There may be many fish in Denver's sea of seafood restaurants, but Stoic & Genuine is a real catch. Pull into this Union Station eatery for gleaming oysters, craveable crudos and fabulous fish. If you need a quick lunch, the seared albacore tuna melt on an English muffin or the fish and chips could be just the ticket, but make the return trip for dinner and spoil yourself with caviar service, a seafood tower (bring friends!), or one of Denver's most decadent dishes: the "Surf in Turf," a miraculous melding of New York strip and ahi tuna swathed in a silky black truffle Hollandaise. Don't quite have your sea legs? Buck the trend as all around you slurp shellfish by tucking into S & G's masterful double cheeseburger.

Readers' Choice: Jax Fish House

Angelo's Taverna bills itself as Denver's original pizza and oyster bar — and given that it's been serving central Denver since the Nixon administration, it's safe to say that it's the longest-running restaurant of its ilk. While it was refurbished by new owners in 2013, Angelo's is still all dark woods and stained-glass windows, with the kind of labyrinthine floor plan that suggests the restaurant was built before breezy, cavernous dining rooms became the norm. Oysters still anchor the menu here, and Angelo's offers a rotating menu of mollusks that changes with what's fresh. We're half-shell people, but the restaurant makes a compelling argument for a char-grilled preparation: Your order of a half-dozen can be dressed up with garlic butter or bacon and Gorgonzola. Belly up to the bar during happy hour for $1 East Coast or West Coast oysters, or have them char-grilled for a dollar more.

Readers' Choice: Jax Fish House

During one visit to Emmerson shortly after the restaurant opened last year, a server told us that not every diner was ordering dessert. Big mistake. Chef Jeb Breakell, who co-manages the kitchen with Michael Gibney, came up working pastry in New York fine-dining establishments, and he treats dessert as a true final course, not a gut-busting palate blowout. His sweets, all eye-catching on the plate, boast unusual flavors that are nicely balanced, and they tend to please even the staunchest no-dessert people. With his malted-barley pavlova, you crack open the matcha tea-dusted airy puff only to find buckwheat cream, its nuanced earthiness playing foil to the sugar. The shiro miso flan with sudachi citrus-infused caramel and pear marries savory, tart and floral notes in each bite. As the seasons evolve, so will the dessert offerings...but it's hard to imagine anything better than what's served there now.

You say potato, I say po-tah-to, but at Cattivella, all that matters is that you say crostata, even if you're more familiar with galette, the French word for this rustic, fruit-filled tart. Chef-owner Elise Wiggins learned the recipe from a chef on the Amalfi Coast, and translates it beautifully at the restaurant she launched in Stapleton last spring. Typical crostatas resemble free-form, one-crust pies. Hers is far more satisfying, a mound of barely sweetened fruit tucked inside dough that curls upwards around it like petals. Fillings vary by season — perhaps berries, perhaps apples — but whatever's inside, you'll relish the flaky and buttery crust, with its light sprinkling of demerara sugar, every bit as much. Baked to order, each crostata is finished with a dollop of swoon-worthy amaretto mascarpone mousse.

Call isn't a very evocative name for a restaurant, but it's actually half of Beckon|Call, a dual-concept eatery located in two neighboring bungalows in the heart of the RiNo neighborhood. Beckon will be a seventeen-seat chef's-counter eatery when it opens later this year, but Call opened at the end of last year, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner in its cozy space. A low counter separates customers from the kitchen, making you feel like you're in someone's home during an intimate dinner party. In the morning, coffee, housemade pastries and breads, breakfast sandwiches and tartines (open-faced toasts) are on offer, transitioning to salads, small plates, grab-and-go items and made-to-order entrees for lunch and dinner. Chef Duncan Holmes, whose culinary skills will be showcased at Beckon, orchestrates the action at Call, creating fare worthy of the best white-tablecloth dining rooms in a casual setting. Don't miss sweet and savory takes on ebelskivers — like Danish doughnut holes.

The Nickel had a hard act to follow: The prior tenant in its Hotel Teatro space was iconic Denver chef Kevin Taylor's long-running Restaurant Kevin Taylor. But it's risen admirably to the challenge, especially after Russell Stippich took control of the kitchen in the middle of last year. Stippich's team pays homage to American classics and draws inspiration from the culinary memories of the kitchen staff; the resulting menu is at once familiar and exhilarating, making it an ideal middle ground for all types of palates. That suits it: In addition to serving a hotel full of guests, the Nickel's location close to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts makes it a no-brainer for pre-theater dining. The power move, though, is to make a reservation for after the show starts: This place is strong enough to be the star of an evening (or brunch) devoted only to eating out.

Readers' Choice: Hearth & Dram

Citizen Rail isn't technically a steakhouse, since the menu at this Hotel Born restaurant ranges further afield than just steak, creamed spinach and a classic wedge. But when we want a great piece of beef, this is where we go, drawn by steaks that are hand-cut by an in-house butcher, then dry-aged for a month (or two or three). All of that patience pays off, resulting in wood-fired New York strips, bone-in ribeyes and hulking, 48-ounce tomahawks with deeply concentrated flavors and unparalleled tenderness. In true steakhouse style, you get your choice of sauce, from Béarnaise to bourbon peppercorn, but we recommend eating meat this good plain. The bar is nifty, too — a bonus when there's a wait for a table.

Readers' Choice: Guard and Grace

The strength of Tavernetta lies in the details; everything — food, decor, service — lives up to the reputation of owners Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson and Bobby Stuckey, who shot to stardom more than a decade ago with their fine-dining restaurant, Frasca Food and Wine. Tavernetta doesn't have Frasca's tablecloths or price point, but it does whisk you to Italy with every aperol spritz, every plate of ruby-hued carpaccio, every bowl of filled pasta lovingly twisted into edible origami. Under the supervision of executive chef Ian Wortham, who took multiple trips to Italy and staged in six restaurants over a two-year-period, the menu unfolds in a sophisticated and approachable manner, rooted in Italian traditions but subtly reframed. Whether you sit in the lounge for an aperitivo, enjoying the views of Union Station over an assortment of reasonably priced snacks, or in one of the dining rooms for a multi-course feast with a bottle of red expertly chosen by the sommelier, you'll always be well taken care of, with a level of service rarely seen these days.

Readers' Choice: There...