Best Fried Dumplings 2007 | Szechuan Chinese | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Fried Dumplings

Szechuan Chinese

Szechuan Chinese holds down one of the worst imaginable locations in all of restaurantdom, in a nearly inaccessible strip mall off Sixth Avenue. Still, for close to thirty years, the customers have kept coming. And most of them are coming for the dumplings: heavy and huge, as big across as a balled fist. The dough is just the right thickness; the filling is pork and ginger and herbs, assembled by hand and worked with the fingers like a great meatloaf. Served eight to an order, a single plate is a meal in itself -- satisfying on a level that, after half the dumplings are gone, no longer has anything to do with simple hunger, but everything to do with the pampering comfort of salt and grease and the work of skilled hands.

Best Shrimp Cocktail

El Coyotito #3

El Coyotito #3, a little storefront on Leetsdale (we have no idea where #1 and #2 may be) gets a lot of things right. Service is fast and friendly. There's a great Spanish-only jukebox in the corner. And while the standard Mexican fare (tacos, burritos, etc.) is only good, the seafood is great. The presentations are simple, the flavors fresh and clean. And with that big beach mural painted along the back wall, there's no better place to kick back with an iced bottle of real Mexican Coca-Cola and a giant shrimp cocktail served in a hurricane glass.

Best Shrimp-and-Beer Cocktail

Tula

One can of Pacfico and one poached shrimp with lots of salt and just a touch of spice: That's all it takes to make a chelada. Conveniently enough, that's also all it takes to win yourself an award for finding two great tastes that taste great together.

Best Green Chile

Jack-n-Grill

Over the years, patriarch Jack Martinez has tried a lot of things to build his business at Jack-n-Grill. He's expanded the menu, he's expanded the building, gotten a liquor license, franchised his concept and done everything short of handing out dollar bills to get people in the door. But in truth, he's never really had to do much of anything, because anyone who knows chile knows that Martinez (once a New Mexico chile importer himself) has the best, most consistent supply in Denver of the sweet-hot, smoky southern New Mexico green that defines both that culture and that cuisine. The best thing on Jack-n-Grill's menu is anything with green chile on it, and in season, the faithful line up for a block outside Jack-n-Grill so they can take home a sweating plastic bag of freshly roasted chiles.

Best Colorado-Style Green Chile

Reiver's

If you're going for Colorado-style green chile, you need to forget everything that makes a classic New Mexican verde or the tamal sauces you find at some of the more authentic norteo Mexican lunch counters around town. A Colorado green should be definitive in its own way, a thick stew full of chiles and pork and whatever else the kitchen decides to throw in. Reiver's produces a brew whose dull heat, smoky flavor and strangely pervasive, savory bite makes it the perfect dipping sauce for everything on the menu. The combination of the chiles' fire and the pork's fatty luxuriousness are unbelievably addictive, and a true taste of this peculiar Colorado specialty.

Best Burrito

Se�or Burrito

You can tell how good the food is at Seor Burrito by the way all the customers lean forward each time an order is laid out on the counter and the way all but one lucky someone fall back into their chairs, disappointed when they discover that the food coming out of the kitchen isn't for them. This little space is about as spartan as it gets -- just a few tables, a big counter and a bigger menu. There are house specials, daily specials and fantastic sopaipillas that come hot out of the fryers. But as the name implies, the joint is all about burritos -- in many varieties, each assembled to order, all fantastic.

Best Tamales

Amaizing Corn Tamales

The easiest way to find these guys is to go to the vendors' area of the Boulder County Farmers' Market and look for the longest line. Then get in it, wait, and several minutes and a few bucks later, you'll walk away with the best corn tamal in Colorado. The masa is soft and sweet, rich with corn's natural sugar, and a perfect complement to the spicy chicken and green chile inside. There are fancier tamales out there, and cheaper ones. But in season, there are no tamales better than those coming out of the Amaizing Corn Tamales booth.

Best Taco

Tacos D.F.

Mark Antonation
Simplicity. In the food world, this is an often overlooked attribute. But not at Tacos D.F. When you order an asada taco here, you get a generous pile of chopped, marinated carne asada taken fresh off the grill (along with whatever grilled onions were stuck to it) and wrapped in a fresh tortilla. That's it. But that's more than enough. The flavor is amazing -- blood and char and caramelized-onion sweetness -- and though many varieties of salsa are available at the repurposed salad bar, the best accompaniment to these tacos is a squeeze of lime. Also not to be missed: the pork tacos with a smear of blazing-hot green tomatillo salsa, which are the best thing to come from a pig since bacon.

Best Taste of Mexico City

El Taco de M�xico

Molly Martin
All day, every day, whenever you need it and whatever you want: That's the defining joy of having a joint in town like El Taco de Mxico. Though the crowds ebb and flow, the work in the open kitchen is constant, with the women there always chopping, stirring, slicing and cleaning to stay on top of the rushes that hit this place with the constancy of the tides. From standards like crispy rellenos and beef tacos to more traditional Mexican comfort foods like tacos cabeza and menudo on the weekends, El Taco de Mxico does nearly everything better than nearly every other place around. How can you tell? Come Sunday, when all the churches in the neighborhood let out, the wait for a seat at the counter can stretch to an hour or more -- yet the regulars wouldn't think of going anywhere else.

Best Taste of Michoac?n

Taquer�a Patzcuaro

Summer Powell
Taquera Patzcuaro is almost three decades old, and with its recently acquired liquor license, it should last at least another thirty. Just about everything at this time-honored sit-down spot comes steeped in the flavors of Michoacn. From the mar y tierra plates and camarn al mojo de ajo in its deceptively simple lime and garlic sauce to the tacos albandl with their white onions, roasted jalapeos and slivered fried potatoes that attend half of the other plates on the menu, Taquera Patzcuaro has a distinctive style and taste all its own.

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