Flame

The start of mud season, a free weekend at the Four Seasons in Vail, thought I’d try the restaurant downstairs for breakfast. Both the food and service were good, but I can’t say that I would want to pay $ 19 for a breakfast burrito as part of a normal routine. The place has a lodge-​feel and has excellent views of the mountain. It’s a steakhouse for dinner, so the cow portrait and «Sir Loin» at the entrance are kind of funny. If I were here longer, I would probably check out the local establishments for similar quality for a much lower price, but convenience is the key here.

Very knowledgable and attentive staff! The food is beyond amazing, everything melts in your mouth! By far the best steaks we’ve ever had in town! We had the ahi tuna appetizer and the seared foi gras to start, then steak and the brussel sprouts and the goat cheese mashed potatoes. We ended with the chocolate soufflé and couldn’t not finish every single bite! Love love love!

Beautiful Décor, elegant setting, excellent service. That said food was meh. My husband and I shared the lamb chop and bison ribeye. Both were unbearably fatty. We are not overly health conscious, but that amount of fat was frankly yucky. Our children had the filet from the children’s menu which was superb. Big bucks to spend for disappointing meat, at a steakhouse no less. Give it a pass.

Wonderful dinner tonight at the Flame. Started with the pork belly appetizer and wedge salad. Enjoyed the bison rib eye with the lobster mashed potatoes and concluded dinner with an amazing Chocolate Soufflé with a vanilla crème sauce! Kudos to the wait staff and chef at the Flame! Four Seasons has it going on here!!!

Hands down our new favorite restaurant in Vail. Will be back for sure, great to celebrate any special occasion. Great wine list, menu was awesome and service was over the top!

We had dinner here on Sunday Feb 7^th and really enjoyed it. We started with 2 martinis and then ordered the seafood tower which had a very good selection of large shrimp (2) king crab legs (2)many small crab claws, mussels, oysters. A good selection of sauces and all very fresh and although $ 75 could be shared by 4 people (there were 2 of us) For entrée we shared the wagu beef cut table side which was also very gods but I think expensive at $ 125. We each had a glass of wine. Great service, good food, expensive but would highly recommend Total $ 300 for two

Supremely fantastic! Loved the décor mix of steakhouse and alpine lodge done in elegant Four Season’s style!
Staff & service were terrific. Hostess warm & welcoming, Cameron and wait staff were attentive, knowledgeable & charming. Ben, the restaurant manager, very knowledgable & friendly.
Food was exquisitely presented and each dish was outstandingly delicious! Generous portions in all categories & everything prepared to perfection. It was a magical night & Absolutely one of the best meals we had during our stay in Vail.

Amazing!!! The wagu here is just spectacular and so nicely presented I had a real great experience at flame I would highly recommend this place.

Great steak house in vail. The selection of meat was great and ambience was very nice both upstairs and down. The reason this Resturant received 4 stars instead of 3 was the service. Our waiter Jourdan was the best, a easy going individual that not only explained the items on the menu was was tentative and enjoyable. The food was above pair for a general steak house nothing like a Vegas steak house or one in Los Angeles but great for vail. But the service was the best so hence the extra star. I would recommend sticking with the steaks and order the hot chocolate. Glad to visit again next year

Very disappointed in the service. The waiter didn’t know the difference between two steaks; didn’t check in after the food was served and ended up over-​charging part of our group. $ 5 to open a bottle of wine?
Will not be returning.

Pretty disappointed with this one. We stayed at the hotel and had a great experience at the Remedy Bar and lunch at the pool, then Flame just wasn’t on par. The food was good, but the service was pretty terrible. Not what you expect at the Four Seasons. We barely saw our waiter the whole time and were waited on mostly by the other staff. We poured our own wine the ENTIRE dinner and had to ask for service several times. We heard the table next to us complaining about waiting too. If you do go, order the hot chocolate for dessert– really yummy and fun.
**Update** we were able to chat with the manager and Ben Christie was very understanding and accommodating. Good management is really a great quality to redeem a restaurant. Redeemed!

Probably not worth the $$ if you are used to bigger city steak houses. They try hard to impress with service and they succeed. We called with zero notice about getting a table and they said to walk over. When we arrived the table was not ready which was very very understandable. The manager brought over two champagnes for us to enjoy while we waited a whopping 5 minutes. That was great.
Again service was great at the table. Good server. For us the steak was just ok compared to what we get at Dallas’ top steak houses. My NY strip was definitely not cooked medium but was more rare. For the prices they should know how to cook medium.

Can you say save your money!
The service was bad and very very slow. One server had eight tables and was over whelmed.
You get water and the cocktail you order that’s it! We asked for beard it was said to us we only bring it on request. So we waited. Never got it. After we ordered we waited 45 minutes for our our first course. The lobster bisque soup was good. Now we waited on the main course… And about 30 min later dinner came steak was cold. Save your money…

A steakhouse? At the four seasons? It’s what you expect (and maybe a few things you don’t)
Leather chairs: check
Stunning views: check
Pricey Menu: check
French Waiter: check
Rock music? Kids utensils (for our 3 year old)? Outstanding food? Check. Check and Check.
The negative reviews here gave us pause, but we decided to check out flame since I was craving a steak and the location made it convenient. We were well rewarded. The service was exactly what you expect from the four seasons: beyond attentive, warm and personalized. Our waiter Nicolas made excellent suggestions and made sure our dinner was well-​timed and our glasses were full. He even made sure our grouchy toddler was happy and well– attended for the entire meal (not an easy feat.) as for the food: The bison ribeye was cooked beyond perfectly and the sauces were a nice touch. We sprung for the chocolate soufflé and it was the perfect ending to the evening. I’m not sure what the other diners here expected, or if they caught flame on a bad night, but we would highly recommend this restaurant and will be visiting again soon.

I was not happy about this place!!! It was in a Presidential Suite Setting, I ordered the Wagyu Steak it was awful the steak had no seasoning at all, the Brussels Sprouts was not cooked the way I eat them. The menu was nothing Like the Unilocal menu, which was very disappointing. The Menu was the reason My Friends and I went. Never Again, smh I wish I could post a picture of my steak.

The «You Only Live Once» burger was probably the best hamburger I have ever eaten, and definitely the best I have had in recent memory. I ordered it medium rare on the recommendation of our server, and I passed on the egg and ketchup. Wow. I’m curious to go back next time I’m in Vail to determine if my experience was simply a case of the stars being perfectly aligned or if Flame has truly perfected the hamburger (and thereby ruined every other burger I will ever order). To be continued…
The elk corndogs were also pretty good, if not a bit cutesy. The portions of spinach and onion rings were ridiculously small, considering they were $ 12 each and meant to be shared. The pricing here is bonkers, even by Vail standards, which may explain why the restaurant was about ²⁄₃ empty at dinnertime.

Two words: Skirt steak.
Well, actually… everything we ordered at Flame over the past three days has been incredible. Even the breakfast ‘buffet’ is superlative… omelettes, eggs, proteins such as sausage and bacon, fresh juices, lox, cereals, oatmeal, muesli, fresh berries and fruit, pastry… but overall the highlights were:
Breakfast: Fresh watermelon + raspberry juices and even their own made in house ‘green machine’; the sausage.
Lunch: Steak tacos! The accompanying beans and chorizo, roasted peppers with onion… delicious.
Dinner: Skirt steak!!! Yes that is with three !!! It came with all 6 sauces ranging from a chimichurri to a wasabi cream, the house peppercorn sauce (fermented black bean, garlic, ginger… yum), asian butter… all of them were delicious and creative in their own right.
You could go with the 51oz Rib Eye for two, but seriously…51 ounces? Go big or stay home, I suppose!
Good, attentive service but I wish the soundtrack in the dining room got a little more thought. Music ranged from hip hop to pop to just bad pop and very few songs seemed to fit the beautiful, spacious environment. Chairs are super comfy, and you can definitely take in the Vail mountain views from the huge picture windows, while overlooking the pool. The pool — heated towels and robes — is the perfect temp, by the way. The hardest decision: eat or swim first.

We were so disappointed that we didn’t have time to dine at Flame during trip to Vail in July. That’s why we made it a high priority to go this time. Wow. What a disappointment. Why? Any time I think of a 5 star hotel, the first thing that comes to mind is superior customer service. I have come to expect that when I pay an arm and a leg for a hotel, a restaurant or service. So, it’s no surprise that I would hold Flame to the same expectations.
Making your customers feel welcomed and comfortable should be an industry standard. You want to make people who are spending their hard earned money at your establishment feel like they are appreciated so that they are motivated to continue their patronage. Well, our server might have missed the memo. He didn’t really bother to greet, us, made no attempt at engaging in any small talk with us, though we tried, and was just abrupt and cold. I did not appreciate this at all. In fact, his attitude made us feel awkward. Instead of lingering over our meal, we wanted to eat it and get the heck out of there because it just felt like we weren’t welcomed there.
Sure, the food was good. But it didn’t blow my mind. I ordered the lobster bisque. At $ 14 a bowl, I expected there to be more than a tablespoon of lobster on my plate. My brother-​in-​law ordered the sable. It was literally a small piece of fish on a big black plate with a chili garnish. When his plate was placed in front of him, I actually giggled because I thought it had to be a joke. Where was the rest of the fish? At $ 36 for a portion, I expected the fish to at least be palm sized. Nope! Once again, what was delivered was far below expectation. The portion was so small, I actually felt guilty taking a bite of it :-/​.
My fiancée ordered the lambchops. He said they were good. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. We did order the mac and cheese, which were creamy and delicious, exactly what we wanted and the lobster mashed potatoes. These were also very good, but nothing remarkable.
You better believe that I am so happy that we didn’t decide on the Flame buyout for our wedding weekend after the service we received here. You also better believe that I will not be recommending Flame to any of my wedding guests for our October wedding in Vail. Unfortunately, the food did not come close to compensating for the horrendous service we received.

Located one level downstairs from the main floor, of the Four Seasons Hotel, Flame is an extremely delicious and cozy restaurant. Crowd was mostly couples, some groups, and even families (with children) and dress code was a bit more than casual, but not quite fancy. Service from the waiters, waitress, and hostess were top-​notch. Each person was helpful and provided honest recommendations; I truly appreciate that. I highly recommend doing family style with the steaks; that’s what we did and we got to taste different ones and it was very affordable. Have the waiter show you how to do your sauces for your meat. It enhanced the flavors of the meat a lot!
Foraged Mushroom Braised Heritage Pork Cheeks — small portion, but very tender, very flavorful, recommend.
Seared Hudson Foie gras — small portion, but delicious! Recommend!
Eagle Springs Iceberg Wedge — small portion, but good.
Kalbi Buffalo Short rib — huge portion, should share this place, very soft, tender, fall-​off-​the-​bone meat. Cooked perfectly, and explosions of flavor
Bison Ribeye — never had bison before, very good meat, would recommend for people to get this to try, but the Wagyu was the best meat.
Wagyu Ribeye — delicious, delicious, delicious, best meat on the menu!
Wagyu ny strip — good, and would recommend, but the Ribeye was better!
Truffled Fontina Mac and Cheese — Very Cheesy, get this! Yummy! Recommend!
Maine Lobster Mash Potatoes — good.
Crispy Brussel Sprout Kim chi — amazing! get this! Yummy! Recommend!
Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake — small portion, very good.

While staying in Vail for work, I decided to have a frivolous night of gourmet dining here.
Man, did I make a GOOD decision! Everything we had here was astounding!
We started with the elk corn dogs, which were melt in your mouth delicious. It was such a pity they disappeared so quickly.
A note: the main entrees are just the main dish. The side dishes are a separate order, which can make the meal pricey, but it’s totally worth it. I mean, lobster mashed potatoes and spiced brocillini?! Come on. SO worth it.
I had the venison loin for my main course and it was supreme. I have never, in my life, had steak prepared so perfectly. And the dipping sauces? My god, the dipping sauces! There were six to choose from and you could mix and match. My two favorites: the BBQ sauce (yes, it was that good) and the blackberry bourbon sauce. Whoa momma.
I finished off my meal with a s’mores cheesecake. It was tasty and the plating brought a smile to my face it was so fun.
Everything was perfectly portioned so that I left feeling satisfied, but not stuffed to the brink. All told, the bill was around $ 190 without any alcohol, so it’s definitely a «special meal» price, but come on, every once in a while, you’ve just got to live, right?
The one thing that I found slightly off-​putting was the ambiance. The menu at Flame is light, fun and playful; a menu I would enjoy over and over again. The restaurant space (located inside the Four Seasons) was utterly stuffy. It felt like an old boys club where old money goes to smoke cigars and judge everyone that makes under a million a year. It’s dull and boring. It’s a complete contradiction.
It’s a good thing I picked this place based on the Unilocal reviews and not the appearance. I never would have picked this place based on the way it looks. I guess that was a good lesson for me: don’t just a menu by its cover.