We went to a couple of restaurants while visiting Denver and Aspen -- here are my top picks from each city!
Denver, CO
While in Denver, Colorado, we stumbled across this little place, Welton St. Cafe, just outside of downtown Denver. I really liked how traditional the food was prepared -- and the variations in sides from fried okra to macaroni and cheese. They describe their food as southern homestyle with a Caribbean twist!
It had really good reviews on yelp so we decided to give it a try
Beef and cheese pate >> it's like an empanada but with a fried dough, very tasty and unique
Combo plate >> fried chicken, fried catfish, mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni and cheese, and sweet roll
I'm not going to lie, we received quite a few stares/looks because we had a group of 14, mostly Chinese, and we were still in our snow jackets/coats. Even though we stuck out like a sore thumb, the waitress was still pretty nice to us -- she had some attitude, but not rude. She asked, "How did you even find this place?" We responded, "yelp". I'm not surprised that they were surprised to see us because I didn't see a single Chinese person while I was in Denver -- we are a rare breed.
The food took a while to come out simply because we had so many people -- however, there were no mistakes at all, and everyone received what they ordered all around the same time. I would recommend the pates, they're really tasty and different from anything I've tried. I really don't think you can find something similar in San Francisco, at least, not from the places I've been to like Hard Knox and
The Fremont Diner. Since we ordered the combo plate, we didn't get half a fried chicken like the others who only ordered fried chicken, we got fried wings instead. The fried chicken was fried well but no real taste/seasoning, which some people may find bland. The fried catfish was really delicious and nice flaky texture inside, I wish it came with more! The sides were really yummy too, I especially liked the macaroni and cheese. The sweet roll was just okay -- I still prefer the hawaiian sweet rolls much more.
Overall Evaluation >> 4.4/5
Service | 4.5/5
Taste | 4.5/5
Atmosphere | 3.5/5
Menu | 4.5/5
Presentation | 5/5
Aspen, CO
We asked around and many of the Aspen natives recommended The Red Onion. Aspen didn't have a lot of bars and this one was a bar/restaurant, so the guys enjoyed that.
The dining area is quite small but there were a lot of large families eating here - including our group of 14
Cup of buffalo chili with flour tortilla
Ribeye cheese steak sandwich with a side of roasted veggies
Pulled pork and cheddar sandwich with a side house salad
This place was very reminiscent of BJ's to me, the food, family-friendly atmosphere, and the large TV showing the Olympics. The waiters were so nice and accommodating, they had to keep going around the kitchen to the other entryway to serve the other end of the table since we were all pretty squeezed inside the dining area. The menu is a bit limited but very cohesive -- I would describe the food as American/Mexican. I enjoyed my cheesesteak sandwich but it was a bit dry -- I would have preferred a but more moisture from the peppers and onions. Eric enjoyed his cup of chili and the pulled pork sandwich -- however, he couldn't finish the sandwich (which meant that the portions were pretty decent)!
PS, just read online that The Red Onion is actually a historical landmark built in 1892!
Overall Evaluation >> 4.5/5
Service | 5/5
Taste | 4.5/5
Atmosphere | 4/5
Menu | 4/5
Presentation | 5/5
