Alpinist & the Goat - Telluride, Colorado

G Sen

Hace mucho tiempo, no tenía un ambiente como el que tuve hoy y una comida tan espectacular como la que tuve hoy.
Extraordinario, servicio, comida espectacular

Brandon Frey

I recently visited this fondue restaurant, and I must say it was a disappointing experience. First of all, the prices were outrageously high for what they offered. You would expect a premium experience for such costs, but that was far from the case.

The ambiance was terrible, with holes in the ceiling that made the place look run-down and neglected. It really took away from any potential enjoyment of the meal.

To top it off, the service was incredibly slow. We waited ages for our food, and when it finally arrived, it wasn't even worth the wait. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Save your money and find somewhere better to dine.

Niamh Sponholz

Weirdest place ever. You can tell by the other reviews here and I have to agree this is truly the Alpinist and the Ghost. The experience was peculiar to say the least… upon coming in no one helped us until we asked them where to sit. Then about half way through our dinner they asked us for the name on our reservation… not sure why that matters halfway through the meal but okay. Also the place was literally empty so not sure why we even needed a reservation. As for the servers, they were physically present but aloof — basically I don’t know if they knew they existed.

As for the food… most mediocre fondue ever! Not to mention they were also out of half of the sides and cheeses. Then for the dessert they were also out of strawberries. They served us chocolate fondue with pound cake and cookies which they literally opened out of a plastic wrap right next to us and put on the plate. Not to say it was inedible but they charge you some very steep prices considering the quality of the food and service.

The restaurant as a whole was a weird vibe. They were blasting the strangest music ever. Bathroom is a mess with a bucket in the middle of the floor catching the leaks from the ceiling. Only highlight is that my family cannot stop laughing about this comedy of errors.

Can’t forget that two days later they call us and say they have an open tab and demand we pay. We paid the night of the dinner and trust we were not going to pay again for this. Just when we thought we escaped the ghost haunted us again.

Julia Munoz

I don’t understand all the poor reviews. This place is quaint, cozy and has a unique atmosphere. Our server, Stella, was knowledgeable when answering our questions about the menu and the wine. She was professional with a great sense of humor. The gentleman behind the bar/kitchen, Irvin, delivered the same amount of professionalism and with a fun and personal twist just like Stella.

We had a filet board in addition to our fondue. Both were delicious! We enjoyed our food and the overall fondue experience. I would absolutely recommend.

How can anyone not enjoy themselves while sipping bevs and dipping food in a giant pot of cheese?!

Alexa Knight

So wanted a fondue experience since we felt the ski resort vibes of Telluride but it met none of our hopes or expectations. Service was ok but the food was very weird and way overpriced for what they served. I have never had cheese fondue with toasted croutons. You couldn't even use the fondue forks to stab the bread to get into the cheese because the croutons were so toasted they broke every time you tried to get ahold of one. So we were trying to fish all the crumbs out of the melted cheese with a spoon every time. And the side veggie dishes were a joke for the price. The artichoke heart side was a small pile of charred artichoke leaves with no hearts, and didn't even fill up a small plate. The same with the asparagus, which was maybe 6-8 very skinny charred stems for over $15 each. The atmosphere was also a bit odd and felt very cramped. The food was really the biggest disappointment and the cost was riddiculous for the food served at over $50 per person with no meat served, even in a resort town like Telluride. Not a go back.

denisa iacob

Beyond disappointing experience here with my group of 10. Several things were greatly missed. The service was sub par, the ceiling had multiple leaks with buckets set throughout the restaurant and bathroom, they were completely out of beer, the cocktails weren’t great. The fondue is overpriced considering all you get is seasoned ciabatta and apples, which weren’t even cut evenly. The chocolate fondue came with old
Strawberries. The ambience was weird and quiet with music playing on and off. I’m very disappointed that we wasted our group dinner night on this place, I would avoid at all costs.

Milk Cookies

My first impression of the Alpinist and the Ghost was of its (rather narrow) entry hallway. This was because, while we had a reservation for 7:30 PM, we were not seated until more than an hour later. The group next to us, who also had a reservation and were forced to wait nearly an hour, could not fit into the hallway with us. Once we were finally seated, we found that, implausibly, the dining room itself was even smaller than the hallway. The décor of our room (there were two in the restaurant) could best be described as effortless, in the sense that clearly, zero effort was put into it. It was seemingly also used for storage; its corners were filled with extra chairs, extra fondue machines, extra coat hangers. The room was so cramped that our waiters physically could not serve the people seated at the back half of our table.

Notice the plural use of “waiters”—this is because there were three kind but extraordinarily confused waiters working our table tonight, all three of whom arrived at our table at different times to repeatedly offer us menus, food, and the check in a kind of Groundhog-day-like cycle. The waiters’ confusion extended to the menu, too; when we ordered the salmon salad, we were told confidently that the salmon salad was not on the menu. When we showed our waitress that the salmon salad was indeed on the menu, she remained clearly unconvinced, but acquiesced: “Okay, I’ll put it down, then.” After an extensive wait time, we were served a plain salad instead.

After a string of mishaps—dishes ordered but forgotten, incorrect dishes served and wait times that rivaled the hour it took us to even get seated, our correct food finally arrived. It was at this point that we realized how misleading the menu really was: an over-70-dollar fondue only included bread, apples, and cheese. You had to pay an extra $56 for a side of meat. The other dishes were similarly sparse and incredibly mediocre, especially for their offensively inflated prices.

By the time our second waiter offered us the check for the second time, we were tired, unsatisfied, and ready to leave. It took a mysteriously long time for our credit card to be swiped (upwards of 15 minutes) even though the restaurant was otherwise completely empty. This allowed us plenty of time to reflect on our dining experience, which we couldn’t help but laugh at, if only because it seemed like a heavy-handed parody of what a bad restaurant should be.

In conclusion: within the Alpinist and the Ghost, laws of time, space, and civility were obsolete. Only Murphy’s Law remained: anything that could go wrong, invariably did go wrong.

Joking aside, though, the meal was close to $80 a head (we didn’t drink; we should have), no efforts were made to truly apologize for how late we were seated despite our 7:30P reservation nor for the string of mistakes made. The best we got was “it’s crowded” and “this is out of our control”. The other family waiting in the hallway next to us included an older woman who clearly had Parkinsons and had been waiting close to 40 minutes by the time we started chatting (commiserating) together. Our family goes on a ski vacation once a year. We work hard all year to have a nice vacation, and nice meals on our vacation. To say our experience was mediocre is an overstatement; that the dinner was almost $400 adds insult to injury

Christina Ibrahim

The chef and waiter were terrific. Took their time to talk to us and explain the menu and work with food restrictions. The food was delicious and it was a fun unique meal for us. Would definitely recommend.