Best Restaurant for Late-Night Munchies 2024 | Gaia Masala & Burger | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Restaurant for Late-Night Munchies

Gaia Masala & Burger

Molly Martin

It's true that the city's late-night dining scene took a big hit during the pandemic and has been slow to come back, but there are still options, and this one is a favorite no matter what time you're visiting. Gaia Masala started in Boulder, satisfying the nocturnal cravings of college students. Now it's doing the same for all of Denver, with a location in Capitol Hill that's open until 3 a.m. and one in the Union Station neighborhood that closes at 2 a.m. The mix of Indian and American fare on offer is wide-ranging, but our favorites include the cheesy lamb masala fries and the chicken tikka masala cheesesteak.

Best International Food Hall

Mango House

Candy Petrofsky

Among the resources at this refugee center founded by Dr. PJ Parmar are a pharmacy, a dentist, a family lawyer — and a handful of stalls serving international fare. There's Siri Tan's Urban Burma, where you can indulge in tea leaf salad, and Mohamad Alnouri's Jasmine Syrian Food, which serves dishes such as chicken shawarma and a sweet treat called Sooksay Snowballs. Bounce from Golden Sky Asian to Langano Ethiopian, Nepali Spice and Swahili BBQ Grill. Aurora is known for having the most diverse dining scene in the metro area, and at Mango House, you can experience that all in one place.

Best West African Restaurant

Akwaba Restaurant

Most of the African restaurants in and around Denver specialize in Ethiopian cuisine, but there are a handful where you can taste a wider variety of dishes from the biggest continent in the world. Cozy and welcoming, Akwaba is owned by Linda Essoh, who is originally from Côte d'Ivoire. The menu spans all of West Africa, taking inspiration from places like Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal with dishes like crispy red snapper, goat stew, and an Ivorian-style gumbo called kplala.

Best East Coast Transplant

Kawa Ni

Molly Martin

While we're often wary of restaurant transplants, there are exceptions, and Kawa Ni proves that a concept founded out of state can bring something new, exciting and downright delicious to Denver's dining scene without feeling forced or out of place. Chef/restaurateur Bill Taibe founded his Japanese izakaya-inspired eatery in Westport, Connecticut, in 2014. In November 2023, he brought it to LoHi and has fully embraced becoming a part of the neighborhood — while diners have fallen hard for Kawa Ni's dumplings, bao buns and inventive plates like the aptly named Addictive Cabbage and the shaved broccoli with ham, burnt honey and crunchy ra-yu.

Best West Coast Transplant

Reckless Noodle House

Molly Martin

Bryce Sweeney and his business partner, Mario Eckert, fell for the food of Southeast Asia while rock climbing in the region and opened Reckless Noodle in Seattle in 2018. Their cocktail bar background combined with a menu created by chef Kenny Lee, whose résumé includes notable Asian eateries Lionhead and Din Tai Fung, was a hit. They'd been eyeing an expansion to Denver when the pandemic hit, but finally debuted an outpost in Capitol Hill in December 2022, and it's proven to be a very good move for Mile High diners. On our must-try list: the caramelized prawns, ma la braised beef cheek noodles and the bo la lot, grilled beef in betel leaves.

Best Tofu Menu for Non-Vegetarians

Tofu Story

Molly Martin

In Korea and throughout Asia, tofu provides different textural elements (depending on the firmness and preparation), and it's an inexpensive way to add nutrients to a dish — even one that contains animal proteins. At Tofu Story, a Korean eatery from restaurateur JW Lee's Seoul Restaurant Group, tofu rises from the position of simple filler to the main attraction. You'll even walk past a "tofu lab" at the front of the dining room, where rectangles of glistening white soy are magically rendered from the liquid of pale beans. Your best bet, whether you want meat or not, is the soon tofu, a spicy red stew loaded with options that range from kimchi and mushrooms to cured pork products and shrimp. It's time to tell a new story about tofu.

Best Late-Night Pho on Federal

Now Pho

Courtesy Now Pho

After taking over Pho Le, changing the name and finalizing a deal to buy the building in March 2020, Toan Le and Nhan Tran forged through the pandemic, but knew they wanted to make some improvements. In January 2023, Now Pho closed for six months, getting a remodel in the process and a revamped menu with plenty of additions beyond pho (though it does that very well). We love the rice cake omelet (bot chien), the specialty soups like bun bo Hue and the new boba tea choices, and we especially love that we can get them late — until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, which is later than any other pho joint on Federal.

Best New Restaurant in a Convenience Store

Conu's Corner Cafe and Banh Mi Sandwiches

Molly Martin

Thuc-Nhu "Nhu" Hoang and her husband, Huy Pham, signed the lease for this spot in 2019, intending to open a coffee and sandwich shop. But faced with pandemic-related delays, they kept the business afloat by running it as a convenience store called Conu's Corner — and it continues to sell lottery tickets and stock the shelves with snacks and household items, only now it also has a food menu that includes pho, rice and noodle bowls, springs rolls and the highlight, banh mi sandwiches on rolls that are made in-house and are the perfect vehicle for the also housemade mayo and pickled veggies that accompany choices like char siu barbecue pork and pâté.

Best Non-Traditional Hamburger

NBX Asian Cuisine

Mark Antonation

China lays claim to the world's oldest hamburger, also known as a roujiamo, which dates back more than 2,000 years. You could dispute the use of the word "hamburger," but it's more fun to think of teenagers in ancient China wearing paper short-order-cook hats speedily filling orders at whatever passed for a drive-thru back then. At NBX, a chef-driven Chinese eatery with a short but intriguing menu of regional specialties from Shandong and Sichuan provinces (among others), the pace is more relaxed, and the Chinese hamburger (as it's called on the menu) takes the form of a housemade bun that's somewhere between a croissant and an English muffin, split and loaded with seasoned ground beef. It's a simple preparation, but the bun is light and delicate, and the meat holds layers of complex flavors.

Best Bar Snack in a Chinese Restaurant

Bistro King Asian Restaurant

Mark Antonation

Bistro King is one of those timeless neighborhood joints that seems to have always been there, and its menu of typical American-Chinese dishes interspersed with a little Thai, Vietnamese and even sushi does nothing to help it stand out. But last year, a new menu all in Mandarin appeared, giving in-the-know seekers of Sichuan specialties a new destination. Among the noodles and hot pots, something different lurks: jinsha corn. This dish would sell well at any bar, where salty, savory snacks are just the right foil for cold beers. Also called golden sand corn, it's a mound of wok-fried corn kernels coated in salted egg yolk and light seasonings — and a dusting of sugar, if that's your preference (it should be).

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