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Echo Lake Lodge
Echo Lk
Idaho Springs, CO 80452
(303) 567-2138
Idaho Springs, CO 80452
(303) 567-2138
- Price Range:
-
$$
2 reviews for Echo Lake Lodge
This place doesn't get 5 stars but it certainly does no worse than 3 for me. Yes, it is old and the decor is rustic but look where you are. You are at a mountain lake lodge. The decor is part of the whole feel of the experience. We seem to eat here everytime we go up to Mt. Evans.
The wife loves there homemade cole slaw and I love the Buffalo burger. The prices are very reasonable also. I think for two of us for lunch it's about $20.
There is also a gift shop attached that sells souvenirs for family and friends.
On a recent visit to Denver, I was taken to Echo Lake Lodge by some family members who were excited to take my father and I to the historic locale. The whole experience, however, was pretty blech.
The lodge is dominated by a gift shop filled with "Native American" jewelry made in China and cheap souvenirs. Ug. Not a nice way to start a meal, accosted by crappy "authentic" Americana made in China.
You walk into the restaurant and it feels like you've stepped back in time to the early 1960s -- and not in a good way. The decor is decrepit and dingey, the tablecloths dirty and tired. The left wall of the restaurant is filled with restaurant equipment like machines for orange juice and hot chocolate. The equipment, like everything else in the room, looks exhausted.
The menu's like something from the 1960s, too -- an era when salad or almost any sort of fresh vegetable was seen as a novelty. An era when no one asks if you want white or wheat because white is all that there is. An era when a scoop of mayo-heavy tuna salad on a sliced tomato was seen as a healthy option. (Credit where it's due: there were slices of hard boiled egg in my tuna salad. That was the one good thing about the place.)
I appreciated that the restaurant was run by a family -- mom, dad and teenaged kids were all working that day -- but the food and ambiance set new standards for downtrodden and abysmal. The website talks of fresh homemade pie -- all I know is that the day I went the pie was luke-warm fresh from a microwave.
Depressing, really. The restaurant at Echo Lodge made me realize that chain restaurants actually have value ... *shudder* We had dinner that night at a Sweet Tomatoes (that's a salad bar/buffet chain in Denver), and I was happy. As a strong proponent of indie businesses, that was truly a sad moment for me.