Denver, Colorado-The Corner Office

What: The Corner Office restaurant + martini bar

Where: Lodo (Lower-downtown)-Denver, Colorado

Overall: The Corner Office is located in Lodo, underneath The Curtis Hotel. The crowd was a good mix of young and old professionals, and an a-typical Valentine's Day crowd. The music was playing at a good volume, but it was neither mine or Riar's taste in music, which made it distracting and seemingly louder than it actually was. They are open Monday-Thursday from 6am-12am, Friday 6am-2am, Saturday 7am-2am, and Sunday from 7am-12am (serving Sunday brunch from 7am-3pm). 

The Menu: We dined with The Corner Office on Valentine's Day, so they offered a prix fixe menu and their regular menu. Everything on their prix frix menu (as explained to us) you could order a la carte as well. They also have a breakfast menu and a Disco Brunch menu that features "coconut milk french toast". One thing that we liked about the menu overall was the fact that they had appetizers and "shareables" and they offered lighter options if you were too hungry or if you are health conscious. However, the menu does offer an interesting blend of Asian, Italian, and Southern comfort food. Everything from orange chicken to chicken and waffles was presented on the dinner menu. Maybe it was to appease to the hotel guests with a little bit of everything, but it was a bit overwhelming (like the Cheesecake Factory menu).

The Service: The waiter we had was great. He didn't beat around the bush with answer such as, "Oh the pasta is great if you're in this kind of mood, but the soup is great if you're in this kind of mood." Or my personal favorite (typically given when they dislike whatever option you have asked about), "I haven't tried it." Our waiter gave us a straight-foreward answer on his favorites for each course we delighted in. He was extremely helpful and efficient, but we felt like the speed was almost obnoxious because it was so fast. We felt rushed, which was unsettling.

The Food: We started out by ordering the Bowl of Shishito Pepper, which our server called "phenomenal", but then told us they were out of them for the evening. So we decided on the Calamari + Rock Shrimp. It was plated nicely and was served with a Thai chili sauce and an Aji amarillo aioli. We both favored the Thai chili sauce over the slightly bland aioli. We also both favored the rock shrimp pieces over the calamari pieces. Then we moved on to the main course and we each selected the Fazzoletti Bolognese. Riar and I both agreed that the slow-cooked pork and beef ragu was delicious. It had a great, unique flavor to it, and we were impressed with the originality of a seemly mundane bolognese dish. One thing that we were not super amped on was the fact that the noodles were called "handkerchief" pasta, which translates into: they taste great but are awkward to eat because each noodle is roughly the size of your hand. But overall we both enjoyed the dish. Then we finished off our meal with Blood Orange Sorbet & Chocolate Pate (which was on the Prix Fixe menu). It came highly recommended, and we were severely let down by the taste of the chocolate pate itself. The blood orange sorbet was delicious, but the combination of the two made us wish we would have ordered something different to culminate our otherwise delicious meal. 

Overall Rating: 7/10