The 25 Best Restaurants in Denver This Year

By theamericannews
3 months Ago

The 25 Best Restaurants in Denver This Year

Over the past few years, new restaurants and tried-and-true eateries are crafting menus that are more reflective of Colorado’s vibrant seasons and multicultural population than ever before. Since the start of 2024, we dined at more than 70 restaurants to seek out the best flavors of the Front Range and painstakingly narrowed down to this list.

From crave-worthy birria tacos to elevated borscht, these are the restaurants dishing the best bites in Denver and beyond right now.

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Celebrate these winners at 5280 Dines on Sunday, October 20. Find tickets here.

Photo by Joni Schrantz, courtesy of Dough Counter

Price point: $
Cuisine: Pizza
Location: University Hills Plaza, 2466 S. Colorado Blvd., University Hills
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Whichever pizza style makes your stomach growl, the Dym family has likely mastered it. In 2008, Mark and Kristy Dym founded the Ballpark neighborhood’s Marco’s Coal-Fired, the first Colorado restaurant to be certified by Italy’s Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, which recognizes makers of authentic Neapolitan pizza. The restaurant sparked many Denverites’ obsessions with the blistered pies of Naples, and in September 2023, the Dyms delivered more carb-loaded goodness. Fast-casual Dough Counter serves Sicilian and New York–style pizzas alongside a lineup of starters, chicken strips, and big ole slices of cake.

Start with crispy, hand-breaded tenders with house-made ranch, then move on to the main event. The New York–style pies are perfection, with foldable slices, but don’t miss the Sicilian. These ultra-thick masterpieces have crusts loaded with cheese that stretches all the way to the sides of the pan to yield a caramelized edge. The Hot Honey Pepperoni is a stunner, as is the Big Mac, which has—as you might imagine—a Thousand Island–like sauce.

Read More: 5280 Top of the Town: Best Pizza

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $
Cuisine: Mexican
Location: 1200 W. 38th Ave., LoHi
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

In a city where you can’t toss a tortilla without hitting a taco place, Kiké’s stands apart. At the nearly 18-month-old fast-casual joint on Denver’s Northside, the Silva Gonzalez family seasons goat or beef with roughly a dozen spices before simmering the protein for eight hours. The resulting melt-in-your-mouth birria is available several ways, including tucked into tacos, piled on top of ramen, and sandwiched in a torta.

The can’t-miss option, though, is the queso taco: a red corn tortilla layered with birria, cheese, onion, and cilantro and griddled until impeccably melty and crunchy. Dunked in meaty consomé, the finger-licking specialty has been a locals’ favorite since Kiké’s—pronounced “kee-kays,” a nickname for Enrique, a popular middle name in the family—debuted as a food truck in 2020. The brick-and-mortar restaurant has more offerings than the taquería-on-wheels, including adult beverages and a well-stocked salsa bar. In the unlikely event you have room for dessert, order the churro bites with Nutella and milk anglaise dipping sauces.

Read More: 8 Places In and Around Denver to Get Great Birria

Price point: $
Cuisine: American
Location: 2651 W. 38th Ave., Sunnyside
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Formerly known as Bodega, Odie B’s made a rowdy entrance into Denver’s brunch scene in summer 2022, making a name for itself with its smart twists on classic sandwiches. The commotion it caused reached all the way to Kansas City, where a similarly named restaurant had trademarked the “Bodega” title 26 years earlier. A cease-and-desist letter and $10,000 in rebranding costs later, Odie B’s emerged in July.

While the business has a fresh moniker, the fast-casual eatery’s cult favorite offerings remain the same. We love the Deviled Chicken—a fried chicken thigh, deviled egg spread, bread-and-butter pickles, arugula, and pickled red onion between Texas toast—but the burger and the breakfast sandwich (there are vegan versions of all three) also satisfy our need for handheld sustenance. Pair your pick with the mixed bag of fries, whose four spud varieties are seasoned with a nutritional-yeast-boosted dust, and be thankful that Odie B’s is just as boisterous as Bodega ever was.

Read More: Bodega Denver Stacks Some of Sunnyside’s Sexiest Sandwiches

Price point: $$
Cuisine: Korean
Location: Lowry Town Center, 200 Quebec St., Lowry Field
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

After 20 years of cooking French and Japanese cuisine for restaurants such as Vail’s Matsuhisa, chef Sean Baek turned to the fare he knows best. This past May, the chef opened Baekga, where he and his wife, Mina Kim, serve the cuisine of their native Korea. Inside the no-frills restaurant dressed in dark woods, gray, and black, tables are loaded with galbi (short ribs) served on sizzling skillets, silky japchae (sweet potato starch noodles) studded with sliced veggies, and parades of rotating banchan, aka side dishes such as kimchi.

While you can get these specialties at many other Korean restaurants, the renditions at Baekga are presented (often by Baek himself) with warm hospitality and elevated touches you won’t find anywhere else. For example, the perfectly charred galbi wears a sauce sweetened with grated pear, while the tightly wrapped, fried-shrimp-stuffed kimbap (rice roll) exhibits the technique of a skilled sushi chef. To taste Baek’s fine-dining prowess, order the beignets dusted with roasted beet powder and powdered sugar for dessert.

Read More: Baekga Serves Comforting Korean Cuisine in Lowry

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Location: 9945 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Six-month-old Dân Dã is the Vietnamese restaurant for diners who want to adventure past ubiquitous staples like pho and banh mi. The Aurora restaurant from An and Thao Nguyen, whose family was behind now-closed New Saigon, excels at enticing Denverites to try something new, whether that’s whelks topped with garlic butter and XO chile crisp or a salad of steamed pork belly, shrimp, squid, jellyfish, and pickled lotus root.

Although it might not seem like it to the uninitiated, Dân Dã (pronounced “yuhng yaa”) is all about comfort food, Vietnamese style. That means balancing the tastes of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy and using harmonious ingredients in recipes that should be just as universally beloved as chicken noodle soup. The flagship clay pots—hunks of meat, such as catfish fillets or pork tenderloin, bubbling in a caramel sauce—are a prime example and will gratify anyone who enjoys glazed, sweet-salty dishes like Chinese sesame chicken or French duck à l’orange. If you’re still unsure, the Dân Dã Tower, a three-tiered column of pork skewers, fried shrimp paste, veggies and herbs, noodles, and other delights meant to be tucked into fresh spring rolls, is the choose-your-own-adventure meal that anyone can get used to.

Read More: Dân Dã Successfully Ties the Comforts of the Past to the Present

Price point: $$
Cuisine: Chinese
Location: 39 W. First Ave., Baker
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

At MAKfam, Kenneth Wan and Doris Yuen’s nearly one-year-old fast-casual restaurant, the married duo presents dishes and drinks influenced by their Chinese American heritage. Table markers sport photos of celebrities such as Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh, and colorful images saluting American Chinatowns and monosodium glutamate (MSG) grace the walls. These playful elements complement the eatery’s nontraditional drinks and dishes.

While you wait for your food, knock back a refreshing Hong Kong Iced Tea—lemon tea with cognac, yuzu curaçao, and honey presented in a repurposed carton of Vita tea (a popular Chinese refreshment)—or quaff an ultrasavory MSG-infused gin martini. Then dig into dessert-worthy sugar-dusted crab and cheese wontons and flavor-packed salt and pepper fried chicken and rice with sweet soy and ginger-scallion oil. Or pop in during Sunday brunch for decadent, salted-egg-yolk-stuffed Hong Kong French toast and delectable steak and eggs over garlic-scented rice. All are inventive nods to Wan and Yuen’s multicultural East Coast upbringing as the children of Chinese immigrants.

Read More: One Denver Restaurant Owner’s Love Letter to MSG

Price point: $$
Cuisine: Chinese
Location: 2878 Fairfax St., North Park Hill
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Even with four other chefs on staff and (usually) only offering lunch service, Penelope Wong spends up to 30 hours a week prepping the 5,000-plus dumplings she serves as chef-owner of Yuan Wonton. Most restaurateurs aren’t gutsy enough to build an eatery around such finicky foodstuffs, but Wong is nothing if not ambitious. In fact, even though the James Beard Foundation Award finalist has hustled since debuting Yuan Wonton as a mobile operation five years ago, she’s only added more to her proverbial plate after opening the brick-and-mortar location in September 2023.

Drawing on her Chinese-Thai background, Wong often spawns new creations (try the Hainanese chicken wontons) while keeping up with favorites, such as the OG chile oil wontons. Visit during Friday’s dim sum lunch and order a few kinds of dumplings, including the palm-size Chinese chive pockets and the yam khai dao—wok-fried eggs served over rice and a tart-spicy herb salad. Before you leave, grab some ube-filled sesame balls for later, and watch the chefs pleat dumplings behind the counter on your way out.

Read More: Your Guide to (Almost) Every Yuan Wonton Dumpling

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Mexican
Location: 2556 15th St., LoHi
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Basking in the warm glow of 10-month-old Alma Fonda Fina’s dining room, it’s hard to believe that the interior came together in just six weeks. After chef Johnny Curiel and his wife, Kasie, hunted for a venue for their modern Mexican concept for more than a year, they fell in love with the intimate LoHi space that had housed the Truffle Table for more than a decade. With the help of Agatha Jane Interior Design, the Curiels transformed the rustic wine bar into an inviting hideaway furnished with reclaimed wood, succulents, terra cotta, and textiles from Mexico. The backdrop, illuminated by fixtures sourced from artisans around the world, pairs harmoniously with what comes out of Johnny’s open kitchen, including elegant variations of familiar favorites, such as tacos and crudos, as well as rarer-in-Denver eats.

We highly recommend building a feast with a combination of both; don’t miss the camote asada (roasted sweet potato) and lubina rayada (Colorado striped bass with habanero chile atole and chimichurri tomatoes). Then, raise an avocado margarita to the Curiels’ quick and deft handiwork—and to the restaurant’s recently earned Michelin star.

Read More: 5280 Top of the Town: Best New Restaurant

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Steak house
Location: 2601 Larimer St., RiNo
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Dana Rodriguez is no newb to Denver’s restaurant scene. Her concepts, such as Work & Class and now-closed Cantina Loca, have all earned acclaim, including, in previous years, mentions on this very list. But Carne, a modern steak house in RiNo that fired up its grills in July, is Rodriguez’s first opportunity to show off the breadth of her culinary résumé.

The chef affectionately known as Loca isn’t just a whiz with the flavors of South America and her native Mexico; she’s also spent time in the kitchens of French and Italian restaurants. Hence, along with a selection of steaks that range from a $40 filet to a $175 tomahawk, you’ll find Argentinian tri-tip and chorizo, Italian veal osso buco, and some of the juiciest duck confit in town. Rodriguez also made Carne versatile in terms of its hours. An Afternoon Delight happy hour precedes every dinner service, and at 10 p.m., the party shifts to the upstairs loft, where a trim set of late-night bites and a standalone cocktail menu shine under a disco ball. It’s tempting to stick around all day. Rodriguez agrees, saying, “It’s a steak home.”

Read More: Three Things You Didn’t Know About Dana Rodriguez

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: French
Location: 38 S. Broadway, Speer
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Fans of the aspen-tree-bedecked dining room at now-closed Beatrice & Woodsley will love the amped-up version of that forest-themed setting at La Forêt, which took over the South Broadway location this past March. When they moved in, La Forêt owners Mike Huggins and Lenka Juchelkova added more flora, but the restaurant’s menu of upscale French classics and a beverage program directed by Williams & Graham alum Jason Patz have become the real draws.

We suggest ordering a melon- and vodka-forward Summer in Provence cocktail and indulging in buttery, charred-lemon-drizzled artichokes and sliced stag au poivre served in a pool of peppercorn and cognac sauce. Prolong your stay in the leather booths amidst the gnarled branches and patches of moss by ordering the berry-capped crème brûlée and boozy café brûlot, a cognac- and orange-peel-spiked coffee that’s lit on fire tableside. The dazzling send-off will prepare you for the return to the concrete jungle outside.

Read More: La Forêt Transports Diners to the Forest With French Fare and Cocktails

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Latin American
Location: 2245 Kearney St., South Park Hill
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

There’s no bad time to visit Lucina, a two-and-a-half-year-old eatery that specializes in the flavors of Latin America, coastal Spain, and the Caribbean. Drop in during happy hour (Tuesday through Friday, 3 to 5 p.m.) for discounts on tapas, pintxos, and cocktails. That includes $9 papas con todo (fries blanketed with chorizo, jalapeño, melty queso de oro, and spicy ají verde crema) and $8 albondigas (wagyu beef meatballs in a tomato and roasted pepper sauce). Both play well with a smooth, rosemary-garnished cosmopolitan shaken with precision by beverage director Henry Ottrix. Or come on Friday or Saturday night, when chef-owners Erasmo Casiano and Diego Coconati cook paella, whose fruits of the sea sit on a bed of saffron-scented rice. Bring your friends—one order sates up to three people—so you’re not too full for dessert. Creations by Hannah Lavoy such as éclairs with espresso cream satisfy every time.

Read More: How Lucina Eatery & Bar is Making Dining Out Fun Again

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: European
Location: 405 Main St., Lyons
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Since opening Marigold in Lyons in 2022, chef Theo Adley has made an outsize impact on the small town. He earned a James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Mountain in January, putting the Front Range enclave on the culinary map for his fine yet humble dinner fare, which draws widely from European gastronomy. Adley’s unorthodox flavor combinations (think: sea urchin, polenta, corn, black sesame, and Basque peppers) are likely what’s earning him such national recognition, but customers can take comfort in more approachable plates. Dishes such as half chicken under a brick and ragu-coated rigatoni cement Marigold as a neighborhood bistro worthy of regular visits. But Adley never fails to add a special touch: The chicken is paired with spigarello, an heirloom Italian green; the ragu has a hint of mint. That’s what elevates the restaurant to a higher culinary plane—and what makes the trip up U.S. 36 truly worth it.

Read More: Marigold in Lyons Is Worth the Hour-Long Drive from Denver

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Japanese
Location: 1501 S. Pearl St., Platt Park
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Eight-year-old Ototo has been the least-hyped member of South Pearl Street’s so-called Den Corner, which also encompasses nearly 40-year-old Sushi Den and 13-year-old Izakaya Den, both seminal eateries from proprietors Yasu and Toshi Kizaki. But after the Japanese-street-food-centric concept reopened in spring 2023 after a three-year hiatus, the excitement has been palpable. With its mix of inventive fare, preparations of fresh seafood (flown in daily for all three eateries), and more laid-back vibe, Ototo has finally found its verve.

Whether you sit at one of the two bars or at a table, you can dial up a meal filled with less-common plates, such as the wok-seared shaved pork with kimchi and the scallop carpaccio with citrusy shiso pesto, as well as a typical selection of sashimi, nigiri, and oshizushi (pressed sushi). Ototo will never be one of the Dens, and that’s fine with us, especially since the restaurant offers something neither of the others does: Sunday brunch. Trust us, the kara age chicken with matcha waffles is worth getting out of bed for.

Read More: Newly Reopened Ototo Is Demanding Attention in Platt Park

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Contemporary
Location: 2000 E. 28th Ave., Whittier
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

In a city where farm-to-table cuisine reigns, it can be difficult to separate the, ahem, wheat from the chaff. In the Whittier neighborhood, though, two-year-old Point Easy makes a bold claim as an exemplar of the genre.

Case in point: On the eclectic yet somehow still cohesive menu, even the house salad is audacious. The dish, whose greens are sourced from Boulder’s Cure Organic Farm, is decorated with a subtly Middle Eastern combination of pistachios, dates, red chiles, ricotta salata, and a vinaigrette seasoned with ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend. The brick chicken—executed with Latin American flavors such as salsa macha, herbed yogurt, plantains, and jicama—and the Three Sisters chitarra pasta, made with nutty Turkey Red heirloom wheat and loaded with local beans, corn, and squash, make similarly confident statements. The kitchen’s steady hand with seasoning and its respect for star ingredients make Point Easy the easy pick as a place that has pulled away from the pack.

Read More: Point Easy Is the Neighborhood Joint of Your Dreams

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Location: 2550 E. Colfax Ave., Congress Park
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

One-year-old Sắp Sửa, located on East Colfax Avenue, is churning out gussied-up Vietnamese cuisine and contributing to a more equitable and nurturing hospitality industry. To facilitate an all-hands-in work environment, chef-owners Ni and Anna Nguyen encourage bar and kitchen employees to develop new dishes and drinks, and they credit every member of the staff on the menu. Inspiration for this rare camaraderie can actually be found in the restaurant’s name, which translates to “about to be” or “almost” in Vietnamese and symbolizes the Nguyens’ mission to inspire themselves and their team members to continuously evolve.

The philosophy has resulted in an ever-growing inventory of creative recipes such as bánh mì cà chua—sourdough toast soaked in a tomato vinaigrette and topped with confit tomatoes, fried shallots and garlic, and herbs—and bún cha, which are lemongrass pork meatballs with Colorado peaches and pickled jalapeño. They’re mouthwatering creations that are paving the way for a more collaborative restaurant world.

Read More: 5280 Top of the Town: Best Vietnamese

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Italian
Location: 2639 W. 32nd Ave., Highland
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Like any well-matched couple, Spuntino’s Cindhura Reddy and Elliot Strathmann complement each other, both in personalities and, crucial to Denver diners, skill sets. Reddy’s Indian-influenced Italian cuisine has always wowed at the Highland dinner spot—never pass up the capellini aglio e olio with spice-preserved garlic or the malai kofta gnocchi with curry-scented tomato sauce—but Strathmann’s thirst-quenching contributions are just as critical to the dining experience. Try a cocktail mixed with house-infused liqueurs, like the House of Tom Bombadil, an earthy tonic of Family Jones gin, Spuntino’s saffron liqueur, citrus, soda, and a bespoke amaro steeped with Turkey rhubarb root, bitter orange, and wild Colorado yarrow and artemisia. Or consider the rare, unconventional bottles on the wine menu’s Off List, which is largely sourced from niche makers in Italy. If Strathmann is at the restaurant, ask him for recommendations so you can indulge in a beverage that fits both Reddy’s flavor profiles and your preferences.

Read More: Where to Find Denver’s Best Italian Food

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$
Cuisine: Seafood
Location: Stanley Marketplace, 2501 Dallas St., Aurora
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Chef Caroline Glover and her husband, Nelson Harvey, debuted Traveling Mercies inside Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace in late 2023—just 18 months after their seven-year-old Annette earned Glover a James Beard Foundation Award. Although we love the reliable wood-fired eats and come-one, come-all vibe at the latter, the former’s concise roster of wine, cocktails, and seafood-centric bites confirms Glover’s culinary range, and the breezy, light-wood-accented space whisks diners to a place where the air is salty and feet are always sandy. That transportive environment comes courtesy of Denver’s FAM Design, which outfitted the tiny room with deep blue and terra cotta hues and painted the curvy, slatted ceiling a shade of warm ochre.

Plan your next vacation over a meal of oysters, shrimp cocktail with mustard-powder-spiked sauce, and a slab salad speckled with pancetta, blue cheese, and sundried tomato at a marble-topped table. Or toast the sunset with an extra-dry martini at the window-facing back counter.

Read More: Caroline Glover’s Traveling Mercies Is the Ultimate Getaway Eatery

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: Italian
Location: 1738 Pearl St., Boulder
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Frasca executive chef Ian Palazzola doesn’t feel worthy of the fanfare associated with the Italian restaurant’s 20th anniversary this year. After all, he was promoted to the role in spring 2023, just a little more than a year after starting on the culinary team at LoDo’s Tavernetta, Frasca’s sister restaurant. Co-owner and master sommelier Bobby Stuckey was drawn to the Virginia native’s fine-dining pedigree, which includes a tenure at San Francisco’s Mourad, and his knack for keeping up with the latest cooking trends.

For Frasca’s multicourse menus, Palazzola might dye tagliolini jet black with squid ink to give the pasta a striking appearance or finish duck breast with ajvar, a roasted pepper and eggplant relish. His thirst for innovation and talent for carefully procuring ingredients from local purveyors only boosts the institution’s capacity to impress the next generation of diners—proof the chef is more than worthy of executing Frasca’s mission for years to come.

Read More: An Ode to Frasca Food and Wine

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: Chinese
Location: 3500 Larimer St., RiNo
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2019

After nine years of setting the city standard for modern Chinese fare, Hop Alley, chef Tommy Lee’s urban-chic RiNo restaurant, doesn’t have many secrets left. But if you haven’t heard of its chef’s counter, which launched in February, you’re missing out on one of the most innovative culinary adventures in Denver. Psst: The six-seat bartop is essentially a separate restaurant within the restaurant. Reservations require a $100 per person deposit, and you can’t order from the daily menu. But once seated in front of the 150-square-foot dedicated kitchen, you can dig into high-end, craveable cuisine that transcends Hop Alley’s regular flavor boundaries.

Most dishes contain some Asian influence; some make it obvious, such as sweet-sour char siu beets, while others are subtle, like umami-laden rib-eye with veal jus and scallion Yorkshire pudding. Whether you opt for the prix fixe tasting or order off the handwritten menu, savor every last bite before the secret gets out.

Read More: 20 of Denver’s Best Chinese Restaurants

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: American
Location: 2845 Larimer St., RiNo
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Major Tom hasn’t stirred up Michelin-starred acclaim like adjacent concept Beckon. But the glam bar and restaurant offers a similar brand of epicurean magic in a more casual setting and at a lower price. That’s because the team running the neighboring venue—including chef Duncan Holmes and director of experience Allison Anderson—prepares ingredients with the same scrupulous attention to detail at both. At the intimate eatery, whose theme is a nod to the David Bowie song, patrons can choose their own culinary journeys with small plates, cocktails, and an expansive selection of wines, including more than 40 Champagnes.

Since Major Tom’s 30 seats fill up quickly, you’ll want to reserve a table to indulge in a couple of glasses of bubbly with red-miso-kissed charred cabbage, buttery Alamosa bass on a bed of chanterelle mushrooms and pole beans, and the best riff on McDonald’s french fries on the Front Range. And unlike the eight-course tasting menu at nearby Beckon, a dinner here doesn’t make you feel like you need a special occasion (and a big raise) to indulge your palate. $$$$, 2845 Larimer St.

Read More: Major Tom Lets Diners Embark on an Odyssey Into the Champagne Universe

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: Eastern European
Location: 3333 E. Colfax Ave., City Park
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

While today’s headlines about Ukraine are often focused on its devastating war with Russia, one Denver chef is illuminating the country’s multifaceted culture and cuisine. Bo Porytko, whose grandparents moved to the United States from Ukraine, honors his heritage at nearly two-year-old Molotov through a rotating list of Eastern European specialties.

However, those familiar with Porytko’s imaginative cooking style, which gained a following at the temporarily closed Misfit Snackbar (don’t fret, it’s looking for new digs), know not to expect average preparations of, well, anything. For instance, he bolsters borscht with seasonal produce (one recent edition had potatoes, crispy leeks, and egg yolk jam), fills dumplings with chive sour cream to serve in snap pea foam, and fries kielbasa-stuffed quail in a buttermilk batter. From his cooking to a wall installation representing a traditional headdress to the many cocktails starring horilka (a vodkalike spirit), Porytko and his eatery urge visitors to look beyond their newsfeeds to learn more about the people and culture of Ukraine.

Read More: Molotov Kitschen & Cocktails Gives Ukrainian Cuisine a Great Name

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: French
Location: 3254 Navajo St., LoHi
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Many of us long for a romantic getaway to the City of Love, particularly after watching the recent Summer Olympics. But before you pull the trigger on that nine-hour flight, pencil in a date night at Noisette. The two-year-old Parisian retreat’s location sets the mood: Tucked away along the eastern edge of LoHi, the restaurant from hospitality veterans Tim and Lillian Lu is located just far away enough from the neighborhood’s bustling center to feel intimate. The dining room’s ambience is dreamy, too, with chic velvet seating, dainty floral arrangements, and a pleasing palette of pastel greens, blues, and pinks.

Research Tim’s menu of delicate French plates beforehand, then woo your partner with your proper pronunciation of foie gras with brioche and vol-au-vents (filled puff pastry). And don’t miss Lillian’s house-made baguette. Bakeries outside of France rarely produce the ideal chewy-pillowy-crispy specimen, so nailing that textural combination in a high-elevation environment like Denver is nothing short of a gold-medal-worthy feat.

Read More: Dining at Noisette Is Like Visiting Your Chic French Grandmother’s House

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: Italian
Location: 290 S. Downing St., Washington Park
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Ever since Restaurant Olivia opened in January 2020, making exceptional pasta has been its watchword. Its program of extruded, twisted, and hand-folded noodles is superlative within Denver’s Italian restaurant scene, which was loaded with first-rate options even before Olivia’s opening.

This past May, the Washington Park hot spot unveiled a 1,200-square-foot expansion that, among several other structural changes, moved its entrance, doubled its seating capacity, and, most important, introduced an open-concept station where dedicated pasta chef Emily Boyd rolls out around 100 pounds of pasta each week. Her noodles are transformed into seasonal hits such as zingy, mussel-studded spaghetti al limone and a rich gemelli dish with lamb meatballs, pecorino cream, prosciutto, and Palisade cherries. If you’re looking to level up your pasta game at home, sign up for head chef and co-owner Ty Leon’s classes, where you can learn the art form using the eatery’s time-tested recipes.

Read More: Where to Find Denver’s Best Italian Food

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: Wine bar
Location: 1803 16th Street Mall, LoDo
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

This spring, Sunday Vinyl, the nearly five-year-old wine bar by Union Station that spins an in-house record collection, welcomed a new executive chef, Cody Cheetham. Cheetham’s commute didn’t change much, though. Across the portico, the Montana native has worked at upscale Italian restaurant Tavernetta since it opened in 2017, becoming its executive chef in 2019, a position he still holds along with his new post.

Luckily for us, Cheetham doesn’t have big plans to change Sunday Vinyl’s tune. Instead, the chef resurrected former menu items, including the beloved pommes frites (try the version with Comté and dry-aged beef tallow), and offers new additions that maintain the spot’s unstuffy attitude. The Fish and Chics lightens up the classic pub plate with vinegary chicory and cauliflower, and the McDonald’s-inspired hash brown topped with ossetra caviar is an instant classic.

Read More: 19 of Denver’s Best Wine Bars

Photo by Sarah Banks

Price point: $$$$
Cuisine: Seasonal
Location: 4058 Tejon St., Sunnyside
Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

We’re not the only ones praising the Wolf’s Tailor. Since September 2023, the six-year-old fine-dining restaurant has earned a coveted Michelin star and a Michelin green star for leadership in sustainability, and its owners Kelly and Erika Whitaker took home a James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurateur. Even without those shiny medals and puffy mascot prizes, though, the cookery here, led by chef de cuisine Taylor Stark, would win honors from diners.

Expect a luxurious tasting menu designed around local ingredients and minimal food waste. For instance, a summer meal featured courses like a green-tomato-slicked pasta made with Rouge de Bordeaux flour; a wood-fired lamb chop served with lingonberry tonkatsu; and a bento-box trio composed of a fresh oyster, truffle panna cotta, and a tuna tartare tartlet. Every bite, including pastry chef Emily Thompson’s stone-fruit-centric layer cake, was deserving of its own accolade.

Read More: Why Michelin Green Stars Set Colorado Restaurants Apart from the Rest of the U.S.

*Price reflects the average amount spent on food at dinnertime, excluding beverages, per person.

Celebrate the 2024 Best Restaurants with us! Join 5280 for an indulgent, can’t-miss foodie evening featuring mouthwatering menus from this year’s winners, plus delicious boozy and non-alcoholic beverages, a DJ set, and more. The 5280 Dines event is back on Sunday, October 20, at the Brighton in RiNo. Get your tickets here.