- Denver
- Eat
These are the must-hit restaurants that define Denver's dining scene.
By
Allyson Reedy
Denver has a lot to offer—sports, culture, and, you know, the Rocky Mountains that are right there—but don’t forget about the food. We’ve gotta fuel up for all those outdoor adventures somehow. From our own spin on green chile to unexpected steakhouses to Michelin-starred tasting menu restaurants, Denver eateries are destinations themselves, and you don’t want to leave town without trying the best of the best. Here, 12 of the very best restaurants in the Mile High City.
RiNo
It’s hard to match RiNo’s energy, the neighborhood is known as Denver’s most vibrant and creative, but Hop Alley not only matches it—it kicks it up a notch. Trust us when we say that this isn’t a restaurant for the timid. Loud with hip-hop and bold with tongue-numbing la zi ji and fan club-worthy bone marrow fried rice, this modern Chinese restaurant is full of flavor. Even cooler? The six-seat Chef’s Counter experience Thursday–Saturday nights that pushes boundaries even further with dishes like pig’s head salad and forbidden rice pudding.
El Taco de Mexico
Santa Fe Arts District
If you only eat one meal in Denver, it needs to be a green chile-drenched breakfast burrito. And it should probably come from El Taco de Mexico, the little yellow restaurant on Santa Fe that has been satisfying our green chile fix (and nursing our hangovers) for almost 40 years. We take our breakfast burritos seriously here, folks, and our green chile (which isn’t really green, by the way; Colorado-style simmers tomatoes with the chiles and spices) is practically a love language. El Taco may not offer up much in terms of decor and ambiance, but the Mexican favorites coming out of the tiny kitchen more than make up for it.
Downtown
Denver may have shaken its cowtown reputation, but we still have plenty of spots serving a good hunk of meat. While classics like the midcentury Bastien’s on East Colfax will always be, well, classic, A5 modernizes the steakhouse with a menu full of surprises. Non-steak entrees good enough to write home about? Don’t mind if we do. Beef tartare but make it a katsu sando? We’ve never had better. And cuts of beef that go beyond a filet? Our minds and mouths are wide open.
Lincoln Park
For a taste of old Denver, like turn of the twentieth century old, Buckhorn Exchange is a blast from the past. The menu is full of elk, buffalo, rattlesnake, and Rocky Mountain oysters (spoiler alert: these oysters don’t come from the sea), and the walls are packed with animal heads and old photos. No, this isn’t the place to take a vegetarian, but if you’re hungry for unique proteins with a side of history, the Buck can’t be beat.
Sunnyside
Yes, you’re going to drop some serious cash here (the tasting menu starts at $160 per person) and no, you don’t get to choose what you eat, but where else are you going to experience the glory that is wood-fired lamb with rhubarb tonkatsu or pasta wrapped in a wasabi and green tomato sauce? The Michelin-starred The Wolf’s Tailor combines Italian and Japanese influences with hyper-local ingredients (they grow and mill their own grains and have their own in-house fermentation director) and makes it all zero-waste because of course they do. Is this overly ambitious tweezer food or the future of dining? There’s only one way to find out.
LoHi
Alma Fonda Fina is a different sort of Mexican restaurant than you typically find in town. Here, tortillas are made with sourdough and the birria features an entire fall-off-the-bone lamb shank. It’s the kind of place that challenges what you thought Mexican food could be, where if you order outside of your comfort zone, you’ll be rewarded with agave roasted sweet potatoes topped with dry salsa and moles so good you’ll lick the plate. Come hungry and, we bet, you’ll come often.
Union Station
Tucked behind Union Station, Sunday Vinyl is like going to a friend’s house for a dinner party, if your friends are the kind of people who put caviar on hash brown patties and spin vintage Prince records. Everything is lovely here, from the incredible wine flights to the playlist to the food that approaches the line between sophisticated and stuffy, but never crosses over. Stop in for happy hour before 6 pm for $8 glasses of wine and prime people watching.
RiNo
There are so many ways to experience Safta. You could eat your weight in salatim, focus in on entrees like harissa roasted chicken and pomegranate braised lamb shank, or close your eyes and point to a variety of killer dishes from all sections of the menu. Just make sure that whatever adventure you choose involves Safta’s wood-fired, impossibly pillowy pitas, preferably dipped into super creamy hummus topped with foraged mushrooms or spicy lamb ragu. This Mediterranean restaurant inside The Source Hotel is one hotel restaurant you’ll never want to check out of.
Park Hill
Yuan Wonton’s uber-popular food truck tested dumpling lovers’ dedication to xiao long bao and pork chili wontons with the sometimes hours-long lines. With the opening of the Park Hill brick-and-mortar, you no longer have to brave the heat and cold for a taste of Denver’s best dumplings. Now you can order khao soi chicken wontons, Chinese chive pockets, and Sichuan eggplant dumplings from the comfort of a real-life, indoor table. Just don’t come for dinner—Yuan Wonton is lunch only.
LoHi
You’d expect Denver’s oldest continually operating water hole to have some stories, and My Brother’s Bar certainly does. One of them hangs on the wall near the men’s room, a letter from beat writer Neal Cassady (the inspiration for Jack Kerouac’s Dean Moriarty in On the Road) asking his high school counselor to pay his outstanding bar tab. Run up a bill of your own feasting on parchment-wrapped JCBs (jalapeño cream cheese burgers; still the city’s best) and downing a local brew.
Lakewood
Yes, there’s been a lot of hype surrounding the reopening of our nearly-50-year-old Mexican pink palace—that’s what happens when the South Park guys buy and renovate a hometown favorite. But no hype is too much hype when it comes to a restaurant as beloved and special as Casa Bonita. No other restaurant on earth has Black Bart’s Cave, cliff divers, a taco puppet show, sopaipilla flags, and mediocre carnitas, all in one cavernous, too-weird-to-be-true (but it is!) setting. You don’t come here for the food but for the experience, and after a visit you’ll understand why Kyle called it “the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants.”
LoHi
One of the city’s OG food halls is still one of the best. Where else can you choose among a pho banh mi, smoked salmon arepa, and mushroom truffle burger and eat it all on a rooftop with some of the best city skyline views? Avanti started as a restaurant incubator for cool new concepts, giving them space in modified shipping containers to cook the kind of food the chefs wanted to cook, and it took off immediately. This isn’t the place to hit for a quiet dinner, but if you’re looking for tasty options in a bustling setting with a view, Avanti is the move.
Allyson Reedy is a Thrillist contributor.
