Victory American Grill- UPDATE

RESTAURANT UPDATE

I want this place to be good. I want to like it. I really, really do. Sam's is probably my favorite all-around restaurant in Denver and they own Victory, too. I first visited Victory shortly after they opened (at least a year ago). It's a beautiful space, truly stunning. Gorgeous high ceilings, dark wood everywhere, dramatic red velvet curtains hanging at the back and a long bar on one side of the room. You feel as though you've stepped back into the 1920's at first- it's an awesome first impression.

Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there. I don't know why they have felt the need to ruin that 1920's, classy vibe. First ruiner: cheesy looking menus- reminded me of a cheap Italian joint. Not only are the menus ugly, but they're covered with weird, unfunny quips and "jokes". If that wasn't bad enough, someone had the bright idea to take those same unfunny jokes, type them up, FRAME them, and stick them right up on the back of those lovely dark wood booths. Maybe I'm the one missing the joke...

When we dined there on Saturday night at prime dinner time (7'ish), the place was pretty dead (although still really really noisy for some reason). The service wasn't bad at all- our server was sweet and prompt with refills, which I always appreciate. But man were there a lot of employees wandering aimlessly. It seemed like every 5 seconds another employee was walking past our table... it just felt like a constant stream. I don't know if it's where we were sitting, but it if was, they should have put us somewhere a little more 'out of traffic'.

The food- very very mediocre. Admittedly, I just had a burger rather than one of their overpriced, out-of-place entrees. But honestly, how can you be so cheap with the mushrooms on a mushroom-swiss burger? Mushrooms are cheap! There were like 5 of them on my burger though :( And they looked like those weird little canned ones that had been microwaved or something. If you can't get a burger right, I'm not paying $25 for a pasta or fish item. We didn't even bother with desserts, although I was intrigued by the flaming cherries jubillee and bananas foster. I would have felt silly ordering these in an empty restaurant- and besides, I didn't trust the cooks with an open flame.