Guard and Grace Modern Steakhouse

One of the best overall restaurant experiences I've had in years. I was impressed last time here two years ago, but everything became over the top 5 stars this visit. Every app and entrée were perfectly cooked with flawless unique flavor accomplished. The server, expediters and management all have their masters in guest satisfaction and positive energy. The lighting, ambient music, table spacing and flow of staff and guest traffic were super comfy. Living up in the Vail I only get to Denver so often, but cannot wait till the next visit to Guard and Grace. Troy Guard has mastered this food service thing!

What an absolute gem. This meal was quite possibly the best meal I have had from start to finish. I am used to over seasoned foods at a steak house. this is not the case here. Everything was made perfectly.
Our server Christine was completely on point She knew the food and recommended several things that were delicious.
Don't hesitate to come

Great food, great service! We ordered the Brussels, steak flight, & French onion soup. All were delish! We also ordered a baked potato but didn't eat that - it was really greasy- that's my only complaint.

My fiance and I had a fantastic anniversary dinner at Guard & Grace this week! Our server, Steven was very attentive and friendly. We like to take our time ordering and we never felt rushed. Steven gave us wonderful recommendations and informed us that they can do half orders of several dishes on the menu.

We started with the crispy tuna sushi and the oak grilled octopus. Both appetizers were fresh and bright! The portion sizes are great for sharing. For entrees, we had the half order of the Alaskan black cod and 4oz of the A5 wagyu steak. We also shared a smaller portion of the black truffle Mac & cheese that our waiter recommended. The black cod is their signature fish and I really enjoyed it. The fish was cooked perfectly and the sauce had just the right amount of sweetness. The A5 wagyu that my fiancé ordered was very tender and delicious! The black truffle Mac and cheese was so cheesy and had a great amount of truffle flavor.

Don't skip dessert! We loved the butter cake with palisade peaches. The mini espresso martini was the perfect size for a desert cocktail.

Overall, we had a great experience and will be recommending this restaurant to family & friends. If you're in the Denver area definitely dine at Guard and Grace!

Swanky yet fun steakhouse in downtown Denver.

Food: 4 Service: 2 (due to pre-seating) Atmosphere: 4
Cost to worth it rating: 3 (spendier but high quality)
Opentableable: yes
Return worthiness: yes

Highlights:
- Atmosphere: Classy and lovely--fancy yet lively and comfortable. Patio outside, lounge with TVs up front, and a long dining room parallel to the open kitchen, and another room in back.
- Cocktails: have a list but made a pretty good Vesper martini for me
- Prosciutto tasting: 3 different kinds (American, Italian, and Spanish) with an impressive presentation. Bonus for breadsticks in the middle and olives on the side. My 13 year old proscuitto fan boy gobbled it all down and his winner was the Spanish. 4 stars
- Tomahawk: standard large format cut which is the go to order for my hub and teen boy to share. Tasty and cooked just right--my boys approved. 4 stars
- Filet: got a small one and was tender and cooked to order as medium rare with bright pink. Loved the peppercorn sauce I dipped it in. 4 stars
- Miso cod: know it's a steak place, but wanted a bit of variety. Cooked well with the expected miso cod flavor. 4 stars
- Chocolate chip cookies: small dollops which were crispy on outside and gooey on inside with a mix of chocolates: perfection. Loved the mini espresso martini add on option. 5 stars
- Waiter: once we sat down, service was lovely.

Midlights:
- Fries: not on menu as a side, but on the happy hour menu. We were able to get them for my son to have with his steak. :-)
- Wagyu dumplings: love the idea, but I've had better versions. The dumpling skin was too thick so it didn't highlight the meat filling. 3 stars

Lowlights:
- Almost a half an hour wait with a reservation for dinner. We showed up on time and there were no apologies or make goods for this inconvenience. Most restaurants of this caliber would recognize the customer experience and provide a drink, app, or dessert. Hostess on arrival was not very welcoming either.

Enjoyed our meal here and overall would recommend it, though would hope they show they value their customers more prior to being seated.

Everything but the service was a disappointment -- an overrated restaurant that seems to have a reputation that it has outlived.

The appetizers: the shrimp cocktail had shrimp that was limp and relatively flavorless. The crab cake was nothing special. The octopus was very good and was the highlight.

First course: the French onion soup was far too heavy on the salt to the point of overwhelming everything else. The Caesar salad was fine. My wedge was unacceptable. There was way too much dressing, making everything goopy, and the tomatoes were soft and clearly not fresh or of a good quality.

Main course: the steaks were fine, but it's really not hard to get a steak fine. Every quality steakhouse is going to have fine meat; it's everything else where they distinguish themselves. The mac and cheese was simply not the right consistency. It was grainy instead of cream. The au gratin potatoes were simply the worst I've ever had. I kid you not when I say the ones at Costco are better than this mess. The potatoes were undercooked and were unpleasant. But the real problem is that they completely screwed up the bechamel sauce. Proper au gratin potatoes should be a seamless fusion of potatoes with cheese that is incorporated INTO the bechamel sauce so that it binds to the potatoes and you have a unified dish. That didn't happen here. The cheese was not properly incorporated into the sauce, so what you ended up with was an unpleasant watery liquid at the bottom of the dish, globs of cheese that didn't adhere to the potatoes, and undercooked potatoes that essentially were on their own.

This sort of thing should be BASIC. A bechamel sauce is one of the five French mother sauces. Nobody can finish culinary school without getting this right, and yet somehow they screwed it up. That's why the mac and cheese had the grainy texture, and why the au gratin potatoes were just so awful.

On top of this, the restaurant is way too loud. There were four of us, and we could barely hear each other.

The prices are high, and everyone knows that. That would be tolerable if the food justified the prices. It does not.

Look elsewhere.

I'm so happy I was able to get a last minute reservation here. I heard this was the best steakhouse in Denver and it didn't disappoint.

We started with their house bread which was very, very soft. For our appetizers, we got the oak fired carrots and A5 gyoza. The carrots were tender with the pistachio providing the crunch. The A5 gyoza was probably my favorite thing. The meat was so good and I was a big fan of the apple on top.

Along with the food I tried the Oaxacan in strawberry fields and the life in the sass lane. Big fan of the first drink and not so much the second.

Next came our entrees and sides. We got crispy Brussels sprouts which were exactly what's you want. The potatoes au gratin were smooth and the gnocchi was soft. I ended up getting their play on a surf and turf which was half cod, half steak. The cod was just perfect with just the right amount of sweetness while the filet mignon was tender.

Finally, we got two desserts: triple chocolate chip cookies and sticky toffee cake. The cookies were phenomenal with them having the right balance of crisp and gooey. My first time getting toffee cake and I was a fan. The cool ice cream clashing with the warm cake was ideal and the raspberry coulis on the side provided some extra sweetness.

Overall, I thought that this place was great. The service was top notch, lots of variety in the food (nothing being below average), and an inviting atmosphere.

Where to get a filet mignon flight in Denver...

Guard and Grace is a MICHELIN Guide restaurant that has been consistently ranked one of the best steakhouses in the city. This modern steakhouse offers perfectly grilled cuts alongside a tempting selection of small plates. Casual, elegant dress is required.

We arrived and were seated in the main dining room. There was a raw bar where diners could indulge in fresh seafood & an inviting patio to unwind with a glass of wine. Our server Sean was polished & attentive. He knew the menu inside and out and could speak in-depth on the cooking methods & flavors of everything that we ordered.

For Cocktails, I had the Lion Tamer made with dobel diamante cristalino, chareau, roasted shishito, sesame-soy agave, & lime. This cocktail surprised me in the best way. It was very smooth with forward umami flavor. While I was drinking, I was smelling the roasted shishito garnish which upped the complexity of taste with subtle spice.

From the Raw Bar, we had the Crispy Tuna Sushi made with tuna, avocado, serrano pepper, yuzu kabayaki, & spicy aioli. Freaking phenomenal, give me 20 more (this is the best crispy tuna we've had in Colorado). The base of rice was large with a delicately crisped exterior that held a smear of spicy tuna atop. The aioli gave each bite a solid kick in heat.

For Appetizers, we had the Oak Grilled Octopus served atop white bean & celery salad, Spanish chorizo, sherry vinaigrette, & red pepper sauce. The octopus was cooked perfectly (they cook it four different ways to ensure soft, meaty bites with no rubbery chew). The octopus had a light char to it which gave off a smokey taste.

The brioche bread was light, airy, & so buttery.

For Steaks, we had the Specialty Filet Flight comprised of a 4 oz sampling of prime, wagyu, and grass-fed filet mignon. This Filet Flight will make you understand why so many label Guard and Grace as the best steakhouse in Denver. The Wagyu Filet was our favorite - decadent, so juicy sweet, and melted in our mouths. The Prime Filet was beefy and hearty. The Grass Fed Filet was clean in taste.

For Entrees, we had the Wagyu Short Rib served atop fresno Pico de Gallo, huckleberry drizzle, & heirloom carrot ginger puree. The short rib had a deep beefy flavor of chuck roast. It was very tender & it fell apart under our knives and forks. The Pico & puree were reminiscent of a curry.

For Sides we had the Handmade Gnocchi with truffle & chive and the Oak Grilled Broccolini seasoned with nam chim, crispy shallots, & asian herbs. The Handmade Gnocchi blew us away - they were tender pillows, lightly kissed with truffle flavor.

For Dessert, we had the Warm Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Seasonal Butter Cake with Palisade Peaches. The Warm Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies were made with Troy's secret recipe and are available by the half dozen - a must-order. The cookies came to the table warm; they were crispy on the outside and chewy, in the middle...buttery, chocolatey, gooey, drool-worthy.

I rarely go to a 5 star 5 $ spot. But we were looking to try one of the top spots in Denver and the word was Guard and Grace is one of them.
Not to spoil the review, but the word is right.
It's incredible.
We got our table quickly. We had a early reservation of 5pm which I'm sure helped. We were sat and a very cozy romantic table. We started with a nice red wine off the menu.
The menu had many great steaks, so for the first time, i got a flight of steaks. It seemed like a great way of going high end, try everything!
It was really nice to taste the different types of classy steaks. I tried my gals Chilean sea bass and that was excellent as well. I also had one of their dirty martinis. That was quite tasty.
I finished with the heavenly cake. This was well named.
Everything was top notch, even better than I imagined. I'm glad when we decided to go nice, we chose Guard and Grace.

Great place for a solo business traveler!

I arrived on a Sunday and was needing a place to eat by myself. Since I was staying at the Ritz, I decided to check out Guard and Grace because it had higher reviews than the steak house in my hotel. It did not disappoint! Service was excellent. I ordered a prime filet and a side of gnocchi. Both delicious! Ambiance was fantastic as well. Highly recommend!

We aren't from the area and wanted to treat our selves during our trip. Based on the reviews we came here, and weren't disappointed. Right in the heart of downtown Denver, we were happy that there was a valet service ($20 fee well spent) so that we could get to our dinner faster. There is a very nice calming atmosphere inside, with a nice and modern building.

Our waiter was a very kind and relaxed gentleman by the name of Arthur. He made us feel welcomed, offered great insights into the menu and restaurant's history. Not only did he not rush us, he encouraged us to relax and enjoy our time!

We started with the Burrata, which came nicely prepared with charred (not burnt) bread. It was a very nice flavor and texture combo.

We then both had the Filet Mignon Wagyu steaks, which come in 4 or 8 ounces. Such a great steak, with unparalleled tenderness and flavor. The knife was almost a useless addition with that quality of steak!

I had the half-portion of Alaskan black cod, which was very flavorful. A sweet and tangy switchback, it was a great pairing with the steak.

My wife had the cold water lobster tail, that had a nice oak/char smoke flavor.

We finished it off with the toffee cake, which was an amazing choice. It was so flavorful without being too sweet.

We highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a great experience, that is willing to pay for the high quality they receive.