As only the fourth food editor in 5280’s 32-year history, Mark Antonation did not take lightly the job of compiling his first “25 Best Restaurants” feature, which we publish annually in October. “The first thing I did was think about what ‘best’ means to us and to readers,” Antonation says. “This year, what are people looking for in a restaurant? I came up with the word ‘value,’ because that’s important right now. I don’t necessarily mean inexpensive. I just mean, what do you get for your money?”

That criterion led to a price-, vibe-, and cuisine-diverse list with 15 entries that were not in our 2024 edition. Some of those are new to the Denver dining scene: Magna Kainan, which opened in the Cole neighborhood this past December, impressed Antonation with its upscale Filipino eats and knowledgeable staff. “The bartender knew everything about the menu, and he was able to guide me to some good choices,” Antonation says. Eight-month-old Mama Jo’s Biscuits & BBQ on East Colfax Avenue is another fresh spot. “It’s barbecue, fried chicken biscuits—not what you would consider fancy food,” Antonation says. “But a ‘best restaurant’ can be that, as long as it’s done really well.”

5280 October 2025
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Antonation also brought back several local institutions: 33-year-old Cherry Creek Italian mainstay Barolo Grill; Platt Park’s Sushi Den, where relationships formed with global markets over 41 years result in some of the city’s freshest fish; and Lakewood’s African Grill & Bar, which has been serving fufu and chapati in various locations across the metro area for decades. “There are plenty of older spots that are still rising to the top,” Antonation says. “You don’t have to be a two- or three-year-old restaurant to gain my attention.”

Molotov Kitschen & Cocktails
Molotov Kitschen & Cocktails. Photo by Joni Schrantz

What do you have to be? For this year, at least, an eatery with a traditional, flexible menu, which ruled out prix fixe spots such as Boulder’s venerated Frasca Food and Wine and trendy chef’s-counter experiences like Sushi by Scratch in Larimer Square and RiNo’s Beckon. “When you go to a restaurant, for the most part, you want some choices,” Antonation says. “If you’re going to a chef’s tasting, you’re leaving that in the hands of the restaurant and the chef. If that’s what you want, that’s great, but it’s not the typical experience.”

That said, the 25 honorees on Antonation’s inaugural list are far from ordinary. His guiding ethos—“Are you going to leave happy, full, invigorated, surprised?”—means there’s something for every palate and budget. Now, you just have to decide what “best” means to you. —Jessica LaRusso

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Attend 5280 Dines to celebrate this year’s top restaurants on Sunday, October 12. Find tickets online.

Price for Dinner*: $21 to $30

Dân Dã

Photo by Sarah Banks
  • Price: $$
  • Cuisine: Vietnamese
  • Location: 9945 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

In 2016, President Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain brought bun cha Hanoi, a rice noodle soup served with grilled pork patties, to the world’s attention by sharing a meal in a crowded diner in the dish’s hometown. It can be found in many of Denver’s Vietnamese spots, but only Dân Dã chef-owner An Nguyen, whose parents owned South Federal’s venerated, now-shuttered New Saigon, has the audacity—and the chops—to make the dish her own.

At the chic, year-and-a-half-old Aurora nook, Nguyen’s Bun Cha Hanoi Dân Dã comes loaded with extras like crunchy lotus root, shredded papaya, and betel-leaf-wrapped beef that adds an herbal, peppery aroma, all in a deeply savory broth. That’s how most of the chef’s menu reads: Vietnamese classics given a house spin. Here, popular DIY rice paper wraps come on a three-tiered tower, putting all of the hot and cold elements on separate plates and making it easier to build the perfect wrap. Bubbling clay pot stews are the final piece of evidence for how Denver’s Vietnamese restaurant scene can evolve with its second generation of restaurateurs.

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

Luchador Taco & More

  • Price: $$
  • Cuisine: Mexican and Peruvian
  • Location: 2030 E. 28th Ave., Denver (Whittier)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

If we had to choose only one dish to eat at chef Zurisadai Resendiz’s year-old Mexican dinner spot Luchador (which would happen only under coercion), it might not be something Mexican. To honor his wife’s home country, Resendiz includes a few recipes from Peru in his repertoire at the tightly packed Whittier space. The shrimp causa layers chilled potato purée, avocado, and shrimp ceviche seasoned with ají amarillo (yellow South American chiles), chile morita aïoli, and lime juice. A swirl of bold, warming flavor with a jolt of citrus, it’s the thing you keep reaching for with your fork long after you’re stuffed.

But of course, we’d never willingly skip the tacos, which are as good as any in Colorado. Fillings include lengua (supple slices of tongue with avocado salsa), cochinita pibil (shredded pork braised in tangy, earthy sauce), and pulpo al pastor (generous adobo-marinated rounds of octopus). Paired with a house margarita or fermented-pineapple tepache mixed with rum or mezcal, every bite at Luchador is worth fighting for.

Read More: Luchador Taco & More Brings Mexican Street Eats to Whittier

MAKfam

Photo courtesy of MAKfam
  • Price: $$
  • Cuisine: Chinese
  • Location: 39 W. First Ave., Denver (Baker)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

The menu at Baker’s two-year-old MAKfam combines the memories of Kenneth Wan and Doris Yuen, who grew up in Chinese restaurant families, met and got married on the East Coast, and launched a business called HKFT selling Hong Kong French toast at a Queens night market in 2015. A decade later, MAKfam (short for Meta Asian Kitchen Family) sports a Michelin Bib Gourmand sticker on the door, and Wan was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Mountain earlier this year.

They owe their success to bold flavors on a concise menu of noodles, fried rice, and dumplings—a bowl of fancy wun tun tong stuffed with shrimp and chicken and doused in spicy XO sauce is a must-order on every visit—supplemented with lunch-only dishes like spicy-sweet steak and egg jian bing, a scallion pancake sandwich wrap. MSG is used proudly and fearlessly here, giving a boost to both umami and Chinese culture. This year Wan and Yuen added a pre-happy-hour midday munchies menu that includes a killer fried chicken sandwich, their storied French toast stuffed with salted duck egg yolk, and mala sticky fries.

Mama Jo’s Biscuits & BBQ

Photo by Joni Schrantz
  • Price: $$
  • Cuisine: Southern and barbecue
  • Location: 3525 E. Colfax Ave., Denver (City Park)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Jodi Polson once crafted tempting desserts and baked goods at some of the most creative eateries in the Mile High City. Now she’s making fluffy smoked-Gouda biscuits inside a former East Colfax Avenue hot dog stand. Meanwhile, her husband, Ben—a one-time corporate chef—is smoking some of Denver’s best pork ribs and shoulder outside that shack, which once housed Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs. But biscuits and barbecue are just part of the draw at Mama Jo’s, an ode to Southern fare that started as a food truck in 2021 before putting down permanent roots in February.

Treat a visit like a picnic; the spiffed-up dining area is still little more than a covered patio with pine benches. Order the Mama’s House (pictured) for samples of pulled pork, ribs, hot links, bone-in fried chicken (on Fridays only), and all the trimmings: pickles, biscuits, and sides like meaty collard greens and creamy pimento mac and cheese. Also share a Nashville hot chicken sandwich or a basket of juicy smoked wings (if it’s a Wednesday). Just leave room for dessert. Jodi’s pedigree shows in her cinnamon-sugar-dusted apple fritters and fried banana pudding hand pies.

Tofu Story

Photo courtesy of Tofu Story
  • Price: $$
  • Cuisine: Korean
  • Location: 2060 S. Havana St., Aurora
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Credit one man, JW Lee, with much of the spread of Korean cuisine in metro Denver: As founder and CEO of Seoul Hospitality Group, he oversees more than a dozen eateries and markets dedicated to the traditional recipes, street foods, bar bites, prepared foods, and tabletop barbecues of his home country. But Aurora’s two-year-old Tofu Story represents Lee’s deepest dive into Korea’s culinary history, starting with the house-made tofu that becomes the heart of the chef’s soon tofu stews, which arrive at your table still simmering and loaded with your choice of beef, pork, seafood, and more. Continue with the soy-marinated raw crab—a messy marvel of salty, umami, and textural contrasts also available in a spicy marinade—and then dive into the concentrated flavors of whole grilled mackerel or braised monkfish on the bone. Along the way, you can sample tofu breaded and crunchy like Japanese karaage, diced into a salad, pan-fried and topped with zingy sauce, or stirred into tongue-tingling mapo tofu.

The rice here is not to be taken lightly, either. Splurge on both purple rice and the pressure-cooked variety served tableside, part of the interactive experience that makes each visit an immersion in the joy of Korean dining.

Yuan Wonton

Photo by Joni Schrantz
  • Price: $$
  • Cuisine: Chinese with Thai influences
  • Location: 2878 Fairfax St., Denver (North Park Hill)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Lunch at chef Penelope Wong’s two-year-old Park Hill eatery feels like dinner at a pedigreed fine-dining establishment—only without the stuffiness. At Yuan Wonton, there’s the choreographed service, overseen by co-owner (and Wong’s husband) Rob Jenks; the minimalist decor and clean lines of the space that put the focus on the food; and the carefully crafted menu that’s so much more than just a meal. Absent, though, is the stifling sense of being hovered over. Instead, the air is light and bright, the staff graceful and at ease. Aromas—garlic, lemongrass, ginger, chiles—emanate from the kitchen and intensify as plates hit your table.

Dumplings get top billing here, including traditional bites like Sichuan eggplant dumplings and the namesake wontons in chile oil (pictured, top) as well as jaw-dropping, pan-Asian experiments like pad krapao potstickers (pictured, bottom) loaded with fish-sauce-scented minced pork and Thai basil. These come connected with a fine lace of crisped tuile resembling the surface of the moon (a full version of pad krapao, for Thai purists, is also available during Friday lunch). Thursdays and Fridays bring happy hour snacks, from 4 to 6 p.m., and a takeout menu of noodle bowls and other specials to serve as dinner in the most relaxed spot to enjoy a meal: your own home.

Price for Dinner*: $31 to $50

African Grill & Bar

African Grill & Bar
Photo by Mark Antonation
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: African
  • Location: 955 S. Kipling Parkway, Lakewood
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Words you may have never encountered on a Denver menu: kelewele, fufu, egusi, aprapansa. But these are among the Ghanaian stars at Sylvester and Theodora Osei-Fordwuo’s Lakewood restaurant, African Grill & Bar, which the couple opened in 2019 after two decades in Aurora and Green Valley Ranch. Those four dishes would make a great starter meal for a first foray into African cuisine: respectively, an appetizer of fried plantain and peanuts dusted in piquant spices; a starchy staple made from your choice of pounded plantain, yam, or cassava; a dense soup of ground melon seeds and spinach; and a brick red palm nut soup thickened into a paste with toasted corn flour and served with braised meat (make it oxtail if you’re craving unctuous beef on bone).

You’ll also find dishes from all over Africa here, from Zimbabwean sadze—like polenta, with spicy stewed tomatoes and greens—to East African chapati flatbread and crunchy samosas to South African chickpea-based chakalaka stew. Whatever you choose, or let the Osei-Fordwuos choose for you, you’ll find a continent’s worth of herbs, spices, and sauces in a comfortable, casual setting that encourages lingering.

Annette

Photo by Daniel Richard
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Wood-fired seasonal cooking
  • Location: Stanley Marketplace, 2501 Dallas St., Aurora
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

The grilled beef tongue at Annette comes cut into trapezoids decorated with bright orange carrot-mustard relish and dollops of snowy coriander cream. Its partner is a board holding crusty bread, glossy with marrow butter, cut into similar shapes. After a fun game of matching acute and obtuse angles for perfect bites of meat and bread, you’re hit with an intense beefiness, offset by the bright flavors of the toppings. The dish is as dazzling and satisfying now as when chef-owner Caroline Glover opened her Aurora restaurant nearly a decade ago.

Its offhanded playfulness belies the expertise that goes into preparing each ingredient. The theme is repeated in fire-grilled carrots with the perfect char and hint of smoke and in whole grilled sea bass, whose crisped curls of skin cling to flesh so succulent you’ll find yourself rooting through the bones for a final morsel. The proteins and produce change from month to month, and the sauces—like the emerald salsa verde on the bass—come and go. But the boldness and irrepressible exuberance of Glover’s cooking still fill the greenhouselike dining room and patio night after night.

The Bindery

  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Seasonal with Mediterranean and Mexican influences
  • Location: 1817 Central St., Denver (LoHi)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Linda Hampsten Fox’s LoHi restaurant, named in honor of the neighborhood’s once robust book-binding industry, is undoubtedly the best all-day eatery in Denver. Starting early in the morning, exquisite pastries and breads crowd the counter near the front door, so you can stop in for a croissant, scone, cinnamon roll, or hand pie to take home. The vast, airy dining room is a great place to start the day with duck hash or challah French toast. During brunch, the Dutch baby arrives in a cast-iron skillet with sweet or savory toppings; the latter sports Monterey Jack cheese, local ham, and a scoop of mustard gelato that melts over the enormous oven-baked pancake like savory crème anglaise. At lunch, the Bindery builds sandwiches on fresh-baked sourdough, rye, or challah, and salads display Fox’s obsession with seasonality. And for dinner, the signature smoked rabbit pecan pie—topped with more of that mustard gelato—encapsulates the chef’s culinary style, equally nostalgic and novel. The crust hits somewhere between puff pastry and small-town diner pie, the filling is rich but the rabbit remains distinct, and the gelato adds a racy hot-cold thrill. Yet the dish remains essentially comfy, the way a pot pie should.

Carne

Photo by Joni Schrantz, courtesy of Carne
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Steak house
  • Location: 2601 Larimer St., Denver (RiNo)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Chef-restaurateur Dana Rodriguez doesn’t care if you think of the newest eatery in her lineup, just over a year old, as a deep dive into Latin American cuisine, a retro steak house, or a hip RiNo destination for the nightlife set. Even the appetizer menu at Carne, labeled Party Plates, gets subtitled with “tapas, antipasti, mezze, apéro, entradas, apps, you get it.”

And we do get it, beginning with the Tijuana classic Caesar salad, made a little more Mexican with a whisper of smoky chipotle in the dressing. Or via the Octopussy starter, named after the 1983 Bond film; the silky cannellini purée beneath the achiote-tinted, char-grilled tentacles is even more seductive than Roger Moore in his prime. Hedonism rules here, so forget about budgeting for a night and go primal with a 32-ounce tomahawk steak. (If the $175 price tag is a deal breaker, opt for the $31 picanha, Sao Paulo’s gift to steak lovers.) Wave down the roving martini cart for another dose of 007—only get your Vesper stirred, not shaken.

Read More: Chef Dana Rodriguez Ups the Steaks at Carne

Hey Kiddo

Photo by Joni Schrantz
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Eclectic with Korean and American influences
  • Location: 4337 Tennyson St., Denver (Berkeley)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

What are fluffy Hong Kong milk rolls, country-style chicken and dumplings, and tangy kimchi doing on the same menu? Defying expectations, for one, and also making a group dinner at Berkeley’s Hey Kiddo exciting and fun. Chef-owner Kelly Whitaker is adept at finding continuity between foods from disparate cultures.

So those fresh-baked buns—topped with aromatic bonito flakes and dripping with butter—represent both the Chinese dim sum favorite on which they’re modeled and classic American Parkerhouse rolls. As such, they paired equally well with the all-too-briefly available chicken and dumplings (smallish spheres of dough and diced veggies simmered in creamy sauce) and the Korean fried chicken that’s been a signature item since Hey Kiddo opened in 2023. Whatever else you get, don’t miss the shaken rice, which combines bits of this and that (shredded pork or beef, crispy chicken crumbles, bright orange fish roe, egg yolks, pickled ginger) in a metal box that’s tossed vigorously by your server. It’s like fried rice as tableside theater.

Read More: Hey Kiddo’s Eclectic Menu Shines with Sustainable Ingredients and Global Flair

Kawa Ni

Photo by Connor Stehr
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Japanese with other Asian influences
  • Location: 1900 W. 32nd Ave., Denver (LoHi)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Chef-restaurateur Bill Taibe opened izakaya-style Kawa Ni in Westport, Connecticut, in 2014 before coming west with the concept’s second location in late 2023. Despite its transplant status, Kawa Ni instantly felt like part of the Mile High City, built into a former LoHi firehouse and taking advantage of Colorado’s climate with a spacious front patio beneath enormous arched windows.

The menu, overseen by executive chef Jarred Russell (formerly of Fruition), also feels very Denver. Well-known dishes are given respect without robotic adherence to formula: Japanese golden curry swims with tender skate cheeks rather than the typical wedges of carrot and potato. A slab of swordfish takes the place of pork in a crackly crusted katsu. Even salad is not an afterthought here, as evidenced by the shaved broccoli version tossed with creamy miso goma (sesame paste) dressing, topped with crispy puffed rice, and underlaid with paper-thin swaths of country ham. One item that stays strictly traditional—and fiery—is the lamb dan dan noodles, which pop with Sichuan peppercorn and fermented mustard greens.

Magna Kainan

Photo by Connor Stehr, courtesy of Magna Kainan
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Filipino
  • Location: 1350 40th St., Denver (Cole)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Filipino eateries seldom find lasting success in Denver, and those that do generally stick with a mom-and-pop ethos of home-style cooking and budget decor. So it wasn’t at all evident that the Mile High City, lacking familiarity with pancit bihon and sisig, was ready for a modern take on traditional Filipino cuisine. Thankfully, chef Carlo Lamagna, who founded Magna Kusina in Portland, Oregon, in 2019, had faith in our diners. In December 2024, he brought Magna Kainan to the untested waters of the rapidly changing Cole neighborhood and put the kitchen in the hands of chef de cuisine Jodee Reyes.

The formerly industrial area now hosts a bright, tropical dining room where a good starting point is the skewers list, including the unapologetically street-style curls of adobo-glazed pork intestine called isaw, or the Tito Boy shot, a pour of Filipino rum with a crispy pork-stuffed lumpia balanced on the rim. Then move on to the pancit bihon (a tangle of skinny noodles coated in a sauce of ginger, garlic, and soy sauce); sisig (tangy, spicy bites of glistening pork-head meat crowned with a poached egg); and luscious crab fat noodles loaded with shredded crabmeat and topped (optionally) with a pair of fried softshell crabs. This last dish, complete with chef’s-touch squid-ink noodles, sums up everything Magna Kainan stands for. 

Major Tom

Photo by Sarah Banks
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Seasonal
  • Location: 2845 Larimer St., Denver (RiNo)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Glitzy Champagne, oyster, and caviar nights aside, RiNo’s Major Tom is surprisingly, well, homey. Enter through a weathered wooden gate and pass a charming patio before arriving at the quaint cottage that contains the dining room and open kitchen. Inside, midnight blue wallpaper patterned with tiny moons and stars swaddles the place in warmth (rather than the deep space chill its namesake David Bowie song evokes).

On the menu, veg-forward dishes star produce from the eatery’s new Boulder farm. A summer tomato tartine on house-made sourdough toast, which briefly replaced the otherwise year-round mushroom version, sported a green dusting of nori powder, intensifying the tomatoes’ natural umami. Roasted beets layered atop whipped, tarragon-spiked tofu shared space with black raspberries and marigold: equal parts country kitchen and sophistication. Then there are the perfectly cooked beans in a rich sauce beneath smoked duck confit, French-inspired but reminiscent of barbecue. The contrasts are what turn an evening at Major Tom into an indelible experience.

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

Molotov Kitschen & Cocktails

Varenyky, aka Ukrainian pierogi, at Molotov Kitschen & Cocktails
Photo by Joni Schrantz
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Ukrainian and Eastern European
  • Location: 3333 E. Colfax Ave., Denver (City Park)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Bo Porytko grew up cooking with his Ukrainian immigrant grandmothers and other family members, immersed in a culture more common in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey neighborhoods where they lived than anywhere in Colorado. Those demographics perhaps explain why the chef tested diners here with globally inspired food at his previous restaurants, Rebel and Misfit Snackbar, before turning his wildly creative culinary mind toward his roots.

Now, at the nearly three-year-old, shoebox-size Molotov, he proudly serves varenyky (the Ukrainian name for pierogi) in a rainbow of colors and borscht, often chilled in the hot months (and also in hues beyond the expected beet red), and liberally scatters buckwheat, poppy seed, and horseradish across the menu. Red-and-black Ukrainian cross-stitch patterns, dried flowers, and dancing figures add to the charm, but Ukraine is only a launching point here. There’s also Georgian influence, evident in marigold and adjika (a peppery red condiment) on supple lamb ribs (pictured) and juicy pheasant, respectively, as well as German accents in occasional schnitzel and sauerbraten. The outcome: a rollicking dreamscape where each course might end in a shot of flavored horilka (just don’t call it vodka) and shouts of “Budmo! Budmo! Budmo!”

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

Sắp Sửa

Photo by Connor Stehr, courtesy of Sắp Sửa
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Vietnamese
  • Location: 2550 E. Colfax Ave., Denver (Congress Park)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Ni and Anna Nguyen have created something special with two-year-old Sắp Sửa, a minimalist space on East Colfax Avenue where Vietnamese cuisine becomes deeply personal through the lens of the owners’ experiences. Ni grew up in Southern California as the son of Vietnamese refugees, so the menu he and Anna have built starts with the flavors and ingredients of his childhood in dishes that often bear untranslated names. Nostalgia for Ni’s mother’s cooking yields bấp cải luộc, typically boiled cabbage with nước mắm (fish sauce) and hard-boiled egg, here presented as a boiled and caramelized wedge charred in just the right amount, the sauce rendered smooth and yolky, and with the pleasing crunch of anchovy breadcrumbs. Trứng và trứng (pictured) unveils its translation, “egg and egg,” in a layer of silky scrambled egg dotted with trout roe. Los Angeles influences show here, too: Beef-fat french fries with Kewpie mayo, stacked chilaquiles with chayote and tomatillo salsa, and steamed chicken feet with Sichuan chile crisp mirror the city’s diversity. But Sắp Sửa belongs to Denver, where nước mắm, tortillas, and chicken feet also happily co-exist.

Somebody People

Photo by Sarah Banks
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Plant-based Mediterranean
  • Location: 1165 S. Broadway, Denver (Overland)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2022

The first bite of blistered Jimmy Nardello peppers (pictured) from a summer special at Tricia and Sam Maher’s six-year-old Somebody People triggers a flood of thoughts. Are these a crimson stand-in for shishitos? No, they’re much bolder. Is it a take on a Caprese salad, with its simple dressing of whole basil leaves, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar? Closer, but there’s no mozzarella. All the better to taste the unadulterated play of bitter and sweet in the uncommon chiles at their seasonal peak. This is a typical experience while dining at the South Broadway eatery.

Vegetables often take the lead role, but fresh-baked breads, house-made pastas, and creatively utilized black rice, pine nuts, legumes, and cashews (often transformed into creamy butters and cheeses) also emerge from executive chef Justin Freeman’s kitchen. Relax and enjoy it all, complete with playfully sourced wines from Sam’s cellar, surrounded by distinct Miami Vice–era vibes. When you’re finished and rolling out completely satisfied, you may think back and realize there were no meats, eggs, or dairy on the menu—or maybe you’ll just sigh at the memory of those Jimmy Nardellos.

Read More: Somebody People Proves Why Your Next Sunday Supper Should Be Plant-Based

Spuntino

  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Italian with Indian influences
  • Location: 2639 W. 32nd Ave., Denver (Highland)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Denver is not short on top-tier trattorias offering myriad pasta shapes, hyper-regional sauces, and the simple, seasonal cuisine Italy is famous for. But at Spuntino, the husband-and-wife team of chef Cindhura Reddy and Elliot Strathmann set their restaurant, which they’ve owned since 2014, apart. Most noticeably, there are a handful of dishes touched with carefully chosen South Indian flavors and ingredients springing from Reddy’s family roots in Hyderabad. Ajwain, for example, is a seed that smells and tastes like concentrated oregano. As such, it plays well baked into a crisp alongside Rocky Mountain elk tartare and toasted masala aïoli. Shell-shaped cavatelli come with creamy chicken korma, coconut, and cashew in another dish. After dinner, Strathmann’s collection of seven house-made amari (bitter and herbal Italian-style spirits) are perfect with or following dessert. One of the best pairings is an amaro-infused chocolate truffle with a delicate glass of his amaro veda made using Ayurvedic Indian botanicals.

Most important to Spuntino’s character, though, is the warm hospitality provided by the owners and their staff in the intimate space where regulars are many and newcomers seldom feel new for long.

Xiquita

Photo by Joni Schrantz
  • Price: $$$
  • Cuisine: Mexican
  • Location: 500 E. 19th Ave., Denver (North Capitol Hill)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Storytelling underlies everything at Uptown’s Xiquita, helmed by chef-owners Erasmo Casiano and Rene Gonzalez Mendez. Their menu reads like a multi-lingual prose poem in which words contain both beauty and meaning, often provided in hints rather than definitions. You’ll find, for example, sikil pak (pictured), described only as pepita spread. But what are pepitas and how are they used here? More is revealed in the dish itself (perhaps with an assist from your server): Toasted pumpkin seeds are ground into a smooth spread with seasonings and roasted tomatoes. This, we now know, is sikil pak, and it adds nutty depth to grilled beets. And now that we understand pepitas, we can enjoy them again in the pipián verde, a green mole spooned over flame-kissed carrots (zanahorias, the menu whispers) and goat cheese.

And so Xiquita weaves together many parts of Mexico through common ingredients, especially masa de maiz: the nixtamal corn tortillas, the Oaxacan tetelas (tender masa triangles bulging with mushrooms and cheese), the Yucatecan kanpachi tikin xic (time to check in with your server again, who will talk about achiote and citrus). This may seem cryptic to those who weren’t born into Mexican food and culture, but Casiano tells the tale in words he knows and hopes you meet him halfway, filling in the gaps with bites that leave you speechless.

Read More: Uptown’s Xiquita Is a Deliciously Ambitious Ode to Mexico City

Price for Dinner*: $51 or More

Alma Fonda Fina

Photo by Shawn Campbell, courtesy of Alma Fonda Fina
  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Mexican
  • Location: 2556 15th St., Denver (LoHi)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

Since launching Alma Fonda Fina in late 2023, Johnny and Kasie Curiel have grown their restaurant family to four locations. Each has its charms: the big booths and steak-house vibe at Cherry Creek’s Alteño, the kiss of wood fire at Boulder’s Cozobi Fonda Fina, and the library of agave spirits at Mezcaleria Alma, next door to the LoHi original. But the always packed and lively dining room at Alma induces the astonishment of witnessing a magic act.

How do such complex and flavorful dishes—sourdough flour tortillas, flash-roasted scallops swimming in tangy serrano ponzu and tomato butter, lamb birria so tender it falls from the bone with a mere glance—emerge from such a tiny kitchen? A seat at the chef’s counter reveals some of the sleight of hand, but the result on your plate is no illusion. This is some of the best Mexican cuisine you’ll eat anywhere. Johnny’s use of traditional ingredients and techniques in unique ways—anise-scented hoja santa in chimichurri or white beans in hummus-smooth frijoles puercos, for example—gives each offering a dusting of something truly enchanting.

Read More: Alma Fonda Fina Is Modern Mexican Cuisine at Its Finest

Barolo Grill

Photo by Joni Schrantz, courtesy of Barolo Grill
  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Location: 3030 E. Sixth Ave., Denver (Cherry Creek)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2019

Ryan Fletter has worked at Barolo Grill for almost the entirety of his 30-plus years in the industry, and a decade ago he bought the posh Cherry Creek spot from founder Blair Taylor. This continuity puts the Italian eatery firmly in the category of Denver classic. But classic doesn’t mean dated; instead, Barolo Grill remains lively and fresh, the dining room always brimming with guests boisterously enjoying every plate of pasta and every sip of wine from Fletter’s deep, award-winning cellar.

To balance legacy and novelty, Fletter offers the entire Barolo team (including 20-year veteran and executive chef Darrel Truett) a group trip to Italy each summer to explore the restaurants, farms, food producers, and vineyards of the Piedmont region. You might find crunchy, beaded tapioca crackers alongside classic tartare or pearls of balsamico and basil gelée in the caprese appetizer, but these modernist touches are offset by old-world Italian ingredients like eight-year-aged Acquerello carnaroli rice—plump as beans—in risotto and rare Castelmagno cheese in a blissful cheesecake for dessert.

Blackbelly

Photo courtesy of Blackbelly
  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Regional, farm- and ranch-driven
  • Location: 1606 Conestoga St., Boulder
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2023

Chef Hosea Rosenberg opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Blackbelly, in 2014 after launching the business as a food truck and catering company. Since then, he has continuously expanded the brand, adding a cured meats program and a market and deli next door, complete with a butcher shop headed by Kelly Kawachi, who sources meats locally and breaks down whole animals for every aspect of the business.

That quality control is evident in the sit-down eatery’s ever-changing charcuterie board, which might include fat-marbled coppa, spreadable ’nduja, or fennel-specked finocchiona, and in koji-cured McDonald Family Farm pork belly (a revelation in just how complex the flavor of pork can become) and mouthwatering lamb (pictured) from Buckner Family Ranch, just a few miles away. Shareable vegetable plates also showcase the best of Colorado’s fast-changing seasons. Rosenberg’s commitment to partnering with regional farmers and ranchers earned Blackbelly a Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy in 2023. If there’s such a thing as Boulder terroir, it can be tasted in nearly every dish.

Osteria Alberico

Photo by Connor Stehr, courtesy of Osteria Alberico
  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Location: 3455 S. University Blvd., Englewood
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: First-time winner

Fresh off a Michelin star for Boulder flagship Frasca Food and Wine, owners Bobby Stuckey, Peter Hoglund, and Lachlan Mackinnon Patterson unveiled the more casual Osteria Alberico in mid-2024—not in LoDo or Cherry Creek, but in much quieter Englewood. With a relaxed atmosphere (more tightly packed and buzzing than Tavernetta), exposed ducts, and white-painted brick walls covered with gallery-style framed art, the Frasca Hospitality Group’s fifth restaurant feels almost cluttered (especially compared with sleek, minimalist Sunday Vinyl). But that’s part of the charm, along with seating that spills out onto a patio with a louvered roof that can be opened and closed and a menu of multiregional Italian pastas, pizzas, and entrées, some of which come off as positively rustic.

Chef de cuisine Russell Stippich’s thick mafaldine noodles (pictured) bathe in hearty beef and pork ragu, and a cicoria salad comes out as a thick slab of flame-kissed radicchio topped with a messy nest of Parmigiano-Reggiano and oceany bagna cauda breadcrumbs. Behind the nonchalance, though, is wisdom and attention to detail, from impeccably fresh seafood to produce selected at the perfect moment of seasonality, that gives the osteria’s storied roots away.

Restaurant Olivia

Photo by Joni Schrantz, courtesy of Restaurant Olivia
  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Location: 290 S. Downing St., Denver (Washington Park)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2024

From the moment Restaurant Olivia took over the tiny space at the corner of Downing Street and Alameda Avenue in January 2020, there was an easy grace about it, even if the dining room and bar felt a little tight. A 2023 expansion solved that problem, nearly doubling the footprint and giving guests and staff alike room to breathe. Since then, it’s developed the kind of style and charm many much older restaurants never achieve.

That starts up front with co-owners Heather Morrison and Austin Carson, who deliver a relaxed but never slack experience. From the kitchen, chef and co-owner Ty Leon’s technically perfect mezzalune, French onion ravioli (pictured), and anolini appear effortless, even if they require hours to get each fold of pasta, each subtle sauce, and each filling of caramelized onion or braised lamb just right. Weekly changes keep the food and cocktail menus fresh, accented by fermented, cured, pickled, and preserved fruits and vegetables. You might taste house-made ginger beer or kombucha in a drink or stone fruit preserves atop pecorino cheesecake for dessert—further evidence of how much thought the team puts into your every moment of bliss.

Sushi Den

Photo courtesy of Sushi Den
  • Price: $$$$
  • Cuisine: Japanese
  • Location: 1487 S. Pearl St., Denver (Platt Park)
  • Year It Last Appeared on 5280’s Top 25 List: 2018

Brothers Toshi and Yasu Kizaki debuted Sushi Den on South Pearl Street more than 40 years ago, and they’ve somehow managed to get better with each passing year. Not content to stick with the same seafood and sushi styles, the Kizakis have looked to Japan’s history—and into its future—to evolve their menu and keep things exciting and fresh. Of course, standards like salmon, tuna, and unagi are always of the highest caliber, but four decades of building relationships with seafood vendors and fisheries in Japan (with the help of their brothers Koichi and Hiroshi, who still live there) and all over the world has led to a robust and frequently changing roster of specialty sushi, some served using zuke (soy-cured) or aburi (flame-seared) techniques. Dinner, then, might include Greek black snapper or tender Japanese barracuda sushi on any given night.

The kitchen has kept pace with the sushi bar, so you can supplement your meal with succulent, charcoal-grilled hamachi collar or skewered wagyu kushiyaki glistening with melting fat. Although the Den family has grown to include Izakaya Den and Ototo, each worthy of regular visits, Sushi Den stands alone in the mastery of its craft, honed by many years striving for perfection.

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