2 Colorado Restaurants Make Daily Meal’s 101 Best In U.S.

If you’re looking to dine out more as the weather gets warmer, we’ve got some tasty news for you.

The Daily Meal recently unveiled its list for the “101 Best Restaurants In America,” and the online food and dining site included two restaurants from Colorado.

Here are the best restaurants in our state, according to the Daily Meal’s rankings.

Frasca Food & Wine

• Ranking: 81
• Address: 1738 Pearl St, Boulder

Frasca yet again makes it onto another 'best of' list — and it's no surprise. The award-winning restaurant, which was opened by Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson and Bobby Stuckey in 2004, serves cuisine inspired by Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. The restaurant has three James Beard Awards, and has been named a James Beard semifinalist in the Outstanding Restaurant category this year. Safta's menu includes dishes such as lamb with polenta, smoked black code with apple and horseradish and broccoli rabe with wild mushroom.

Safta

• Ranking: 89
• Address: 3330 Brighton Blvd #201, Denver

Safta is another Colorado restaurant that frequently appears on 'best of' lists. Opened by Chef Alon Shaya in 2018, the eatery was named the best restaurant in the state in a 2019 Daily Meal report. Safta is known for perfecting some of the most basic Israeli dishes — its pita bread is made in a wood-burning oven, and its hummus comes with five optional toppings. The restaurant serves dishes such as falafel, lamb kebabs, shakshouka, dry-aged duck, pomegranate-braised lamb shank and harissa roasted chicken.

Alinea, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago, was ranked as the No. 1 eatery in the United States, according to the Daily Meal. The top five restaurants were rounded out by Eleven Madison Park in New York City, Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, Le Bernardin in New York City and Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia.

“These 101 restaurants serve food that’s thoughtful and thought-provoking, and they also have a dining room and a level of service that suit the quality of what’s on the plate, a good beverage list and a true sense of personality, imagination and consistency,” authors of the Daily Meal rankings wrote in an introductory statement to the list. “Visiting one of these restaurants feels like a truly memorable culinary experience.”

To compile the rankings, the Daily Meal contacted hundreds of dining experts around the country to ask which restaurants they considered the absolute best in their respective cities. Those restaurants were then added to other establishments that have “garnered near-universal acclaim” and eateries that have been featured on previous Daily Meal lists.

The remaining restaurants were subsequently ranked according to metrics such as food, service, beverage options and environment.

The full list of the 101 best restaurants is available on the Daily Meal.

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