After the holidays and the hullabaloo to start the new year, restaurant traffic can slow to a trickle at the end of winter. But this year, and for the 13th in a row, Visit Denver presents Denver Restaurant Week, 10 days of discounted dinners at restaurants across the metro area and beyond. The annual food-focused festivities have changed through the years with the dynamic growth and preferences of the Mile High maturing. Over the first number of years, menu choices were offered at $52.80 for two, but the price eventually rose to $30 where it stayed until this year. Now, the cost of dinner has been divided into $25, $35 and $45 tiers, allowing more restaurants to participate at a lower price point.
As we waded through the depths of the 13th annual Denver Restaurant Week listings, we called out special attention to the menus with a focus on value, variety and accurate representation of the experience. Check out this sampling of DRW winners below. Make your reservations soon; Restaurant Week runs from February 24 through March 5.
If you're looking for an oh so slight getaway, go to Abjeas in Golden. Using local and seasonable ingredients, the $35 menu starts with small plates from celery and apple stuffed squid to a wintery parsnip soup and follows with an entree and dessert.
Value is the name of the game for this Restaurant Week go-to. For $25, guests get an the protein of their choice with their appetizers and entrees, followed by dessert of a miso caramel mousse.
It's hard to feel the waves of the ocean when you're stuck on landlocked dry land, but South Broadway's Adrift does a stellar job of specializing in modern tiki preparations and an extensive collection of rums from around the world. For $45, try the spam musubi with a sushi twist, appetizers from guava BBQ baby back ribs to Kilauea poke and the Hawaiian mixed plate, with steamed rice, mac salad, grilled pineapple and protein.
This classic American grill, reminiscent of the San Fransisco supper clubs of the 1930s and 40s has a decadent vintage bar and a neighborhood feel. For $35, DRW guests can try appetizers, soup or salad, and then the real meal begins with prime rib, grilled salmon or chicken oscar.
Bringing the Colorado wilderness indoors, this social dining spot is seasonally inspired and rustic in execution. For $35 per person, the first course is either a pureed watercress and garlic soup or butter lettuce salad with smoked cod. Entree options include confit duck, pan roasted salmon or buckwheat apparel and dessert is sweet and warm either option you choose. Wine pairings are available upon request.
If it's playful, artful and honest to the ingredients, then you're getting the full Bittersweet experience. We're saving room already for this Wash Park fixture's Restaurant Week desserts they've cooked up, from the chocolate ricotta ravioli with port reduction and poached figs or the kumquat tart with meringue.
Berkeley's Brazen is the neighborhood hangout every nook of the city deserves. For just $25 a person, try two shared plates ranging from carrots with avocado whip to ora king salmon with a root veggie latke.
With a nod toward the language of love, Uptown's Coperta celebrates the food and wine of southern Italy. Seasonal veggie, fresh fish and local game – all responsibly sourced – are staples on the menu, no matter the occasion. The simple cuisine is well represented for the DRW evening, starting with the antipasti – either the tomato suppli, crispy calamari or mushroom pizza rotolo (a special addition), followed by a variety of pastas and entrees of grass feb beef tagliata or the eggplant parmigiana. The dessert is simple but satisfying, a sizable scoop of the extra virgin olive oil gelato. All for only $35.
Warm and rustic, this creative LoHi establishment has stood the test of time with a hearty menu. For just $35 per person, indulge in all of the three scrumptious servings for Denver Restaurant Week.
Growing up and out of the social food incubator, Avanti, Farmer Girl moved to Lyons Colorado with its organic sustainable mission, tackling contemporary American fare. The Denver Startup Week meal – just $25 – starts with roasted butternut squash salad, sweet potato bisque, spaghetti squash fritters or a carrot latke. The hearty entrees include the lamb bolognese and cornish game hen or the mushroom tartan, among others. Wine pairings can be added to each course for just $20.
A trip to Red Rocks isn't always about live music. Sometimes it's for the food. This award-winning old western style restaurant is known for its buffalo steaks, and thus, features that meaty entree prominently on its Denver Restaurant Week menu, along with the teriyaki marinated quail.
For the foodies in the burbs, Jing's Asian-fusion cuisine has some great Greenwood Village grub. The $45 menu includes sushi/sashimi options, small plates, signature appetizers, and more.
Take a trip across time and culture and arrive at Kobe an, where the talented chef team will introduce you to a traditional Japanese hot-pot meal. The signature shabu shabbu means swish swish, for the nature of cooking this dish. The Restaurant Week menu starts slowly for you to sip on miso soup, then on to appetizers such as garlic tuna sashimi and wagyu beef gyoza.
Tucked in Larimer Square's stunning secret garden is the abundance of the Restaurant Week's handcrafted dishes. Enjoy an intimate meal for $45 per person, with plates such as the Szechuan pork belly or Hamachi crudo.
This gastropub with the intent of educating its patrons in the "art of food and beer" is a laid-back way to get in on the Restaurant Week action. For just $25, value is the name of the game here, where you'll get a kale salad or meatball al forno with "angry" sauce, salmon, Irish stout short ribs or red bird brick chicken, before a delectable dessert arrives on your table.
Often flying under the radar, this simple but elegant 6th Avenue eatery utilizes old world techniques on American cuisine. For Restaurant Week, the first course includes fish chowder, gnocchi or beef tartar while the entrees range from cod to veggie terrine or lamb burger, among others. For dessert, you can't go wrong – though we recommend the beignets with fruit champ and buttermilk Chantilly.
Newly on the scene, but no doubt making a splash, this hip downtown steakhouse with a modern twist will dish out appetizers, entrees – including its signature multi-portion steaks – and desserts for $45.
Though their menu is TBD – the $35 price tag and the reputation of this fine fare, fabulous environment and services gives us a lot to look forward to.
Tennyson's globally influenced, health conscious eatery, Vital Root presents a three-course DRW extravaganza for just $25, with favorites including the curried red lentil soup, the sunflower seed risotto and the pad thai.
For $35 per person, this hot spot in LoDo offers everything from the garganelli with ground pork and chicken confit with white beans and chorizo, to crispy flounder and flatiron steak.
With options like yellowfin tuna poké for appetizer and herbed trout or fillet mignon for an entrée, this $35 per person option in Cherry Creek is a winner.
Crab cakes, cassoulet, French onion soup, short ribs, and gnocchi are only a few of the awesome options available for $35 per person during Denver Restaurant Week.
A stunning lounge and music venue, Ophelia's brings some guests favorites like the duck meatballs, bison burger, and chicken and waffles for the $35 per person special menu.
This modern and hip quirky Ballpark bar and restaurant offers a wide selection of dishes including seasoned peel 'n eat shrimp with tomatillo salsa and ribeye steak with lemon butter, served with garlic mashed potatoes and shishito peppers for $25 per person.
A staple of Denver's modern dining, this LoDo spot recently launched a creative new menu led by chef Nicholas Kayser. Among the dishes offered in the $35 menu are a seven-ounce flat iron churrasco with papas bravas and chimichurri and a falafel plate with tzatziki and turmeric cucumbers.
This Boulder fish-centric restaurant led by chef and owner Bradford Heap offers dishes like the bouillabaise de Marseille, Alaskan cod and shrimp gnocchi, and even a Vietnamese fried chicken for its $35 per person menu.
If you're looking for an oh so slight getaway, go to Abjeas in Golden. Using local and seasonable ingredients, the $35 menu starts with small plates from celery and apple stuffed squid to a wintery parsnip soup and follows with an entree and dessert.
Value is the name of the game for this Restaurant Week go-to. For $25, guests get an the protein of their choice with their appetizers and entrees, followed by dessert of a miso caramel mousse.
It's hard to feel the waves of the ocean when you're stuck on landlocked dry land, but South Broadway's Adrift does a stellar job of specializing in modern tiki preparations and an extensive collection of rums from around the world. For $45, try the spam musubi with a sushi twist, appetizers from guava BBQ baby back ribs to Kilauea poke and the Hawaiian mixed plate, with steamed rice, mac salad, grilled pineapple and protein.
This classic American grill, reminiscent of the San Fransisco supper clubs of the 1930s and 40s has a decadent vintage bar and a neighborhood feel. For $35, DRW guests can try appetizers, soup or salad, and then the real meal begins with prime rib, grilled salmon or chicken oscar.
Bringing the Colorado wilderness indoors, this social dining spot is seasonally inspired and rustic in execution. For $35 per person, the first course is either a pureed watercress and garlic soup or butter lettuce salad with smoked cod. Entree options include confit duck, pan roasted salmon or buckwheat apparel and dessert is sweet and warm either option you choose. Wine pairings are available upon request.
If it's playful, artful and honest to the ingredients, then you're getting the full Bittersweet experience. We're saving room already for this Wash Park fixture's Restaurant Week desserts they've cooked up, from the chocolate ricotta ravioli with port reduction and poached figs or the kumquat tart with meringue.
Berkeley's Brazen is the neighborhood hangout every nook of the city deserves. For just $25 a person, try two shared plates ranging from carrots with avocado whip to ora king salmon with a root veggie latke.
With a nod toward the language of love, Uptown's Coperta celebrates the food and wine of southern Italy. Seasonal veggie, fresh fish and local game – all responsibly sourced – are staples on the menu, no matter the occasion. The simple cuisine is well represented for the DRW evening, starting with the antipasti – either the tomato suppli, crispy calamari or mushroom pizza rotolo (a special addition), followed by a variety of pastas and entrees of grass feb beef tagliata or the eggplant parmigiana. The dessert is simple but satisfying, a sizable scoop of the extra virgin olive oil gelato. All for only $35.
Warm and rustic, this creative LoHi establishment has stood the test of time with a hearty menu. For just $35 per person, indulge in all of the three scrumptious servings for Denver Restaurant Week.
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