0
0
Share with your friends










Submit
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Privacy
  • Property
  • Contact
  • Sitemap

Logo

Navigation
  • Ski Resorts
  • Where to Ski
  • How to Ski
  • Snow
    • Snow Report
  • Gear
    • Ski Clothing
    • Ski Equipment
  • Family Skiing
  • Ski Holidays
  • Deals
  • Summer

Where to Eat in Aspen

By Felice Hardy | on May 1, 2012 | 0 Comment
Ski Resorts
Where to Eat in Aspen | Welove2ski

Photo: Sundeck on Aspen Mountain. © Daniel Bayer/Aspensnowmass

Most restaurants in Aspen are expensive, but if you are prepared to eat at the bar you are served the same food in smaller portions at a greatly reduced price. But wherever you sit, there’s no doubting the quality. In contrast to the lunch scene on the mountain, this is one of the best ski resorts, worldwide, for eating out at night.

From pizzas to sushi

Our favourites include L’Hostaria and Rustique Bistro. Mezzaluna is another good spot, which serves wood-fired pizza and modern Italian cuisine. You also need to save up for some superb sushi, which is flown in daily to the resort from the Californian coast. Kenichi, Takah Sushi, and Matsuhisa, are all recommended.

Little Annie’s Eating House (+1 970 925 1098) is for home cooking, The Wild Fig has a Mediterranean influence, and Jimmy’s is said to be “posh, but not too posh”. Elevation features modern American cuisine. Su Casa is an authentic Mexican eatery, and family favourite Brunelleschi’s (+1 970 544 4644) is where to go for gourmet pizza and pasta. A recent addition is Justice Snow’s, which has eclectic details like an antique copper-top bar and light fixtures made from recycled bicycle parts. Chef Jonathan Lichleiter creates Colorado and Western-influenced cuisine with an emphasis on regional ingredients, and there’s a cocktail list unlike anything Aspen has ever seen.

Two of the eateries with recommended bar menus are Cache Cache for mainly seafood, and Pinons which has everything from tofu enchiladas to sesame-encrusted sea bass. Inside Explore Booksellers is Pyramid bistro which sells ‘farm to table’ healthy food surrounded by books.

Snowmass eateries

Try Mountain Dragon (+1 970 923 3576) for Pan Asian cuisine, and Sage Bistro (+1 970 923 0923), at the Snowmass Club. The stylish Eight K, in the slopeside Viceroy Snowmass, features a display kitchen at its centre and an 87ft glass bar.

More affordable eateries include Aspen Candy Company, a 1950s-style diner with an ice cream parlour upstairs – there’s another branch in Aspen itself. Also try, Boogie’s Diner (+1 970 925 6610) that is part of a shop selling retro clothing. Sneaky’s Tavern (+1 970 923 8706) is for burgers and salads.

Aspen mountain restaurants aren’t a patch on the resort eateries

In town you’ll find food of the very highest quality – and at wallet-weakening prices. In fact, if you want atmosphere, scenery, and quality up on the slopes, there’s only one place to go – Cloud Nine (+1 970 923 8715), one of the two restaurants up at Aspen Highlands. It’s small, cute, and laid back, and the food is serious. Make sure you book first – at least a week in advance to be sure of getting a table (and more over public holidays).

On Aspen Mountain, the eateries include Bonnie’s (+1 970 544 6252), which has tasty chilli and Apfelstrudel. The Sundeck (+1 970 923 8715) is a good self-service at the top of the gondola. Incidentally, free yoga classes are held here three times a week from 9.30-10.30am with mats provided.

Buttermilk has Bumps (+1 970 920 0991), at the mountain base, while Cliffhouse (+1 970 920 0933), at the top, is a good place to go for wok dishes.

On Snowmass mountain, the star is Gwyn’s High Alpine which specialises in fresh food and innovative recipes based on traditional alpine cuisine. The blackened ahi sashimi-style, garnished with Asian cucumber salad, pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi is to die for. The self-service attached isn’t bad either and tosses up some tasty wok dishes. Sam’s Smokehouse (+1 970 923 8686) is a good-value table-service restaurant with spectacular views of Mount Daly. Lynn Britt Cabin (+1 970 923 0479) is a quaint cabin built in the early 1900s with gourmet cooking such as poached lobster with shallot mignonette, arugula and roma tomatoes, or crisp stripe bass with gnocchi, clams, shrimp, crabmeat and mushroom penne. When the lifts stop running, a snow-cat whisks you up there for dinner. The Elk Camp Restaurant replaced the old Cafe Suzanne at the top of the Elk Camp gondola.

Elsewhere, the food isn’t bad, and Aspen lacks the enormous and unpleasant eating-sheds you’ll find in places like Whistler and Vail. But don’t go looking for a restaurant scene here to match the likes of Zermatt in Switzerland – or the kind of off-the-cuff, simple, and excellent huts of the Italian Alps.

Lunch in town

Ajax Tavern at the foot of the gondola, is the place to see and be seen, for lunch, apres-ski drinks or dinner. As well as steaks, soups and salads it has a ‘raw bar’ serving oysters, shrimps and lobster. Also in the gondola plaza is Il Mulino, which serves fresh pasta, salads, and a good range of other dishes on a gorgeous sun terrace (with heaters and blankets provided).

Continue Exploring Aspen

  1. Guide to the Mountain

    Guide to the Mountain
  2. Where To Stay

    Where to Stay
  3. Where to Eat

    Where to Eat
  4. Where to Learn

    Where to Learn
  5. Where to Party

    Where to Party
Share this story:
  • tweet

Tags: Ski Resorts

Recent Posts

  • Morzine – For Skiing and Non-Skiing

    March 8, 2023 - 0 Comment
  • Six Reasons We Love Going to St Anton by Train

    February 1, 2023 - 0 Comment
  • 7 of the Best Wines to Sip on A Dolomites Ski Trip

    January 24, 2023 - 1 Comment

Related Posts

  • Innsbruck: the Perfect Base for a Ski Weekend or a Freewheeling Ski Safari

    January 18, 2023 - 1 Comment
  • Gurgl, Austria: High, Snowsure and Charming

    December 31, 2022 - 0 Comment
  • Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn: Four Resorts In A Huge Ski Area

    December 2, 2022 - 0 Comment

Author Description

Felice Hardy

Felice is one of the three editors at Welove2ski and contributes on skiing to a range of publications, including The Evening Standard, The Guardian, Conde Nast Traveller, Tatler, Harpers Bazaar, Country Life, BA Highlife and House & Garden. She started skiing at the age of three. She also enjoys hiking with her dogs and mountain biking in the Alps.

No Responses to “Where to Eat in Aspen”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Free Updates

Join 16,000 clever people who get the latest Welove2ski content delivered to their inbox

RSSSubscribe 15167 Followers 10135 Fans

The Loveometer

Zermatt: Cool Chalets, Certain Snow and The Majestic Matterhorn
100 %
Tweenager Tips: How to Enjoy Ski Holidays with Older Kids
98 %
How to Go Green On Your Ski Holiday
98 %
St Anton, Austria: Wild Nights, Steep Pistes and Challenging Backcountry
97 %
Weird and Wonderful Ski Fads and Fashions
94 %
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Privacy
  • Property
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
© 2020. All Rights Reserved. Created with love by WL2S