Amber's Sticky Note Reviews

Finally! A Five-Star Eatery. Seriously, people. Mints really do work wonders!

Let's get down to brass tacks. A delightful take on New Orleans-style, Cajun and Creole food. Serving only breakfast and lunch at three locations. We headed to the Denver/Jefferson Park spot.

The restaurant is cozy - set in a turn-of-the century home, with a large outdoor dining space, mismatched furniture, cloth napkins, mason jars for glasses and plates designed to look like those flimsy paper plates we all know and love (hate) at picnics.

Starting our meal, I was thrilled with the Pepper Berry Limeade. Um, hello? House-made Limeade, Fresno Chili Coulis and Wild Berry Puree. Tart - yep! It got me right in those salivary glands at first sip. Spicy - perfectly balanced - no burning. Sweet - not over done. What a treat!

I ordered the Pimento Chicken Biscuit - with fried chicken confit, pimento cheese, sunny side up eggs (I don't like them runny, so I asked for scrambled), pickle chips and duck gravy all atop a buttermilk biscuit. I could have used a few more pickles... but wow! Tasty without being too heavy.

It came with a side of potato casserole - just smooshed potatoes, onions and other seasoning and cheese. Perfect too! Some might have wished for a sprinkling of bacon in there, but as a non-pork eater, it was great to get a potato dish without bits of swine.

My friend ordered the Chicken Fried Eggs & Buffalo Hash - which raised my cholesterol just looking at it. Free-range pecan wood smoked buffalo topped with two eggs which were first soft boiled and then dipped in batter and deep fried till just crisp, but not done. Serve that with corn bread and top it all with Fresno chili hollandaise and you have a delightfully sinful breakfast treat. Note: he DOES like his eggs runny, so they were cooked to perfection.

Service was friendly, attentive and quick even though the place was packed. (Hint: they do take reservations - one of the few lunch/brunch restaurants in Denver that still do, so take advantage of that, otherwise you will have to wait because it's always busy).

Decor - this place looks like it was furnished via estate sales and thrift stores and that's a perfect vibe for it!

Vegetarian warning - only a few V-friendly options and nothing if you are vegan. Sorry.

How many starts??? FIVE!
Food - definitely a star
Service - yep!
Ambiance - indeed
Price - very reasonable!
Mints - YAY! They gave us mints with our bill.

SECOND REVIEW - Tupelo Honey. 3 stars. Another mint-free establishment. Bummer. Crowded and salty and not a great value. I do want to go back and try it again though. Stay tuned.

We visited Tupelo Honey in February for Denver Restaurant Week. As an urban beekeeper I was pretty excited to visit a honey-themed restaurant (they even had some bee-related artwork), but I wasn't that thrilled with the food or ambiance.

The restaurant was way too crowded. Noise was overwhelming and the poor waitstaff had to tiptoe and weave through the tables like contortionists.

The food started out wonderful! The fried green tomatoes were tart, crispy and cooked perfectly - sometimes because they aren't ripe, they can be chewy, but these just melted in my mouth. Plus, the restaurant week menu came with a cocktail, which was a nice treat.

Things went downhill from there though. Gumbo - salty, fried chicken - salty. Plus they didn't let me select a side with the chicken, so the too salty fries and the too salty mac and cheese didn't do much to quell the salt from the chicken. I would have really liked a refreshing green option (salad or steamed veggie of some sort). The chicken did have a little sweetness to it (the "honey dust" I assume), and as someone who used to ALWAYS dip my chicken in honey as a kid, I did appreciate that, but the saltiness overwhelmed the sweetness. The shrimp and grits were good, but not fabulous. By the time we ended our meal, it was all a little too much salt, a little too much fried, a little too much carby and heavy. I just felt like a balloon filled with carbs, fats and salts.

That said, Restaurant Week is always a limited menu, so I would like to go back to try out a more varied menu.

How many stars? 3

PRICE - During restaurant week it's hard to determine whether they would get a STAR for price or not - but looking at their normal menu, I would say HALF STAR. It's a little pricier than I would expect for good ole comfort food - $10 for app, $25 for an entree. There's nothing fancy on the menu though, so I would expect more like the $8 app and the $18 entree price.

ATMOSPHERE - fun decor, but way tot tightly packed and way too loud - HALF STAR.

SERVICE - ONE STAR. Our waitress was very nice and relatively attentive given the mine field of tables and number of diners.

MINTS - another restaurant without after dinner mints. Really folks? What's going on here? ZERO STARS.