Deno's I-76 - Restaurant Impossible Update

On this week's Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Keenesburg, Colorado to makeover Deno's I-76.  Deno's I-76 is a diner located right off of Interstate 76 that is owned by Darlene.  Robert finds she has been abandoned by her employees and is working herself into the ground.  Robert will need to help her find new staff and inspiration to turn the diner into a must-stop destination. 

As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Deno's I-76 to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant: Impossible):

Positive Reviews:

• "What an amazing diner! It was very clean, kid friendly, and the staff was very attentive. Darlene prepared my food just the way I asked and Hannah was prompt, courteous, and attentive. Order the flounder. You will not be disappointed! The tables were socially distanced and even had plastic separating the booths. Darlene and staff went above and beyond. We will certainly be back."
• "Friendly, clean, wonderful atmosphere. Chicken fried steak dinner was comforting. Plenty of truck parking good place to dip out of the wind. Behave gentlemen there are Zumba classes in the mourning."
• "Our food was very good! Their green chilli is tasty and the food is so much better than it was a year ago when we were here. We'll definitely be back."
• "My husband and I came here tonight and the food was great. The salsa, fries and pie were fantastic. And our waitress was excellent! We will definitely be back."

Negative Reviews:

• "We really want to like this place and support local business, but the food is bland, burned, and terrible. We've tried going a few times. Staff is friendly, but service is very slow. A more clean cut dress code would be helpful. Sadly, everyone looked like they had just rolled out of bed."
• "I was not impressed by the service. Very rude and overlooked our table for 20 minutes but got everyone else. Food was good but I miss the old staff."
• "Service was good such an improvement for sure. Food was bland and no flavor and cold. Was supposed to get chips and salsa never came. Will not be back."
• "After being taken on by Restaurant Impossible, Dar's Deno's is still terrible. I gave them two tries. The first was a week ago. They were out of the chicken fried steak, so I got the Mexican special. It came with a guacamole tostada. The broken tostada shell was smeared with brown--yes, brown--guacamole and topped only with wilted shredded lettuce....I went back again last night. I wanted to try the pizza, but they didn't have any employees who knew how to make it (on a Saturday night?). I decided to try the chicken fried steak. The salad that came with the entree was just a plate of bagged lettuce. At least it had been washed, judging from all the water on the plate. I also got canned corn and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes and gravy were very bland. I think they just microwaved a potato, mashed it with a fork, and topped it with tasteless white gravy. The chicken fried steak was the worst. It tasted like it came from the frozen food section in the dollar store across the street. The steak itself was about 1/8" thick. The coating was tasteless and so was the gravy."
• "Was in there Friday for dinner. The service was ok. Only had 6 things you could order. We didn't get our salads our steaks were not cooked right and it was overpriced. Not sure will return."

*Reviews from Yelp, Google

Other News and Links:

• The Restaurant Impossible makeover for Deno's I-76 happened in October 2021.
• Here is the Deno's I-76 website and Facebook page.  The restaurant is also referred to as Dar's Deno's online and here is a separate website. 
• The restaurant does not really post on their Facebook page and only has a few posts since 2018.
• Here are the reviews for Deno's I-76 from Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google.
• The restaurant is listed as "Closed" on Yelp despite there being recent reviews for the restaurant on Google and Yelp.
• The owner responded to a recent negative review on Google with, "This is why people like us can't get employees because of these comments you people make."

Conclusion:

The reviews for Deno's I-76 since the Restaurant Impossible makeover have been somewhat negative with there being mixed reviews about the food and service.  Deno's I-76 does not have much of an online presence and their restaurant is currently listed as 'Closed' on Yelp, so they may want to fix that.  The restaurant does respond to some reviews on Google and have alluded to having trouble staffing the restaurant. 


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