Fodor's Expert Review Spago

At the Ritz-Carlton, Wolfgang Puck's restaurant is housed in an expansive dining room whose vegetable-dyed wood paneling and enlarged black-and-white photographs achieve a sleekly modern look without contradicting the resort's rustic mountain sensibility. Puck's seasonal menu often favors Asian accents and regional ingredients. In late autumn the menu's butternut squash soup is deliciously intensified with cranberry chutney, spiced cream, and pumpkin-seed brittle. The Colorado lamb chops spiced with Hunan eggplant and cilantro-mint vinaigrette is not to be missed and for dessert the kaiserschmarren, a souffléd crème fraîche pancake with strawberry sauce, is otherwordly. Service is impeccable, if a touch formal; those who prefer a low-key (or less bank-breaking) meal might consider dining in the bar area.