31. Japango
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 938-0330
Address: 1136 Pearl Street
Description: Enjoy excellent sushi and Japanese cuisine in contemporary-styled Asian surroundings. All the action at this happening restaurant takes place at the sushi bar. Choose from more than 100 sushi and sashimi selections, each one prepared right in front of you. Entrees feature a number of Pacific Rim seafood offerings as well as the more traditional chicken, beef, and vegetable tempura. Open for lunch and dinner Sunday through Thursday and dinner only Friday and Saturday.
32. Lee Yuan Chinese Cuisine
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 494-4210
Address: 4800 Baseline Road
Description: Boulder has a tremendous selection of good, small, family-owned restaurants. Lee Yuan is one of them. Two decades ago, this was Lee Yuan Burger Hut, serving both burgers and carry-out Chinese food. Now the restaurant, in the Meadows shopping center, is a morning-glory-decorated, sit-down establishment that is popular for its less-than-$5 lunch specials as well as its dinner selections. It’s very friendly to families. Wine and beer are available. It’s open for lunch weekdays and for dinner daily.
33. Moongate Asian Bistro
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (720) 406-8888
Address: 1628 Pearl Street
Description: This great little Asian bistro offers a mix of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese cuisines. Open every day except Sunday.
34. Orchid Pavilion Chinese Restaurant & Lounge
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 449-4353
Address: 1050 Walnut Street
Description: Voted “Best Chinese Restaurant” in the Daily Camera’s reader’s poll for more than a decade, the Orchid Pavilion is staffed by New York–style Chinatown chefs, who cook sesame chicken in huge chunks, crispy whole fish, champagne beef, and eggplant in garlic sauce. There are also gourmet seafood dishes and Szechwan vegetables. MSG is never used—you don’t even need to ask. The soothing, peach-colored interior includes a huge, genuine Chinese silk screen and fine reproductions of Tang Dynasty horses. Children are welcome. The restaurant’s early-bird specials take the most popular menu items and add a choice of soup, chicken wings, egg roll, or fried wonton, as well as a choice of steamed or fried rice for one price. Orchid Pavilion is open for lunch and dinner daily.
35. Panasia Fusion
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 447-0101
Address: 1175 Walnut Street
Description: This section of Walnut Street has been transformed in recent years to include a brewery, an upscale pool hall, a Mexican restaurant, and now Asian fare. East meets West at this restaurant featuring Pacific Rim cuisine made with authentic recipes. Favorites include the Korean-style baby back ribs, garlic and soya beef tenderloin, a salad with spicy tempura prawns, and a warm spinach salad with lime vinaigrette and scallion goat cheese. A bonus is the brewed premium loose-leaf tea, served in cast-iron pots. Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday and for dinner only on the weekend.
36. Sawaddee Thai
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 447-3321
Address: 1630 30th Street, Suite B
Description: Sawaddee is a regular on the “Best of Boulder” list. Garlic pepper shrimp and Thai iced tea, made with spices and sweetened milk, will tempt you. Lemongrass and curried vegetables add their distinctive flavors to many dishes. The food is mildly spicy, but you can ask for it to be hotter or not spicy at all. The chefs will add more vegetables when requested, which is one reason the spot earns high points from Boulder’s many health enthusiasts. Sawaddee is open for dinner daily and for lunch daily except Sunday and Monday.
37. Siamese Plate & Sumida’S Sushi Bar
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 447-9718
Address: 1575 Folsom Street
Description: Recognized by the Thai government for its delicious Thai cuisine, the Siamese Plate gives diners a choice of Western seating or benches with bright cushions. Try the spicy green curry with vegetables and coconut milk, the green-lipped mussels with spicy garlic sauce, or the exceptional red curry with chicken, and get an appetizer from Sumida’s Sushi Bar one level below. Sumida’s also offers happy-hour sushi specials and two-for-one sake midday on weekdays, in the early evening, and all evening on Sunday and Monday. If you sit down at Sumida’s, you can also order from the Thai menu. Both the Plate and the Sushi Bar are open for lunch Monday through Saturday and for dinner daily. Multiple locations in Boulder.
38. Sushi Tora
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 444-2280
Address: 2014 10th Street
Description: This is Boulder’s most authentic Japanese sushi restaurant, from the low cloth curtains you walk through to enter during good weather to the excellent raw fish, beautifully presented. This quiet restaurant offers tempura, soups, and appetizers, too. It’s open weekdays for lunch and daily for dinner.
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Address: 1221 Spruce Street
40. Tra Ling’S Oriental Cafe
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 449-0400
Address: 1305 Broadway
Description: Boulder newspaper readers who don’t vote for Orchid Pavilion as the area’s best Chinese restaurant instead vote for Tra Ling’s. The place is nothing special but the food is. The sweet and sour pork is a favorite, as is the Kung Pao Chicken. The egg rolls are always excellent, and you can never order enough wontons. It’s convenient to the Pearl Street Mall, but with free and reliable delivery why not stay home? Tra Ling’s is open daily for lunch and dinner.
41. Daddy Bruce’S Bar-B-Que And Catering
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 449-8890
Address: 2000 Arapahoe Avenue
Description: This place is usually packed with folks, so it’s fun to carry-out after sniffing the maple-stoked stove, where ribs get slathered with sauce that’s tangy—not sweet. Not exactly health food, but, oh, what a decadent treat. The beef sandwiches are popular with a side of potato salad. Eat a slab of pork ribs and you’ll sweat for two hours . . . with a smile on your face. This place is run by Bruce Randolph Jr., an associate minister of Boulder’s Second Baptist Church and son of the late and greatly missed Denver philanthropist “Daddy” Bruce Randolph. Daddy Bruce’s is open for lunch every day except Sunday. No credit cards.
42. Kt’S Barbecue
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 442-3717
Address: 2675 13th Street
Description: Hickory-smoked barbecue (fat trimmed) gets served with sweet-to-spicy sauces rated like ski runs—easy way down, more difficult, and double diamond for experts only. KT’s is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday.
43. The Buff
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 442-9150
Address: 1725 28th Street
Description: It might be the slogan “Eat In the Buff” or the unique breakfast items, but either way, Daily Camera readers have voted this restaurant the “Best Breakfast in Boulder.” Frittatas, panini sandwiches, muffalettas, and breakfast chimichangas are offered along with traditional breakfast items. There’s a full espresso bar, or you can sip a mimosa or Bloody Mary with a Denver omelet. A children’s menu makes this a great weekend stop for families. A pleasant atmosphere and fast service are the norm. The Buff is open for breakfast and lunch daily.
44. Dot’S Diner
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 449-1323
Address: 2716 North 28th Street
Description: Dot’s was a fixture at 8th and Pearl for 20 years, but a developer’s offer in 1998 was just too good to refuse. The restaurant has moved to north Broadway, with a second location on busy 28th Street. The ambience doesn’t match the old gas station, but the menu is still much the same. It has some of the best buttermilk biscuits in town, along with huevos rancheros and cinnamon rolls. Dot’s is open for breakfast and lunch daily. No credit cards.
45. Eggcredible Café
City: Boulder, CO
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (303) 301-0005
Address: 5397 South Boulder Road
Description: This breakfast cafe features Colorado food with a European influence. Specialties include pierogies (Polish-style dumplings with hearty fillings) and whipped-cream-topped Belgian waffles. Burritos and omelets are also part of the breakfast menu. Open daily for breakfast and lunch.