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Drawing 8 pins from colorado-restaurants.geojson. If this line is still here, the map did not load — the file itself holds every point it would have shown.

7 michelin · 1 james beard — 8 pins from colorado-restaurants.geojson.

Top Ten Restaurants in Colorado

8 of the 10 are pinned on the map above. Neither OpenStreetMap nor Wikidata carries a location for Margot and Mezcaleria Alma, so they are listed below but not pinned — a missing pin is left missing rather than guessed at. Each row also links straight to its own location in Google Maps.

The MICHELIN Guide Colorado covers Colorado. Starred restaurants lead this list.

The ten
# Restaurant City Distinction Cuisine
1 The Wolf's Tailor Denver MICHELIN Two Stars, promoted 2025 Contemporary
2 Beckon Denver MICHELIN One Star, held since 2023 Contemporary
3 Bosq Aspen MICHELIN One Star, held since 2023 Contemporary
4 Brutø Denver MICHELIN One Star, held since 2023 Mexican
5 Frasca Food and Wine Boulder MICHELIN One Star, held since 2023 Italian
6 Alma Fonda Fina Denver MICHELIN One Star, held since 2024 Mexican
7 Kizaki Denver MICHELIN One Star, awarded 2025 Japanese
8 Margot Denver MICHELIN One Star, awarded 2025 Contemporary
9 Mezcaleria Alma Denver MICHELIN One Star, awarded 2025 Mexican
10 El Taco de Mexico Denver James Beard America's Classics (2020) Mexican

Why these ten

The current Colorado selection is the 2025 guide, revealed at a ceremony on 15 September 2025. It holds nine starred restaurants, one short of ten, so the list steps down one rung for the last place — and that rung is a James Beard Foundation win, not a Bib Gourmand. The 2025 cycle is also the one that gave Colorado its first two-star restaurant: The Wolf's Tailor had held one star since the inaugural 2023 selection and was promoted in year three.

Ties are broken by the year the current award was first held, oldest first, and within a shared year the order is alphabetical rather than a ranking. That applies to the four one-stars from 2023 and the three added in 2025.

The tenth place went back and forth. Ash'Kara in Denver, a Bib Gourmand since the inaugural 2023 selection and first alphabetically among the eight inaugural Bibs still listed, held the slot until the ladder was corrected to put a James Beard win above a Bib, and it is the entry that gives way. The ninth inaugural Bib, AJ's Pit Bar-B-Q in Denver, dropped out of the guide in 2024 and closed in 2025, so it was never a candidate either way.

El Taco de Mexico takes the slot on the 2020 America's Classics award, the first the James Beard Foundation gave to any Colorado restaurant. Three later Beard winners sit behind it on award year: Caroline Glover at Annette in Aurora, Best Chef: Mountain in 2022; Matt Vawter at Rootstalk in Breckenridge, the 2024 winner; and Penelope Wong at Yuan Wonton in Denver, the 2026 winner. One earlier winner was checked and rejected — Jennifer Jasinski took Best Chef: Southwest in 2013 for Rioja in Denver, which would outrank El Taco de Mexico on year, but Rioja could not be confirmed as still trading and this page will not promote a restaurant on a stale listing. Erika and Kelly Whitaker won Outstanding Restaurateur in 2024 for the ID EST group, whose Wolf's Tailor and BRUTØ are already here on stars, so that win adds nothing to the ten.

Geography is worth flagging before anyone plans a trip. Through the 2025 guide the inspectors only covered Denver, Boulder, Aspen and Snowmass Village, and Vail and Beaver Creek, and eight of these ten sit in Denver. The guide expands to the whole state for the 2026 selection, which had not been revealed when this page was written, so Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Grand Junction have had no chance to appear yet.

Sources

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