There was a time when all a restaurateur had to do to land a Michelin star was sprinkle a generous amount of foie gras, caviar, and truffles on their menu. Thankfully, those days were mostly long gone by the time the Michelin Guide came to Colorado in 2023. These days, a perfectly made taco or a rustic loaf of bread is enough to attract Michelin inspectors.

Colorado’s 2025 batch of Michelin-starred restaurants—announced on Monday, September 15—represents a wide swath of culinary styles, from Mexican to Italian to Japanese, and also several eateries that turn to local farms and ranches for menu inspiration. Below, the complete list of Colorado Michelin honorees, including stars, green stars, Bib Gourmands, recommended restaurants, and special individual awards. As in previous years, the Colorado Michelin Restaurant Guide sent its inspectors to Denver, Boulder County, Aspen, Snowmass Village, Vail, and Beaver Creek.

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*Indicates a new Michelin Guide award this year

Two Michelin Stars

The Wolf’s Tailor

chocolate boat
An elaborate dessert at the Wolf’s Tailor. Photo by Sarah Banks
  • Location: 4058 Tejon St., Denver (Sunnyside)
  • Style: Eclectic multicourse tasting menu
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “A rigorous commitment to local sourcing as well as gorgeously manicured presentations underpin these far-flung creations.”

“Grain is the luxury item here,” says Kelly Whitaker, whose flagship restaurant, the Wolf’s Tailor, has landed its second Michelin star. “That is our foie gras; the grain is beautiful.” The Centennial State’s first two-star restaurant has drawn praise for delving deep into Colorado ingredients and supporting the state’s food systems (this is also the third year in a row that it has landed a Michelin green star for sustainability). “Our ethos is ‘defense of the maker’: the farmer, cheese maker, baker, but also the cooks and servers and people building the soil,” Whitaker says.

He attributes the restaurant’s second star to getting back to taking risks after a year of feeling “locked in” because of high expectations. “The team really took some huge leaps this year, and I know people won’t always see that. But it’s validating to see that we took more chances than ever this year and it paid off.” For example, Whitaker offered a patio-only aqua pazza (fish traditionally cooked in seawater, but here seasoned with house-fermented miso) slow simmered in Japanese stoneware donabe pots as a summer special.

One Michelin Star

Alma Fonda Fina

A chef in an olive green apron moves food from a pan into a bowl while other chefs look on.
Chef Johnny Curiel at Alma Fonda Fina. Photo courtesy of Alma Fonda Fina
  • Location: 2556 15th St., Denver (LoHi)
  • Style: Mexican
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “Chef Johnny Curiel…revisits dishes and flavors from his upbringing with creativity and finely honed technique delivering results that are both satisfying and delicious.”

Alma Fonda Fina doesn’t do elaborate chef’s tasting menus, although if you can score a reservation, there’s a chef’s counter where you can chat with the culinary team about the beautiful blue-and-yellow-striped corn tortillas or the delicate fish being sliced for ceviche or aguachile. Chef and co-owner Johnny Curiel combines reverence for traditional Mexican dishes with creative use of ingredients and bold colors and flavors to wow guests and Michelin Guide inspectors alike.

Beckon

  • Location: 2843 Larimer St., Denver (LoHi)
  • Style: Eclectic multicourse tasting menu
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “Diners choose between vegetarian or omnivore menu options, but in either case vegetables are a highlight.”

Guests of Beckon owners Allison Anderson and chef Duncan Holmes convene around a U-shaped chef’s counter to experience dishes often built with ingredients from Beckon’s own farm, especially in summer and fall. While the menu is set, pescatarian and vegetarian options are always available and planned in advance, so you’ll receive the same level of attention no matter your dietary restrictions.

Bosq

  • Location: 312 S. Mill St., Aspen
  • Cuisine: Eclectic multicourse tasting menu
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “Chef Barclay Dodge and his team are executing seasonally inspired cooking that focuses on foraging, fermenting, and local farms.”

There’s no shortage of fine dining in Aspen, but what makes Bosq stand out is a range of ingredients like stinging nettle, watercress, pine needle miso, and other locally grown and foraged finds. Flavors encompass Mexico, France, Japan, and other culinary centers, but remain grounded in the Rocky Mountains.

Brutø

Stoneware plate holding a salmon fillet in orange sauce topped with a curl of carrot
A carrot and salmon dish at Brutø. Photo by Mark Antonation
  • Location: 1801 Blake St., Denver (LoDo)
  • Cuisine: Multicourse tasting menu centered around a wood-burning oven
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “The mastery of the hearth as the primary cooking implement makes this operation special, and infuses each of the tasting menu’s courses with distinct notes.”

Restaurateur Kelly Whitaker’s Id Est hospitality group earns another Michelin star, thanks to the thoughtful cooking of Brutø’s executive chef, Byron Gomez. A seat at the counter (which feels more like dinner at a friend’s house than an exclusive experience) awards you a calm, choreographed meal where one chef may shift roasted vegetables or naturally fermented bread around in the central hearth while others prepare a trio of small bites on a ceramic serving dish shaped like a tree branch. When you’re offered a take-home box of that bread (puffy Italian piada), say yes. It’s some of the best you’ll ever have.

Frasca Food and Wine

A green pastry
Frutti del bosco from Frasca. Photo courtesy of Casey Wilson
  • Location: 1738 Pearl St., Boulder
  • Cuisine: Italian mutlicourse tasting menu
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “The refined, thoughtful cooking here is laser-focused on the cuisine of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region in the northeast of Italy.”

Ever since Frasca opened in 2004, everyone from restaurant critics to James Beard Award judges have recognized the eatery’s greatness—so it was about time the Michelin Guide did, too. The emphasis has always been on immaculate service, a deep wine list, and the subtle yet elegant flavors of its unique pasta dishes and concisely edited secondi. While Frasca is all about Italian cuisine, the Michelin Guide also points out its celebration of carefully sourced Colorado ingredients.

*Kizaki

  • Location: 1551 S. Pearl St., Denver (Platt Park)
  • Cuisine: Japanese multicourse tasting menu
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “Chef Toshi Kizaki has been a veritable trailblazer of Denver’s sushi scene, but even now in his seventies, he’s not content to rest on his laurels.”

One of this year’s new one-starred restaurants, Kizaki serves Edomae-style sushi and small plates at an intimate chef’s counter. Like its older sibling Sushi Den just up the street, Kizaki slings fresh seafood flown in from Japan and other parts of the world. But woven in are intriguing bites like black-sesame marbled tofu, which presents like dessert but yields deeply savory flavor.

*Margot

  • Location: 1551 S. Pearl St., Denver (Platt Park)
  • Cuisine: Eclectic multicourse tasting menu or à la carte
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “Examples [from Margot’s menu] might include airy Parisian gnocchi bathed in a luxurious sauce of mascarpone and caviar, or impeccably cooked dry-aged duck breast matched with cherries and a rich, subtle truffle jus.”

Margot just opened in June and is already among Denver’s new one-star restaurants. Chef/owner Justin Fulton has been showcasing Colorado ingredients in creative ways through Margot pop-ups for the past three years, and now he has his own chef’s counter in the same building that houses Kizaki. But Margot also has a bar and dining room at the front of the space where diners can stop in for cocktails and à la carte dishes if they can’t commit to the full tasting-menu.

*Mezcaleria Alma

Mezcaleria Alma
Mezcaleria Alma. Photo by Shawn Campbell
  • Location: 2550 15th St., Denver (LoHi)
  • Cuisine: Mexican
  • What the Michelin Guide says: “Lightning strikes twice for dynamo chef Johnny Curiel with this parallel concept cheek-by-jowl next to his celebrated flagship.”

Also newly starred this year, Mezcaleria Alma covers an encyclopedic range of Mexican agave-based spirits backing Curiel’s brief menu of small plates. Expect lighter seafood bites as well as heartier preparations of duck, pork belly, and beef short rib, all surrounded by deeply Mexican ingredients such as huitlacoche (corn fungus), hoja santa (Mexican pepperleaf), and nixtamal corn tortillas.

Special Michelin Awards

Each year, the Michelin Guide presents awards to outstanding individuals in the hospitality industry. Here are this year’s Colorado winners:

  • Exceptional Cocktails Award: Dustin Lawlor, Hop Alley, 3500 Larimer St., Denver (RiNo)
  • Sommelier Award: Nick Heilman, Bosq, 312 Mill St., Aspen
  • Outstanding Service Award: Heather Morrison, Restaurant Olivia, 290 S. Downing St., Denver (Washington Park)
  • Young Chef Award: Aiden Tibbets, Wildflower, 3638 Navajo St., Denver (LoHi)

Michelin Green Stars

Lamb with sauce and garnishes on a white plate
Buckner Family Farm lamb at Blackbelly. Photo courtesy of Blackbelly

Michelin gives green stars to restaurants that “hold themselves accountable for both their ethical and environmental standards, and work with sustainable producers and suppliers to avoid waste and reduce or even remove plastic and other non-recyclable materials from their supply chain.”

Michelin Bib Gourmand

Bib Gourmands are awarded to “best value for money restaurants—offering a three-course meal at a reasonable price.” These are great restaurants that aren’t necessarily cheap but serve a “simpler style of cooking, which is recognizable and easy-to-eat.”

According to Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guide, a recommendation “means that the inspectors have found the food to be above average, but not quite at star or Bib level.”