Best Restaurant on Havana Street 2016 | Seoul BBQ & Sushi | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Restaurant on Havana Street

Seoul BBQ & Sushi

Molly Martin

Sure, grilling your own marinated pork or beef is a big draw at this top-notch Korean barbecue, and you certainly can't go wrong with the kalbi, bulgogi or thin pork-belly slices that sizzle and pop at the center of your table while you sample your way through the numerous saucers of banchan (appetizers) that come with every meal. But if you're not in the mood to cook, let the kitchen do the work for you with funky kimchi pancakes, a four-alarm plate of snails in a fire-engine red sauce, or bubbling soups served in miniature stone cauldrons. Seoul BBQ is Havana Street's number-one stop for lovers of both bold seasonings and robust, warming fare. Start with a cold beer and work your way through a banquet that's equal parts backyard cookout and whirlwind street-food tour.

Readers' choice: Sam's No. 3

Best Restaurant on the Pearl Street Mall

Japango

Cheerful, bright and comfortably modern, Japango is one of the most inviting Japanese joints around, partly because the fifteen-year-old eatery has been on the Pearl Street Mall long enough to get it right. The staff could not be more accommodating (for instance, if you have a food allergy, no one makes you feel like a criminal), and if you're not a sushi fan, the eatery has a large enough selection of non-fish foods (including a beautifully grilled eight-ounce filet served with yuzu asparagus and a toothsome teriyaki chicken) that a variety of palates feel welcome. The sushi is always expertly carved and presented, and our favorite of the tapas-style appetizers here is the miso-marinated black cod, one lushly textured and intensely flavored snack. Also, Japango is all about the bargain. Tuesdays are all-you-can-eat sushi for $29.95 from 5 to 10 p.m., while lunchtime finds discounted nigiri and sashimi as well as an $8.50 bento box, and two happy hours —  from 3 to 6 p.m. daily and from 10 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday  — offer deep discounts on hand rolls, sushi rolls (including specialty ones) and sake. In addition, the restaurant hosts a DJ on those weekend nights, which just adds to the fun. Domo, Japango.

Readers' choice: Oak at Fourteenth

Best Service

Nocturne

Courtesy of Nocturne

Nicole and Scott Mattson opened Nocturne last year, adding an elegant destination supper club to the mix of fun and funky bars and eateries in River North. While the restaurant's creative cuisine, featuring tasting menus inspired by specific jazz tracks, stands out as some of the best food in the neighborhood, the service is what elevates Nocturne above the competition. You'll see both Nicole and Scott working the floor to ensure that guests get just what they need, whether it's a simple smile of welcome or a wine suggestion from Scott, who's also the house sommelier. The Mattsons' grace and charm flows down to the rest of the staff, who see to it that every piece of silverware is properly in place, that meals are paced appropriately, and that drink orders from the bar — itself a model of efficiency and energy — come promptly. Nocturne is a return to the Jazz Age in both ambience and old-school customer service.

Best New Restaurant Neighborhood

Berkeley

Not content to reside in the shadow of its more famous neighbor, Highland, hipster haven Berkeley is finally coming into its own, with dozens of new restaurants to feed the dog-walking locals and increasing numbers of eaters from around the city who have made it a dining destination. Long the core of this northwest Denver neighborhood, Tennyson Street not only survived an interminable and frustrating multi-year streetscaping project that forced many businesses to close, but also managed to come back with vigor, adding more than a dozen new eateries in a six-block section. From the early morning to the wee hours, a vast variety of cuisines can be had at both originals and outposts: biscuits and gravy or pizza at Atomic Cowboy; butchered-in-house meats at casual chophouse Block & Larder; coffee with cats at the Denver Cat Company; elaborately topped burgers at the Royal; superb sushi at Okinawa. And that's just on Tennyson. Elsewhere — along Lowell Boulevard, on West 38th Avenue — spots such as Brazen Neighborhood Eatery, Bacon Social House and Ragin' Hog BBQ also offer well-above-average fare. And more are coming: The eagerly anticipated second location of Biju's Little Curry Shop should open any minute. In Berkeley these days, the only problem is deciding where to go.

Readers' choice: RiNo

Best New Neighborhood Restaurant

Desmond Bar and Grill

Danielle Lirette

What neighborhood wouldn't want a Sean Kelly restaurant as its local spot? Lucky Park Hill is home to chef Kelly's latest offering, a spacious and inviting neighborhood eatery that feels like it's been here all along — especially welcome in an area seriously lacking in food options. Park Hill resident Kelly — long ago the opening chef for Barolo Grill, followed by stints at his own Aubergine Cafe, Clair de Lune, Somethin' Else and LoHi SteakBar — has always been particularly adept at Mediterranean fare, and at Desmond he takes longtime favorites from the region and turns them up a notch: hummus made tangy and aromatic with the Middle Eastern spice blend za'atar; rich, mustardy potted salmon balanced by peppery radishes; soft-centered falafel broken into pieces and tossed in a tahini-drizzled salad. The shared plates can be paired with an interesting wine from the short but globally inspired list — nearly all of the bottles are available by the glass — and are served in a dining room of dark woods and exposed brick. In other words, it sports the Kelly decor hallmarks of simple, warm and comfortable, reflecting a slight reworking of the former tenant (the short-lived Table Top tap room) in a residential plaza space, complete with a delightful fireplace and nearly twenty craft beers on draft. What really makes this an ideal neighborhood joint, though, is that diners looking for more standard fare — a cheeseburger with fried potatoes, say, or Buffalo-style chicken wings — get the best possible versions, made from well-sourced ingredients. So, folks in other 'hoods, eat your hearts out — or head to Park Hill.

Readers' choice: Bar Dough

Best Chef

Mark Ferguson

Some people have a way of talking that makes you feel like you're the only one in the room. Mark Ferguson, chef/owner at Solitaire, cooks this way. Everything about his sprawling restaurant makes you feel special, from the garden-side setting that offers some of the most romantic tables in town to the menu that he so masterfully crafts. Plates come together confidently, gracefully, thoughtfully — with an eye to presentation that reflects Ferguson's twenty years with Wolfgang Puck. Ferguson is far from the only chef in town who's attuned to seasonality, but his dishes are refreshingly original, so full of cleverly united ingredients that you'll find yourself nodding in appreciation, even for foods you heretofore might not have liked. Octopus, for example, dotted with chorizo, roasted grapes and black garlic, or bread pudding with figs, maple syrup and foie gras. Never content to rest on his laurels, Ferguson is always trying new things, experimenting with a dash of hazelnut pistou here, a dab of Chinese black-bean sauce there — and as a result, Solitaire's menu changes like the wind. In some restaurants, you'd be annoyed to find that the dish you relished last time has been replaced. Here, however, you're pleased — no, delighted — to go in whatever culinary direction Ferguson takes you.

Readers' choice: Troy Guard

Best New Restaurant

Hop Alley

Molly Martin

No new restaurant captured the zeitgeist of Denver's dining scene quite like Hop Alley, the second eatery from Tommy Lee, whose noodle bar Uncle was no less of a hit when it opened in 2012. How did Lee repeat the success of his first go-around? With a slate of rare, regional Chinese dishes — many borrowed from his childhood visits to Hong Kong — tied to tradition by wood-fire cooking and amplified by the funky flavors of vegetables fermented and pickled in-house. The name Hop Alley honors Denver's original Chinatown, but the cuisine wanders far from standard Chinese-American fare, with cumin-tinged lamb sandwiches called rou jia mo from Shaanxi province; tongue-buzzing spices from Sichuan; and alternating cooling and warming elements to keep the palate stimulated — from jiggly chilled tofu to earthy char-siu pork belly with braised mustard greens. The eatery's instant success when it opened at the end of 2015 was proof that Denver diners are ready to be challenged, titillated and rewarded with a whole new world of gustatory experience. And Hop Alley also pushed the boundaries of Denver's dining scene into fresh new territory, taking fine dining further north than it had ever gone before in the booming River North neighborhood.

Readers' choice: Avanti Food & Beverage

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