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Downtown Aquarium Restaurant & Lounge
Category: Restaurants Seafood Seafood [Edit]
700 Water StDenver, CO 80211
Neighborhoods: Northwest, Jefferson Park
(303) 561-4450
- Hours:
Mon-Thu, Sun 11 am - 10 pm
Fri-Sat 11 am - 11 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
26 reviews for Downtown Aquarium Restaurant & Lounge
26 reviews in English
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Review from A M.
Boulder, CO
3/25/2012
My husband and I havent been out in a while, busy with the kids. We had a gift certificate for the Downtown Aquarium.
Before our reservations we stopped in at the lounge/bar the dim lighting and aquarium behind it was truly romantic. The bartenders were very sweet and attentive. The ladies took some time to see what brought me out for the evening and made a special drink that was delicious. During dinner I forgot what it was called when ordering another they waiter went to the bartenders and brought me back the exact drink.
The food was amazing we ordered too many appetizers and entrees, we got to enjoy a late night snack.
I recommend the Downtown Aquarium restaurant and lounge for a romantic evening. -
Review from Claire B.
3/6/2012
Omg... I don't recommend eating here for both adults especially your kids. The place was filthy! Don't they grade restaurants in CO? Service was poor. Food was mediocre. The entrees came out, literally it was like they cooked up what was inside a shark, regurgitation! I felt as if the tanks surrounding the restaurant weren't clean or swamp thing would jump out?! Serious, serious! Highlands is a hop skip and a jump from the aquarium, save your appetite for eateries around there instead.
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Review from Jeff M.
Longmont, CO
4/28/2012
Server was nice. But expect to stay over 75 minutes to account for a slow kitchen. Amazing really considering they seem to be simply assembling and microwaving sub-par Cysco food. The views are interesting if you're seated by the tank, but expect to be missing some chairs. Unclear what that's about. Also expect looky-loos to be squeezing past you, bumping you chair to get a free look at the fish.
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Review from Lindsay E.
Littleton, CO
3/30/2012
I want to first say that I have NEVER been so unhappy about a restaurant before. We went tonight for a much needed and overdue date night (double date). Our dinner adventure started with being escorted to a table that was completely bare and without chairs. We then awkwardly stood in the middle of the room while the hostess asked customers around us if chairs at their table were taken. If you have not been there before I warn you that their food is pricey and I believe not worth it, however we knew this and chose to go anyway for the ambiance. After each ordering, waiting for what seemed like forever, we got to that awkward phase where we each were watching the kitchen anticipating when our food would finally get delivered. Then the manager comes over and says that the kitchen just realized they were out of ingredients for what I had ordered and that I would need to order something else. Honestly, to be fair I do not know the exact amount of time before this happened but we agreed that it was more than 30 minutes. I ordered something else but expressed that we were worried it would not be out for a while... hinting that we were starting to be frustrated with the time. The other 3 entrees were brought out, I watched everyone else eat and when they were almost done I stopped our waiter and told him to cancel my order because we were done. He did not apologize. We were waiting for the check when he brings out my meal and asks if I am sure, to which I replied, "I do not want to pay for it". He said "fine" and turned right around and took it back to the kitchen. The waiter comes back and asks if we want desert, to which one of us says "only if you comp it". The waiter checks with the manager, informs us that we would get a free dessert, and suggests anything but the chocolate cake because it takes 20 minutes. We order the cheesecake, but still wait 20 minutes!!! Also, during this time our waiter was no where to be found. We got fed up and I asked a bus-boy to please get our check we just want to go home. Mysteriously the waiter comes right out with our cheesecake. We get our check and it is $75. I did not feel that this experience warranted a full charge and we ask to talk to the manager again. It takes her a very long time to come over, she said she was doing her job but my husband had walked by her twice and she was chatting with what seemed like friends. We made it clear that we were VERY upset. After a lengthy chat she offered to comp half of the bill. All this took over 2 hours. DO NOT GO HERE!!! WASTE OF MONEY. However, the actual aquarium is very nice, just go somewhere else for dinner. Sorry for my rant, I wanted you all to be warned.
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Review from Megan C.
Austin, TX
8/22/2011
I visited the Denver Aquarium because one of my family member's works for Jeppesen and they were having a company event for employees. We opted to eat in the restaurant because we thought it would be cool to eat amongst the fishes. Because it was an event and most people ate the free food provided by the company, there were only a few tables occupied in the restaurant. Our server was friendly and attentive and we didn't have to wait long for our food. The food is certainly overpriced but I expected that because all food at theme parks and public places of that sort inflate prices for everything consumable.
We had a side salad, the shrimp and crab dip, the fish n' chips and the ice cream cake dessert. The salad was average and costly at $6. The shrimp and crab dip was good, hot and flavorful with toasted bread. The fish part of the fish n' chips was good, crunchy and perfectly fried but the chips didn't tasted like they'd been under a warmer for awhile (dry and not crispy.) The fish n' chips was $17.99 but it came with 3 big filets which was enough to split with my mom. It came with coleslaw that I actually liked because it was vinegar based and not overly sweet.
The biggest disappointment was the dessert. It looked really good and was a HUGE portion. It was described as a layered ice cream cake concoction with layers of chocolate and heath bar on top. Sadly, there was little ice cream to be had. 80% of the "ice cream" layers were actually commercially made whipped cream. The chocolate layers were very thin layers of what tastes like little-debbie grade chocolate cakes. I expected it to be made mostly from scratch. Overall it wasn't terrible but if I visited the aquarium again I wouldn't spend the extra money eating here. -
Review from Nick B.
Denver, CO
1/23/2012 2 Check-ins Here
Ambience can't be beat, but the food can.
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Review from Jeannette W.
Oakland, CA
12/15/2010
My Denver host/good friend was trying to entertain me before the hockey game the same evening so we decided to go see the fish at the local aquarium and grab a bite at the attached restaurant. We heard that it was a nice place to have a drink while watch fish swim by.
As we neared the aquarium, there was a large exterior banner/sign that showed some great looking shrimp dishes and stated that lunch started at $4.99 Monday through Friday. After many attempts at trying to get the servers to tell us what this "special" lunch was, we learned that there is only one item on the lunch menu for that price and it is a cup of soup! NOTE: There is no cup of soup pictured on that sign, just two large plates of shrimp. When I later brought this up to the manager and told him it was a very misleading sign, the only response I got was that he had been there six months and never heard anyone mention the sign before which is interesting because staff told me that they had heard many customer complaints about the sign's misrepresentation.
Nonetheless, we were going to stick it out and have lunch and a drink in front of the big sharks swimming by. NOTE #2: There are certain drinks that come with souvenir glasses and therefore cost a couple of dollars more than all of the other cocktails on the menu. These are the drinks that have no prices next to their description. This drink will cost you $10.99. We unknowlingly order this drink and ended up intentionally leaving our glasses behind because we didn't know we were getting them and I didn't want to lug mine all around downtown and then the hockey game and then onto the plane back to California.
I felt this place was kind of a scam. It's not that the pricing is high, but the way the pricing is presented that I find disingenuine. Buyer beware! I will admit that if you just want to have a drink and watch sharks and barracudas glide by without going into the aquarium, this is a good spot. And even though food was more like cafeteria food and not very good for the price, the service was good given we were the only two people in the restaurant at 2:30 on a Monday afternoon. -
Review from James S.
Aurora, CO
9/4/2011
About as bad as it gets. Atmosphere is pretty cool with the fish tanks wall to wall. But I wouldn't even order a drink here again.
Issues:
Very slow service. At lunch with maybe 5 tables and took 45 minutes to get a drink and appetizer. Place was filthy and the food is not good either! I'd eat at joe's crab shack and get better seafood at 1/4 the price before trying here -- and I think Joe's in Denver is pretty aweful so that's saying something! Yuck. -
Review from Maggie F.
5/29/2011
I was confused about lunch not being served on weekends,,,,, until I saw the menu prices, lol. I paid almost $50 for 2 lunches which consisted of fountain drinks (no alcohol), sandwich & fries for one & a salad for another. The portions were generous, but I don't know anyone who wants to walk around the aquarium carrying their leftovers, lol.
The prices for lunch Monday through Friday from 11 am to 3 pm are much more reasonable if you can swing visiting at those times.
Both the grilled chicken sandwich & the blackened chicken ceasar salad were VERY yummy :) No complaints regarding the quality of the food or the service! -
Review from Andrew C.
Manhattan, NY
8/30/2010 1 Check-in Here
My brother has a weird fetish for seafood - not that I blame him - and when I told him I'd buy everyone dinner he jumped on the idea of driving up from CS to the aquarium restaurant. Not only could he get his seafood fix, but we'd have the chance to entertain my niece with the floor-to-ceiling fish watching while we ate.
I can't say too much - the prices was pretty hefty, but justified by the environment. Service was friendly, and the place was pretty packed. Everything tasted fine, but wouldn't exactly knock you off your rocker.
Worth it for the experience, probably not for the food. -
Review from Dave C.
Denver, CO
3/12/2011
An absolutely disappointing dining experience. Granted, I was there during Restaurant Week but my experience was so bad that I won't be risking a lot of money to possibly have another disappointing experience as it is expensive to eat there during normal times.
Out waiter was very friendly but completely overwhelmed. Our drink and appetizer orders were taken right away and then we waited for a very long time to receive either of them. When our appetizers finally arrived, we barely had time to take two bites before our entrees arrived.
Out of 8 of us, 6 of us ordered the top sirloin and grilled shrimp. We all ordered our steaks medium rare. Every single steak was way overdone. My shrimp were way overcooked and every single item on my plate was ice cold.
The restaurant ran out of the dessert that most of us ordered. While the dessert that was substituted was good, it was not what I was hoping to have. A guy who claimed to be the general manager and executive chef brought us our desserts. He made some sort of statement about how difficult it is to make that many mascarpone cheesecakes (the featured dessert that they ran out of). If you can't handle making "that many" it should not have been on the menu in the first place in my opinion.
My entire experience at the Aquarium Restaurant was horrible. Haphazard service; cold, overcooked food. No thank you. The restaurant obviously doesn't know how to plan for their reservations and don't know how to run a restaurant. -
Review from Fae F.
Lafayette, CO
12/12/2010
I loved my experience in the Aquarium. The restaurant aftermath, not so much. All I have to say is ew. Okay, I have a bit more to say.
The staff wasn't so great/not that friendly/I hate my jobish. I ordered mahi mahi and vegetables. The mahi mahi was dry dry dry and I took one bite before I sent it back. I got a grilled chicken salad that was actually pretty good, but my stomach was a mess later and it took them 30 minutes to replace the previous dish. Frog Prince was completely finished eating before I even started. This place was way over priced for the quality.
I do love Republic of Tea, which they offer by the bottle. And they did not charge us for the mahi mahi, of course, but also the replacement salad. FP had a burger and fries and said it was alright.
My second star was for cool decor, but I would never return to this restaurant, which is supposed to be a Landry's. I didn't do cocktails in the lounge, but I would consider that because of the ambiance. The Aquarium itself is definitely worth returning to! I would, however, go for some other wonderful yumminess outside of the Aquarium afterwards and not even bother with the restaurant.
And one more thing--it was very strange to eat fish/think about eating fish while watching the amazing fish swimming by in the huge restaurant aquarium at the same time. -
Review from Jelena W.
Lakewood, CO
7/30/2007 1 photo
The Aquarium Restaurant is the profitable addition made by Landry's in hopes of keeping the former Ocean Journey afloat. The national chain of seafood restaurants has sunk millions into renovating the aquarium and adding the restaurant, so, despite Landry's successful record of turning a profit on similar projects, much is riding on the Aquarium Restaurant's success. Predictably, it's a bit overpriced, overdecorated, and overhyped, but it's still worth a visit.
I give a big thumbs down to the entryway design that makes it very difficult to just get to the darn restaurant already; you have to pass the Aquarium ticket counter, pass through the Dive Lounge, and most irritating of all, walk THROUGH the gift shop before you are seated at the restaurant. It seems that the entire building has been designed to force you through the gift shop as often as possible. Really, I have a stuffed walrus and a cheap manta ray necklace already- can I just get some food?
Luckily, the food is pretty darn good, if a little pricey for the quality. I can't get over the creepy factor of eating seafood in front of a glass wall into a giant aquarium, so I ordered a salad with steak on top- now there's an idea! Take a steak- yum- and make it into a salad, so I don't feel so guilty about ordering steak. It's like they're taking taco salad to the next level. Next: Ice cream sundae salad. My family ordered various seafood dishes, and none of them had a complaint about the taste- even my foodie sister from the San Fernando Valley praised the crab dish she selected. Dessert selection was a bit boring on the grownups menu- I ended up ordering a Create-Your-Own Ice Cream Sundae from the kids' side.
The best part of the Aquarium Restaurant is, of course, what they're counting on as their biggest draw- the fish on all sides. There's a big ol' shark and an unconcerned group of fish that all but swim into his mouth with no fear at all, a cute puffer fish, a school of colorful Queen Angels, and a footlong specimen of the unfortunately named Niger Trigger, among others. If your food is a little slow coming, at least you have fish to watch in the meantime, and it makes a great conversation piece.
Service was provided by a nice young girl, probably still in high school or just out. She seemed very friendly, but a little bit like a fish out of water- possibly new on the job. Her greetings and recitation of the specials were quite rehearsed, suggesting that irritating chain restaurant mentality where the waitress must memorize certain pitches, rather than conversing with the customers. She was happy to accomodate various special requests, though, and the food arrived in a timely manner and all as ordered including things the group asked to have left off, on the side, or substituted- this was no small feat serving a group of ten and the other couple of straggling parties at the restaurant on her own.
Overall, the Aquarium Restaurant will make a splash with most visitors. It's a nice spot to share some bubbly or whet your whistle with a draft beer, and you'll get along swimmingly with the friendly servers. It's hard to avoid the sinking feeling of commercialism each time you are ushered through the gift shop, though- that idea is just all wet!Listed in: Vanquishing Visitor Villainy!
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Review from Cass B.
Parker, CO
2/15/2010 1 photo
I am writing this review for the restaurant separate from my opinion of the aquarium itself because I do not feel that the rating of the aquarium should suffer based on my horrible experience at the restaurant.
Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of dining at the Aquarium Restaurant for their Valentine's Day 'Romance Under the Sea' and after a few hours of discontent I have come to the conclusion that whoever planned the event dining needs to be fired.
When we checked in for our reservation at 4:00 PM we were brought to a small corner of the restaurant, and shoved into it with about nine other couples. Getting into my seat was a challenge in itself as I am by no means a 'big girl' but still managed to knock the silverware off our neighbors table as I passed to sit on the booth side of our table. Basically, there was a very long booth that they had put several tables in front of and a chair at the end of each table. So I was sitting next to the dates of two other people, and actually my date was sitting with his back to the 'Coral Reef' aquarium. Half of the people in that space had their backs to the aquarium, the seating layout was horrible!
Because were doing a package there was a preset menu. We ordered the Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I didn't realize that I would be building my own dinner even though I was paying for a $100 meal, but I shrugged it off and enjoyed some rubbery chicken with a half a head of iceberg lettuce. I should mention that for most of the time our waiter was pretty much MIA anytime we needed anything, to the point that the couple two tables down from us actually got their meal before we did because they had a different server.
Anyways, I digress. So our dinners finally came out to the table and my supposed to be 'medium' steak could have been classified as well. At this point I didn't see the purpose of complaining, because well, I didn't want spit on my food. So I ate most of my sirloin (What kind of place serves such a cheap cut of steak with a dinner like this?) and then moved on to the lovely lobster tail which it had been paired with. About a quarter of the way through my lobster I got a strong fishy not quite cooked through all the way consistency in my mouth and gave up on eating the rest of it. About the only thing on my plate that wasn't that bad was the mashed potatoes, but I'm of the school that those are pretty hard to mess up. My champagne was awful; you could tell it was very cheap by the lovely aftertaste that lingered after a sip.
So I tried a bit of my date's garlic bread to get the disgusting undercooked not so fresh lobster taste of my mouth, but to my disappointment the stuff was probably about a week old. It was very stale; you couldn't even pass this staleness off by claiming it had been over-toasted.
Time for dessert! Our waiter brings out a brownie with vanilla ice cream on the plate. I'm pretty sure that anyone who has ever made a brownie out of a box before knows that this dessert is one that is terribly difficult to screw up, but they managed! I think perhaps the brownie had been cooked about a week before the bread and left out to open air for the entire time it waited to make its way to our table. The brownie crumbled, and was hard as piece of wood. It wasn't crumbling because of moisture, it crumbled due to dryness. I'm pretty sure that had we not been given the vanilla ice cream for the brownie to soak in there is no way we could have choked it down our throats.
In conclusion, I would never go back to this place for a meal, a drink or even an appetizer. You could not pay me or offer me a comp'ed seven course meal to get me to go all the way back downtown because of what I can easily call my WORST Valentine's Day dinner ever. Afterwards, we had to go and get something to eat at another restaurant because we had eaten so little of our meal.Listed in: Eek! Me thinks not.
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Review from Sandy M.
Denver, CO
6/28/2009
Food was fine but overpriced for quality. Would not go back.
There is something surreal about eating seafood while watching fish swim by. -
Review from Lorne B.
Denver, CO
1/26/2011
Well, there are a bunch of criteria for my rating this one 3-stars.
I would give the food 2-stars. Probably 3 if it were cheaper, but part of what you pay for is the environment, which was fantastic. The food is about on par with Red Lobster. Nothing fancy, and a bit overpriced. The waitstaff was fine, but I would kick this up to 3 because of the view, as well as the graciousness with which they handled having 3 babies with us while we were eating. This is a huge bonus for us, since it's just a chore to bring the twins out anyway.
Upside: View, Pleasant Waitstaff, Accommodating Babies
Downside: Overpriced, Un-spectacular Food. You have to walk through the gift shop on the way out. -
Review from Darla M.
Denver, CO
7/22/2010
The biggest treat is watching all the fish go by......
the food is good by over priced for sure
would love to go to dinner there but prices higher yet for dinner
great place to take kids or out of town visitors -
Review from Alex L.
Denver, CO
7/30/2011
We decided to try to restaurant after visiting the aquarium, which was awesome. The restauarant however not so much. The staff was extremely rude and lacked any interest in what they were doing. We were barely greeted when we walked up to the hostess and only glanced at as they handed us the menu we asked to look at. We decided based on their attitude to not eat there and still received the same glances when we handed back the menus. We even said thank you but still received no acknowledgement as they were too absorbed in their conversation among themselves. I do not recommend this place to anyone
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Review from Jasmine A.
Dallas, TX
I love aquariums. This one wasn't very big though, but its great for an impatient kid :-) The restaurant was good but pricey.
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Review from prest O.
Denver, CO
3/12/2011
The restaurant itself was lovely, more of a family environment though. The food was delicious, i had the chicken alfredo which was really good, and we started off with the bruchetta which was AMAZING. Hands down, the food is worth it. However, the service was pretty bad. We received our appetizer AND finished it before our drinks (and water) arrived. I was really disappointed with the service, our waiter was not personable and I could barely hear him half of the time. Good food, crappy service.
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Review from Y H.
Denver, CO
6/30/2009
I think it's overpriced and the food is so-so, but my nephews and nieces love the place, so I take them. I would never go there unless the kiddos were involved.
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Review from Desiree P.
Aurora, CO
3/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
We came here to celebrate a friends birthday last night. The ambiance is pretty cool. The food was surprisingly good as well. I wasn't expecting much. The chicken fried chicken was pretty tasty and the portion was huge. Hubby ordered the burger which was very big and they actually did a good job cooking it the way he likes; medium. We went here for dinner so the place wasn't packed at all. I'm guessing they're probably the busiest at lunch time. Our server was ok. A big pet peeve of mine is when a waiter asks if I want my water refilled. Just refill it. I didn't have any other drink, just water. The place is kind of expensive, but, we all know we're paying for the ambiance. I didn't think the fish were all that great to look at. They were pretty ugly. Nothing of color in there. We'd definitely bring some out of towners here, but, we probably won't be going back any time soon, just the 2 of us.
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Review from Hayley H.
3/12/2010
The food here is simply okay. It's more of a spot to take little kids who can ohhh and ahhhh at the fish swimming buy that will inevitably end up on your plate. The chefs here are trying to be creative...but their creativity comes at a high price. I would advise to find somewhere else around the aquarium (if that is your destination) to eat at.
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Review from Sam R.
Denver, CO
2/21/2011
Last weekend's "Mermaid under the Sea" exhibit/breakfast changed my entire view of restaurant-owned aquariums.
The buffet-style morning included myself and a special person, but no children. We were seated considerately near the only two other childless couples in the place, which I very much appreciated... Having unsupervised monsters push their way at the buffet table was enough interaction for me. I never noticed the waitstaff make any hurry to refill the quickly-picked over tureens and plates, so right off the bat I was not incredibly impressed with the 15.99$ fare. Our waiter misheard my special person request coffees and waters for the two of us (while I was absent from the table) and so brought only one of each. When I returned I assumed our server would pop over when he had a minute to rectify the drink shortage; however, after passing by our table many times and both of us attempting to flag him down we remained half-drinkless. We had the option of ordering an omelette to compliment our buffet selections, only after waiting 10 minutes (after enjoying our first buffet plates) we gave up on the server and elected to get more fruits and pastries (the only things remaining at the buffet.)
Once the waiter noticed the stack of plates from the entire meal sitting off to the side he brought our check over. I was rather peeved to notice an auto-gratuity on a party of 2. It was only 6$ and if the server had made any sort of apology for his absence I would have left things as they were BUT facing the fact that every server around our section was able to cheerfully and quickly handle their tables (even those with many kids) I elected to bring my gripe to the manager's attention.
Marcus completely turned around my view of the restaurant half of the establishment. He was professional and responsive -- he not only removed the offending auto-grat, but half priced my meal (and thus ensured that I would be visiting the aquarium with any other out-of-town visitors.) My special person and I enjoyed our post-breakfast walk through with the fishies much more after Marcus' treatment.
To consider: buffets do tend to make the servers seem a little slower than normal service would; once you have food in front of you it seems to take forever to get something else you might need. Secondly, we knew when we made our reservation that children were going to outnumber adults pretty significantly; I don't take into account their inconvenience when I rate Marcus (and his staff) here. -
Review from Amy A.
Denver, CO
2/19/2011
Awesome atmosphere, you get to sit by fish tanks that apart of the actual aquarium. However, the service isn't great. We had a reservation and weren't seated for 20 minutes after. The food took forever to come out and our waiter was seen maybe twice. Awful service, decent food but a little over priced
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Review from Prasad G.
Dallas, TX
1/2/2011
We read that this rest has exceptional seafood and other stuff. Turns out that staff is unprofessional , waiters pay as little attention to you as possible. Ignorance to food details. Was noisy with kids everywhere - not recommended for a quiet quality lunch if you dont have kids.
