Alpine Tavern

Alpine Tavern has been closed for months. It has been replaced by Blues a Vail favorite. Blues is typically open for dinner and open for breakfast on the weekends. Check with Blues for other times. I’ve eaten their for lunch but don’t remember those opening times. One star? Alpine Tavern is closed. Check Blues for their ratings.

The food is mediocre and overpriced. I have no problem paying good money for a good meal, but I didn’t find it here. Of course, if you don’t want to leave East Vail, then this is your only option. I would much rather go to the village, spend $ 10 more per entrée and eat at Sweet Basil where I will have a phenomenal meal.

Bottom line, I refuse to accept that a mass plated dinner can ever be perfectly executed. Call me a cynic, but I just don’t believe that you can produce 40 dishes all cooked to the same point of perfection somehow simultaneously — it defies physics! Had the meal stopped after the appetizers, it would be a 5 star review. Well, maybe just skipped the entrees and headed straight for the dessert…
Service was fantastic the entire evening — very attentive but not overbearing. Wine glasses were kept full of the appropriate varietal, which impressed me since there were several white and red options and very few instances of confirmation before pouring. Overall, excellently executed from a service standpoint.
I thoroughly enjoyed all of the small sharing plates brought around for appetizers. The tuna tartare was fantastic — just enough sesame garnish with fresh texture and flavor. I only wish we’d had a bigger bowl! The next passed platter carried two types of amazing «bruchetta»: one with a delicate, smooth spread of pâté and another with a perfectly cooked, thin slice of lamb with a dollup of horseradish sauce and if memory serves, a single chive. Both were absolutely outstanding. Finally, the calamari (which I feel is more difficult an appetizer to knock out of the park than most since it’s so commonplace) was quite good. Tender texture, light crunch, and perfectly sized pieces made it a notch above average.
The salad course was a wonderful refresher complete with flavorful greens, fluffy yet firm medallions of fresh mozzarella topped with basil (if memory serves), and beautifully ripened tomatoes. In all honesty, the produce was so gorgeous and flavorful, I don’t recall any dressing — and it worked!
I want to gloss over the entrée since after such a strong start, it was truly a disappointment to have the spread of entrees offered be all overcooked. I can only hope that it was only our table that had such unfortunately tough protein. The flavors were all there, and the caliber of protein was clearly high, but it’s a shame for the result to be tough sea scallops and well-​done elk. There was a resounding feeling at our table of hoping maybe that last bite was a fluke.
On to dessert. I was a bit surprised at a plate of cookies put on the table, but holy crap were those some damn fine cookies. I don’t want to know how much butter went into them, but they were fabulous.
So overall, I’d really like to give the entrée a do-​over because the rest of the experience was so promising — enough to make me certain that we just got a single misfired course.

Disappointing, more or less. Ok wine menu, but all the food was mediocre. Service leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately East Vail has a ways to go.

The bar (upstairs) has decent food for decent prices, but don’t expect to eat much if you don’t consume animal flesh. I had hummus and pita, which I really didn’t like (the hummus was not fresh nor was it creamy), so I mostly snacked on Jeff’s curly fries. The beer was excellent. Recommended if you’re looking for a solid dinner of beer and french fries!

The dowdy décor (German beerhall meets retirement home) can be explained by the fact that the owner also has a hand in Alpenrose — think 1980s ski souvenir décor and massive chairs covered in that rose material that can only be found in a cheesy German restaurants not actually located in Germany.
Food errs on the Bavarian side (you can get schnitzle with anything), but also bows to what it thinks tourists want to eat (or, I must’ve missed scallop ceviche and hummus platters on my last trip to Munich) — a scattered menu, but most people will be able to find something to consume — we all went for the salmon last night — serviceable, nothing earth shattering, but decent to eat if it’s a whiteout outside and you cannot drag yourself farther than 100 yards down the road to eat.
The best part of the meal is the giant loaf of doughy goodness that arrives in a flower pot at the start of the meal — though they need to make the butter less bullet proof (by the end of the meal it still hadn’t hardened).
Not the type of place you want to bring your foodie friends, but a perfectly fine place to get a bite. Oh, it’s really nice that they’ll do ½ portions of anything — especially if you’re feeding lots of finnicky children. I do think it’s important that a restaurant is in East Vail, so while Alpine Tavern doesn’t ROCK, support it anyways. Dinner for 3 with 2 glasses of wine and no dessert was $ 112 pre-​tip.

Great to have such a nice restaurant in East Vail. Wonderful variety of food and service. Make sure you check out the $ 10 burger and a beer or brat and a beer specials. Good wine menu.