Best Fortune Cookies 2003 | Little Shanghai Cafe | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Fortune Cookies

Little Shanghai Cafe

Crack open one of the elegant, foil-wrapped cookies at Little Shanghai Cafe, and what message do you find? "Confucius say you'll keep coming back to Little Shanghai, a Denver institution for almost three decades." Oops, wrong cookie: Little Shanghai would never do anything that blatant. Instead, it keeps its customers coming back by serving quality Chinese dishes, both Americanized and authentic; offering daily specials and incredibly friendly service; and ending each meal with the town's best fortune cookies -- complete with a bonus slick of white-chocolate icing on the outside that gives added emphasis to the sweet message waiting inside.

Best Chinese Restaurant

Ocean City

Family-style pig's-ear salad, sauces thickened with pork blood, whole baked tilapia swimming in dark, sweet soy reduction -- if you want to eat real Chinese food, your best bet is the green menu at Ocean City. If you follow the kitchen crews from other Chinese restaurants come closing time, they'll invariably head to the parking lot of Ocean City, an unassuming spot at the corner of South Federal and Mississippi. Here crabs and lobsters are pulled from the murky live tank by the door, cheap eats are offered in reduced-size portions after 9 p.m., and while neon-lit dry-erase boards list the day's specials in Cantonese and Mandarin, have no fear: The green menu is translated into English for culinary risk-takers sick to death of the bland, candy-coated crap being passed off as Chinese food out in the 'burbs.

Best Chinese Restaurant

Ocean City

Family-style pig's-ear salad, sauces thickened with pork blood, whole baked tilapia swimming in dark, sweet soy reduction -- if you want to eat real Chinese food, your best bet is the green menu at Ocean City. If you follow the kitchen crews from other Chinese restaurants come closing time, they'll invariably head to the parking lot of Ocean City, an unassuming spot at the corner of South Federal and Mississippi. Here crabs and lobsters are pulled from the murky live tank by the door, cheap eats are offered in reduced-size portions after 9 p.m., and while neon-lit dry-erase boards list the day's specials in Cantonese and Mandarin, have no fear: The green menu is translated into English for culinary risk-takers sick to death of the bland, candy-coated crap being passed off as Chinese food out in the 'burbs.

Best New Use of an Old Chinese Restaurant

Luca D'Italia

Once upon a time (actually, just a couple of months ago), the space at 711 Grant Street was home to China Hill -- a small Chinese restaurant known in the neighborhood for its reasonable prices and flaming pu-pu platters. But now, thanks to a little good luck and a lot of hard work by Frank Bonanno and Doug Fleischmann, what was once a humble Asian hangout has been transformed into the much-anticipated Luca D'Italia. In these funky, colorful digs, customers are treated to rustic Italian family fare served in multiple courses from antipasti straight through to dessert, with everything from the pasta to the salami to the mozzarella made in-house and from scratch. What is it they say is the secret to opening a successful restaurant? Location, location, location. Well, Luca has the best location the partners could hope for -- not only is it in a great restaurant neighborhood and in a space that's been proven successful, but it's also so close to the partners' first restaurant, the wonderful Mizuna, that they can almost be in two places at once.

Best New Use of an Old Chinese Restaurant

Luca D'Italia

Molly Martin
Once upon a time (actually, just a couple of months ago), the space at 711 Grant Street was home to China Hill -- a small Chinese restaurant known in the neighborhood for its reasonable prices and flaming pu-pu platters. But now, thanks to a little good luck and a lot of hard work by Frank Bonanno and Doug Fleischmann, what was once a humble Asian hangout has been transformed into the much-anticipated Luca D'Italia. In these funky, colorful digs, customers are treated to rustic Italian family fare served in multiple courses from antipasti straight through to dessert, with everything from the pasta to the salami to the mozzarella made in-house and from scratch. What is it they say is the secret to opening a successful restaurant? Location, location, location. Well, Luca has the best location the partners could hope for -- not only is it in a great restaurant neighborhood and in a space that's been proven successful, but it's also so close to the partners' first restaurant, the wonderful Mizuna, that they can almost be in two places at once.

Best Korean in the Last Place You'd Expect

DiDi Deli

While the humble DiDi Deli serves unexpectedly good chicken salad sandwiches and cheeseburgers, its Korean menu really steals the show. The Korean barbecue, for example, is nutty in flavor, tender and a little sweet. Bi bim bop -- a useful yardstick for measuring Korean food -- is a traditional dish of mild barbecued beef, fresh bean sprouts, lettuce, mushrooms, shredded cucumber, sliced zucchini, stewed greens and a fried egg, all kept separate but piled on a big mound of white rice, served with go choo jong, a thick, heavy, red-pepper paste you can use to your liking; DiDi's version is impeccable, with an ideal blend of textures, tastes and temperatures.

Best Korean in the Last Place You'd Expect

DiDi Deli

While the humble DiDi Deli serves unexpectedly good chicken salad sandwiches and cheeseburgers, its Korean menu really steals the show. The Korean barbecue, for example, is nutty in flavor, tender and a little sweet. Bi bim bop -- a useful yardstick for measuring Korean food -- is a traditional dish of mild barbecued beef, fresh bean sprouts, lettuce, mushrooms, shredded cucumber, sliced zucchini, stewed greens and a fried egg, all kept separate but piled on a big mound of white rice, served with go choo jong, a thick, heavy, red-pepper paste you can use to your liking; DiDi's version is impeccable, with an ideal blend of textures, tastes and temperatures.

Best Vietnamese in a Hut

Kim's Food to Go

The ramshackle structure that is the entirety of Kim's kitchen is about as out of place in Boulder as a fish in a tree, but it's a welcome sight in the dining landscape. Even though open kitchens -- those stages on which smiling cooks in starched whites glide around under dramatic point lighting, showing off for a room full of ravenous diners -- are quite trendy these days, they don't have anything on Kim's. At Kim's, there's nowhere to hide and no need to, since nothing is more natural, nothing more authentic, than the cooking being done here. The curries are delicate and sweet. Vietnamese egg rolls -- hot, right out of the oil, packed with chewy glass noodles and bits of sweet onion -- are just as good as you'd find for lots more money in a sit-down establishment. And the typical Chinese sesame chicken on the menu is anything but typical, with a surprising, superior maple-y glaze.

Best Vietnamese in a Hut

Kim's Food to Go

The ramshackle structure that is the entirety of Kim's kitchen is about as out of place in Boulder as a fish in a tree, but it's a welcome sight in the dining landscape. Even though open kitchens -- those stages on which smiling cooks in starched whites glide around under dramatic point lighting, showing off for a room full of ravenous diners -- are quite trendy these days, they don't have anything on Kim's. At Kim's, there's nowhere to hide and no need to, since nothing is more natural, nothing more authentic, than the cooking being done here. The curries are delicate and sweet. Vietnamese egg rolls -- hot, right out of the oil, packed with chewy glass noodles and bits of sweet onion -- are just as good as you'd find for lots more money in a sit-down establishment. And the typical Chinese sesame chicken on the menu is anything but typical, with a surprising, superior maple-y glaze.

Best Vietnamese Restaurant

Asian Deli

A tiny eatery housed in the same space as an Asian market in a Boulder strip mall, the Asian Deli is like a pearl -- a spectacular find in dubious surroundings. Almost anything on the menu can be had for less than seven bucks, and there are nearly 150 items on that menu, including two dozen soups. But a bargain is only a bargain if quality is as high as prices are low, and from simple goi cuon (Vietnamese spring rolls) and plain bowls of pho to deep-fried pampano fish and stuffed quail, Asian Deli surpasses all expectations.

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