the med

overhyped & overpriced. living in boulder, i've been to themedmultiple times--it seems to be the restaurant of choice for birthdays with its many large tables. i've had some good dishes, but the general inconsistency, ridiculous waits of 1-2 hours, costs vs. quality and acoustics and terrible 80's music keep this from being a restaurant of choice.

tapas at happy hour are the best bet. although they are affordable at first glance, you'll quickly rack up the cost if you're sharing or hungry. they have a good wine list and sangria. dinner is a disappointment other than the lamb shank, which is really delicious and juicy.

a better dinner bet is to walk across the street to brasserie ten ten.

little did i know,medserves half off tapas between 3:30 and 6:30 for happy hour! what a great surprise! i had made reservations months ago and looked forward to trying this highly popular boulder eatery. i studied the menu all week long trying to decide

check out our review of themedand other boulder restaurants: www.bouldereats.weebly.com

when i headed up to boulder recently to meet a friend for lunch at themed, i realized it had been 14 years since my last meal there. how could it not have changed? in that time i've moved to boston for a decade & come back; implemented & discarded countless schemes for writerly success; fallen in & out of everlasting love at least thrice (to be clear, the director's the charm); traveled all over italy & seen chile, egypt, spain & the czech republic, among others, along the way; etc. surely this walnut street fixture has undergone a few transformations of its own-but aside from the expansion into a side room off the patio, damned if i can put my finger on them. it's still sprawling & vibrant, all wrought-iron & majolica accents & hues of sun-warmed sand & sea. it's still bustling with boulderites (read: beautiful people whose choice of dress suggests what my friend called outdoors asperger's ). and it's still, after all these years, pretty good-no better, no worse. at least that was m

themedhas an enchanting location in the centre of boulder, and one genuinely feels transported to marbella on the costa del sol when dining on the fresco balcony.

the only unfortunate things is that the tapas bars in spain do tapas rather better. and for a restaurant rated over 4, i was expecting higher quality. we had a range of dishes, each one we were expecting to finally find the wow factor, however we (or the restaurant) failed.

the mussels were too soft and stuck to the shell. i'm no chef, but i believe this is a sign of being well overdone. the charcuterie was a merge portion of ham and salami that could be bought from any mid range supermarket. the calamari was tough and lacked flavor, and the other dish was so unmemorable i forget what it was, despite having a photo.

go for drinks and lap up the wonderful atmosphere, however if you're hungry you'll probably need to nip into a drive-thru on your way home

while themedis sometimes a little loud, it's one of my go-to restaurants when friends, family, or business associates are in town.

price is midrange for boulder. food is very good. service is top notch.

i've been here scores of times and i have never once been disappointed in anything i've eaten.

a sad story. once upon a time there was a restaurant that everybody called the med. it had a well deserved reputation for putting the happy in happy hour, with tasty tapas and reasonably priced drinks. sure, the noise level was often oppressive and the service had that silly inconsistency we come to expect from service in boulder, but all in all, it was a great place to sit with friends after work, removing the remnants of the day's toil from one's soul with food, drink and good company. then one day a fancy hotel opened up the block and themedjust stopped trying. since the tourists/business people and cu parents didn't seem to care if the food was bland, poorly prepared and slow to arrive, why should themedcare?
i have been to themedtwice this summer and i will not go back. the food was never sensational, but now it is just plain terrible. this last time the falafel was soggy, cold and bland. (side note: if someone can direct me to some decent falafel in boulder county, please let me know! and don't say falafel king because my friends, the king is dead! but i digress...) we had lamb kabobs -- lamb was ice cold and nearly raw (supposed to bemedrare); sent it back, it was returned to the table well done grey and strangely enough, still ice cold. flatbread was stale. paella was a gummy, overcooked mess.
as we left, throngs of people waited on the street outside for a table. i wanted to warn them, but my companion restrained me from doing so. all in all, a very sad story.

entering through a funky teal green door into a bright space with large green potted plants to one side and a chic bar sprawling in front of you, there are multiple dining rooms that stretch from the windows on walnut street to the far corners of the building. i also noticed an outside seating section with a large tile mosaic spanning the wall enclosing the patio. the drinks are pretty cheap to begin with and happy hour at themedis $1 off the listed price.

always good. the tapas happy hour is where it's at! cheap small gourmet plates and good drink prices. the atmosphere at themedis always great, but perhaps a little loud for some. eat at the med.

variety is the spice of life.... yes, i do believe that variety is the spice of life, and this is why i love themedfor tapas! for those of you who don't know what a tapa is, it's a spanish appetizer, that comes out on a small plate, and is meant to be shared (or not, depending on how yummy it is, you may want to keep it all to yourself). also, try the sangria, which is fairly tasty. the food at themedis very good at a great price, and the service varies but typically is good...all this make themedone of my favorite places to eat in boulder. oh yeah, great patio in warm weather.

two words .... ... happy hour.

i took my in-laws, wife, and kids to themedbefore an early theater engagement and we couldn't have been happier. discounted drinks, tapas available before 5:00 and full menu available after 5:00. the paella and the lamb meatballs - albondigas - were excellent and the eight tapas selections we sampled were uniformly fresh, well-seasoned, and well-executed.