Condé Nast Traveler
33 Best Restaurants in Denver
The city's dynamic dining scene may be young, but its resources are not.
BY RUTH TOBIAS | AUGUST 3, 2023
Originally featured on condenasttraveler.com.
A few years ago, the national food media began buzzing about Denver as though it sprang up overnight. For them, locals had a question: What took you so long? It’s true the city's dynamic dining scene is still young by the standards of, say, New York or San Francisco (very few of the restaurants that might be considered its modern cornerstones are more than 20 years old). But the heritage it draws from is a rich one, encompassing a long history of game hunting, mountain fishing, orchard growing, and cattle and sheep ranching established by Colorado’s Native inhabitants and Hispanic settlers as well as a brewing tradition stretching back to the Gold Rush era.
This list of top restaurants covers just the tip of the iceberg—or, more aptly, Rocky Mountain. For every place on it, five deserving others await your discovery, with five imminent arrivals peeking out behind them (including in nearby Boulder, which is not covered here). But in its mix of old favorites and new sensations, down-home joints and white-cloth destinations showcasing local and global cuisines, it offers a balanced look at what Denver does best. So pack a fork among your hiking boots and ski equipment, and get ready to dig in.
FRUITION
Because Fruition’s reputation as a capital-D destination has long preceded it, you may be surprised to set foot in a dining room that’s as unassuming as it is snug. Bare wooden tables and floorboards glow in warm light; hues of cream and beige are subdued; artwork amounts to a few black-and-white illustrations depicting, for instance, cookware hanging in a kitchen—and all in all, it feels more homey than haute. Could this be the place that helped earn chef/owner Alex Seidel a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2018? It could and it is. Just like Seidel before him, exec chef Jarred Russell is a talent to watch. Whether he’s spooning luscious lamb tartare onto crostini with horseradish and celery leaf, topping soft-scrambled eggs with snappy asparagus and crisped prosciutto, or draping fettuccine alla chitarra in a robust sauce of tomato-braised octopus and ’nduja, his style is clear and direct. To hear everything they have to say, consider the five-course tasting menu (whose $90.90 price reflects the fact that 1 percent of every sale is donated to Zero Foodprint, a nonprofit that provides grants to farmers aiming to convert to regenerative farming practices. All the more reason to indulge.)