The Hillside Burger And Pub

We were drawn in by the neat view and cool location, but the food is not very good. Overcooked burgers and fish and chips that tasted like frozen fish sticks. Maybe going for drinks, music, or ambience would be worthwhile.

I’m not a professional food critic but I have to say this place was interesting if not down right laughable. While perusing the Estes Park Labor Day Art and Craft fair, we happened to notice this place up on the hillside and decided to check it out. It’s located on the roof which is good since there are no signs directing you where to go. After what seemed more steps than needed to climb one of the nearby mountains we found it. The host asked, «How can I help you?» We laughed out loud. «We’d like a table.» «How many?» We laughed again. (We were the only two people standing at the entrance.) She then proceeded to walk around the place looking for a table. After 5 minutes she came back to report she had nothing available. We laughed again as we could see the place was mostly empty. She asked if we’d like to wait, we laughed again and said, «No thanks.» So i can’t vouch for the food but the check in process was a hoot!

The only redeeming thing about this lunch was the view. The food is overpriced and mediocre at best. Service was OK, but the quality of the food was similar to what you would find at a fast food restaurant for twice the price. I’m surprised this place is open with all of the other decent offerings that are available in Estes Park. Save yourself the uphill climb and extra 150 steps.

This was the worst dining experience I have had in a LONG time. It took 10 minutes for our drinks to arrive (just water and soda), and then an hour for our food order to arrive. When the order arrived, I was given fries instead of the onion rings that were ordered. The server then brought an order of onion rings on the side. The food was mediocre at best, and my veggie burger tasted extremely bland. Throughout the meal, our server would disappear for upwards of 20 minutes (or much more) at a time. We saw him run downstairs out of the restaurant several times, so who knows what he was doing. Each of us used the restroom while we were there and found that the women’s restroom was out of paper towels. We ended up bringing napkins from the table with us whenever we had to go (which was often, seeing as we were there about 2 hours). After we finished eating and had waited a while for the server to show up so we could get our check, I went inside to ask for a manager. The hostess informed me that there was no manager on duty, but that she would send my server out. When the server arrived, I told him (quite nicely) that I didn’t feel we should have to pay full price for our meal, since our experience was so bad. He immediately got an attitude with me, responding to my assertion that after waiting an hours for our food, the order was wrong, with «Your order was wrong?» I replied that it was, because I had ordered onion rings but received fries, and then had to wait even longer for the onion rings. He snarkily replied «But you got your onion rings.» After reasserting that I didn’t feel that meal was worth paying full price for, he left to see what he could do. He ended up taking 15% off the bill.
We had only driven into Estes Park for a few hours, since we were in the area for a family wedding. After dealing with this terrible meal, all of us were feeling ill and decided to head back to Cheyenne without heading further into the park. What a terrible experience. I don’t know how this place stays in business.

We stopped here on a whim while walking down Elkorn Ave in Estes. They were busy, but were able to find us a table on the rooftop patio, offering a great view of the bustling downtown area and surrounding mountains. They were quick to take our drink orders and had a decent selection of beers. I had their standard cheeseburger with all the traditional fixins and sweet potato fries. My wife had a BBQ chicken sandwich and fries. The food was 4.5 stars. Our waitress, though she was busy, checked in a few times. We enjoyed the lunch and would likely go back.

This place was unreviewed so we took a chance going here because of the patio seating and nice view. There are quite a lot of stairs before you get to the restaurant and I didn’t see an elevator so if you are traveling with an older person or young kids in a stroller, you may want to keep this in mind.
When we arrived, there was a quite a long line due to a large party waiting for a table. There was no hostess at the stand and we waited at least ten minutes before we saw one. This seems to be standard practice and after we were seated I saw a few other patrons seeking out waitstaff to inquire of the wait time or if they should indeed wait to be seated like the sign requested. It seems like this place might be under new management and has quite a few kinks to work out. If it is not, then the hostess stand situation is simply unacceptable.
Our drink and food orders were taken shortly after we sat down, so that was a plus. They were out of all but two kinds of wine so that was a let down. I tried a Bloody Mary instead and it was only ok. The food menu has 3 – 4 salad options, around 5 sandwich options and (being a burger place) 8 – 10 burger options. There was also a small entrée section that offered fish and chips, spaghetti and meatballs and a few other choices.
At our table we tried the Guacamole Bacon Burger, the Bleu Cheese Burger, the Mushroom Swiss Burger and a Buffalo Chicken sandwich. All of them were fine except one arrived with a hair on it and one was undercooked and had to be sent back. I had to deduct a star from my review for those two issues.
Hopefully their service improves here because this place has potential and a great location.