The restaurants in Denver fuel the city’s food culture with its gifted chefs with culinary magnetism, passion, and fortitude. These restaurants are scattered all over the city to ensure you have a great meal and satisfy your cravings.
From unexpected menu combinations to unique and immersive settings, these family-fun restaurants in Denver give the best dining experience. You will enjoy the delicious meals served at the gorgeous French bistro or even the Mexican spot with celebrity owners.
Wondering which fun restaurant in Denver to try this summer? Every one of the restaurants below will show you that you can never have a better dining experience than this city.
12 Must-Try Fun Restaurants in Denver, Colorado
1. Casa Bonita
Casa Bonita is a beloved Colorado icon, a fun family restaurant for any sort of celebration that warrants gorilla-suited cliff divers and sopaipillas. It first opened in 1974 as part of a chain of Mexican entertainment restaurants that started in Oklahoma City.
The restaurant is popular in Lakewood and was known for its “all you can eat” beef or chicken plates and offering sopapillas, small squares of fried bread served with honey, with every meal.
You’ll find the menu stacked with classic Mexican-American dishes, many of which were reimagined and elevated when the new owners brought on James Beard Award-nominated executive chef Dana Rodriguez in 2021.
In this restaurant, you’ll walk through pirate-themed caverns and dine under faux palm trees. And for entertainment puppet shows, Wild West-style gunfights, live music, and a costumed gorilla all make regular appearances.
2. Champagne Tiger
Housed in the historic former Tom’s Diner space, Champagne Tiger is one of the most fun restaurants in Denver. It is a high-energy French American diner located on East Colfax Ave where guests come to celebrate every day.
Champagne Tiger holds onto the midcentury retro cool design but serves a unique menu. We’re talking Palm Springs party vibe, caviar-topped tater tot waffles, rowdy drag brunch levels of fun.
Besides the over-the-top waffle, they’ve got fresh oysters, seasonal pasta, delicious burgers, and grilled cheese. When it’s warm and sunny, there’s no place better than sipping a cool beverage on the Tiger’s lush patio.
This is a space to gather with friends before a night out and enjoy Denver’s most luxurious Drag performances. You can also attend the piano music and pasta every Wednesday night, Fried Chicken & Song on Thursdays, and Martini Lunches on Fridays.
3. Ajax Downtown
Ajax has always been the most fun restaurant in Denver for birthdays, but when it changed location, it became even more popular. While it may be trading its mountain peaks for city views, the food and drink retain the fun-but-refined element of the original.
Ajax Downtown is a lively local hangout where friendships are forged and good times come naturally over smoke-infused cocktails, hand-selected wines, and the best local, small-production craft beers on tap.
The menu changes often with whatever’s fresh, but samples of what you’ll enjoy include a Campari tomato salad with whipped basil cream, an udon dish with Dungeness crab where the noodles are made of sea scallops, a super-indulgent potato pavè with fresh truffles and roasted duck breast with peach curry.
Much of the menu is cooked over a live fire, which makes the food as fun to watch being made as it is to eat. This is cooking at its most primal and flavorful, prepared with responsibly sourced Rocky Mountain-raised meats, and the freshest seasonal vegetables coming straight from local farms.
4. The Velvet Cellar
This newcomer to the Lower Downtown area become an instant hit with locals. It’s popular for its floor-to-ceiling walls of wine, friendly service, and convenient location near Denver Union Station and Ball Arena.
At The Velvet Cellar, the goal is to provide guests with a welcoming environment and an exceptional dining experience by serving high-quality food, wine, and artisanal cocktails. This is one of the fun restaurants in Denver to try especially if you want to impress someone special.
You’ll find robust happy hour offerings from tacos to sliders, a full dinner menu with exciting takes on entrees you’ll recognize along with shareables designed to pique your interest like Cobia Ceviche, Dry Aged Meatball, and Chicken Lollipops.
The menu is refreshed monthly, to reflect what’s market fresh, so you have something new to look forward to whenever you visit. The wine program is curated and led by Sommelier Chris Dominey, so you’re sure to be satisfied.
5. Alma Fonda Fina
In Spanish, Alma translates to soul while Fonda Fina describes a humble neighborhood spot for friends and family to gather. The mission at Alma Fonda Fina is to create a space and menu that are heavily influenced by family and pride in Mexican culture.
The Michelin-starred Alma Fonda Fina, from chef Johnny Curiel, is a different sort of Denver restaurant, one where you’ll eat the most soulful, creative food in a minimalist terracotta-flecked environment.
Chef Curiel makes his solo restaurant debut with Alma Fonda Fina and continues to push the boundaries of taste and tradition while paying homage to his roots and using the food as a way to showcase his cultural pride.
As one of the most fun restaurants in Denver, you can book a seat at the chef’s counter, and learn about all the ingredients and techniques going into your stunning plates. You’ll enjoy eating dishes like dry salsa-topped, agave-roasted sweet potatoes and the whole crispy-skinned pork shank.
6. Sap Sua
Sắp Sửa is a modern Vietnamese restaurant that caused commotion during its opening in 2023 by the chefs Anna and Ni Nguyen. It was a semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category of the James Beard Foundation Awards in 2024.
This East Colfax restaurant, located behind Tattered Cover Book Store, was named one of Bon Appetit’s most anticipated restaurants ahead of its debut, skyrocketing diner expectations. It was also named one of the twenty fun restaurants in Denver in 2024 by Bon Appétit.
This Vietnamese spot has lived up to the hype, serving a nontraditional menu that takes inspiration from better-known dishes, and uniquely elevates them. Standouts include the hamachi collar in a just-sweet-enough coconut caramel sauce and buttery shrimp cake topped with trout roe, but the fun is in exploring the menu and being surprised by what you taste.
7. Sunday Vinyl
Sunday Vinyl is founded by Chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson and Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey along with partner Peter Hoglund. As part of the Frasca Hospitality, this restaurant is steeped in the tradition of authentic hospitality, delivered through genuine service, elevated cuisine, and thoughtfully curated wine.
This restaurant has a tradition of spending with your loved ones over great music and wonderful food with a carefully selected vinyl record and bottle of wine. The name Sunday Vinyl honors this ritual of slowing down and connecting.
Inspired by the tradition of European wine bars, Sunday Vinyl offers a place to relax and connect with friends after a long day by gathering around the horseshoe bar or having a celebratory meal with friends.
So of course you’re going to get exquisite lamb tartare, black cod with Vadouvan Beurre Blanc, service, and, other delicious meals. And if you’re into zoning out with a glass of Cab Franc and classic Prince, this would be the most fun restaurant in Denver for you.
8. Watercourse Foods
Home of the Power Waffle and Mushroom Cheesesteak, it’s one of the best restaurants in Denver to find plant-based foods. Watercourse Foods is Denver’s original vegan comfort food place and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week.
It’s a fully plant-based scratch kitchen that crafts delicious and innovative comfort food with no artificial colors, preservatives, or hydrogenated fats. Their menu is huge with diverse dietary preferences, featuring breakfast, lunch, dinner, cocktails, and desserts.
Watercourse Foods actively engages with the local plant-based community and sources their vegetables locally, ensuring freshness while supporting regional farmers. So do well to join the celebration of flavors, people, and a dining experience that nourishes both body and community spirit.
9. Carmine’s on McGregor Square
Since 1994, Carmine’s Italian Restaurants have been bringing Italian family-style dining to Denver, using fresh ingredients in generous portions. And just like the original, this contemporary chic lunch and dinner restaurant specializes in family-style plates of Italian-American obsessions.
As one of the most fun family restaurants in Denver, the tables double as a blank canvas for kids who want to doodle, each table comes with a cup of crayons, and servers use those crayons to scribble your order.
While there are menu boards scattered throughout the dining rooms, the servers can help you navigate the syllabus of appetizers, salads, side dishes, pasta, risotto, and chicken and veal dishes.
Just remember, food at Carmine’s is designed to be shared with each dish prepared in two sizes, the smaller for two persons and the larger for a family. But while you are here, do make space for their delicious homemade limoncello.
10. Chez Maggy
Hotshot Michelin-starred French chef Ludo Lefebvre opened Chez Maggy, a sophisticated and modern French restaurant in Lower Downtown Denver. It’s a love letter to Margaret, Ludo’s mother-in-law who lived helping others.
Chez Maggy pays homage to Ludo’s French roots and uses his training by the French Masters to create a menu that honors tradition and delights the senses. You’ll love the deliciously French dishes in the dining room that screams elegance & ease.
While here, you should go for the foie gras miso soup with fava beans, kombu, and English pea consommé, or the burger a la Française torpedoed with pickled mustard seeds, beer-braised onions, smoked mayonnaise, American cheese, and peppered gravy.
The result of Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s delicious creations, coupled with a robust and mostly French wine and cocktail, easily equates this to one of the most fun restaurants in Denver.
11. A5 Steakhouse
Founded under the Culinary Creative Group, A5 Steakhouse is Juan Padro’s interpretation of the all-American steakhouse. A5 distinguishes itself with retro-cool elements and the steak segment of the menu is bookended with the name of the farm or ranch where it originated.
A5 is a fun date spot in Denver with its swooning ambiance, first-class service, superb steaks, and a brilliant wine and beverage list. Where else can you find a bavette, tri-tip, Japanese striploin, and Denver steak on the same menu?
You’ll get starters and sides that tilt toward season-intensive ingredients, innovative preparations, and groovy rifts on familiar favorites. And instead of traditional crab cakes, you’ll get the Mackissock’s “crabby toast,” a striking medley of Jonah crab with cucumbers and yuzu kosho aioli and a Japanese-style French toast topped with togarashi-dusted potato chips.
12. Guard and Grace
Named after Chef Troy Guard’s daughter, Guard, and Grace show that a steakhouse can be elegant and inviting without sacrificing warmth and hospitality. It’s dedicated to providing guests with unforgettable dining experiences.
The menu offers something for everyone, with its traditional steakhouse favorites and seafood to highlight Troy’s Hawaiian roots and culinary journey. Prime, dry-aged, and local Wagyu cuts of beef that would easily satisfy any appetite.
Just a taste of the beef tartare, glistening oysters, crab legs, and lobsters; and grill-etched steaks will leave you wanting for more. You can also choose from any of the wines in the glass-enclosed wine cellar displaying up to 4,000 bottles.
The innovative cocktails and wines from around the world complete the experience, making Guard and Grace the most fun restaurant in Denver for happy hour, a couple’s night out, or private events.
Conclusion
The cultural hub of Denver and its food diversity make it a multi-dimensional metropolis and a vibrant base camp for visitors. It’s a melting pot of culinary influences, which have inspired not only a vibrant food scene but a thriving network of imaginative restaurants.
You can watch the chefs cook your meal in a live performance at Ajax Downtown, natural plant-based food at Watercourse Food, enjoy a Sunday vinyl evening with family at the Sunday Vinyl, or snag a booth at Velvel Cellar.
Exploring these fun restaurants in Denver will surprise your senses, delight your taste buds, and tap into your sense of adventure making you want even more than you thought possible.