OTT: Heat-Lamps Plus Seafood Equal Bad Dining

MOUNTAIN VIEW RESTAURANT 

Rating: 2/5
3225 Broadmoor Valley Road
www.CheyenneMountain.com
(719) 538-4060
Hours: Daily, 6pm-10pm
Prices: Buffet, $36
What you need to know: A buffet is still a buffet, even at $36. And bad seafood is always inexcusable.

The buffet is a polarizing beast in the culinary world. Some love the diversity and endless bounty; others detest the heat-lamp induced stodginess and crowd pleasing mediocrity. (We’ve always been a bit wary.) With Cheyenne Mountain Resort promoting its Mountain View Restaurant as its “signature dining establishment,” and stamping a $36 price tag on the revolving themed, “sumptuous” buffet, we thought, “Hey, maybe they’ve cracked the nut and figured out this buffet thing.”
The initial presentation is, admittedly, captivating. The hostess waltzes you through a tour of the lengthy buffet selections, including the carving station equipped with its own toque-topped chef. The presentation is enough to lure. The dining room itself is immense—but empty on a Monday evening—with stunning views of the southern Front Range through panoramic, floor-to-ceiling windows. Culinary expectations are piqued.
What type of buffet does thirty six dollars buy? It buys a beginning of beautifully arranged charcuterie with drunken goat bleu, Manchego, Asiago, two varietals of prosciutto (one rather gamey) and various bread and produce accompaniments (including a fig spread that paired markedly well with the goat bleu). For an additional price you can add a glass of wine (the $14 “Saved” merlot blend impresses with a boisterous and jammy bouquet and finishes with spice; the $11 “Sterling” merlot was overly simplistic in comparison). This was a fantastic starting point; shame it was not a harbinger of things to come.

While the soup of chickpeas (properly cooked) and andouille sausage (pleasantly piquant) satisfied in texture and flavor, the same could not be said of the Greek salad with its wilted romaine drenched in an overly seasoned dressing.
Monday’s buffet is supposedly “Mediterranean Marketplace,” and the salad was one of a handful of nominal nods in that direction, with others including a wild rice pilaf (a mild but pleasant flavor of mirepoix), a cold orzo Kalamata salad (briny and classic yet slightly past al dente), a spiced hummus (burnt-orange in color, an entertaining departure from the norm), an apple chutney (sweet and heat), chicken breasts with caramelized onions and garlic (somewhat overcooked but with lively citrus notes and cappers’ bright brininess), layered breaded-eggplant with Parmesan and ricotta (comforting Italian flavors sadly congealing with soggy breadcrumbs and rubbery mozzarella), and the pièce de résistance: the carved lamb.

Lamb was a primary draw to Monday’s buffet. It’s still uncommon enough to be considered a somewhat exotic meat. And the thought of a large leg being carved to order, especially by a chef in that funny white hat, was too good to pass up. Perhaps the accompanying mint jelly, during “Mediterranean” Monday, should have tipped us off. Perhaps the near empty dining room with no dozens of hungry patrons clamoring for a slice of the roast should have communicated to us something. Skipping the jelly and ladling on the au jus added some needed moisture. But nothing could overcome the few sinewy bites, regardless of the good, non-gamey flavor. Yet this was far from the worst of it.
By aesthetics alone the displayed seafood was the most enticing. Dozens of muscles and clamps, plump shrimp and…bright red, imitation “krab”? No, the “krab” was, surprisingly, not the issue. The unavoidable fact was—the seafood was past its prime. “Fishy” is an understatement. This was inedible. To add insult, even after informing the otherwise attentively effusive waitstaff, the tainted seafood was never removed from the buffet selection.

The evening did end on a more pleasant note, with a wide selection of desserts, each performing well, to particularly well. Including ice-cream (rich and house-made, with real vanilla beans), hazelnut chocolate “bites” (delicate and flakey, but lacking hazelnut notes), caramel apricot bread pudding (with balanced flavors and proper consistency), chocolate truffles (rich, yet, overly sweet) and lemon rose tarts (a unique combination that elicited contemplation). Desserts required no heat-lamps.

Sadly, even Michelin starred cuisine would struggle to impress after spending hours under heat-lamps. This may just be the buffet’s unavoidable evil; embrace it or eschew it. Nevertheless, while so much of food critiquing is subjective, there are objective measurements—bad seafood is one of them. It is inexcusable at any level of dining, but especially here.

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