Best Dim Sum 2019 | Star Kitchen | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Dim Sum

Star Kitchen

Molly Martin

If you think size matters when it comes to choosing your next dim sum outing, think again. Star Kitchen is the smallest of Denver's dim sum palaces, but it's also the best, as much for the sheer variety of bite-sized specialties that wheel on laden carts through the dining room as for the craftsmanship of each of those bites. Delicate masako pork shiu mai with pleats seemingly executed by a seamstress, translucent har gow with impossibly thin skins, and summer-green cilantro dumplings are just the start. Fried turnip cakes, succulent chicken feet, taro balls in crispy coats and steamed pork buns fluffy as cotton will help get you to your goal of waddling out the door full and content. Custard tarts, sesame balls and mango pudding add a touch of sweetness, and larger dishes of chow fun or yee-fu noodles are just right for sharing with friends. Dine a la cart!

Readers' Choice: Star Kitchen

Best German/Eastern European Restaurant

Gaby's German Eatery

Mark Antonation

Step inside the dining room of this tiny, quaint Lakewood eatery and you'll feel as if you're in small-town Germany, where family cooks turn out humble, hearty plates sided with a little conversation. Gaby Berben has been peddling her homestyle cooking for years at Denver festivals and special events, but last year she settled into a small kitchen with just a few seats, where you can enjoy sauerbraten, spätzle and cabbage rolls, among other traditional German dishes. Stop in for the daily special (Thursday is chef's surprise!), but be sure to start with soup (like Gaby's own carrot-coconut-ginger) and save room for dessert from a rotating selection of pastries.

Readers' Choice: Rhein Haus

Best Central/South American Restaurant

Quiero Arepas

If it weren't for Igor and Beckie Panasewicz, Denver would barely know what Venezuelan arepas are, much less how good they can be when made right. From their small squad of food trucks to one of the anchor eateries at Avanti Food & Beverage, Igor and Beckie have captured our attention with tasty cornmeal cakes grilled and bursting with fresh and bold flavors. The single-minded focus of Quiero Arepas results in just a handful — a serious handful — of options, from the bulging Pabellon, filled with shredded pork, black beans, avocado, cheese and fried plantain, to more demure but still filling numbers, some of them vegetarian and all of them gluten-free. We're delighted that the national street food of Venezuela will soon have a brick-and-mortar home on Old South Pearl.

Readers' Choice: Leña

Best Ethiopian Restaurant

Megenagna

Lori Midson

Many of Denver's Ethiopian restaurants are clustered along East Colfax Avenue and down Havana Street, offering long menus and combination platters of vegetable stews and slow-cooked meats heaped atop broad sourdough pancakes called injera. Big dining rooms with stages and room for dancing are common, since many eateries serve as celebration halls for the city's Ethiopian community. Megenagna, tucked into a shopping strip just off Havana, has a slightly different approach, with its concise menu and cozy cafe ambience. But those are also the restaurant's strengths, allowing the kitchen to display mastery of a few specific dishes while guests receive personalized service. The minced beef dish called kitfo is a house specialty and comes in several different forms — even a meatless style prepared with chopped, seasoned collard greens and soft housemade cheese. Relax with a rich cappuccino after a meal before wandering through the attached market for spices, dried beans and other products to take home. Megenagna is an intimate way to experience Ethiopian hospitality.

Readers' Choice: Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant

Best Middle Eastern Restaurant

Safta

Danielle Lirette

Safta is proof that Middle Eastern restaurants can rise above their strip-mall homes and draw tourists and locals alike looking to spend big money in swanky, modern surroundings. Chef/owner Alon Shaya, coming off a James Beard Award for his work in New Orleans, interprets the Israeli cuisine of his youth for a Denver audience hungry for superlatives in Mediterranean cooking: the fluffiest pita (baked in a wood-fired oven), the creamiest hummus and the crunchiest falafel. "Safta" means grandmother, so the fact that you're smothered in comfort food at this restaurant in the Source Hotel is no surprise — but Shaya also has a way with chef-ier creations built on sea bass, short ribs and lamb shanks, to name a few. Come during the day and fill up on baked goods at the walk-up counter; it's just like stealing warm cookies from Grandma's kitchen table.

Readers' Choice: Jerusalem

Best Indian Restaurant

Tiffin's India Cafe

Rather than running you through the standard rainbow of Indian curries, Tiffin's focuses on the best street-food favorites of South India: paper-thin dosa rolled around generous scoops of masala; doughnut-shaped vada in spicy sauce; stark-white idli dumplings; and fat samosas bulging with vegetable fillings. The stewed vegetarian dishes are amazing — lentils, chickpeas, eggplant and okra, for example — so Tiffin's is a great stop for a light lunch. But meat lovers will also find plenty to love; the lamb biryani and korma are both noteworthy. If you're a Boulder native, you need only follow your nose — and Denver residents shouldn't hesitate to make the drive up, since Indian specialties this good are few and far between.

Readers' Choice: Little India

Best Korean Restaurant

Mr. Kim Korean BBQ

Laura Shunk

Restaurants that try to do too much often fail at everything, but at Mr. Kim Korean BBQ, nearly every aspect of Korean cuisine presented turns out well. Of course, the barbecue rises above all: Thin-sliced meats — whether beef brisket or tongue, pork belly or bulgogi, seafood or duck — are all quality cuts that come with well-seasoned sauces. But beyond that, every bubbling stone-bowl soup, kimchi pancake or order of dumplings, noodles or rice dishes exhibits freshness and deep flavor. Short of hopping a plane to Seoul, you're unlikely to find this much variety or depth anywhere else. So crack a bottle or two of soju, pour your tablemates a round, and get sizzling!

Readers' Choice: Dae Gee

Best Thai Restaurant

Taste of Thailand

Mark Antonation

The warm, welcoming Thai restaurant run by Noy and Rick Farrell doesn't feel old or tired, despite 25 years of business, first in a tiny Englewood storefront and then in new digs on South Broadway, where Taste of Thailand moved in 2015. The secret to keeping things fresh is return visits to Thailand, where Noy is from, to bring back recipes and ingredients to add to the already-vibrant menu. The Farrells are also avid home gardeners, so they enhance dishes with herbs and vegetables from their own garden. Summer dishes shine with fresh Colorado produce, and come winter, it's time for the restaurant's famous "flu shot soup."

Readers' Choice: Taste of Thailand

Best Vietnamese Restaurant

Denver Pho

Mark Antonation

This west-side Vietnamese eatery won't win any awards for its name, which offers few clues about the variety and beauty of the food found within. There's something here for everyone, from first-time noodle slurpers to experienced international travelers to Vietnamese expats looking for a taste of home. While the pho is as good as any you'll find around town, the much longer list of regional specialties is what makes Denver Pho a real find. Many of the dishes hail from Hanoi, in northern Vietnam, or Hue, in its narrow center, so expect a far more diverse range of ingredients and flavors than at your typical pho shop. Little rice or tapioca dumplings steamed in miniature saucers or banana leaves come with shrimp and sausage fillings or crackly dried-shrimp toppings; a steaming bowl of bun bo Hue is pho's more assertive cousin. And bold, pungent dipping sauces give your tastebuds a real workout.

Readers' Choice: New Saigon

Best Pho

Pho Duy

Mark Antonation

Pho Duy is a perennial Vietnamese standby that's been serving Federal Boulevard for decades, and it only gets better with age (maybe it's the seasoning of its pots). Every bowl here is built with an ideal ratio of chewy rice noodles, greens, and bits of meat or offal, and sided with a generous platter of aromatic basil, crisp bean sprouts, lime and jalapeños. What takes the pho here to transcendent, though, is the broth. The murky beef stock is silken from long-simmered bones, and endlessly layered, deeply savory and redolent of five-spice. Its complexity is haunting; you'll always need one more bite to try to pinpoint an elusive and tasty note, which may be why you'll keep coming back for more.

Readers' Choice: Pho 95

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