Restaurant Reviews
Experience it
I cringe when the third course arrives at Gold Hill Inn. I cringe because I realize there’s no way to describe this unique experience without feeling gross and unqualified...
Making the familiar seem new
Opened earlier this year, Louisville’s Bistro 4 provides an unexpectedly elegant venue to enjoy a thoughtfully prepared breakfast or lunch. Tucked away in a strip mall a waffle’s throw from the local multiplex, this eatery’s ambience easily rises above its prosaic ...
Double vision
Unsurprisingly, the Asian fusion restaurant was all about combinations. But not in the way one might expect...
Filling the belly at a Philly deli
Many times, when you set foot in a Boulder-area deli, you’ll experience a certain degree of geographic predictability. Often you’ll see images of New York landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, to help build Big Apple culinary cred. North Boulder’s D’Angelo’s ...
Pizza in the backcountry
Spun off from its namesake Nederland predecessor, Boulder’s recently opened Backcountry Pizza and Taphouse ably occupies the gap between chain restaurants and artisan pizzerias. It retains much of the unpretentious charm of its mountain parent, which is an ...
Real ramen rocks at Bento Zanmai
Rmen gets a bad rap in the United States, especially since most of us are only familiar with the instant dime-a-pack variety, weighted down with a surplus of salt and MSG. This is too bad, as authentic ramen has about as much resemblance to the starving student ...
Upstairs and upscale
The Hotel Boulderado spent much of this year revamping its culinary amenities with overhauls transforming the basement-level Catacombs Bar into License No. 1, and the upstairs and upscale sitdown, Q’s, into Spruce. The, ahem, “sprucing up” was finished and launched ...
An authentic taste of old Europe in Boulder
It’s not often that one draws upon the terms evocative or cinematic to describe a local dining establishment’s ambience, but in the case of Boulder’s freshly brewed Bohemian Biergarten, it’s entirely warranted...
The scene
It’s open mic comedy night at Johnny’s Cigar Bar. Have any four words ever simultaneously inspired so much giddy excitement and sheer terror as “open mic comedy night...
Won’t you be my neighbor?
Right as the server walked away with my order at The Kitchen Next Door, another arrived with the food for the table to my left. Though the modern interior decor, rich with wood and clean lines, made for a pleasant visual atmosphere, I spent the next 10 minutes ...
Getting into the Gindi
Boulder’s Gindi Café has a European influence exemplified by offering both food and ambience best described as fresh and modern. One is certainly glad this eatery chooses to emulate these continental qualities instead of, say, those of the Inquisition or Serge ...
Royal Indian dining on the east side
Over the $8.99 lunch buffet at the Royal Clay Oven (formerly India’s Clay Oven) on Arapahoe, British-born friend Andrew and I discussed the differences between Indian restaurants in the U.S. and U.K. He pointed out that more people in the U.K. work in subcontinental ...