TAG Restaurant

TAG Restaurant

Denver, Colorado

First date made reservations @ TAG and I had the best food experience of my life. It is Friday night and after changing my outfit 5 or 6 times I take a Lyft to the restaurant. All day I had anxiety about this moment. My stomach was in knots and I just had nervousness rippling through my conscience until I felt insecure. Why am I buggin out like this? It is just a date, I am not auditioning to be on the Voice. It is not a big deal I keep telling myself.

I am embarrassed being a native of Colorado, born and raised and I still haven't been to most tourist attractions or ate at certain restaurants. TAG is one of those restaurants I have heard about since culinary school and I knew I wanted to eat here because chef/owner Troy Guard name has been mentioned more than once to remember. 

My first date scored major points because he chose this place for our date. In the heart of busy LoDo lower downtown for you non-Deverites, it is Halloween weekend so the cops are on every corner and downtown is about to get crunk! I am glad our reservation was at 6pm. I get dropped off and I check in with the hostess. She tells me my date already checked in but he had left and will be back, I was a little early, so it wasn't a big deal. I opted to sit in the lounge because it was near the door. The restaurant is beautiful. It is narrow like a galley the way the tables are lined up. A huge clear wall filled with wine bottles separate the dining room. We had a table for 2 right next to the wall. It felt intimate. It was so hard for me to contain my excitement about where we were eating. I am so glad I scrubbed through the menu earlier and knew what we should order. I tried to not be bossy and aggressive about it and let my date feel like he had options or a choice before I took over. I am polite bossy I think? I had to try to explain to my date why I am so geeked and know what I am talking about without sounding like a pretentious biatch! All date nerves were thrown out the window because it was all about the food now. I was starving and in retrospect I wish we ordered more food. We only ordered 3 dishes and basically shared all 3. We should have ordered our own Entrée so I could have experienced something else. I will go back to this place and try everything I promise. 

Our waitress was a super cute young girl. My date was so focused on learning everyone's name that served us food and I was focused on eating the food. I don't care what her name is, tonight her name is Chica because that my default go to regardless if I know your name or not. Thank you chica, Yaaas chica!, whatever, it works and I don't have to try to remember her name is Melissa or whatever. She had to read us the daily specials because she didn't memorize it yet. It sounded complicated and reminded me of school. I remember dining service class literally shaking because my nerves was so bad. I would try to read the menu items to the table just like she was doing for us. It is nerve raking especially when you have no idea what the hell you are describing. Poor chica.. she made it through. 

My date and I order beers and we are talking so much we forget to look to see what we want to order. We start with the chef's favorite: 

• Flash Seared Hamachi--jalapeño, baby tatsoi, japanese myoga, pop rocks, yuzu white soy. 

I don't know how to begin this sentence. This dish was perfect in every way. The waitress told us the chef was making this dish at home and his daughter accidently spilled pop rocks on top and after tasting how the sweetness from the candy cut through the acidity of the yuzu it was a happy accident. The fish was so delicate and fresh, it was so hard to share it. When you eat it the pop rocks are going off in your mouth so it makes it interactive and just fucking awesome. I wanted to lick the plate after the fish was gone. I would have if I was drunk enough and nobody could see me. #savage 

Second we order:

• CHARRED SPANISH OCTOPUS --chorizo, potato purée, red pepper coulis, squid ink vinaigrette, finger lime

Best thing I ever put in my mouth, and I put a lot of things in my mouth over the years. It taste so good I felt transported to another part of the world. We smelled the burnt char from the kitchen and then our octopus arrived. The octopus was the most tender pieces of meat and with the potato puree, red pepper coulis, chorizo, and squid ink vinaigrette it was the perfect bite together and separate. The plating was beautiful and excellence was received.

Third and final -the entrée:

• GRILLED ATLANTIC SWORDFISH--yellow curry, cashew, pineapple pepper jam, carrot, broccolini

Again, the plating was gorgeous. I like this new thing chef's are doing with carrots and root vegetables placing them standing up. Gives the plate a 3-D look, seen it in L.A. and now I see it here. The last time I had swordfish this good was in San Francisco this past summer. It was cooked perfectly and I was mad we shared it. I could have had the entire thing myself. The yellow curry was sweet and with the pineapple pepper jam and the natural sweetness of the carrots it was almost too sweet, but the fish/shark was so good and the portions was just right it was still fucking delicious. 

I appreciate the thought behind every decision with every dish. I acknowledge and bow down to the skill level and palettes of Chef Troy Gaurd and his team. I can't wait to eat here again but next time I want to make a reservation for 1.