Denver Westword | The Leading Independent News Source in Denver, Colorado

A Tale of Two Burgers: Dry-Aged Beef Versus the Meatless Impossible Burger

By Linnea Covington

Nov 6, 2018

A meat substitute that's growing in popularity is put to the test against dry-aged beef from a Denver chef.

You're Going to Want This Tofu Banh Mi at Hearth & Dram

By Mark Antonation

Oct 19, 2018

Meat may be the main theme at Hearth & Dram, but chef Adam Vero has a way with tofu too.

Corner Ramen Creates Some Fun Finger Food in an Unlikely Neighborhood

By Mark Antonation

Nov 15, 2017

There aren't many things left in the world that haven't been wrapped in bacon — food or otherwise. So when I stumbled across the bacon-wrapped mochi on the menu at Corner Ramen while prowling the neighborhood for something else entirely (tacos — I admit it), I knew I had found...

Los Mangos Delivers a Street-Worthy Sonoran Hot Dog on Federal Boulevard

By Mark Antonation

Oct 30, 2017

In my quest for the best street food in Denver, I've had a tough time tracking down a Sonoran hot dog that does justice to the Mexican original or stateside versions that have become common in Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. A handful of half-hearted substitutes can be...

Chain Reaction: Quiznos Goes Almost Greek With New Gyro Sandwiches

By Mark Antonation

Oct 25, 2017

The time has come for me to face one of life's most troubling facts: People — lots of people — eat at fast-food restaurants. Chain eateries hit us with a constant barrage of hyper-palatable foods (those combinations of salt, fat and sugar that our brains find irresistible) and tempt us...

Hashing It Out at Bear Valley's Doghouse Tavern

By Ken Holloway

Aug 8, 2017

What happens when a restaurant group rounds up a few chefs and challenges them to create a new dish? Usually not much. Chefs are great at putting a spin on a dish, reinterpreting a dish, or coming up with a good mash-up. But rarely do we see a whole new...

Step Aboard a Massive Chalupa at Siete Leguas Mexican Grille

By Mark Antonation

Apr 24, 2017

Thanks to Taco Bell, Americans know the chalupa as little more than a outsized taco, a puffy fried flatbread of questionable origin stuffed with the Bell's standard ingredients. But even in Mexico, the chalupa takes on various forms and isn't always easy to identify by sight alone, depending on the...

Carne Asada Fries Fill a Late-Night Void in Denver's Dining Scene

By Mark Antonation

Apr 17, 2017

San Diego-style Mexican food isn't common in Denver, outside of the Tacos Rapidos family and a couple of other independent eateries in the suburbs. And late-night Mexican grub is even rarer — and I don't mean what most Denverites consider late-night, where you're home before midnight with TV remote in...

A Dive Into the Casa Bonita Experience Reveals Empty Tropical Pool

By Patricia Calhoun

Feb 7, 2017

Casa Bonita is a true Colorado classic, a forty-plus-year-old eatertainment complex that bills itself as "the world's most exciting restaurant" and has been immortalized on South Park as the "Disneyland of Mexican restaurants." Despite its international notoriety, though, some Coloradans have never been to the place - a shocking lapse that we were determined to remedy.

What Is Thai Hot — and Should You Order It?

By Mark Antonation

Sep 8, 2016

You know the drill at the majority of Thai restaurants in Denver: You pick your entree and the server asks how spicy you want it. You can even call out a number from a scale printed on the menu in many cases. And at the top of that scale are...

One More International Sandwich: A Cemita from Poco Torteria

By Mark Antonation

Dec 16, 2015

Yesterday, we brought you a list of hard-to-find sandwiches in Denver that hail from all over the globe. Most of these sandwiches are unique in the city — unless you know of more than one place to find a St. Paul sandwich (a collision of white bread and American-Chinese egg...

Motomaki Is the New Big Roller in Boulder

By Mark Antonation

Nov 4, 2014

The Nacho Tuna Maki at new Boulder fast-casual Japanese eatery Motomaki is almost as big as a Chipotle burrito (and even comes wrapped in foil); it has the word "nacho" in the name, which generally indicates good things to come; and it seems somehow healthy and audacious at the same...

Two Boulder Brothers Go Nuts With Bronuts

By Mark Antonation

Oct 30, 2014

What do you get when two brothers who love doughnuts team up to bake and sell oversized doughnut holes with a few ball jokes thrown in? If you're Mitch and Brett Magdovitz, the answer is Bronuts: cream-filled spherical pastries with names like Bleu Balls, Monkey Balls and Chocolate Salty Balls...

Mowed Down by the Mitraillette Sandwich at Manneken Frites

By Mark Antonation

Oct 9, 2014

Belgium is known for two things in most of the world: chocolate and those miniature cabbages from Brussels. Food does seem to be their thing in the tiny country that's split geographically and culturally between the Flemish and the Walloons, but an equally tiny Arvada beer and Belgian street-food bar...

Pride of Philly Creates the Supreme Leader of Korean Sandwiches

By Mark Antonation

Sep 22, 2014

Jason Delp has two marks in his favor when it comes to Philly steak sandwiches. First, he grew up in Philadelphia under the thrall of Steve's Prince of Steaks, whose slogan promises that "one bite and you'll be a subject for life." Second, the name Delp is a big part...

Going Underground for Mako Shark Tacos at Machete

By Mark Antonation

Sep 10, 2014

Cherry Creek North isn't exactly a hotbed of ethnic cuisine. Before Machete Tequila and Tacos came along, the most Mexican place in the neighborhood was the Chico's clothing boutique down the street. But despite a customer base likely to eat a burrito only if it's called a wrap, Machete has...

The Mac n' Cheese Slice at Ian's Pizza Goes Pre-Columbian

By Mark Antonation

Aug 26, 2014

Pizza in some form -- a disk of baked dough with a few toppings -- has been around since probably the dawn of agriculture, while pasta in Italy dates back to as early as the 13th century. Tomatoes, on the other hand, didn't make it to the land of San...

Bruxie Waffles Around With Banh Mi This Sunday

By Mark Antonation

Aug 22, 2014

According to some calendars, this Sunday is National Waffle Day, which doesn't mean you get to be indecisive for 24 hours -- it just means purveyors of disks of dented dough get free advertising once a year. Bruxie, the sandwich joint that had the wisdom to substitute Belgian waffles for...

Conquering Stage Fright at New York Deli News

By Mark Antonation

Aug 13, 2014

Sometimes life puts obstacles in front of us that seem almost insurmountable: a Super Bowl loss from our beloved Broncos, another soul-sucking day at corporate headquarters, an open-faced sandwich of such daunting proportions that we should have been training for it all summer. But we persevere -- conquer, even --...

Eastern Europe embraces the Southwest at Baba and Pop's Kitchen

By Mark Antonation

Jul 30, 2014

I've been making the rounds at Civic Center Eats the past couple of weeks, prowling for something a tad bizarre, a bit more unusual than Korean tacos or gyros in a cone -- maybe for a food substance that might have been created a thousand years ago if the migration...

Yeah, I Ate That

Guest Chefs Design Dogs at Biker Jim's

Some Foods Do Not Go Together!

Yeah, I Ate That

Guest Chefs Design Dogs at Biker Jim's

Some Foods Do Not Go Together!

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