Hello, Uchi in Denver, Colorado

by   •   Food
 

For one of my dinners during my stay in Denver, Colorado, I decided to go to Uchi in the Five Points neighborhood for omakase.

Uchi had their ten-course omakase listed as “market price,” which I had not seen a restaurant do before (“market price” is generally reserved for individual menu items that are freshly imported on a regular basis and have frequently-changing pricing based on localized supply and demand). When I asked the waitress for the market price of the omakase, she said that it was US$305.50 for two people, which I had also never seen a restaurant do. I’m not sure if she just thought I was poor and was trying to manipulate the numbers so that it seemed cheaper, but she said that it would be just over US$150.00 per person. At that time, I believed her when she said that it was designed for two people, so my friend and I decided to order one omakase.

This might be a good time to mention that it’s actually been about a week and a half since I’ve been to this restaurant and this blog post is a little late, so I don’t quite remember all the finer details of the menu items. Not to spoil the review or anything, but this omakase was so underwhelming and disappointing that I wasn’t particularly in a rush to edit these photos and share my experience online like I do when I go to an amazing restaurant.

As an opening refreshment, we received a non-alcoholic citrus cocktail.

Our first appetizer was tai crudo with New Zealand snapper, lemon, tomato, and other vegetables.

It contained only four fairly thin and small folded slices of fish. The fish was mild and the vegetables were intensely sour and overdressed, so it tasted like I was just eating pickled vegetables instead of a well-rounded crudo dish.

For my drink, I got a zero-proof Spicy Yu made from non-alcoholic gin, yuzu honey, thai chili, and lemon.

Next, we were served a small plate of nigiri. The fish quality was good, but they were cut pretty thin and narrow so each bite wasn’t particularly satisfying.

After the nigiri was a small cut roll topped with minced seafood.

Nigiri and rolls usually come as part of the main courses of an omakase, but apparently we were still in appetizer mode, because we received one oyster each with habanero and mango. The shell of my oyster was chipped (which you can actually distinctly see in the photograph) and some of the shell seemed to have gotten into the oyster during preparation, so I had the great misfortune of having a crunchy oyster.

Next was a sashimi bowl with twelve total thin cuts of fish. This was delicious, and it almost tasted like it was dry-aged because it had an extra deep umami to it, but like everything else, each cut was way too small for it to come close to giving a strong, satisfying, full flavor per bite.

Our first warm dish was mapo tofu with crispy tofu prepared Szechuan-style and topped with shiitake ragout.

Even this was really small, which is silly because you’d think tofu is pretty cheap so they’d at least give you a refreshing portion of this, but I guess not. It had a very unique flavor profile to it, and the sauce added a nice, spicy kick to the tofu. The fried shell was a bit too thick compared to the amount of tofu that was given, but overall, I enjoyed trying out this creation.

Our second warm dish was wagyu over asparagus with a side of garlic chips in house-made sauce.

This tasted good, but again, the disappointing portion size detracted heavily from the eating experience. These cuts of wagyu were sized perfectly if you were to put two pieces in your mouth per bite… but there were only five pieces, so that would’ve gone through this course very quickly.

Afterwards, we got four more pieces of nigiri—bluefin tuna chutoro and otoro. The fish quality was great, but again, the cuts of fish were disappointingly thin and small.

We switched back over to hot dishes and got a lobster bisque.

I feel like a broken record here, but there was barely any soup here. They basically served it in a shallow plate instead of a bowl, so there wasn’t actually much bisque in the bisque. The portion size of the lobster was also tiny, and it felt like I was just eating lobster scraps instead of the actual meat of the lobster.

What little there was to eat, though, was delicious.

Up until this point, I had been questioning whether this omakase was actually supposed to be for two people, or if we had gotten baited by the waitress and my friend and I were splitting one person’s portion between ourselves. After receiving the lobster bisque in a single plate, I decided that I had been right and that this omakase isn’t truly supposed to be for two people.

I’m comfortable enough with the friend I went with, and I trust her cleanliness, so I didn’t mind dunking our spoons into the same soup together, but if I had chosen to dine with someone I wasn’t fully familiar with, this course would’ve been interesting.

From here, our meal service sort of just… stopped.

My friend likes oysters, so she put in an order for an extra oyster, à la carte for an extra US$5.00. After taking her special request, the waitress literally disappeared. We took this opportunity to use the restroom and watch the cooks at the sushi bar prepare other diners’ food, but otherwise, we were sort of just sitting there for what I believe was about half an hour.

Eventually, the waitress came back with my friend’s oyster. As if trying to one-up themselves in how small they can make each dish, they came out with an oyster that was about half the size of the oysters we had gotten as part of the omakase.

After another noticeable wait, we got our tenth and final course of the omakase, dessert: chicory and buckwheat banana cake with white coffee ice cream.

I think this was fine, but at this point, I had been let down so badly by so many different facets of the restaurant that I was mentally done with dinner and wanted to leave.

Here are some decorations from the sushi bar:

Here are some photographs of the dining tables, from the perspective of the sushi bar:

The ceiling of the restaurant had a glass opening with a view of Altius Farms on the floor above.

Here is a view of the outside of the restaurant:

In case it wasn’t clearly implied throughout my blog post, I do not recommend getting omakase at Uchi Denver. I have been to many different chef’s tasting menus and omakase experiences, and I’ve also done a fair amount of “build your own” tasting menus by ordering a large collection of small plates at fine dining restaurants, and I can confidently say that I have never gotten so little value for my money as I did at Uchi Denver.

I think there are two potential solutions that would encourage me to change my mind:

  1. Keep the omakase as a couples-only experience, keep the price the same, and serve exactly double of everything.
  2. Keep the portion sizes the same, cut the price in half, and market it as omakase for one.

Otherwise, I would consider Uchi Denver to be a hard pass.

 

—§—

 

Hello, Denver Christkindlmarket in Colorado

by   •   Tourism
 

One of my favorite parts of my two-year road trip across the United States and Canada a few years ago was watching snowstorms in Cottonwood Heights, Salt Lake County, Utah through floor-to-ceiling windows from the warmth of my corner hotel room. This was one of the contributing factors of why I agreed to go on a trip to Denver, Colorado with my friend—I was hoping to be able to touch some snow and enjoy the sights of a white-covered landscape.

Although there were unfortunately no snowstorms during my stay, I was still able to do some tourist activities to get me into the holiday spirit. One of those activities was attending the Denver Christkindlmarket, a holiday market produced by the Colorado Chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce. The market is set up at Civic Center Park next to the Colorado State Capitol and hosts a bunch of different local vendors who sell food, crafts, and other holiday-themed goods.

Here are some photographs I captured during my visit:

 

—§—

 

Hello, Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver, Colorado

by   •   Tourism
 

For one of my tourist activities while in Denver, Colorado, I decided to check out the Forney Museum of Transportation in the River North Art District.

It seems like I had pretty lucky timing, because in addition to the regular vintage automobiles and locomotives that they usually have on display, they also had an exhibit of vehicles specially decorated for the holidays. On top of that, it looked like a group of people had rented out a portion of the museum for a private event, which worked out in my favor because they had a lot of holiday lights on in their area, which cast a nice sparkle on the sheen of the cars and made for a visually pleasing sight.

Here are some photographs from my visit:

 

—§—

 

Hello, Colorado State Capitol in Denver

by   •   Tourism
 

Because I stayed in downtown for a good chunk of my Denver trip, I was in convenient walking distance to many tourist attractions, one of which was the Colorado State Capitol. I’ve come to enjoy looking at restored historical architecture, and I like seeing the different ways that different cities and states run their governments, so I squeezed in a quick visit to the Capitol shortly before they closed. I was too late for a guided tour, but I was able to wander around on my own for a self-guided tour, and it seems like the only thing I missed out on was access to the dome (apart from the docent’s commentary, obviously).

Here are some photographs I took in and around the building:

 

—§—

 

Hello, Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado

by   •   Tourism
 

I considered slotting in a visit to the Denver Art Museum while I was in town, but because of timing constraints, I opted to go to the smaller Clyfford Still Museum next door instead. As you probably already concluded from the name, the Clyfford Still Museum is dedicated to showcasing the works of artist Clyfford Still.

I’ve been to a decent number of art museums before, and I imagine that my impressions might be derived from the fact that I don’t particularly have a creative or artistic eye, but I always found abstract art to be a bit funny, in that I’m never really able to distinguish what was drawn by a famous artist and what was drawn by a kindergartner.

What I found amusing about this artist was that he seemed to have the same opinions. According to some of the plaques describing his art, Still also challenged where the line is between art and a canvas merely being dunked in paint, i.e., at what point art becomes art. What I found especially interesting was the fact that Still seemed to have started with drawing distinguishable art, but as he grew older, his art got more and more abstract to the point where some of his latest works are just a single solid color.

Here are some photographs of the exhibits:

The museum also had some displays that gave background on Clyfford Still. Because the entire building was dedicated to showcasting Still’s work, I think these informative, text-heavy sections actually served a good purpose tying everything together and telling a cohesive story of his life.

Although I wasn’t able to see it directly, I snapped a picture through some glass of a storage area where they keep Still’s work that is not in the current public rotation.

Conforming to the theme of challenging what makes art art, there was a small section on the upper floor where museum guests could create their own art using any of the tools and materials provided. I liked this because this encouraged people to have a more hands-on exploratory experience and immediately apply into practice what they observed on the exhibition floor.

Some people left behind their creations to share with future museum attendees. My favorite was this kid’s poem: A very fat chicken that has ate to much corn. necklace

The museum had two outdoor sections that, if I remember correctly, were designed by the architect of the actual building. The gardens on display were a bit dead, which is reasonable, considering that it is winter in Denver.

Here is a view of the outside of the museum. There were some nice lights strewn across the trees as holiday decorations.

I enjoyed my time visiting this museum. It felt small enough that it was easily digestible by someone who might not be an art enthusiast. I usually leave art museums feeling like I just looked at a ton of different paintings and sculptures of all different kinds, but I left the Clyfford Still Museum feeling like I got told a complete and thorough story about an artist.

 

—§—

 

Hello, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado

by   •   Tourism
 

I’ve had a good time checking out aviation museums in the past, so when I found out that there was one in Denver, Colorado called the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, I figured I would visit it while I was in town. I’m still not too knowledgeable about aircraft, but it was nice reading the plaques in front of each display—some were new to me, while others I recognized seeing variants of at other aviation museums.

Wings Over the Rockies was a good mixture between displaying aircraft and having sections that resembled traditional museums. It also had a wider breadth of material covered, which makes sense considering that it is called the Air and Space Museum—there was a lot of information about space travel and the future of space exploration, in addition to information about historical aircraft like you’d expect at a museum.

I arrived only a couple hours before closing time because I saw that the museum was contained in what appeared to be a single hangar, but I underestimated just how large the hangar actually was. I didn’t have to leave immediately at closing time because there seemed to be a private event taking place at the museum after regular business hours, so I got to stick around for a bit of extra time to finish checking out all the exhibits, but I still definitely should’ve arrived sooner.

General admission was US$19.95, which I thought was a good deal considering how much stuff there was to see. Enthusiasts who patiently go through to read everything and try out all the interactive experiences in the space section of the museum could easily spend 4+ hours here.

Here are some photographs I took during my visit:

 

—§—