I’m about to tell you some “Matrix”-level stuff here that will forever change and enhance your experience eating out. What if you took the menu out of the dining equation? What if instead of ordering from a set group of dinner options, you let the chef pick every single thing you ate?
Omakase is the Japanese phrase for “I’ll leave it up to you,” and while many sushi restaurants have an omakase option, why limit a chef’s creativity by cuisine? These “dealer’s choice”-style menus — perhaps better known as tasting menus at non-Japanese restaurants — can be a great splurge, or a great value.
Here are some spots where you leave the ordering behind and dive, taste bud-first, into a whole new food world. Take the red pill, and see how deep the culinary rabbit hole goes.
You probably think you know sushi, but Sushi Ronin and its executive chef Corey Baker will make you think otherwise. Ronin has a normal menu, but where Baker really shines is with the omakase, which takes you so much further than standard rolls and sashimi. Prices vary by night, and it’s not cheap, but if you have a healthy tax refund coming your way, what better way to spend it than on an adventure? 2930 Umatilla St., Denver, 303-955-8741; sushironindenver.com
Bamboo Sushi’s omakase menu is one of the best deals in town. From as low as $60 to as high as Amazon-expense-account-level territory, the sushi chefs at Bamboo will craft a dining experience for you that’s both innovative and sustainable. (It calls itself “the world’s first certified sustainable-sushi restaurant.”) The dishes they’re creating — like wagyu beef topped with uni topped with caviar topped with truffles — are mind-blowing. 2715 17th St., Denver, 303-284-6600; bamboosushi.com
Frasca Food and Wine is a restaurant experience on another level. From the service (or, as co-owner/master sommelier Bobby Stuckey would say, the hospitality) to the wine to the food, everything is so precise at Frasca that it doesn’t even feel like a restaurant. The best way to do Frasca is with its six- to seven-course tasting menu ($115; optional wine flight an additional $100). A recent tasting menu-only plate featured a dungeness crab stuffed with perfectly-cooked bigoli pasta and its own meat. Eating dinner out of a crab? Priceless. 1738 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-442-6966; frascafoodandwine.com
One of the better dinner values in Denver is The Populist chef’s tasting menu ($90 for two; $35/person beverage pairings). It’s one of the few spots where two people can eat a seven-course meal for under $100, and when those courses include things like oysters, foie gras and beautiful agnolotti, it’s more like a steal. 3163 Larimer St., Denver, 720-432-3163; thepopulistdenver.com
Beckon won’t open until summer, but I’m already excited to see what chef Duncan Holmes (formerly of Frasca) is going to do with the city’s first tasting menu-only restaurant. Each night, 17 diners will gather inside the black house up Larimer Street for a dinner party of sorts with whatever Holmes decides we should be eating. Fingers crossed he makes good decisions. 2845 Larimer St., Denver; beckon-call.com
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