Restaurants in Central Mountain Region
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WC3
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
Next door to the famous tavern in ramshackle Woody Creek, this community center cum cafe is just as groovy but in a different way. Instead of drunken antics and mishmash wallpaper there's local art, a sweet front garden, plenty of indoor seating and healthy, soulful lunch fare.
Choose one of four kinds of curry or tuck into a bowl of gumbo or a panini. The vegetarian soups have earned high praise, and the coffee is tasty too. Plus there's a range of used books for sale. Lots of them. Including a corner dedicated to the Good Doctor himself. We're talking about a terrific selection of Hunter S Thompson's masterworks, including some vintage Rolling Stone issues from the 1970…
reviewed
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520 Grill
A (mostly) healthy (kinda) fast-food grill, if there is such a thing. Sandwiches are creative, spicy cococtions. The achiote chicken is grilled and piled on the pita with roasted red peppers, avocado and cheese. The Veg Head is an alchemy of roasted portobello mushrooms and garlic, with a pepper medley dressed in balsamic.
It also serves a good-looking much loved kale and quinoa salad along with epic traditional and sweet potato fries. Locals are devoted to it. The best part? It's affordable!
reviewed
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Osaki's
- Vail, USA
- Restaurants › Sushi
There is no finer sushi in all of Vail, and possibly the state of Colorado, than here. Osaki is a star disciple of Nobu Matsuhisa (yes, that Nobu). He worked in the LA restaurant, when Nobu only had one shop, and eventually opened this hole-in-the-wall temple devoted to all that is sweet, tender, raw and holy (we're talking about fish!).
It's not cheap, but what Vail haunt is? Plus, if you go with one of the combo dinners you'll get out for under $50. And whatever you do, do not leave without tasting the salmon. It's simply spectacular. Osaki offers 30% off rolls in the summer, and reservations are advised in peak season. You'll find it hiding behind Campo de Fiori.
reviewed
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Westside Cafe
- Vail, USA
- Restaurants › Diner
Set in a West Vail minimall right off the freeway, this is the most popular breakfast spot in the area among locals, and for good reason. It does terrific breakfast skillets, like the 'My Big Fat Greek Skillet' with scrambled eggs, gyro, red onion, tomato and feta served with warm pita. The 'Southwestern' comes with scrambled eggs, black beans, peppers, onions and tomatoes.
Staff will pour you freshly squeezed orange juice or a steaming large mug of coffee. The Bloody Marys get good word of mouth, and the always satisfying 'Local Special' never fails to bring a smile to the face of weary menu readers (and writers) everywhere.
reviewed
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Pine Creek Cookhouse
Now here's your set piece dining. Think gorgeous log-cabin restaurant serving outstanding, fresh fusion fare, set 11 miles up Castle Creek Canyon past the old mining town of Ashcroft. It does an outstanding shrimp tikka masala, a gorgeous grilled quail served over greens, a terrific house-smoked trout, and tasty buffalo tenderloin. The peaks of Taylor, Star and Cooper loom from the patio.
It's closed in October and May, but stays open all summer and winter, when you can get here from Ashcroft on your cross-country skis or aboard the cookhouse's horse-drawn sleigh! The road is closed at Ashcroft when snow falls.
reviewed
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Kelly Liken
Young chef and cable-TV personality Kelly Liken shows off her skills in the lower lobby of the Vail Gateway building. Cooking with seasonal, and mostly local, foods (Elk Carpaccio anyone?) she blends exquisite ingredients into tasty dishes such as shrimp and grits, pan-roasted duck served with Colorado plums and wild rice salad, and honey-rosemary-glazed local lamb loin.
Sunday's harvest menu features whatever caught her eye at the Vail Farmers Market in Vail Village that morning. Be warned: serving size is small and prices are high, but flavor, presentation and celeb-chef panache should make up for it.
reviewed
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Jimmy's
Jimmy's is a soulful tequila-, crab- and steakhouse with attitude that attracts a very A-list crowd. Settle into a booth and check out the writing on the wall in the main dining room. No, we're not being cryptic: Jimmy's idea of decorating is covering the walls with guest graffiti – bring a pen. You're paying a king's ransom to dine with the rich and famous, so you may as well leave your mark.
The perpetually packed bar serves a cheaper menu and 105 types of tequila and mescal. Thursday nights are devoted to the crab, with king crab legs going for a song. It hosts a salsa night on Saturdays.
reviewed
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Hearthstone
One of Breck's favorites is set in a restored 1886 Victorian. This beautiful kitchen churns out special dishes such as house-smoked trout, Colorado green beans wrapped in lamb bacon (we didn't even know that existed), baked Brie, and prosciutto wrapped scallops, and those are just the starters. Entrees include ginger scallops, blackberry-glazed, granola-crusted elk steak, and cedar plank salmon.
The three-course tasting menu is a reasonable $25. Dine in the oh-so-burgundy dining room or on the three tiered patios out front if the weather cooperates. Reservations recommended.
reviewed
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Pacifica Seafood & Raw Bar
The newish fish house in town is right on Wagner Park. It has a raw bar and serves creative tapas, such as steamed mussels and elk sausage for light snacks, and eight seafood mains for dinner. The main dishes include classics such as Hawaiian ahi with wasabi mashed potato, grilled ono with black sticky rice, and sea scallops served with white truffle and fava bean purée.
There's a great, albeit a tad preppy, happy-hour crowd in the summer. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Happy hour runs from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.
reviewed
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Pitkin County Steakhouse
The most popular and down-to-earth steakhouse in town. It does prime dry-aged steaks, prime rib and, to quote one satisfied customer, 'the best fucking crab legs in the world!' Set in the basement of a Hopkins Ave complex, it has an open kitchen with tables scattered about the just-dark-enough environs and an iced-down fish selection for you to check out as you glide to your table.
During the low season the dining room is only open Thursday to Saturday, but its adjacent tavern is always open for business.
reviewed
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Fuel
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
This hard-rocking coffeehouse does two things exceptionally well: jet-fueled espresso and world-class breakfast burritos (it has three kinds – Californian, Mediterranean and southwest). It also has protein bars and energy food to keep you going on the slopes and ridgelines, no matter the season, as well as bagels, paninis, wraps and smoothies.
Staff will pack lunches for the slopes if you ask nicely. It's located just off lot 6 in the lower (main) mall.
reviewed
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Game Creek Restaurant
One of Vail's best kitchens isn't in Vail at all, it's on the mountain, nestled in spectacular Game Creek Bowl. Take the Eagle Bahn Gondola to Eagle's Nest and staff will shuttle you to their lodge-style restaurant, which serves an American-French fusion menu with stars like foie gras, elk steak and a succulent leg of lamb.
Or perhaps you'd prefer to snowshoe or ski your way in? Either choice will be unforgettable. It serves a mean brunch on Sundays.
reviewed
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Campo de Fiori
It's a splurge, but then all of Vail is a splurge – and this is a worthy one. Where else in town can you slurp black mussels and follow it up with a proper spinach and ricotta agnolotti (half-moon ravioli), and then follow that with a grilled ruby trout, NY strip or a Colorado lamb rack? The risotto dello chef ain't bad either.
It's all served in a romanitc mediterranean villa interior. And the vibe is almost always wine-drenched and alive.
reviewed
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Vail Farmers Market
- Vail, USA
- Restaurants › Market
This farmers market and art show, located on Meadow Dr in the heart of the Vail village, was established in 2001. You can grab any number of items for your condo kitchen, including fresh picked produce (including organic), fresh baked breads, German pastries, local meats, fresh halibut, mountain honey, and art from dozens of local artists and artisans.
There are more than 120 vendors in all, as well as live jazz curated by the Vail Jazz Festival.
reviewed
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Mimi's Fried Pies
These pies are a cross between Aussie meat pies and Southern-style pot pies, but being handheld there's an empanada influence, and they were dreamt up in long-ago Oklahoma by Mimi's grandmother, who most likely had never seen an empanada, so there's that.
Sweet Mimi fills the flakey dough with cherry, apple, chocolate, coconut cream and pecans, but also gets savory with chicken and broccoli, spinach and mushroom, cheese and pepperoni and more.
reviewed
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Syzygy
Tucked into a basement on Aspen's restaurant row, this elegant dining room showcases the considerable talents of a local chef who's been feeding Aspen Jazz Festival VIPs for years (through his catering company). Think truffle-and-potato-crusted turbot, elk tenderloin, veal cheek with sweetbreads, and buffalo carpaccio.
Yes, this fine-dining house is for the carnivorous gourmand. Translation: beloved by the AARP set, but still a find.
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Ember
Great jazz on the sound system, strange glowing floral-art around the room and creative fusion on the plate. Apptizers include masa pizza (with chili sauce, curtido, avocado and manchega), pulled Kobe beef, warm walnut Brie, and lobster manicotti. Mains include coconut-glazed char with spaghetti squash, and soft-shell crab in lentil crust served with almond cous cous and curried pineapple hollandaise.
reviewed
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Centre V
Blessed with a glorious perch gazing onto the Eagle Bahn Gondola, this spot offers plates large and small from the classic Continental cuisine handbook. Think bacon-wrapped scallops, roasted beets with haystack chèvre (goats' cheese), Alaskan halibut and Colorado lamb shank.
When we visited it offered an unheard-of twist on the upscale chophouse ethos: 'kids eat free'. Not sure how long that will last.
reviewed
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Butchers Block
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Deli
The depth and breadth of the gourmet spirit of this ski-town deli is striking. Here you'll find gouda, stilton and goats cheese, wild salmon and sashimi-grade ahi, caviar and gourmet olive oil, maple-glazed walnuts, dried mango, incredible deli sandwiches, and terrific roast chicken and salads. It's fair to say that this is the place to get your trail food. It's open until 6pm, but stops making sandwiches at 5pm.
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Lulu Wilson
This one's for the casual gourmet. You'll love the shabby-chic chandeliers, gold-washed chairs and exposed-brick interior, and the marble tables outside. You'll also love the branzino stuffed with lobster and roasted whole, the braised rabbit over pappardelle, the housemade gnocchi and the Colorado-grown lamb. The raw bar offers lobster ceviche, tuna crudo and oysters on the half-shell. Groovy all around.
reviewed
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Cache Cache
One of two chic eateries cum hot spots on the ground floor of a brick mini-mall set just off Aspen's restaurant row. The stylish modern dining room opens up completely to the colorful courtyard, which features dangling baskets of flowers. The limestone bar and glassed-in wine cellar are also striking, but it's the bistro menu that you'll remember: steamed mussels, escargot, foie gras and osso buco.
reviewed
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Big Bear Bistro
- Vail, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
Unless you hit the Sonnenalp Resort's buffet, this is where you come for breakfast. It serves gourmet coffee, tasty breakfast burritos and some damn decent sandwiches at lunch. We suggest 'the Masterpiece.' It comes with prosciutto, capicola, salami, maple-glazed ham, balsamic-tinged arugula, banana peppers and cracked-pepper aioli.
reviewed
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Elevation
Another new favorite among Aspenites, Elevation fuses continental and Asian cuisine. Think ahi pizza, slow-roasted rum-and-coke tacos, pork belly and papaya salad, sea scallops and Brie glazed in truffle honey, and hand-cut pappardelle with lobster bolognese. The bar glows, the chipotle-infused olive oil on the tables is striking, and the flashy, funky art on the walls lends a certain edge.
reviewed
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Briar Rose
Set in a magnificent saloonlike frame and on the site of Breck's original saloon, it's named after the famed Briar Rose gold mine on Peak 10. And while it's first and foremost a chophouse, small plates (think shishito peppers, chorizo and mussels and escargot) are served in the dining room and saloon. Fine dining doesn't get any more atmospheric in Breckenridge.
reviewed
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South Ridge Seafood
A Breckenridge version of a classic New England fish house. The goods are flown in daily from Boston. They do New Englad (of course) clam chowder, peel-and-eat shrimp, a nice house-smoked and grilled red trout, miso-marinated salmon, and steaks and chops. There's a groovy local après-ski scene here on powder days. One of the best choices in town.
reviewed
