Centre V Brasserie

2.5 stars. Breakfast was delicious, service was awful.
While staying at the Arrabelle Hotel in August, it was only natural to experience breakfast at its attached, «Centre V.» So down to the brasserie I went on a sunny weekend morning. Patio please!
The waitress took the drink orders. Then the waitress disappeared. I eagerly and thirstily awaited my orange juice. along with instructions on how this buffet breakfast gig works.
I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Hello? Orange juice please? No waitress.
Okay, so in my opinion, the waitress did appear a bit hung over. as did most of the wait staff actually (young, ski-​bum sort of group). so maybe she was just feeling groggy and moving slowly. Very slowly. That must have been some good party last night.
Breakfast was buffet style, cannot be too hard to figure out. so I found my way inside, grabbed a plate, and prepared to stock up. A bit chaotic with many hungry patrons practically pushing and shoving each other over waffles. but the generous selection of warm and fresh options made the hustle and bustle seem worth it. amazing aromas. I couldn’t wait to dig in.
Back out to the table. Still no orange juice. No cutlery either. And, what do you know, no waitress!
The waitress mysteriously never returned to the table, nor did anyone come to replace her. That was interesting. not to mention a drag. sitting there with a big plate of yumminess sans beverage or silverware.
In the end, it came down to flagging over neighboring wait staff and crossing my fingers that o.j. wasn’t too complicated for this one to handle.
Conclusion: the patio was nice, the food was delicious, but the customer service was an epic fail.

Stay away unless you are willing to accept lousy food and service in exchange for a nice view from the patio.
I stopped in yesterday for lunch. Should have gotten the hint when there was no one to seat me or when the table nearby was talking about how incredibly bad the service was.
I won’t go into all the details about why the food was bad, but let’s just say I walked out without paying or eating.

They’ve changed it to be ½ sport bar, ½ brasserie, 1 total disaster. Unprofessional service, overworked kitchen, the romance is gone.
If in Lionshead for din, Montauk has great fish and the Chophouse is pricey, but full of meat goodness.

I’ve never written a review PRIOR to dining somewhere, but I just had such an UNPROFESSIONAL experience with Centre V.
A couple of our families have been heading out to Vail every Spring for the last 15 years or so, but we’ve never gotten around to eating at Centre V. This time, I called 3 weeks in advance for a Saturday reservation. Initially, the reservationist told me she had a large party booking the entire restaurant for the night, but they hadn’t yet confirmed, so she would call me back and let me know if the spot was available. 2 weeks later, I never heard back, so I called the restaurant and left a message. The next day, I still had no reply, so I called back again and left a message with the manager. The next morning, I received a call from him telling me they were indeed booked for the night. No offering for a reservation for another night, no apology. They obviously don’t care that much about expanding their customer base.
And he joked at the fact that I sounded sleepy. yes, it was 8am and I’m a doctor and work long hours/​overnights. We’ll definitely just stick to our other regular favorites at Vail, instead. I’ve had nothing but wonderful service everywhere else…

Cruising down I-​70 in the pouring rain on your way from LA to NY with a car full of friends and need a quality burger???
*****French Ski Resort Pretension awaits you like a slap in the face with a broad, floppy and blunt spatula drenched in au jus.******
Quality burger’s…yes THIS PLACE WILL LEND A DELICIOUS GOURMET BURGER THAT WON’T BREAK YOUR WALLET.
I could talk about burgers at posh ski resort village’s like I’m full of saliva like the naked painter in Ski Resort 2, or I could talk about the OFFNESS OF THIS PLACE AT AN OFF PEAK HOUR…
I’ll choose the later.
We exit I-​70 and parallel the interstate for a while before finding Lionsgate Sq… Which is a parking garage btw. We exit the parking garage and find a master planned resort teaming with skiers waiting 5 months for the snow to arrive.
I spotted it… Centre V Brasserie. What a nice mahogany coat stand with which to hang one’s soaking umbrella and coat…
Ignored. Ignored we were for about 5 minutes… my man instincts kicked in and I snatched one of dem aloof blonde waitresses asking where we could be seating.
We finally sit… even though the bar, casual dinning room adjacent to the formal dinning room is sparsley dotted with x-​derbytaunt contest losers and turtleneck abusing associate directors of moving large quantities of cash around. Hardly real Colorado. In short, there were available tables in the arched space around the bar.
Our table was made readily available due to the interjection of the daytime manager of the Aryan Race who was running around trying to do the job of 6 people. The multiple blonde waitresses found it more appealing to stand, confused making concentric circles in the entry way.
This guy, now seating us, seemed more than a bit off. Somehow, my road weary facial expressions caught his attention and he treated me like one of the regular spenders, willing to schmoose the shit out of his chiseled presence for top cut of prime rib and first shot at banging his ski bunny girlfriend. Yes I was instant royalty. I guess it was written all over my face… I am not up for taking any more of this shit… I’ve been from Chicago, to Dallas, to Cleveland, to… where the hell am I? «Sheboygan»
Well Vail actually, but gotta love the mom in Home Alone.
This is where I make my stupid move and order the Duck Confit Pizza. Which was burnt, cold and salty. Sort of akin to the piece of pizza Sly Stallone eats at the beginning of Cobra… yes he removed it from his freezer and used scissors to cut off a small triangle.
Anyway, my friends enjoyed their burgers.
I enjoyed looking at all the gorgeous people… working on their off-​season social skillz.
This place is probably just fine if you have gobs of money.
I don’t. Some day I may.
But that don’t mean that eating in Downtown Silt, Colorado won’t be my dinner choice of choice. Who needs the homogonous wash of Lionsgate Village and French Food in more than a single bite?

Oh my goodness.
So glad my parents decided to take us on vacation because I probably could never afford to go here on my teacher’s budget.
But…
Since I DID have the pleasure…
I can now gush to everyone about how absolutely lovely this restaurant is.
Centre V has phenomenal service. When we arrived we happened to be the only people in the restaurant. I attribute this to the state of the economy, and the fact that it was a Monday night.
Because we were the only people in the place, we got to choose our own table and have all of the waitstaff to ourselves! Wow… then the night gets better.
I ordered one of the most delicious appetizers I’ve ever had: the Shittake and Oyster mushrooms. The mushrooms were sauteed in butter, served atop a roasted vegetable ragu (so amazingly tasty) and finished off with some french fried green onions and a balsamic reduction. Whoa. I’m still dreaming about it.
The only thing that made this appetizer better was the fact that the chef made a «mistake» and accidently gave us TWO of them. Some kind of a mistake, right?
My main dish was a mozzarella filled ravioli, served with a vegetable cream sauce. I thought this was OK, as compared to my incredible appetizer. When there are cheese ravioli, it becomes a bit much to have a cream-​based sauce atop. But… oh well.
Then came desert:
We ordered the chocolate soufflé ahead of time so it would be ready. The chef again made a «mistake» and gave us TWO souffles!
Deep, dark, warm chocolatey goodness times two.
By the end of the night I was certainly in the best kind of food coma, and completely ready to work it off on an eight mile hike the next morning.
Ahhh…I love Colorado.

Pulled up to a table after a day’s skiing towards the end of Happy Hour. Great HP values. $ 5 for a selection of martinis that normally run $ 10-​$ 14. The $ 8 burger is delectable. The hot chocolate is thick and rich and I’ve never been been able to make one this yummy at home. Servers very friendly and professional for being ski bums. Can’t beat the location, looking up at the mountain and at all the people coming off the slopes, to/​from the gondola and into Lionshead. After the sun went down and it chilled considerably, we moved inside for dessert – the largest chocolate soufflé I have ever seen and prepared perfectably.
Yep, I’m a fan.

After a hard day skiiing, we were looking for a perfectly chill place to engage in prime apres ski shenanigans. Being at Lionshead village, our options were limited, but Centre V was a excellent option regardless. It’s in the ground floor of the brand new super-​lux Arabelle Hotel. The whole Lionshead section now channels a sweet, albeit ersatz, swiss mountain chalet town. Though the Disneyland quotient is high, the whole ambience is still cozy, cute, comfortable.
The bar had live music for apres ski, though it was just a single acoustic singer playing tasteful music, so nothing overwhelming. The Bloody Mary’s were simply the best I’ve ever had, perfectly spicy and strong. The place filled up quickly after 4, so we were happy to have secured bar space at 3.45.

This is ABSOLUTELY my new favorite place in Vail and so far I have been here about 5 times in the past 2 weeks. The atmosphere is so nice, and it really feels like you are in someone’s French chalet in the Alps. Stone walls, mosaic floors, it just feels so NOT Vail. Apres ski specials are wonderful… ex: $ 8 burgers and $ 5 cocktails… I mean come on! That’s cheaper than the sports bars! If the white bean soup happens to be the soup of the day, definitely get that and some nice crusty bread and cozy up after a cold day on the slopes. Enjoy!!!

It was our last day in Beaver Creek, so we decided to skip skiing and head to Vail to check out the village there. Once we strolled around there a bit, we decided to walk over to Lionshead and finally, we chose Centre V for our lunch spot before heading to DIA to our respective homes…
It was a fantastic choice! We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine, incredible views of the slopes, attentive service (a tad slow but what do you expect from a high end French restaurant), and of course, fantastic company too! There were four of us… I went with the tuna nicoise salad, the guys shared a burger and a chicken avocado club sandwich, and Lexie went with the club as well… We all enjoyed what we ordered, and I gobbled up a few fries from Jared as well.
My tuna nicoise salad (pictured above) was the perfect lunch… lightly dressed mixed greens, tuna cooked in olive oil, green beans, olives, hard boiled egg, and potatoes. Mmmm…
Not sure when I’ll be back in the Vail area, but when I am, I will not hesitate to return to Centre V Brasserie and Lionshead Village.

While one may argue that this is part of the Rock-​Resorts designed experience (a la Intrawest), I thoroughly enjoyed dinner here. It’s Vail prices, so it’s far from cheap, but both the mussels I ordered and the lamb shank the BF ordered were quality and prepared well. And the frites — served with the mussels — were awesome. Something about cooking in duck fat?
Service was very good, in the old-​style brasserie way, though it was half empty so who knows if that’s the case all the time.
The fifth star comes simply because their cheese selection included a Tomme de Savoie, which I didn’t think you could get outside of France. (If you’re not a cheese lover, consider this a four star review).