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Third-worst restaurant in America is in Denver -- and it's not Casa Bonita!

Every year, The Daily Meal does a comprehensive survey and then announces the 101 Best Restaurants in America. Yesterday, the Daily Meal revealed the worst, digging "deep into the recesses of the culinary dustbin" to discover the true bottom feeders. The result is a list of possibly the five worst...
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Every year, The Daily Meal does a comprehensive survey and then announces the 101 Best Restaurants in America. Yesterday, the Daily Meal revealed the worst, digging "deep into the recesses of the culinary dustbin" to discover the true bottom feeders. The result is a list of possibly the five worst restaurants in America -- and it includes one in metro Denver.

No, it's not Casa Bonita. See also: How to survive Casa Bonita, the world's weirdest Mexican restaurant

It's Ho Mei Chinese Restaurant. And this place is apparently double trouble: There's a Ho Mei at at 3740 Peoria Street and one at 3260 Colorado Boulevard (a third on Sheridan Boulevard has closed).

The Daily Meal combines info from both locations in the rationale for Ho Mei's third-worst ranking:

"Ho Mei must translate to the Yiddish 'Oy Vey' or more poignantly, 'Viscous Mush,'" wrote one Yelp reviewer of this questionable Denver Chinese restaurant. "FLEE!," chimed in another reviewer; "AVOID!," another. "The sesame chicken was hard as a rock and tasted like nothing I could identify," another wrote. "The place is dirty. I shudder to imagine what the kitchen looks like. Save your money. Go lick a bus seat to get the same gastrointestinal experience for free." And in 2012, they racked up $7,000 in health code violation fines. Yikes.

Yikes indeed. We sent our intrepid courier to the Colorado Boulevard location to pick up an order of that sesame chicken, as well as sweet and sour chicken, fried rice and an egg roll. The Yelper was right: the sesame chicken was hard as a rock, and tasted like nothing we could identify, either. The sweet and sour chicken was harder, and tasted like nothing at all. (We refrained from licking a bus seat for comparative purposes.) Ho Mei may not be the worst, but it's far from the best.

The four other restaurants that the Daily Meal ranks as among the worst:

5) Bistro Med, Washington, D.C.

4) Kissena Dominican Diner, Kew Gardens, Queens, N.Y.

2) Sun Taco, Los Angeles

1) Colony Café, Miami Beach, Fla.

For the record, metro Denver has just one restaurant on Yahoo's 101 Best Restaurants list for 2013: Frasca Food and Wine clocks in at 58.


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