Best Restaurants in Boulder

First, a caveat. I'm a pescetarian/vegetarian with a nod to Indian and Japanese cuisine. This diet, similar to a traditional Japanese or Mediterranean diet, is known to produce good health and longevity.  Unlike the typical American diet with plentiful sugar, bottled drinks and junk food, which are responsible for the high incidence of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, the pescetarian/vegetarian approach avoids these diseases

Boulder is known as one of the best cities in the country for dining, with excellent choices across a wide range of culinary traditions. Not only Thai and Vietnamese restaurants in good supply but European and even Ethiopian cuisine can be enjoyed in Boulder. Many Boulder restaurants now offer gluten free selections for diners with this sensitivity.

For good Indian cuisine Boulder offers several excellent choices. North Indian cuisine is best at either the Nepal Restaurant on South Boulder Road or Tandoori Grill in Table Mesa. For South Indian food go to either Jai Ho in Marshall Plaza or Tiffin Wallah in the Safeway shopping area on Arapahoe.

For the best sushi and other Japanese food, in Boulder go to Sushi Zanmae on Spruce or, in the evening try Amu next door to Zanmae. Amu specializes in cuisine other than sushi and has a friendly, intimate ambience and a good selection of sake. For the five star sushi you need to venture to Sushi Leo in Longmont or Sushi Yoshi in the same shopping plaza as CostCo, between Boulder and Denver..

The best vegetarian cuisine is found at Leaf, just north of Pearl on 16th street.  The menu here is imaginative, featuring such dishes as avocado tempura. Leaf is definitely not to be missed, even if you are not a vegetarian.

Boulder offers several choices for Chinese food, but for my taste China Gourmet in the North Boulder shopping center at Broadway and Quince is the best. Ordering off the Chinese menu will get you the most authetic dishes.

Chez Thuy on 28th street is the most popular and highly recommended restaurant for Vietnamese cuisine, and Thai and other Asian dishes are also available. here

For European cuisine I favor L'Atelier on Pearl street next to the Red Letter Bookstore. Elegant dining is possible in a private booth, and lunch prices are more reasonable than you might expect with such an elegant ambience. Another excellent choice is Frasca on Pearl and 18th. Reservations are required for dinner, but if you go a bit early you can sit at the bar and enjoy fine wine and tapas. Still  another alternative is the Red Lion Inn, a long-term standby on the road to Boulder Canyon, where German cuisine is a specialty..

Though I'm not a Mexican food maven, friends who are like Efrain's on north 63rd street. Boulder is well supplied with many Mexican restaurants but Efrain's is one often recommended.

Boulder boasts two notable Italian restaurants, Carelli's on Baseline and 30th and Laudisio in the 29th street mall. The Gondolier is another Italian restaurant of long standing in Boulder.

No visitor to Boulder would want to miss a visit to one of Boulder's most notable attractions, the Dushanbe Tea House, the elaborately decorated gift to Boulder by its sister city in Tajikistan. The decor offers  a spectacular vision and the visitor will have a wide selection of teas as well as cuisines

Finally, anyone with a sweet touth will be delighted to know that Boulder has three superior bakeries.
Erhard's European Baker and Cafe in the Meadows shopping area on Baseline and Mohawk offers
scrumptious muffins,cookies and cheesecakes as well as soups, salads and sandwiches. Another is.
Shamane's Bake Shop, behind the brewery on Wilderness off Valmont. At Broadway and Quince is Lucky's Bake Shope and Creamery where you can find excellent cooking and cupcakes. And if you are partial to pie you're in for a treat if you go to Niwot, Boulder's charming suburb, and to My Mom's Pie, where you'll find fourteen flavors of the kind of pie you thought no one made anymore.

Future blogs will feature some of my favorite recipes, most of which are in my unpublished cookbook,
Solo Cooking for a Sustainable Planet.

www.joycechapmanlebra is my website.