Guido’s Favorite Foods

Legit place for lunch! They also have a mini market section with some really special Italian items. My mom loves the peach nectar they have: D
Guido’s lunch menu is pretty extensive, but this time around I ordered the house salad and the meatballs. I was kind of sad the meatballs didn’t come with pasta, but I guess I could have ordered a side of it… that seemed like it would have been too much though. Anyway, the salad was super yummy! All the leaves of lettuce were coated with a delicious vinaigrette but it didn’t seem drenched. If I remember correctly there were a few tomatoes/​other veg, but the bulk of the salad was greens.
The meatballs were excellent as well, definitely not dried out. They give you four large ones on a plate with sauce. I could only eat two so I took the rest home (to eat with some pasta lol). Unfortunately this time around the gelato machine was broken so we couldn’t order any for dessert… next time though!
Our waitress was attentive and very nice. Make sure to ask for Balsamic for your bread because it’s delicious. Bathrooms are located through the back door in the hall.

Very nice Italian place with dog-​friendly outdoor patio. Attentive, quick service, nice wine list including some interesting small producer Italian wines, great food. And real cannoli’s for dessert!

I went to this restaurant for lunch today. It was quiet. The server was nice, quick, and great at checking on us. I ordered a mushroom, cheese, tomato, and pesto panini with a side salad. The food was fantastic! I will definitely be coming back here to try the dinner options.

The food was horrible. Chef Boyarde is exquisite in comparison. Don’t waist your time or money. Even the Gelato was inferior.

I love the steam mussel here. My favorite restaurant in town! The drink is very tasty as well. I will be back!

I love Guidos! I’ve been here twice in 2015 and taken my grown up children too. I’m gluten free and love that they have that option and it tastes really good. I had a ragu which was terrific. When it first came, I thought it was enough for two meals and that I would take some home. But I couldn’t stop eating it so there was no take home!
My husband had the lasagna which was wonderful. Note: They cook it when you order it, so there is a long wait to be served. Be mentally prepared for that. Probably not a good choice if you have hungry or impatient people (children) with you. (The waiter warned that the gluten free noodles would take a while longer but didn’t tell us that the lasagna would take even longer than that).
So far my favorite restaurant in Durango (I’ve been to quite a few). Will be there again next week to ski and will indulge again in the delicious ragu.

I wish Unilocal had an option to give a negative star rating because this place would have gotten a negative 5 stars. The blonde haired bartender who took care of me had ZERO educate or situational awareness.
Here’s how my dinner went… I walk in and there’s no hostess to greet me. I walk myself over and sit at the bar. I read the menu to find that this is not a real Italian place, they barely have any pasta dishes. Instead, they have a low rent/​budget/​tacky a la carte pasta option. Where you pick noodle type and sauce type. The didn’t even offer chicken in the options.
I ordered a portobello sandwich and then asked the bartender for a side of pasta with butter to accompany my sandwich. She replies, «we don’t have sides of pasta.» I then say kindly, «excuse me?» She replies, «we don’t offer sides of pasta, you have to get the pasta a la carte option for $ 14.00 if you want pasta».
AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT THAT DOESN’T HAVE SIDES OF PASTA!!! HELLO, am still on planet earth??? I’ve been to over 300 Italian restaurants and have NEVER in my life heard of a place that doesn’t serve a side of pasta. UNBELIEVABLE. I’m never coming here again just because of that. This place is a complete fail of an Italian restaurant.

We have been visiting Durango for many years and one of our favorite restaurants was Guido’s. My husband and I went to dinner there on Sunday evening and left before ordering. When we arrived to an empty restaurant, we had two separate servers approach us and ask if we had reservations. When we replied «no» they rolled their eyes. Finally they decided to seat us and we were given a poorly located table. When I asked for another table, the server had an attitude and acted like we could not sit there. She finally agreed for us to be seated there. She told us that she needed to get silverware for the table. We sat down and when she returned she rudely said «I really wish you would not have sat down until I returned». I said «excuse me»? She then made another sarcastic comment to my husband and turned around and walked away. We sat there for a few minutes and decided to walk out. The bad attitude at this establishment is intolerable.
We prefer to spend our money where the wait staff and ourselves treat each other with respect. We ended up having dinner at Ken & Sue’s where we had an excellent experience and will certainly return.

Prices way too much for the little amount of food you got, good food but not worth the price, they had some event going on and we were forced to pay $ 20 just to enter the restaurant when we couldn’t even hear the music where we sat inside, then we found a fly in our wine, the owner literally brought out a spoon and told us to fish it out, then told us they would bring us a new glass but only took the fly out and handed us the same glass back, not cool, if there was a fly in your food would you stand to just take it out and eat it, no! Disgusting!

We have eaten at Guido’s every summer for the last 6 or 7 years on our annual trips to visit family who still live in Durango. Initially, it was one of our favorite restaurants in town. We travel a lot. We like fine food. We have eaten fine Italian food all over the world, in Italy itself and on both U.S. coasts. Guido’s started out as good to quite good, pretty authentic Italian in Durango – a little pricey for the area but good.
Our last few visits haven’t been as good as our early experiences with Guido’s, and we noticed the recent reviews were headed downhill, but we were still looking forward to eating there this summer. What a disappointment.
We went in with a party of 5 for lunch. One of our group wasn’t feeling great after several days of travel. He requested just pasta with oil and parmesan.. .in an Italian restaurant. The immediate response from the server was, «Yeah, they won’t do it. They cook the pasta in the sauces.» We requested clarification – an Italian restaurant will NOT put pasta in water to cook; they had pasta and water but would not serve the pasta out of the sauce. She repeated that all of the pasta is cooked in sauce and would not be served otherwise.
So, after looking at the offerings on the limited menu, one of our party opted not to order anything. The rest of us, knowing that pasta cooked in the sauce would likely be gummy rather than al dente and would probably starch up the sauce, opted not to order pasta for our Italian meal. The only one of our party that ordered pasta received an inedible dish of, you guessed it, mushy pasta in mediocre tomato cream sauce. And it was literally inedible – we left it on the table barely touched.
The rest of us ordered salads to start, avoiding the pasta offerings, and the oxtail and the spicy shrimp. The arugula salad was a pile of arugula with a very minimal, overly lemony dressing and precisely one cherry tomato sliced in half. The oxtail and shrimp were okay, nothing special. The focaccia that was served with the meal was stale and dry. We asked if we could get a baguette from the deli and the server, who called everyone at the table, «doll,» throughout the meal, responded, «You can buy one.» Not a problem to pay for the bread, but boy, does this person need some instruction on serving in a restaurant that wants to claim any level of quality service.
To top it off, the server rattled off the flavors of gelati available for our party member who had refrained from eating. He selected no fewer than 3 flavors to be told (after she had offered them on the list of available flavors) that she was currently out of each one. He again declined anything and we requested the check.
Highlights: lousy service; stale bread at the table; mushy, inedible pasta in sauce; two passable entrees and a blah salad; no dessert; bottled drinks from a very limited selection since Guido’s now only serves bottled beverages; food fit for a mid to low range mediocre restaurant with a check to rival far better restaurants in town.
A relative let us know after we returned home that Guido’s was advertising for someone to explain the «Guido’s experience» to perspective diners upon arrival. Comments from the management on another board seem to indicate that management feels that the low ratings these days are due somehow to a lack of sophistication and understanding of Guido’s «authentic» dining experience on the part of customers. Aside from the obvious pretentiousness of this statement, let me repeat that we understand authentic Italian food very well.
Sorry, but our recent experiences at Guido’s aren’t it, not because of the separation of courses or the prices, but because of the quality and preparation of the food, the service and overall experience. There are enough good places in Durango that one can easily skip Guido’s. If you just want to drink nice wine and have appetizers, go for it. Otherwise, we’d sadly recommend taking a pass unless they make some substantive, qualitative changes. Guido’s used to be good. Hopefully, management will pay attention to sliding ratings and take action to make it good again.

Italian food in Durango, Colorado? You bet! This was a nice break from the typical southwestern and Mexican food we had during our 14 days vacation in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Authentic, traditional Italian food served in a cozy atmosphere. Our server was attentive and personable. The portions were so large we had to take some back to the hotel for a late nigh snack. I little bit of Italy in the Southwest.

We had a spectacular meal at Guido’s! My husband was thrilled with the sauce on his turkey scallopine; he nearly licked the plate clean! I had the meatloaf and it was covered in the best red sauce I’ve ever had. The mushroom salad was delicious! We enjoyed the carrots, potatoes, and deserts as well. The wait staff was slow but the food was superb!

Terrible service and mediocre food. The waitstaff is inexperienced and rude. Very expensive.

Average Italian food. Had the lasagna and it was good but nothing special. It was super hot like it had been microwaved. Asked for Parmesan and was given ground Parmesan that tasted like grocery store version. They sell fresh cheese, so come on! Pasta dishes are small. The bread was good but missed the balsamic.

While driving through Colorado, we needed a restaurant with a pet-​friendly patio for dinner. We found Guido’s via a quick internet search and called them to confirm that they were really pet friendly. The hostess was very helpful and so we told her we’d be there with two large dogs in 10 minutes. When we arrived, we were shown to a nice table on the patio and two large stainless steel dog bowls full of fresh water were waiting for our dogs. Our server was very friendly and attentive to us as well (not just to the dogs!). We ordered the meat and cheese plate to start, which was enough for four people, but we ‘forced’ ourselves to finish every last delicious bit. I ordered the special beet ravioli, which was different and quite good. My husband ordered the pasta with littleneck clams and mussels, which he said was excellent. He also had a glass of Montepulciano which he enjoyed very much. The dogs, too, enjoyed the evening and did partake of the fresh water that had been set out for them.
The atmosphere on the patio is casual. Although we did not eat in the dining room, it looked quite inviting and would be nice for a romantic dinner. I’d probably dress a bit nicer than jeans and athletic shoes if I was having dinner in the dining room, but even that would probably be okay. It’s not a pretentious place at all.
A little music on the patio would have been nice, but maybe that’s not allowed by the city. Overall, a nice little restaurant with great service and a lovely traditional Italian menu.

Nice atmosphere, disappointing food. The mushroom and sausage ragu — a favorite of the server — was a minimal amount of tomato sauce with wee bits of meat (maybe 1 Tb, total) spread over pasta. We inquired about the mushrooms and were assured they were there, powdered, so as not to overwhelm the flavor. LOL. The other dish was a special, a handmade pasta canneloni stuffed with [ground] chicken and, supposedly, proscuitto. Not impressed. Four glasses of wine for a cool $ 38. I will definitely save my time and money for other good restaurants in town.

Not a good experience.
We found our waiter to be extremely pushy with continually trying to upsell more expensive wines, side dishes, etc. I mean PUSHY. For example we chose a good bottle of red, and he proceeded to ‘recommend’ two much more expensive selections, which was an annoying way to start the meal. Just bring us what we asked for! When he asked us if we wanted water, he brings us a sparkling bottle of water, and we had no idea this was a charged item. He kept pushing for us to order more and more sides. In the end, we felt we were in constant defensive mode in keeping our check from getting out of hand. To me the place was overpriced, and used heavy selling to get us to a large bill. Food was OK, but I can find better italian at another place in town, and come away with a less pretentious, more relaxed and enjoyable experience.

This is one of my favourite restaurants in Durango. They always have amazing specials and an incredible menu. The atmosphere is classy and easy going. A great spot for a well deserved meal. The owners are kind and can be seen most days at the restaurant talking with patrons. Wine list is also great and owners have extensive knowledge about the wines they choose for the menu.

Read some decent reviews so we headed here for some of the «authentic» Italian food. We were so disappointed.
Unless you want alcohol, your beverage choices are greatly limited. (I sent my b/​f to the liquor store while we waited for our food so I could have a diet coke with my meal)
The servers were very pretentious and inattentive. We asked 4x to 3 different staff for bread for our table… never got it.
I had my 90 yr old grandmother with me and she wanted spaghetti. I asked what was the closest dish to that… server rolled her eyes and in a snotty voice told me «we don’t have spaghetti here».
My starter house salad was inedible. Supposed to be a vinaigrette but was ONLY vinegar. Server picked up virtually untouched salad with no comment as to why it was not eaten.
I had the linguine pecorino. Its linguine pasta tossed with olive oil, garlic, and pepperflakes. I LOVE spicy food… but they ruined this dish by being so heavy on the pepperflakes. It totally overtook the flavor and ruined the meal.
The others in my party had the fettucine with bolognese meat ragu. They both enjoyed it. Said it was far from incredible but very good. *this is the reason I gave two stars instead of one.
Some of the reviews complained about the prices. Not sure if they have changed price structure, as I didn’t find them pricey. More like comparable to most in their category of sit down dining. But if the food is inedible, yes that is pricey.
In all fairness, I didn’t utilize or even browse their Italian Market, so I have no opinion there.
I won’t be back. Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen and there is no reason to come back to one that isn’t up to par :(Very sad as I had high hopes.

Spent a lovely evening in here the other day with some friends, sipping delicious wine and eating amazing apps at their marble bar. A’s bruschetta was great, as was B’s mussels in a white wine-​tomato sauce, but my sea scallop on a polenta cake tower with a white wine reduction was certainly the best. The almond gelato was pretty swell too.
If they’d make their prices a bit more manageable, I’d bump their stars for five. Then again, the $ 50 tab for four glasses of wine, three apps, and two orders of gelato was actually not so bad. I’d eat here daily if i could afford it :)