Asian Food and Cooking

At J's Noodles Star Thai, rice dishes also shine

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Little bundles of joy at Gio Cha Cali

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Golden Pho & Grill is a newcomer, but fits right in on Federal

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Pho Lee: So pho, so good for this Greenwood Village restaurant

See also: A closer look at Pho Lee

Vietnam Grill serves up a surprising culinary lesson on Vietnamese cuisine

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Denver's ten best spots for pho

Vietnamese soup is good food any time of the year, and always fun to accessorize with fresh vegetables and spicy sauces -- but on a cold day like today, a great bowl of pho is enough to bowl you over. Fortunately, in Denver our cup runneth over with pho spots. Here, in no particular order (until th ... More >>

Pho and ramen: The differences will bowl you over

In last week's fantastic ode, former Westword food critic Laura Shunk joined the chorus of raves for Uncle. If you haven't been to this tiny noodle shop in Highland, by all means try it; we named it 2013's Best New Restaurant for a reason. But on nights when you don't feel like waiting for a table ... More >>

Colorado-based Tokyo Joe's is a fast-food chain that needs to slow down

Fast-casual Japanese food like rice bowls, udon noodles and simple sushi rolls at cheap prices, served in a compact bistro environment that encourages come-as-you-are, quick-service dine-in or even faster carry-out: That's a golden dragon of a concept. But the unfortunate reality I saw while recentl ... More >>

Variety's not the spice at Pho 555 on Federal

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Pho 96 keeps it warm and simple

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Bop & Gogi: A fast-casual Korean concept takes off in Centennial

See also: A closer look at Bop & Gogi

Pho Le: So pho, so good (and porky)

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Kimchi and roast chicken in Centennial -- and soon in my kitchen

My kitchen hasn't gotten a lot of use lately -- unless you count the refrigerator. That appliance has been running full-tilt, stuffed with leftovers from meals eaten in preparation for our annual Best of Denver issue, which comes out next week. But as soon as I start cooking again, I know just wha ... More >>

Spice is nice in Indian food -- and so is tradition

See also: Scenes from the kitchen at Azitra

Spice rack: What gives Indian food its flavor?

In this week's review of Azitra, I write about dishes with names you might not never have heard of, such as kaali mirch ka murg or chicken hariyali lazzatdar. But even if you know your chana from paneer, you still might need help pinpointing the spices that give your favorite Indian dish its flavor. ... More >>

At Pho 95, warmth and familiarity slow down the rush on a cold night

In A Federal Case, I'll be eating my way up Federal Boulevard -- south to north -- within Denver city limits. I'll be skipping the national chains and per-scoop Chinese joints, but otherwise I'll report from every vinyl booth, walk-up window and bar stool where food is served. Here's the report on t ... More >>

Indian food: Heat-and-eat is no substitute for the real thing

I know better than to shop when hungry. That's when I end up with stuff I don't really want, like canned soup or a frozen dinner, or stuff my kids want that I normally say no to, like Cocoa Krispies. On this particular night, I managed to resist their call for chocolaty snap, crackle and pop, but I ... More >>

Round two with Jagdish Singh, exec chef of India's Castle: expansion into downtown Denver

Jagdish Singh India's Castle 9555 East Arapahoe Road, Greenwood Village 303-782-9700 www.indiascastle.com This is part two of my interview with Jagdish Singh, exec chef of India's Castle; part one of our interview ran yesterday. Favorite Denver/Boulder restaurant other than your own: Tuk Tuk. Wha ... More >>

Jagdish Singh, exec chef of India's Castle, on passing the ginger test

Jagdish Singh India's Castle 9555 East Arapahoe Road, Greenwood Village 303-782-9700 www.indiascastle.com Jagdish Singh is prepping himself for a photo shoot, and he's not happy with the ski cap pulled down over his dark hair. He leaps up from the table, hurries to the kitchen and returns donning ... More >>

Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coconut-curried chicken soup

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast. Pete and Barb have exactly one ... More >>

Pho Duy warms up Federal with plant-based noodle soup

Winter finally settled in again yesterday, making pho the perfect pick-me-up, warming you from the inside and, if you're suffering from the season, clearing up your sinuses (if you add plenty of jalapenos and sriracha). There are lots of pho places to choose from on Federal, but Pho Duy has somethin ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Foie gras oysters from Sushi Sasa

Suffice it to say that I eat out more than the general population, unless, of course, the general population can catalog more than 450 restaurant meals in a year -- which is about the number of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I stomached in 2012. Pathetic, isn't it? But all those food dates are ... More >>

Guess where I'm eating a cashew chicken curry?

You can get chicken tikka masala here, as well as vindaloo and biryani, but this is a restaurant -- Indian, obviously -- that offers so much more, including a delicious cashew chicken curry strewn with cilantro. Can you guess where I'm eating? Special bonus: Anyone who gives the first correct ans ... More >>

Hapa Sushi -- sexy rolls, raw fish and edamame

I made my first foray into sushi at the relatively ripe age of twenty (I don't count the gobs of bad California rolls that I squished down before that), and it was an instant, passionate love affair akin to the greatest romances of all time. Romeo and Juliet, Bogey and Bacall, Robert Pattinson and K ... More >>

Pho Vy's vegetarian pho comforts the south suburbs

Pho is delicious year-round, but we're coming up on the time of the planet's rotation around the sun when it's particularly satisfying -- fall and winter. There are a few places in the metro area that offer this Vietnamese noodle soup made with vegetable broth instead of the default beef mixture, in ... More >>

Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Samurai edamame and mushrooms over rice (backpack-style)

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast. Dave Bekken, the manager of Mar ... More >>

Shin Sa Dong, the city's newest Korean restaurant, opens in Aurora

Most of the city's Korean restaurants, much like our Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese dining dens, are marked by their transparent strip mall center facades, bare interiors and stoic service. That's not how Shin Sa Dong, a new Korean restaurant at 10293 East Iliff Avenue, rolls.

Okinawa brings Japanese veggie options to the southwest suburbs

Michael Zheng opened Okinawa in late 2010 at 2301 East Colfax Avenue, in a spot that had failed before as a sushi joint -- but it's done well enough that Zheng opened another outpost of Okinawa in a strip mall at 12652 West Ken Caryl Avenue, in a space that was formerly the home of a Big Papa's BBQ ... More >>

Dragon Palace opens in the former home of Al Bae Nae

Though Korean barbecue joints are everywhere, Korean fried chicken is surprisingly hard to come by in this town. So I was really excited to sing the praises of the glorious, crisp-skinned Korean fried chicken I'd found -- at long last -- at Al Bae Nae, a Korean street food place in an Aurora strip m ... More >>

Thai Monkey Club doesn't monkey around with its food

Phat Thai doesn't need to be authentic, just good

Denver's five best Thai restaurants

Denver may have an abundance of Thai restaurants, but most of them serve food that's a far cry from what you'll actually find in that country, one of the best in the world for eating. If you know where to look though, you can find a handful of restaurants turning out wickedly hot curries, vibrant pa ... More >>

With Masala Xpress, Ashim KC returns to the Denver dining scene

When we noticed that a restaurant named Masala Xpress had set up shop in the Aurora Mall, our first hope was that it might be a quick-service outpost of Masalaa, the restaurant on South Parker Road that serves an all-vegetarian menu and landed our Best Vegetarian Indian Buffet award in this year's B ... More >>

Sushi Hai (mostly) fulfills our happy hour desires

Happy Place: Sushi Hai, 3600 West 32nd Avenue, 720-855-0888. The Hours: Daily from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The Deals: $3 draft beers; $3.50 well drinks; $5 saketinis; $2-5 house wines and sake; $2.25-$4.50 food specials. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out.

Denver's five best Japanese restaurants

While Denver is swimming in great options for sushi, we're woefully short on Japanese joints that feature good versions of the broader culinary canon -- and, in fact, we'd be stoked if a few more spots of this sort opened up, whether they're restaurants serving up Japanese noodles like ramen or soba ... More >>

Hana Japanese Bistro in Louisville is all-inclusive

Slide show: In the kitchen at Hana Japanese Bistro

Kobe An showcases plant-based Japanese cuisine in the southwest suburbs

There are tatami rooms at Kobe An where you can have a traditional Japanese meal while seated on the floor around a low table -- all hidden away in an above-street-level storefront in that most American of landscapes, the strip mall. The inside of this restaurant belies its bland suburban exterior w ... More >>

Photos: Pho Ta, a contemporary Vietnamese pho parlor, opens in Alameda Square

For months, we've been keeping an eye on the construction at Alameda Square, which lays claim to some of the best Asian markets and restaurants in the city, including Super Star Asian, which is undergoing an expansion, and Pacific Ocean, which is also enlarging its space. But it's Pho Ta, a Vietname ... More >>

Curry n Kebob now open in Boulder

The sun set on Boulder's 8island Hawaiian BBQ around the new year, and the city lost one of the only places you could find a Hawaiian plate lunch. We haven't heard from former 8island owner Michael Iuchi since he shuttered the joint, but the address, at least, has gotten new life.

India House closes in LoDo: Hapa Sushi will open in its place in August

"I could have kept it open for a few more weeks, but I was just done and wanted to get out," admits Ghugi Singh, the owner of India House, which served its last meal in LoDo on Saturday night. Singh, who opened the elegant India House in 2007 in the same quarters that originally housed Delhi Darbar ... More >>

Round two with Dean Huang, exec chef of Super Star Asian

Dean Huang Super Star Asian 2200 West Alameda Avenue, #5A www.superstardenver.com 303-727-9889 This is part two of my interview with Dean Hunag, exec chef of Super Star Asian. Part one of our conversation ran in this space yesterday. What you'd like to see more of in Denver/Boulder from a culinar ... More >>

New Saigon Bakery & Deli brings Vietnamese delights to the masses

It's been 25 years since husband-and-wife team Thai Nguyen and Ha Pham took over New Saigon, which I reviewed last week, and in their capable hands, one of the oldest Vietnamese restaurants in the city has remained one of the best. So I was stoked when the New Saigon Bakery & Deli opened right nex ... More >>

Fans flock to New Saigon for the food, not the service

More photos: In the kitchen at New Saigon

Denver's five best Vietnamese restaurants

Denver has an abundance of Vietnamese restaurants, all devoted to a culinary canon that marries French and Chinese cooking into dishes that are delicious whether you're eating noodles on the street or chowing down at a formal feast. Dozens of pho shops dot Federal Boulevard and South Havana Street ... More >>

Denver's Bombay Bowl gets a huge shout-out in the New York Times

In the two days since Bombay Bowl, Denver's only fast-casual Indian restaurant, was featured prominently in the dining section of the New York Times, owner Amar Singh has been inundated with franchising offers from all over the globe.

Sushi Den architects share plans for the South Pearl project

This month started with major action on South Pearl Street -- including a very involved deal that calls for the Wynkoop/Breckenridge group that had owned Pearl Street Grill to swap that space at 1477 South Pearl with Izakaya Den, at 1518 South Pearl, one of three restaurants in the eating empire tha ... More >>

At Hana Matsuri, the chef knows his way around good fish

Elway's Downtown makes veggie sushi to order

We've written before about the vegetarian food at Elway's Downtown, 1881 Curtis Street. The restaurant remains one of our favorite (and least obvious) places to grab a bite to eat in the area -- you wouldn't think a steakhouse would cater so well to vegetarians, but this one does. In 2011, the joint ... More >>

Hana Matsuri serves sushi to the northern suburbs in tomorrow's review

Sushi Den and Sushi Sasa long ago deep-sixed the notion that good sushi doesn't exist in this landlocked state. These two formidable restaurants turn out exceptional dishes that rival those in any American city, seaside or not.

Denver's ten best Chinese restaurants

Today marks the Chinese New Year, which is a good reason to go forth into one of this city's excellent Chinese joints and feast on meats and vegetables loaded with Szechuan peppers, a vat of soul-warming beef noodle soup, dumplings or something much, much stranger -- duck tongue, pig's blood or shar ... More >>