8 Best Restaurants in Boulder and North Central Colorado, Colorado

Feast your eyes on the intricately carved walls, pillars, and ceiling at this unique teahouse, a gift from Boulder's sister city Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Tajik artisans decorated the building in a traditional style, with ceramic Islamic art and a riot of colorful wood. The menu presents a culinary cross section of the world, with dishes including North African harissa chicken, spicy Indonesian peanut noodles, and Tajik shish kebab.

Boulder's most opulent restaurant has formal service and thoughtfully prepared food, served in a sophisticated space with oversized windows and tables with crisp, white tablecloths. Executive chef Chris Royster has fresh fish flown in daily and is noted for the exquisite combinations of ingredients on his daily-changing menu, which might include Wagyu ravioli; Colorado lamb rack, loin, and shank; or Maine lobster soup. Choose between the four-course menu or multicourse chef's menu with optional wine pairings.

One of Boulder's best restaurants (with three James Beard honors) serves meticulously prepared food in the style of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy, in a bustling dining room with a backlit wine wall. You choose from two prix-fixe tasting menus and might feast on dishes including an antipasto such as fish crudo; a house-made pasta with pork ragù; and lamb with hay-smoked potato.

Perennially popular, this restaurant with light-wood tables and simple decor serves delicious fish and other Japanese specialties to a packed house nightly, so grab a table or sit at the sushi bar. Try a Z No. 9 Roll, shrimp tempura wrapped in nori and rice, topped with salmon and avocado; Zanmai invented it, and other restaurants have copied it. The mochi-ice-cream dessert is excellent.

This bohemian-style café two blocks west of the pedestrian mall serves bagels, muffins, pastries, and oatmeal for breakfast, and panini sandwiches and soups for lunch; do try the locally roasted, organic espresso. This is where Boulder's creative community and young tech entrepreneurs rub shoulders, sometimes literally, thanks to the tight seating. There are multiple other branches in town.

As the name hints, the café is set up inside three repurposed train cars, including an old circus train from the late 1800s. It serves locally roasted coffee, frozen yogurt, light food such as homemade mini-doughnuts and sandwiches, and kava, a Pacific Island beverage made from the ground roots of the kava plant. Splurge with a malt or go healthy with a green smoothie with chia seeds.