No cuisine has its roots more deeply buried in this country than Southwestern, a cooking style that originated with the region’s first inhabitants and evolved as Spanish, Mexican, Texan, Cajun and Creole elements were added to the indigenous ingredients used by Native Americans. As a result, Southwestern cooking is full…
Q:About a year ago, Westword raved about an Ethiopian restaurant. Is it still worthy? A:Denver has a surprising number of Ethiopian eateries, and Arada Ethiopian Restaurant (3504 East Colfax Avenue, 303-329-3344) remains one of my favorites. It’s run by a very charming, welcoming family; although the location is tough and…
The name of the game: When people talk about cruel and unusual punishment, they might be thinking about what the Moffat County Jail has been serving prisoners — elk and deer, the very meat that’s at the center of the current storm over chronic wasting disease. CWD, a degenerative brain…
Like any road that’s well-traveled, the Silk Road sprouted many resting places along the way. At first these were simple teahouses that offered yum cha, the tea ritual, and a place to put your feet up; back in the tenth century, the Chinese thought that eating food while drinking tea…
Q:I need a place in the downtown area where I can send a group of reasonably well-mannered high school seniors for dessert after the big Snowball dance. Any ideas? A:Groups of high school seniors are usually as welcome as rats at upscale restaurants; still, I can recommend a few places…
Heart of the matter: Valentine’s Day is a cheesy way to get attention from someone who should be giving it to you anyway. But if you’re hell-bent on observing this Hallmark holiday, try an alternative to the usual dinner-and-roses format. For example, you can go cheesy at The Truffle (2906…
It’s 4:42 p.m. on a Friday when I get in line at the Trail Dust Steak House, which opens for dinner at 5 p.m. every night. Since I last ate there (“Cattle Call,” February 4, 1999), the restaurant was ravaged by fire and then rebuilt; when it finally reopened this…
As the hostess seated us, she asked if this was our first visit to Déjà Vu. “Yes,” we replied, adding that we’d eaten at the restaurant that had previously occupied the space. “Oh, we’re exactly the same,” she said. But even if that were true — and it wasn’t –…
Q:I just came back from a tour of South America, and I wonder if Denver has places that serve things like feijoada, from Brazil, or Peruvian dishes? A:That fare has been slow to catch on here, and the town’s oldest South American restaurant is still your best bet. Café Brazil…
Toque of the town: Sean Kelly needs a break. And so one of the town’s top restaurateurs is calling it quits — for now. “I’ve been struggling with this decision for a while,” he says. “I hated to do this to my people. I hate to do it to the…
If there’s a time and a place for everything, 3rd Ave. Eclectic Burgers and Cuisine is halfway there. The time is certainly right for restaurants: People are eating out more than ever – not just at trendy spots, but at comfortable, casual eateries where you can have a fast dinner…
Q:Where can I get good chicken and dumplings? A:Good question! After contacting fifteen likely candidates, the closest I could come to finding chicken and dumplings was the Rocky Mountain Diner (800 18th Street, 303-293-8383), where an employee told me: “I’ve been here for two years, and in that time, we…
The early bird gets the Sunday brunch at The Tuscany. The all-you-can-eat gourmet smorgasbord at the Loews-Giorgio Hotel is so popular that you sometimes must book a late meal in order to get in. That means 1 p.m. or so, and by that time, hungry diners have been at the…
It may seem as though having a burrito shop on every corner means that Denver has finally arrived as a culinary mecca, but the truth is — and I know this is going to scare some of you, so brace yourselves — there are other foods out there. Enough fruits…
Since the word “pho” can mean “your own bowl” in Vietnamese, you’d think that a restaurant named Pho 79 was prepared to bowl you over with 79 different soup possibilities. In fact, Pho 79 misses by about fifty — but what it does offer is more than enough for me…
Q:My girlfriend wants to eat crab legs on her birthday. If you have a restaurant recommendation, I would certainly appreciate it. A:Hands down, the best crab legs I’ve found in town are at Hemingway’s Key West Grille (1052 South Gaylord Street, 303-722-7456), a nautically themed eatery with a good-natured, noisy…
Let the games begin: While Holoworld (see review) caters to families with its volcano and retro-future thing, Dave & Buster’s (1940 South Colorado and 10667 Westminster Boulevard in Broomfield) has more of a gentleman’s-club-wannabe feel, with wood-and-chrome-lined rooms filled with pool tables, video games and virtual-reality simulators. And while people…
The diner sitting on my left has stomach cancer and isn’t sure what treatment he’s going to try. The diner sitting on my right has a seventeen-year-old daughter who’s pregnant. Fifteen minutes into a beef curry bowl at Kokoro, and already I know more about these two than I do…
I think I’m gonna hurl,” the teen announced to anyone within earshot. His girlfriend, the one with the blank stare and bare midriff who’d been holding his hand so tightly it looked like she might be hurled into space if she let go, didn’t even blink. “Ohhhh,” he moaned, holding…
Q: I am very disappointed that Canino’s Trattoria closed its doors, because I really enjoyed the wild-mushroom ravioli in a tomato-cream sherry sauce. I am an Italian-American who grew up on good homemade Northern Italian food and am weary of the “Italian” restaurants around here. Can you suggest a restaurant…
Extra! Extra! Read All About It: One order, three plates. As the server set each one down on the table, she kept eyeballing me for a reaction. And she got it. “Okay, that’s a heck of a lot of food,” I said, and she chuckled. “I was wondering if you…
You can’t judge a cook by its cover — particularly not when you’re dealing with Mexican restaurants. Some of the best I’ve eaten in looked the worst: dark and dirty, with busted windows or no windows, hand-painted signs or signs about to fall off, cigarette butts scattered all over the…
