- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Broker Restaurant
Rating Details »
Category: Steakhouses [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Northwest, CBD821 17th St
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 292-5065
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Dressy
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
15 reviews for Broker Restaurant
in Denver on business--stranded downtown for a week w/out a car--i know Denver has a ton of restaurants downtown, but did some local recon, and nowhere i found, compared to broker. found it, because they do the room service at my hotel, which is nearly adjacent to the restaurant. checked the prices for room service--and the scope/type of food seemed to be offered--and decided this place was worth checking out in person. pretty sure it was going to be too good to be true--but i was wrong--place is a winner.
was also worried it might be run-down, because it's obviously been there forever--but it's kept up very well. little dark and visual vibe of a men's club--but that's a look I like--ladies probably like a 'lighter' look. i'm a guy, and like the rich & established look/atmosphere of the place--no ofence ladies.
lunch specials were a good value to the extreme. Monday, had the prime rib, don't like mashed potatoes, so asked'em to substitue side salad w/blue cheese dressing, which they did without blinking (eventhough, i later saw menu stated 'no substitutions). half expected them to nail me a couple more bucks for the salad, but they didn't--so I tipped like 40%.
won't lie and say chow gourmet quality--but it was good overall, but very good given the atmosphere, location and service. Tuesday, had the salmon--asked for tarter sauce, in case it was too fishy--didn't need the tartar sauce. gut's a little upset this evening, but not sure if it's from the broker, free cookies at training i'm at, or free dinner my hotel serves.
Wednesday, had the almond crusted trout; good chunk of fish, and okay taste--thursday, lamb ribs; not too much meat on the bone, and a little chewy, but tastey nonetheless. Service was slower than usual, eventhough I told the server we were in a hurry. place is way too good for the prices they charge for lunch.
dinner prices look average to kinda pricey--but you sure get a lot of food on the dinner menu--almost like a prix-fixe menu. even gives you the option to split dinner entrees for a $16.00 extra charge--might sound pricey, but in addition to the entree--you also get shrimp/cocktail (albeit tail-on), hot bread, soup du jour, salad ( i think) entree with sides like rice/potatoes & steamed veggies and dessert!
very nice people/servers, and good chow, bordering on very good. wish i lived in denver so i could go to the broker a lot! great place to take a date or have business lunch or dinner--i'm no high-brow consiseur--instead: just a guy--maybe even a 'cheap bastard' like a previous reviewer referred to himself as--but for my money, this place has got a western class and elegance about it--and i'll come back whenever i'm in Denver.
Getting a tour of this place was the best part of the evening - it's really interesting. Ask to see the wine cellar if you like wines.
The meal was OK - I ordered a tuna steak, which might not have been the best choice. It was servicable but not fabulous. The big bowls of shrimp they bring out gratis were also tasty, but nothing to write home about, as was the cheesy bread. Skip the calamari - it was hard and dry.
Overall, the atmosphere is great for disucssion and socializing - lots of semi-private rooms, and you don't get too distracted by the food, in either a good or a bad way. And do take the tour - the palce is lovely.
They rolled out a promo and rolled back prices to the 70's for lunch one week. Being a cheap bastard that was right down my alley, well there are some codes to being a cheap bastard and number one is that when you are being a cheap bastard expect cheap bastard in return! So we went on the first day of this promotion Monday and $4.95 for prime rib any place else other then a Vegas casino is cheap bastard! Brokers famous shrimp bowl for $5 bucks is cheap bastard as well.
So you assume that the Broker is doing promotions like this to bring business in of course but also to get itself back on the Denver dinner spot map, at this point they really are struggling for relevancy! So here is where you disregard your code and allow some expectations to creep into you forth coming meal, because you expect that the A game would be in full force and the food would be top notch to help build the word of mouth buzz and hopefully get some of this lunch carry over into dinner reservations at later dates. So you doubt the code and you jump in head first, my bad! The shrimp was probably about 1 hour away from being spoiled and the smell from these stinky cheap bastards lingered on my fingers way into the night! The prime rib was so grisly your last name had to be Adams to enjoy it. The mashed potatoes were almost indescribable, the best way to describe them would be to say they were a scoop of slop that you would expect in a mess hall!
The roll back prices to the 70's was a great idea and the 5 of us from Qwest home of us cheap bastards had planned our meals for the whole week at the broker. But after this experience I doubt I will even be back for the nice steak sandwich they do on Thursdays!
Ambience and service met expectations, You really cant complain about walking into a big safe and sitting down to eat!
Couldn't find a better happy hour in town. Make this your last stop, though, or it'll be your only stop. Low prices are hard to turn down, so I tend to have one too many at the Broker. Makes climbing all those stairs on the way out a bit tricky...
From what I hear (and read in other reviews) the food is less than desirable with spotty service. I say stay at the bar and leave when they dim the lights.
The Broker carried a bigger rep. before all the chains moved into downtown Denver. However, if you are a local plan on heading over for a nice, long Friday lunch. Ask for a table in the vault if you have never tried it.
Throw down on the french onion soup and prime rib. Maybe even get a shrimp cocktail. It's decadent, but oh so good. Modest prices as well for lunch. Sometimes I grab a brewski in a nice pilsner glass. Service is steady, but never snappy.
The prime is their special snag to pull people in off the 16th street mall. The atmosphere is nice for being a basement spot w/ no windows. Great lunch, but I might hit up Jax or Ruth Chris for dinner.
Ok. It was free. A now defunct radio station had the gall to bring us employees there. The money they spent that night. You know who you are. We had the vault downstairs. It was a cool wine cellar. Shrimp I liked. Dinner was presented to us well. When they weren't looking we copped a few choice vintages....just kidding. All in all for a catered affair it was pretty cool. I get the gist of all the reviews but I had fun.
Last night the BF and I went to the Broker for dinner--
My opinion of the Broker's Happy Hour stands -- A great place to comfortably sit and have a drink and a snack.
Dinner is another story. Before I tell you the ugly details...Our check for 2 steaks ( 1 porterhouse, and 1 prime rib), and 2 rounds of drinks was
$167 before tip.
You read correctly....ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN buckaroos
Before Tip....
I'm just sick....talk about could have, should have---and I take full blame. I've been doing the Broker HH so long, that I was curious about dinner...well, curiosity killed the cat, and certainly my faith in "steak houses"
All started well. We did start prior to HH ending, so I was able to get 2 glasses of my very expensive Rutherford for $20, and the BF's Corona was a modest $4 for his 2 rounds....we should have stopped there, but, we didn't. We asked for a table in the dining room, and was fed the worst food imaginable. Granted, it was a huge amount of bad food, but bad nether-the-less.
As it turned out dinner was a minimum of $60 a head, no Ala Carter option available. Like it or not, you get a huge shrimp bowl of peel your own, choice of soup/salad, bread, and entree. Desert may or may not have been included, but we declined either way.
Upon looking at the prices, I gave the BF an are you kidding look, and asked if we should do a Morton's for these prices -- but being the good guy he is, gave me don't worry about it hon look.
Well, we should booked when we had the chance. The food was so bad--laugh out loud bad--in fact I was I laughing so hard after taking my 1st and only bite of meat, that our waiter looked our way. Too bad he didn't have the sense or guts to ask me how the food was. It was obvious that he knew how poorly the kitchen prepares the food, and he did the
"hit and run"
Here's the lo down:
1. Shrimp bowl: Fine, however totally flavor-less. Obvious they don't put any Old Bay in the steaming broth. I had ask for horseradish to give the ketchup (aka cocktail sauce) a kick.
2. Wedge: Fine, lack-luster is a better description. The lettuce was wet, and smothered beyond recognition with the blandest blue cheese.
3. Prime Rib/Porterhouse: The biggest stab of gray meat I have ever been served.
The meat had no sear to it. The meat was cold, big globs of cold fat stared back at me. Sides were equally as cold.
Bad Wedding food.
You can get better cooked steak at a Greek Dinner
Banquet / Buffet quality
We each took 2 bites of meat, 1 of the sides, and asked for boxes--figured we can steak/egg it in the AM --
What a waste of money.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
8/30/2008
Truly a 4 star Happy Hour !!! Possibly The Best Wine HH in Denver.
I'm reserving my 5 stars for the… Read more »
I brought my company's executive committe here for a group dinner. There were 28 of us and the restaurant handled it very well. The waitstaff was great, but the food was kind of blah. When planning the dinner, they highly recommended the caesar salad, which ended up being salad out of bag with caesar dressing, absolutely nothing special. They also didn't have a set banquet menu, which was frustrating. The trout was terrible, the chicken pasta was okay, the southwest wellington was greasy. Dessert was defrosted cheesecake. The greatest thing about the dinner was the limitless peel and eat shrimp that they threw in as an appetizer. Overall, this was a terribly expensive disappointment.
one of the top 5 Happy Hours in a town filled with the best HH's of any city that I've experienced.
$2 beer - any beer
$3 booze - ANY booze
$4 martinis - ANY martinis
1/2 price on wine - ANY wine!
there is also a small menu with huge portions of the usual bar fare of americana cuisine offered at an uber-fair price.
the Broker is tucked away, downstairs, underneath the ginormous lobby of the Bank of Denver on 17th st., just west of Stout.
the staircase opens up into the lush lounge area, equipped with a full bar.
a three-foot thick, old-school, vault door is propped open, inviting guests into the main dining room, where each table/booth is actually an old booth previously used for 'safe deposit box' viewing. (am I on the Titanic?)
Jameson's, neat - $3. Hendrick's Martini, up, real dry, with a twist - $4. delicious prime rib sliders AND shrimp cocktail 'bowl' - $12.
toasty now, Pepe offered my ladyfriend and I a tour. we proceed down one, then two levels through various vaults that have been converted into wine cellars, private dining rooms, and more wine cellars. the Duckhorns, Silver Oaks, etc, glow next to the wisdom of Burgognes, Bordeauxs, and Montepulcianos, making my mouth water. and all surrounding a beautiful Captain's table for special private parties.
although I have never eaten here formally, my examination of the menu shows a good lunch and dinner value. prices are high, but include endless shrimp cocktail, soup (or) salad, entree, choice of side, and dessert. doggie bags, galore. there are great daily specials, including a Prime Rib for $8(?) and a NY Strip for an equally great deal.
service is OK. like rolling a nickel on the thick carpet or shouting in the lush room surrounded with thick wooden walls, the movement drags a bit. but it seems to fit the surroundings.
I usually stumble out of here...
if it's your birthday, you eat for free. not bad.
I'm hitting their sister restaurant, the CorkHouse, today. also a great Happy Hour, from what I hear...
I came here about 5 years ago, and it was so memorable that I still remember.
They offered a "set menu" just like any other good restaurant. After ordering, the first thing they do was to give you a big (salad mixing bowl size) tub of finger-sized cocktail shrimp. I was shocked and had to ask: "Sorry, I don't think I ordered that". The answer I got was shocking: "They are complimentary". WTF !? You normally pay probably 20 bucks for that alone... even 1 person at 60 bucks, it's worth the treat already...
Then came the warm bread. Wait... let me correct myself - oven hot steamy, moist loaf of bread. It is absolutely the best bread I've ever had, let alone, it's again, F-R-E-E. By that time, I was more than half-full, and my 20 ounce steak has yet to arrive.
May be it's their fault to bring you all these great stuff in the beginning, I found the steak was cook just right, flavorful, but the spark was a little dim... Once again, I don't think it's the steak... it's wonderful, but it's me eating all those warm bread and cocktail shrimps :-)
And then the rest of the dinner was fine, very fine dinner experience.
The ambiance and atmosphere was so great that it's romantic. The waiter service was abosolutely outstanding - they deserve at least 20% of tips, if not more.
The place is lovely; we'd definitely go once more when we visit Denver again!
The happy hour is pretty good, used to be better. They raised the prices on food, and the service stayed the same. Still I think you can get a martini made with any vodka they have for $3. Which is great. The big complaint is the service. I've dined there and just went and had drinks, and it's the same. Bad.
I went to the Boulder location once with my parents when I was younger and remember that being really nice, but I've eaten at the downtown location and a handful of times and it's nothing to write home about.
The Broker is an old-school place, a bit stodgy, even: the kind of place that my grandfather would have loved to eat a steak and smoke a cigar. Set in an old bank location, the main dining room is actually inside the bank vault complete with the original door.
The broker's menu includes multiple courses: bread, salad, a generously sized bowl of shrimp, your entree, and dessert. Their specialties are steak, lamb, and shellfish, the steaks being the best. On sheer quantity, no human being could possibly leave the place hungry, and without a full to-go box. The best part of the meal is the bottomless bowls of peel-and-eat shrimp served as an appetizer. The price is included with the entrees.
The quality of the steaks are about what you'd expect for a steakhouse, though the menu's hardly innovative, nor is the presentation anything to write home about. Still, this is a steakhouse we're talking about here; innovation is hardly expected.
Service is adequate though not outstanding -- I haven't experienced any of the gaffes in service that other posters mentioned.
The broker loses points on my review for their prices. Their entrees range from about $40-$55, which do include a lot, but for that price I have pretty high standards. In fact, for that money the place better be spectacularly good, and the Broker falls short of that standard. It's good, but not THAT good.
Luckily, I've never actually paid full price for a meal at the Broker, and wouldn't. The Broker does offer several discounts, the best known of which is the fact that you eat free on your birthday. Other discounts include a generous early-bird special, where prices drop by $20 per entree if you arrive before 5:30pm. The also have a nice dinner for two package if you show your Denver Center Theater tickets. Even with their deals, it's still a bit of a splurge, but if you're looking for a steak on a special occasion, it may be worth it.
I had the french onion soup, the beef stroganoff and the creme brulee for lunch here with a couple of my banker buddies. Freaking delicious man. We got it done. I highly recommend!
Great Happy Hour in an old-school setting.
I will start by saying that this place serves recycled shrimp. The crazy thing is they don't even deny it. According to the management, it is 100% safe and sanitary to re-use shrimp that has not been eaten by another table simply because it still has the shell. AM I INSANE HERE?! Why would a place of this caliber even THINK that that is OK?! I have not had a worse dining experience than I had at this restaurant. It started out pleasant, but left a bad taste in my mouth by the end, in more ways than one. I ordered filet mignon first. Not only was the steak chewy and tasteless, the veggies were so over-cooked the asparagus shrank up into little green twigs. The sauce that was supposed to be on it was virtually non-existent, but judging by the over-all taste, it was probably better left off the plate, unfortunatetly making the steak potatos and veggies all dry. I decided to give them one more chance and figured I had just ordered the wrong entree. I chose the new york strip, it was even worse! I have had better steak at Outback. On the other end of the spectrum, I have eaten at one of Denver's finest steak houses, Ruth Chris's. I feel like I have a pretty decent idea of how a steak should taste and look especially when your'e paying $60 per person for a meal. Now, to worsen the whole situation, the staff including the manager argued the quality of the food and the way it was cooked until they were turning blue in the face and made me feel like a liar. The waitress even went so far as to accuse me of trying to get her fired. Instead of trying to turn our experience around and compensate us or at least be understanding since it was my birthday, they collectively made this the worst dining experience I have ever had.
