Asia like it: The Pacific Rim influence isn’t new to Denver–chefs here have been fusing East and West for nearly a decade now, with mixed results. Generally, the restaurants that were successful got there by giving traditional American and European dishes an Asian accent, gently applying Pacific Rim cooking concepts…

Take a dip: Every decade has its dip. Clam dip in the Fifties. Lipton Onion Soup dip in the Sixties. Yogurt in the swinging Seventies. Hummus in the international Eighties. And the Nineties? During the past decade, assorted artichoke dips–sometimes with spinach, sometimes with chiles, and always heavy on the…

Kansas City smells of barbecue, especially on road trips when cash is short and hunger’s high, and the aroma just intensifies until there’s nothing you can do but stop at a roadside stand and get a bag of bones that will last you through Nebraska. But Kansas City has another…

I’ll admit it–I take my kids to McDonald’s. Hey, I’m just like any other parent: Sometimes I simply want to feed them fast without messing up the kitchen. And while I’d rather treat the kids to some place where they–and I–can appreciate good food, Tante Louise does not have a…

Into the mouths of babes: You’d be surprised at how many places around here welcome your kids with a smile. While Joe’s Crab Shack (see above review) is one of the better ones, my kids have other favorites–spots that not only greet them with open arms, but also serve food…

What’s cooking? Beginning with this week’s Cafe, when I review a restaurant where the chef turns out particularly noteworthy food, as John Platt does at Q’s, I’ll try to include a recipe (as long as the chef is willing to share it). And if I can’t recommend any dish at…

Big Q, little q, what begins with Q? How about some grown-up answers to the childhood chant? Quaint, quirky, quality–they all describe the exquisite Q’s. Qualms? Chef/owner John Platt admits to several. The restaurant’s sous chef when it opened in 1991, Platt took over the place two years later, when…

Critic’s choice: Restaurant roulette continues as Bill St. John, the food guru for Microsoft’s Denver Sidewalk (www.denver.sidewalk.com), gets a second home at 5280, the almost-monthly magazine that’s had a hole to fill since perpetually cheerful Channel 4 reporter Greg Moody moved to the Rocky Mountain News to fill the spot…

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Communists officially renamed Vietnam’s largest city Ho Chi Minh City–but that didn’t prevent millions of Vietnamese people from continuing to call it Saigon. The natives were so persistent, in fact, that officials finally compromised and decided to allow the center of Ho…

The guy at the table behind me had the waitress right where he wanted her. “Ha! You’re not going to believe this,” he said to his two buddies. “I asked that girl if this O.J. was fresh-squeezed, and she says it is. The hell it is! I been coming here…

This spud’s for you: What’s a good bacon-and-eggs breakfast without hash browns? The word “hash” means to chop into small pieces (not grate), and although it’s time-consuming, hash browns are better when they’re hand-hashed (as they are at Sunnyside Up Cafe, reviewed above). Take a large pile of the irregular-sized…

Sixteenth Street has come a long way, baby, since the Rialto Theater opened in 1916. Today the street is a pedestrian mall, where souvenir shops outnumber other retail options, national-chain eateries outgun locally owned restaurants (see “Mall Flounders,” August 6), and all the movie palaces closed decades ago. But when…

What Planet are they on?: While 16th Street Mall restaurants try to get their act together in anticipation of Denver Pavilions, that other big downtown project, Stadium Walk in LoDo, is still supposed to contain a Planet Hollywood. A minor PR flack for the company says it’s a go, despite…

When Denver Pavilions opens early next year, there won’t be any room on the 16th Street Mall for sloppy local restaurants–if there’s room for locals at all. A half-dozen blocks away from the Pavilions site between Tremont Place and Welton Street, we’ve already seen that people are willing to wait…

Rymer reason: Last week Gary Rymer won his case in Denver County Court’s small claims division against Budapest Bistro (1585 South Pearl Street) and its owners, Rudi and Anna Hellvig. In June, Rymer had filed suit against the Hellvigs, claiming they’d been taking from 20 to 30 percent of his…

Like the stones in a tennis bracelet, little ethnic eateries stud strip malls throughout suburbia. Some are genuine treasures, some are fakes–but most are flawed. Innocuously named–New Jade Garden Dragon, Happy Saigon Palace Bowlarama–and sporting hand-lettered signs proclaiming cheap lunch buffets, “No MSG” and authentic food, these spots usually change…

Bested of Denver: The calls continue to come in regarding this year’s Best of Denver. Not surprisingly, the three main topics callers want to discuss concern the three biggest upsets: Mori (2019 Market Street) losing Best Japanese to Domo (1365 Osage Street), Damascus (2276 South Colorado Boulevard) taking Best Middle…

After biting into Lanelle Young’s sweet-potato French fries–such caramelized confections they should be served in a candy dish–you’d swear she was born and bred in a part of the country where the humidity is thicker than split-pea soup and the unrelenting sun makes a body feel as Southern-fried as a…

Personal bests: This town isn’t exactly overflowing with places that cook up Southern-style eats–see the review of Hugo’s above for one nice option–so it hurts when a good one goes down. And you can say goodbye to So-Fully Kosha Res-runt, which had been making some mean soul food in a…

Although Middle Eastern communities fight over everything from politics to religion, the similarity of their cuisines shows they at least agree on something. Yoghurt is yaourti is madzoon is yurt; parsley is bakdounis is azadegh is jafari is maydanoz–the names differ, but it’s the same ingredient whether you’re from Armenia,…

Striking out: So if Denver’s such a major-league city, why was much of LoDo closed up tighter than a drum by 1 a.m. after the All-Star Game? As the clock struck twelve, we left Above the Dove, the roof of the Soiled Dove (1949 Market Street), which not only had…

In this town, Cuban food is rarer than a humid day. That’s why, on Thursday nights, I make a break for El Azteca Grill & Cantina. Sergio Hernandez, a Cuban immigrant, and his family have already proven themselves proficient with Mexican food–in fact, they serve some of the best in…