Western Omelette ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: Dec 2022

First visit: Jul 2018

They have a second location in Fountain.

I have hinted at Western Omelette in these pages for some time, but hadn't yet written about it. My notes show we haven't been since late 2018, long before the pandemic. Two reasons for this: 1) It's always very crowded and 2) Mrs. RJG is somewhat lukewarm about going here. But I'm on a winning streak with the Mrs., so she's more likely to join me than before (with comments like "It's OK, you go by yourself". Thanks). Despite being a decidedly breakfast oriented restaurant, Western Omelette isn't really a place for solo dining. They have a small bar area - but it's a real bar with alcohol for the evening crowd. Not a breakfast bar with convenient countertop seating. You can hog one of the tables for yourself of course, but since it's always mobbed, I don't like doing that. For years I'd threatened to go here on a garden variety weekday as I'm sure it's less crowded than on the weekends. But its location to where we live isn't really convenient for that. Hence - 4 years later, we're finally back at the Western Omelette. One of my favorite Colorado Springs restaurants - that I never go to. :-(

The location is nice - looks like it may have been an old Denny's or something similar. Apparently they've been open since 1992, though I don't recall ever hearing about it in my first tour of duty here. It's fully decorated in the Native American style. Most of it is authentic with a touch of 1950s western tourism kitsch. Caucasian looking Native American paintings for example. The waitresses were all dressed in 1920's Flapper Girl attire on this visit. Not sure the relevance, but they all looked neat to my eyes. And beware of any restaurant whose logo sports habanero, serrano, and jalapeno peppers with smiling teeth and sunglasses. You're just asking for trouble.

And what makes Western Omelette so special? In the mind of the RJG it's really quite simple: Their green chile. In particular you have to ask for the hot variety. When you do - the waitstaff will invariably ask "have you ever had it?" Oh yea - I respond. Oh yea. Without a single doubt, Western Omelette's green chile is the single hottest I've ever had at a restaurant. It's so spicy you'd think it was illegal to serve. And that's coming from me - your spice head host - Mr. RJG. I always get half and half: Red and spicy green. I've had their mild green and it's really not good at all. The red packs some heat, so if you like it hot - but not that hot - go for the red.

So what am I burying this mythical chile over? A breakfast burrito of course. Their variety is eggs and chorizo, the latter some of the finest I've ever had. More like ground beef than a yucky pork taste. With a side of hash browns. Oh and they do have flavored creamers, so I had coffee as well. Served hot and actually had some strength to it. The flavor of that green chile is just divine. But lethal. And when you see all those orange bits of chile, then you know that habanero is present. In the Colorado Springs area, we have two other places that serve insanely spicy green chile (that I know about): Quijotes (still our favorite) and The Loop ('Burrito From Hell'). Western Omelette is spicier than both of those.

Fine - I'm happy as expected. But what about the Spousal Unit? Always a wildcard, what did she order and how did she feel about it?  She had 'The Pony' with 2 eggs, bacon, hash browns, and pancakes. She also had coffee which she enjoyed. The eggs were bland she stated, not enough flavor to distinguish. Same goes for the hash browns. The bacon was excellent - thick cut. Ironically both chewy and crispy (I tried a bit - very good). But Mrs. RJG is getting smart, and grabbed a couple of spoonful's of my green chile. Whoa nelly. It's hot right? Oh yea. She loved that and it made the eggs and hash browns taste much better. We split the pancakes as a dessert and to settle our stomachs. When it's all said and done, I still don't think she'll make a beeline back here. She'll declare that the chile is too hot for you, dear (Mr. RJG). No it isn't! Yes it is, she replies immediately. Even though we were seated promptly and received our coffee right away, our meal took close to 25 minutes to arrive. So that didn't go over well either. Sigh.

So what am I to do? Probably come over some garden variety weekday for breakfast. Yea, sure I will. But I must... It's one of my Gold Star restaurants!

7/8/18; 10/27/18; 12/3/22 (new entry)