Best Old-Fashioned Meat Market 2002 | Fred's Fine Meats | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Old-Fashioned Meat Market

Fred's Fine Meats

Fred Deligio is the quintessential neighborhood butcher, a guy who really cares about his customers, always remembering how you like your steaks cut and when you need pork butt instead of loin. At Fred's Fine Meats, he brings in Choice-grade meat and ages it for three weeks himself; he also makes his own Italian and German sausages and bratwurst. Need a specialty sausage? Give Fred the recipe and he'll custom-stuff it to your specs -- and it will taste just like what your Polish grandma used to turn out. Fred's chickens come from Red Bird Farms (he'll cook them rotisserie-style for you), and he also offers only American lamb -- none of that frozen stuff from New Zealand -- and Boar's Head deli meats. Need elk, buffalo or duck liver? He can get it. And at the end of every transaction, Fred always says, "You take care." We will, because he does.

Best Meat Market for Singles

Tony's Meats and Deli

Want a guy who knows his pesto from his prosciutto? Need a vegetarian woman? Head straight to Tony's, the best meat/meet market in town, a mecca for the lonely looking for a date (or at least dinner). Every weekend, singles converge around the ready-made soups and pasta sauces in the frozen-foods section of this massive gourmet grocery store, checking out both the culinary and cuddling options. At Tony's, it's much easier to narrow down your choices than it is in a bar: You know he likes to cook if his cart is full of spices from the extensive selection here, and you know she's a morning person if hers has plenty of upscale jams and fresh-baked pastries. Sidle up to a cutie by the free samples and ask for her number; if it's a go, you can always pick out dinner together.

Best Meat Market for Knees and Necks

Midopa

Midopa is an excellent Asian market specializing in Korean and Japanese ingredients, with a killer housemade kim chee and inexpensive, fresh sushi sitting in a case near the front counter. But Midopa also stocks the best selection of hard-to-find animal parts we've ever seen. Necks, backs, feet, knees and other odds and ends from a variety of critters are available at all times, just begging to be plopped into a stock for Vietnamese pho or wrapped in rice paper and fried. No one at Midopa speaks much English, so it pays to know your parts -- because when it comes to cooking, parts isn't parts.

Best Fish Market

Whole Foods

Fishing for an interesting dinner? Head to any Whole Foods markets and have a chat with the knowledgeable staffers in the seafood section. They'll point out a tip-top fresh specimen, perfectly cut, from their dizzying array and then tell you ten different ways to prepare it, along with what other fish might work just as well in the same dish. On any given day, Whole Foods is swimming in the town's biggest variety of sea creatures, and employees can give you the 411 on any one of them: where it came from, what it ate, how long it'll keep and what it tastes like. The seafood section also has a tempting array of ready-made delicacies, including a fabulous calamari salad and party-worthy dips and spreads. And for those who like it raw, the sushi-grade octopus, eel, salmon and tuna are a cut above anyone else's.

Best Seafood Restaurant

Roy's of Cherry Creek

Jax Fish House
Roy's, which came to Cherry Creek by way of Hawaii, is once again the catch of the year for its fresh, well-prepared seafood. We're always reeled in by the menu's interesting combinations, including cassoulet made from sea scallops and filet mignon, and broadbill swordfish dusted and pan-fried with mochiko, a rice flour. This classy, elegant restaurant isn't afraid to offer seafood that landlocked Denver doesn't often see, such as butterfish (known as Pacific pompano or sablefish); the kitchen's also adept at turning the tried and true into something new, too, topping Chilean sea bass with grilled eel, for example. Get the net: We're keeping this one.

Best Sushi Bar

Hapa

Hapa Sushi
This hip, Hapa-ning chain now has three links (two in Boulder), but we like Hapa's Cherry Creek sushi bar best. The sushi is always super-fresh, interesting and well executed, offered in cutting-edge combinations that might sound silly but actually work. For starters, there's the "multiple orgasm," a tempura-battered sushi roll filled with cream cheese, crab and smoked salmon, all fried and then smothered in a gooey white sauce. Since they have to serve dishes like that, it's no wonder the sushi chefs are entertaining and friendly, ready to crack a joke or make conversation with the customers (unlike so many knife-wielding crankypants we run into at other places). But Hapa's real selling point is the scene, which is just plain fun: calm and relaxing at lunch, loud and raucous at dinner, with an L-shaped bar that makes for convenient people-watching.

Best Sushi When Size Matters

Fujiyama Grill & Sushi

Fujiyama owner Denny Kang thinks big is better, and he proves it by offering sushi that's much larger than you get at other sushi bars for the same price -- and just as tasty. Enjoy your fish while sitting at the red-topped sushi bar decorated with cute little aquariums, right near a massive, lavender-hued mural of the Japanese mountain that the eatery's named for. A meal here isn't quite as massive as Mount Fuji, but it's a culinary high point nonetheless.

Best Sushi When Price Matters

Fontana Sushi

At Fontana Sushi, it seems like almost every hour is happy hour, since the $1 sushi special runs from 6 to 10 p.m. weekdays and 7 p.m. to midnight on weekends. The low price doesn't mean low quality, though, and while the sushi chefs can be a little slow, and the sushi isn't always flawlessly assembled, it's unfailingly fresh and flavorful. Put your money where your mouth is at Fontana.

Best Japanese Restaurant

Domo

A visit to Domo has become a cultural tour of Japan, complete with a Zen garden, an intriguing museum, a jumping sake lounge, an appealing dining room and, now, an extensive sushi selection. Still, chef/owner Gaku Homma continues to focus on creating the most healthful, authentic versions of provincial Japanese foods -- yakimono, tojimono, curry, udon -- along with saishoku vegetarian items and Wankosushi, Homma's trademarked take on the country-style sushi of his childhood. Arigato, Domo.

Best Chinese Restaurant

Little Ollie's

Little Ollie's
Little Ollie's woks the walk. The kitchen produces dishes that are incredibly polished, not to mention filled with the best Chinese cooking in town. The steamed fish, stir-fries, sweet spare ribs and black-bean sauces evoke the streets of Hong Kong, but the delivery there surely leaves something to be desired when compared with the gracious, efficient service at Little Ollie's. The wine list is startlingly well chosen for a Chinese restaurant, too.

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