ChoLon

Reviews 4

SA

Sarah Hoyer

Braved the Arctic temperatures to enjoy dinner here with a couple friends visiting from Las Vegas. ChoLon is best known for their French onion soup dumplings, which are legitimately, delicious, but that is truly just the start of the delectable options available. Before even getting to the food, the waiter impressed me by asking if anyone had dietary restrictions and, when I confirmed I was gluten sensitive, did a quick run through of the full menu advising which dishes were friendly and which to avoid. (PSA, I am gluten sensitive, but have tested negative for Celiac disease. Gluten causes me pain but luckily, does not damage my body). Okay, now towards the food. ChoLon employs one of my favorite dining methods, which is sharing dishes family style. I love the opportunity to both sample multiple different flavors and to compare impressions with fellow diners. On this evening, we started with the soup dumplings (sadly, not gluten-free), wagyu beef skewers, and the pork belly buns. The pork belly was delectable, even without the buns (conveniently, served separately). The soup dumplings were mind-blowing, as always (and likely worth the inevitable and unfortunate consequences later). Rich broth explodes in your mouth as you bite in, surprisingly close to searing, and melty Gruyere is the finishing touch, with a rather nice dumpling to hold it all together. I was mildly disappointed by the beef skewers, mostly because I expect a lot when you throw around the word "wagyu" and because everything else was so stand out. The lobster crepe was everything you could dream. Fresh, fun mix of Asian and french influence, with the tangible enjoyment of creating your own lettuce wrapped delight. The lamb chops were PERFECTLY cooked and perfectly paired with the caramelized yogurt accompaniment, though I could have done without the underwhelming red curry gratin. I was excited about the Stir-fried Malaysian noodle dish from the "From the Wok" section (rice noodles!), but though it was good, it was slightly too spicy to enjoy all the layers of flavors. Do yourself a favor, and order the Dancing Scallops and the Brussel sprouts. Absolutely, the standouts of the night. Im not generally a fan of the miniature cabbage cousin, but damn if those werent the most delicious Brussels sprouts I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy. The texture was not unpleasantly squishy, nor fried to a crisp, and the ground pork and kefir lime leant a unfamiliar flavor to the dish. The Dancing Scallops literally dance, an experience that must be seen to be believed. The scallops themselves were incredibly fresh, beautifully seared, and incredibly succulent. Paired with a Japanese pancake and salsa verde, these babies will dance across your tongue and leave a lasting impression. Overall, the meal was a delight, the service on point, and well worth the journey through the cold weather.

GO

Gordana Nichols

I am hesitant to write this review because I really do not like to give bad reviews, and in reality, it was just one person that soured the experience. So, to make it brief - the restaurant is nice, we were seated at the small table by the window in the area where one can see the chefs preparing the food - cool. Our waiter was nice and knowledgeable, and since this was our first time in the restaurant, he took time to explain the menu and recommend some items - cool. The food was good - nicely presented and prepared well - cool. So what went wrong? Somehow, one of our small plates (famous soup dumplings) was not delivered (we ordered four items from the menu altogether). We asked the waiter about it, and he went to sort this out. A few moments later, John, the manager, appeared at our table claiming he delivered the dumplings. I said he did not - he delivered another item we ordered, but we never got dumplings. And here it started – he claims he delivered them. I politely point again that I would remember if we had them. He claims he put them right at our table “a few minutes ago”. And so on – needless to say the situation is becoming very uncomfortable. I felt like I am being accused of lying. In all my life I have never experienced this kind of attitude in any restaurant, ever. At the end, John asks: “Well, do you want your dumplings or not?” Good grief! At this point we are upset and all I want to do is to get out of this place. Our waiter stops by and reacts in a very diplomatic manner, brings the other manager – Nick, and the two of them manage to diffuse the situation. To conclude, what was supposed to be a nice evening turned out to be a disaster – thanks to one person only. Even though everything else was fine, I will never ever go to ChoLon again – I just do not need someone, anyone, trying to make me feel like I am trying to trick the restaurant out of a meal. I truly hope your experience in this restaurant is much better.

JO

Joshua Lockwood

How this place has managed to maintain the reputation, or the ratings, that it has is beyond me. Having lived in Denver for some time, and having come from New York, which prides itself on its restaurant scene, I can honestly say that I have NEVER in 20+ years of eating out had as poor of a dining experience as I did last night at Cholon. Between the mediocre quality of the food, to the absolutely atrocious service my party received, I would not revisit this restaurant if you paid me to do so! Not only did we wait well over an hour an half for our food at arrive, when it did, only half of our table was served their entree, while the rest of my party was forced to stare at their food (which went cold in the 15 minutes it took to bring out the rest of the main dishes). We did not have a party of 12 people, nor was the place especially busy (considering it was a Wednesday night), however the failure to address even basic standards of service (refilling water, taking timely or drink orders, not slamming plates down in front of the diners, bringing food out on time, or even somewhat together!) is indicative of managements piss-poor oversight/planning and reflective of their careless disdain for their clientele. Even after making a complaint to the manager on duty (whose careless "what do you want me to do about it" attitude could not be more apparent), I think with the adjusted $300+ we spent between the four of us, we could have gotten SIGNIFICANTLY higher quality food and at least halfway decent service from just about ANY restaurant downtown. Unless you enjoy dropping $35-40 dollars for a plate for mediocre Asian-fusion reminiscent of a pretentious version of P.F. Changs, or drinks so expensive it could make the Brown Palace blush, I strongly advise looking elsewhere...

JO

John Heckers

I was very excited to take my wife to Cho Lon, as Huffington Post had rated it as one of the best Asian restaurants in America. BOY! Were we disappointed. There was no ambiance. It was very, very noisy. The table was the size of a postage stamp. The server was nice, and some of the service was pretty fast, but we waited forever for our drinks and then waited another forever for our entrees after the appetizers. The food was not good. I had the Crab Summer Rolls, which were, frankly, the high point of the evening. My wife had the pot stickers which were unimaginative and boring. My wife makes better pot stickers. We thought about asking Chef if he needed help. I had, as my entree, the duck. I asked for it medium rare. It was overcooked to well. A few limp vegetables and some (actually pretty good) pancakes accompanied it. But the duck was dry and tasteless. My wife had the Lobster Chow Fun. It was NOT fun chow at all. It, too, was tasteless. All of the sauces were highly spicy, but, except for the spice heat, were pretty flavorless. One thing that was pretty tasty, though, was the huge sesame rice crisp they brought out at the beginning. It is DEFINITELY overpriced. For on martini, a ginger ale, and the food above, it wound up at $100.00+ Parking was $8. With tip, we wound up with an, at best, mediocre dinner for $130 bucks.....a real waste of money. Dont go there unless ou want disappointment and a place so loud you cant talk.