To begin, we have been to this Bar multiple times. It was one of the first places we went to when we visited Denver. We have also been to the location in Westminster. Normally, 5280 Burger Bar is one of our favorite and most reliable go-to places when we are in Denver, on the 16th Street Mall. Something seems to have changed recently. We will get into that shortly. First, let’s talk about the positive.
The food, especially the wings, is still top notch. They do have something for everyone, even vegetarian options. More on the wings, they are on the appetizer portion of the menu, called “Jumbo Wings”. They are, generally, big enough to be called Jumbo, and crisped to almost perfection. There are only four options for sauces, but our favorite is the “Honey Sriracha”. The sauce has a great blend of sweet and spicy. Again, the food is very good.
Unfortunately, we must now talk about the negative, the reasons that this review is less than positive. The service we received on the last visit was some of the worst. To start, you can see how busy the bar was when we were there. We sat at the bar and watched the bartender talk to two of the customers for more than 10 minutes while everything and everyone else in the bar was ignored. Even the wait staff was coming and going from the bar waiting for drinks. One customer came in, sat down and left before getting service.
We knew what we wanted to drink as soon as we sat down, so we were able to get a drink while we waited. While we nursed our drinks waiting to be able to order food, we watched the bartender do anything other than help customers, except for the ones he knew or liked. We even asked once if we could order some food, and he told us we had to wait until he was done.
After a while, another bartender came off break. We were prepared to forgive and move forward, assuming service would improve, we were wrong. After initial contact, this bartender decided it was more important to talk to one person at the end of the bar.
Finally we asked to talk to a manager, he listened, apologized and offered us a free drink. Service did improve for about 10 minutes then went back to poor. In total we had been at the bar for about an hour, and the bartenders asked if we wanted drinks a maximum of three times, and we had to ask to order food. If things had been different we know we would have had more drinks, the bar let money on the table by ignoring us and other customers.
If the service continues at this level we will have to stop using the 5280 Burger Bars as one of our go-to places. With all of that in mind our final rating for this visit is 3,000 out of 5,280 feet.
