It’s been a great year for eating good, I have to say. With a new restaurant opening up every time you bat your eyelashes, there was plenty of delicious food to choose from. While many meals deserve honorable mention, our team conferred, recalled and rewarded 15 specific meals (in honor of, you know, 2015) that we remember fondly in our hearts and bellies. Here’s our countdown:
15. PBS Burger from Punch Bowl Social: With smoked gouda, tender belly bacon, southern mustard sauce and tobacco onions served with fries, it was a major, tasty, moist mouthful.
14. The Lunch Buffet at Little India: The buffet is the way to go to try a variety of dishes. If you find one you love (good luck settling on just one), then you’ll know what to order off the regular menu at lunch or dinner. Our favorites are Butter Chicken and Lamb Biryani.
13. Smoked Prime Rib Sandwich at Stout Street Social: Piled high with shaved meat, served with a horseradish mayo and au jus on the side, this sandwich is tender through and through. Order it with the delicious side salad that comes with red onion, carrot shreds, bacon and a white balsamic dressing. Then, get an order of Kimchi Fries for your potato fix with a kick.
12. Potato Salad from Hideaway Kitchen + Bar: While it may seem absurd to put potato salad in a list of favorites over the course of the year, this particular one totally deserves it. Tangy, light, fresh and delicious, it was the perfect accompaniment to this Genessee restaurant’s summer platter of house-made charcuterie.
11. Any Torta from PoCo Tortaria in Avanti Food & Beverage: As if the entire Avanti concept wasn’t cool enough, of creating an upscale food court/restaurant incubator, resident PoCo Tortaria takes sandwiches to a whole new level. Mighty and squishy, you can’t go wrong with any of them.
10: Crispy Marinated Artichoke Sandwich at The Hive Garden Bistro inside Denver Botanic Gardens: Steamed artichoke die-hards, we had never experienced our favorite thistle served this way – cornmeal crusted, served with lettuce, tomato, red onion and lemon aioli. All sandwiches come with kettle chips and a pickle on the side. But for a $1 more, go for the delicious sweet potato fries or orange jicama cabbage slaw.
9. Gyros Sandwich at Pete’s Gyros Place: Some might say we’re in a rut, returning again and again to this East Colfax joint but when you’re hankering the best Greek sandwich, packed with thick slices of this seasoned lamb/beef blend in pita with cool tzatziki sauce, this is where you go. While Pete’s other restaurants also serve the same sandwich, we appreciate the vibe of this place and being called “sweetie” by the servers whether they recognize you or not.
8. Vegetarian Truffle Gnocchi at Parker Garage: Our carnivorous diner couldn’t believe how much she loved this dish with sauteed squash and artichoke hearts (along with everything else she feasted on that evening.) This is what happens when you pair high-quality but simple ingredients in smart ways.
7. O.M.F.G. Raw Tuna Taco from Dos Santos: This meal made our reviewer wax poetic about his meal: “Like a flower, lovingly crafted by human hands, the taco floats on high and land before you like a gift from heaven. It redefines ‘taco’!”
6. Bee Bim Bhop from Dae Gee: One of the best, most interesting lunch deals in town, for $8 order this dish with a base of steamed rice topped with a Korean special spicy sauce, sesame oil, assorted vegetables, marinated beef and a fried, sunny side up egg. But that’s not all. Entrees come with little side dishes including potato salad with cucumber and carrots, fish cakes with vegetables, bean sprouts with sesame oil and sugar, fermented cucumber, kimchee and Korean salad. Eating there is an eventful adventure!
5. Fire-Grilled Ribeye at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen): With a dollop of a bleu cheese butter and house-made pinot noir salt, this steak made me hearken back to the fantastic, summertime, hibachi-grilled, fire-licked backyard steaks my Dad used to make. No steak house has been able to capture that flavor until now. And at a restaurant known for its pizza, no less!
4. Bastilla at The Mediterranean (The Med): Maybe we were under the influence of the gorgeous and private patio with tiled fountain, shade trees and flowers everywhere but we loved everything we tried at this Boulder treasure. But it was the Bastilla we remember most with delicate filo dough wrapped around diced chicken, pine nuts, raisins and exotic seasonings – a hand-held version of a Moroccan classic.
3. Pork Belly, Asparagus and Egg at Viand Modern American: (Update! Unfortunately, this restaurant closed in less than a year but that meal was so memorable, we’re keeping it in this post.) Pretty to look at upon initial presentation, this Small Plate dish gets even better when everything is mixed together. Creamy yolk coats plump and impossibly-flavorful asparagus and thick, smoky slices of pork belly. The intensity of Pecorino cheese slivers unites it all. It’s decadent.
2. Crispy Chicken at MAX’s Wine Dive: Tender chicken over white beans and spinach with roasted garlic, charred lemon and chicken jus will remind you of something your Grandma would have made. It was pure, rustic, hearty and delicious. I much preferred the use of chicken juices instead of a pasty gravy. Don’t hesitate to eat the skin. It’s part of the experience.
1. The Scramble at Postino Wine Bar – LoHi: Try as we might to catch this restaurant serving us a “miss,” we just can’t. From their laden bruschetta to custardy french toast to hearty panini to this breakfast scramble, everything is a winner. With potatoes, onions and softly scrambled eggs, this brunch item is comforting, made really special by the side salad that, in late summer, had jewel-like cherry tomatoes and a basil dressing. The fact that the prices are great makes us love this place even more and makes it deserving of being named our #1 for 2015 – for this dish and all the others we’ve had there in the short time it has been open.
Bonus: A highlight of the liquid kind, our editor, Courtney Drake-McDonough, was honored to have been asked to judge the Art of the Cocktail competition at the Denver Food & Wine event on the Auraria Campus this fall. There, some of the best of the best mixologists in the state put their best concoctions (and tattoos) forward for the enjoyment of others. It was a tasty pleasure to be involved.
Thank you, 2015, for all the delicious memories, the inspired chefs we’ve met and the hard-working servers who guided us in making great choices! And thank you to our elastic-waist eating-pants. As we enter our 5th year of the In Good Taste Denver blog, we thank all of our loyal readers, advertisers and supporters. And we thank all of the great restaurants, from little hole-in-the-wall joints to those much-buzzed-about for all of the meals that were In Good Taste.
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