Ace Gets Reviewed by the Denver Post; Westword Takes on Cafe Berlin

Ace, the hot Asian-fusion restaurant on 17th Avenue, got two and half out of four stars in this week's restaurant review in the Denver Post.The Denver Post critic, William Porter, found the food to be inconsistent during early visits at the restaurant and ping-pong hall that opened in August. In weeks to come, the Ace kitchen seemed to have found its stride.

The dishes that Porter enjoyed included the open-faced Vietnamese-style buns, the Kalbi, a Korean-style short rib dish, and two salads, the green papaya salad and the kale salad. The critic raved about Randy Layman's craft cocktail program, some of them made with one of the several sodas that are created in-house. Porter recommended the Hammer & Spike, made with grapefruit soda, Hendrick's gin, and mint and the Golden Child, a house bitter-lemon soda combo that includes Pimm's No. 1 and a twist of lemon peel.

Cafe Berlin failed to impress Westword's critic, Gretchen Kurtz, who made her disappointment clear in this week's review of the seventeen year old German-inspired restaurant. Kurtz decried the old-school recipes that plague many dish with heavy sauces and the classic Schnitzel with unappealing soggy breading and the restaurant's practice of outsourcing many of its offerings, from herring that is not house-cured to desserts bought from outside vendors.

· At Ace, Pan-Asian Food and Ping-Pong [DP]
· The Teenage Cafe Berlin Is In Need Of An Intervention [Westword]
· Denver's 38 Essential Restaurants [EDen]