17 Great Places To Eat & Drink In Denver, CO

After spending some time in Colorado Springs and Montrose, our final stop in Colorado was Denver.

Shae and I ended up spending a total of six weeks in Denver as we figured it would serve as a good base to not only visit places in the city but a little further afield too.

With so much time spent in the area, we got to eat out and drink at quite a few places in the Denver area, so here are our recommendations for 17 great places to eat and drink in Denver.

Buckhorn Exchange – Rocky Mountain Oysters

Our most unusual dining experience was eating Rocky Mountain Oysters at Buckhorn Exchange restaurant. In case you’re not familiar with Rocky Mountain Oysters, they’re deep-fried bull testicles. We knew what we were getting into before ordering them, but perhaps it would’ve been better not knowing what they were!

I had a lot of fun writing about our experience trying Rocky Mountain Oysters for the first time as it gave me an opportunity to include lots of puns, so you can check that out here, plus you can watch the video below which we recorded at Buckhorn Exchange.

Colorado Cherry Co

On our final afternoon/evening in Denver, Shae and I decided to go on a tour de food. We started at Buckhorn Exchange for Rocky Mountain Oysters, then made our way over to Colorado Cherry Co.

We’d spotted a different Colorado Cherry Co location when visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, but that store closed for the evening just before we got there. Shae saw that they had a location in downtown Denver, so we went there to clear our palates after the Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Seeing as they’re the Colorado Cherry Co, Shae got a slice of cherry pie. There was a different menu item that caught my eye though – their apple bourbon caramel pie. Yep, it was as tasty as it sounds.

Smith+Canon Ice Cream Co

That wasn’t the end of our dessert experience that evening though. Our next stop was Smith+Canon Ice Cream Co which our friend Chris Englert (of Eat Walk Learn) had highly recommended to us and it’s not hard to see why.

The owner has created a bunch of unique ice cream flavors – Dew Sabi (honeydew melon and wasabi), Strawbenero (strawberry and habanero) and many more. Shae and I were both full by this point and they don’t sell scoops or cones – the ice cream only comes in half pints or larger. We therefore picked a half pint of the El Chupacabra which is chocolate, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

The ice cream was simply incredible. You get the chocolate and cinnamon at the front, then the cayenne kicks in at the back but in an enjoyable way.

The Urban Cookie

We still weren’t done for the night when it came to dessert though. Shae and I went to sit outside in the courtyard at the back of Smith+Canon to try their ice cream when we saw some other people with a large box of large cookies.

It turned out they were from The Urban Cookie which was right next door to Smith+Canon, so we made our way inside to pick up some cookies. Shae got a regular chocolate chip cookie and a double chocolate chip one, while I got an iced cranberry and oat which was very soft and tasty.

Bawarchi Indian Cuisine

The night we first arrived in Denver we ordered Indian food from Bawarchi Indian Cuisine on Uber Eats. I got chicken biryani while Shae got chicken tikka masala. Both our meals were delicious; I’d forgotten about this meal until now though which is a shame because I’d love to have ordered dinner from them again.

Golden City Brewery

We visited Golden a couple of times, a cute little town near Denver with a river running through it. Both times we stopped for a drink at Golden City Brewery; I got a Mad Molly’s Brown while I think Shae got some kind of cider.

Colorado Meat Pie Company

The second time we visited Golden City Brewery, there was a food truck outside called Colorado Meat Pie Company. They had a sausage roll on the menu, so I had to order that – it’s something I always get when I go back to England (where I’m originally from) and very few places sell them over here in the US. While it wasn’t quite as good as a sausage roll from Gregg’s back home, it was very tasty and was a well made sausage roll.

Mountain Toad Brewing

Another brewery we visited in Golden was Mountain Toad Brewing. I got a Pandan Porter which was pretty good. We didn’t stick around too long though because we were sitting outside as we had our dog Truffles with us and a storm looked like it was about to roll in.

Although the beer was good, I preferred Golden City Brewing. The beer at Golden City was a little better, plus their large outdoor patio was far more relaxing to sit in than Mountain Toad’s as it was right by a fairly busy road.

Broken Compass Brewing

On a day trip over to Breckenridge, we stopped for a drink at Broken Compass Brewing. We knew about it because Airstream Dog had mentioned it was extremely pet-friendly, so it seemed like a great place to stop for a little while seeing as Truffles was with us.

Sure enough, it was very dog friendly and so Truffles wasn’t the only pup there. I got a flight of six of their beers:

• Irish Red
• Strawberry Blonde
• Tangerine Dream Pale Ale
• Zamba Juice Hazy IPA
• Westy G IPA
• Colo-Rad-Bro Citra DDH Double IPA

Although I prefer darker beers, these were refreshing on a nice, sunny day in Breckenridge.

Smokin Fins Arvada

After spending an afternoon exploring Rocky Mountain National Park, Shae and I raced back to go out to dinner with a couple she’d met due to being Outschool teachers. They took us to Smokin Fins Arvada where we had some delicious sushi. This was the first time I’d had proper sushi in ages as I normally only get it at the grocery store (don’t judge me!).

Lowry Beer Garden

Just before we flew to Seattle to surprise a friend for his birthday, we met up with some friends at Lowry Beer Garden. I had one of their beers (I forget which), while Shae got a couple of their cocktails which she greatly enjoyed.

Rocket Ice Cream

Right next to Lowry Beer Garden was Rocket Ice Cream, so we grabbed dessert from there. They were out of the flavor I’d been hoping to get, so Shae got me what I think was banana pecan ice cream. While that wouldn’t have been my first choice, it was pretty good nonetheless.

Poke One

I had a $10 dining credit to use up on my Amex Gold card at the end of July, so I ordered a medium poke bowl from Poke One on Grubhub. That was a fantastic choice as the poke bowl was excellent and offered a lot of customization options, so here’s what I included in my bowl:

• White Rice
• Salad
• Spicy Teriyaki
• Spicy Mayo
• Salmon
• Spicy Tuna
• Green Onion
• White Onion
• Cilantro
• Jalapeno
• Pickled Radish
• Crab Salad
• Seaweed Salad
• Corn
• Edamame
• Pineapple
• Tomato
• Mango
• Carrot
• Fried Onion
• Fried Garlic
• Tempura Flake

Absolutely delicious and good value for only $13.83 (or $3.83 after the $10 dining credit).

GQue BBQ

While Shae was in California to celebrate her and her friend’s 40th birthdays together, I got dinner from GQue BBQ which was close to our hotel. It was some of the best BBQ I’ve ever had – their brisket in particular was phenomenal.

It was so good that I insisted that Shae had to try it when we got back from Dubai, Egypt and Jordan the following month, so we got it for dinner one night. The brisket was as good as I remembered.

Carrera’s Tacos

While I went to see The Black Crowes one night, Shae went out with a couple of friends who live in Denver and got dinner from Carrera’s Tacos. Similar to how I felt about GQue BBQ, she loved it so much that she wanted to get it again.

She ordered their loaded fries which is a giant box of fries loaded with your choice of meat, along with cheese, jalapeno queso, salsa, crema, house pickled peppers, radish, cilantro and cotjia cheese. I don’t like cheese, but I sneaked a few fries and pieces of meat without cheese on them and can confirm that it’s excellent.

Torchy’s Tacos

We tried Torchy’s Tacos while in Texas in the first year of our road trip and loved it, so when I saw that there was one near us in Denver I knew I had to order tacos from them again.

They didn’t disappoint. The tacos have a decent amount of meat in them and are extremely flavorful.

Teriyaki Madness

Shae still had loads of her loaded fries from Carrera’s Tacos left over for dinner one night, so I used a new Amex Gold dining credit to order dinner from Teriyaki Madness via Grubhub. It was a bowl with white rice, vegetables and spicy teriyaki chicken and was much better than I’d been anticipating.

Question

Those were some places to eat and drink that we loved in Denver, but I’m sure there are all kinds of other great places to visit. Do you have any recommendations for places to eat and drink in Denver in case we return in the future? If so, let us know in the comments below.