food was outstanding, and we were surprised by the many extras the kitchen sent out. Highly recommended for a special dinner overlooking Boulder.

Took my wife there for a wedding celebration dinner and the crew and chef’s were amazing! The food was spectacular and the views too! Thank you guys for making this a night to remember!

First trip back after 26 years. Largely the food did not disappoint. It is expensive, expect $150/per person at least.

For the money, and for the area, this restaurant holds on due to setting, but it is a bit full of itself, and guests can feel it, palpable in the air and in the presentation. After dropping several hundred dollars, it all feels rather silly.

Everything you could imagine of a restaurant of this status. Perfect evening.

Though the food was good, this meal took over 2 hours. One of our guest's drink was forgotten about, and the entrees took about an hour to arrive. When asked about the delay, the waiter simply pointed out that one of the dishes was taking longer than others, causing one in our party to apologize for holding up everyone's food. Though our waiter acknowledged that we had been sitting for quite some time, he made no attempt to make it right. Honestly for a restaurant of such quality, I would have expected them to at least cover our drinks or offer a free dessert. We ended up skipping dessert just because we didn't want to wait another hour for the food. What was more frustrating was that it was moderately busy, with many staff members milling about, yet somehow our party felt ignored and like our service was less than. I will not be returning to Flagstaff House and will look for other fine dining establishments to celebrate special occasions, as the food was not good enough to warrant the poor service.

Amazing service

Excellent as always. Holiday party traffic made for a loud dining room while they were waiting to be seated. Food was delicious and the service was impeccable.

Flagstaff House has long been on our bucket list of a special time to celebrate. At age 82, celebrating our 32nd Anniversary, this was the perfect time! Lights gleamed from Boulder, truly a fairyland of sparkling twinkles! We were treated like celebrities! The whole time was just awesome. The meal and the service made it a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious experience! Thanks to an excellent server, Chris!

My wife and I really enjoyed our experience at the Flagstaff House for our anniversary. The atmosphere was wonderful, and the food and service was great. We had a beautiful view of the lights in Boulder, and we had a very romantic evening. I would highly recommend the Flagstaff House for a special occasion, or just a nice night out with family or friends.