:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62809687/Q_House_014.0.jpg)
Q House at the end of 2018 won the Eater award for Restaurant of the Year, and this month it earned three stars from 5280 critic Scott Mowbray. The menu’s ability to undersell and over-deliver most of its dishes made up for a slightly less impressive cocktail list and the room’s decor, Mowbray wrote. Momofuku-trained chef Christopher Lin takes traditional ingredients and updates them here, focusing on a flawless cooking technique that shows from the chewy rice to the pig’s ears. Must try dishes, according to Mowbray, are braised pork rice, salt-and-pepper shrimp, cold brisket salad, pig ear salad, and “anything fried.”
Safta had Westword critic Gretchen Kurtz at the free bread — that, and the restaurant’s warm hospitality, sky-high views, and Alon Shaya’s two James Beard awards. Atmosphere and accolades aside, the wood-oven baked pita bread is the perfect accompaniment — and, if scarfed down before dinner arrives, a delightful detriment — to a meal of hummus, whole-roasted cauliflower, matzo ball soup, shakshuka, crispy eggplant, and more. Named after the Hebrew word for grandmother, this restaurant’s smart service and rich dishes would appease the pickiest of saftas, Kurtz says.
Bar Dough’s “fancy toast” gets a lot of hype. But chef Carrie Baird’s decadent dish is just the first reason to visit this 3-year-old LoHi restaurant, Daliah Singer of Denver Post’s The Know writes. After the toast, this restaurant’s robust wine list and confident cooking is why diners should keep coming back. Singer praises the lively atmosphere, stellar insalata, and tasteful takes on trends (try the goat farfalle). Not all dishes are created equal: a couple chef favorites like the tagliarini and tender roasted quail fell flat for Singer. These missteps aside, Bar Dough still manages to stay at the top of Denver’s dining game.