Indulge Wine Bar

Allow me to begin this post about Indulge Wine Bar with a quote about the restaurant, taken directly from their website:

Indulge Wine Bar is a unique wine, tapas and dessert restaurant located in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Indulge, you deserve it.

Indulge is only unique because it has the wine list, atmosphere, and menu of a trendy downtown wine bar, but it's way, way deep in the Highlands Ranch suburbs. Other than that, however, it's not really that unique. It's got the same feel as Cru, or the Wine Loft, or Trios Enoteca,or just about any other wine bar you've ever been to. 

From the outside, you'd never guess you're about to walk into a swanky little wine bar. Indulge is in a small strip mall-ish cluster of buildings, right next to a Noodles and Company, Corner Bakery, and Bernie's Hot Dogs. And it's across the street from a monstrous Home Depot. So if you want a fancy dining experience, and you don't want to leave the 'burbs, Indulge is your place. 

Indulge Bar and Wine Cellar Area

We'd been to Indulge once before this particular visit, and had liked it enough to make a return trip. In fact, this time we had some out-of-town family that we wanted to introduce to Indulge.

The menu has standard entree portions, as well as a wide selection of tapas and small plates. We opted to share a number of the smaller dishes.

The Yucatan Ahi Guacamole ($10.5) comprises, quoting directly from the menu: A+ sashimi-grade ahi tuna tartar over house-made guacamole with toasted black sesame seeds, ponzu sauce and house-made chips. 

Yucatan Ahi Tuna Guacamole

This is basically a large blob of guacamole with small chunks of ahi tuna atop.  It's delicious, but I wish the tuna-to-guacamole ratio was higher.

We also tried the Blue Suede Shoes Flatbread Pizza ($12), which, again quoting directly from the menu, contains Grilled chicken, BBQ sauce, whole milk mozzarella, and shaved leek. Finished with a drizzle of Indulge’s house-made buttermilk ranch dressing.

Blue Suede Shoes Flatbread

This pizza was rich and very tasty, but the barbeque sauce was more like honey mustard sauce, and was a little too sweet for my liking.

Next was the Andouille Mac and Cheese ($12.5).

Andouille Mac and Cheese

This was also good, but I couldn't help but notice that the cavatappi noodles seemed suspiciously similar to those at Noodles and Company just a stone's throw away. Also, the $12.5 price tag was awfully steep for cheesy pasta with a few thin slices of sausage. 

Our dinner companions also had the hummus plate ($10.5), which comes with red pepper hummus served warm.

Red Pepper Hummus with Flatbread

We didn't try any, but they enjoyed it.

Overall, the food on this visit wasn't as good as what I remember from our last experience. 

And the wine? Ehhh...well, I don't drink wine. All I know about wine is that it tastes bad and beer is far superior. Yes, I am reviewing a wine bar without consuming any wine, and without any basic knowledge of wine at all.  

Maybe if I were a wine lover, I'd be a little more enthusiastic about Indulge. As it stands, the food is decent but overpriced, and even if you are looking for a nice wine bar without heading downtown, I prefer the Wine Loft at Landmark (there's also Cru at Park Meadows but I've never been).  


Casual Dining 

(6 of 10)


Pros: Good service, great place for wine lovers
Cons: Food is nothing to get excited about, too expensive 


Website:
http://www.indulgewinebar.com/