Paborito’s Ghost Kitchen Serves Some of Denver’s Best Filipino Food

Before they opened Paborito seven months ago, Jayson Leaño and Geraldine Gan weren’t confident their ghost kitchen would succeed in Denver. “We were very anxious at first,” Leaño says, after watching a series of Filipino eateries on the Front Range close over the past few years—most recently, Aurora’s Manila Bay, which shuttered in early 2024. However, when Leaño and Gan’s now-closed Asian sandwich concept, called Toast Box, failed to gain traction, the husband-and-wife duo, both natives of the Philippines, decided to try again, this time with the cuisine they grew up on.

Since its debut, Paborito, which means “favorite” in Filipino, has swiftly won Denverites’ favor with a menu of barbecued meats and flavor-packed sides. Visit the carryout-only spot, inside Lincoln Park’s Vallejo Food Pick-Up restaurant co-op, to take home our favorite dish: the grilled chicken inasal, a soy-and-citrus-marinated leg quarter that’s served with turmeric- and annatto-tinged java rice, atchara (pickled unripe papaya), pancit (stir-fried vermicelli noodles), and lumpia (Filipino spring rolls).

Paborito’s Ghost Kitchen Serves Some of Denver’s Best Filipino Food

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