My husband and I will be vacationing with my elderly parents in the Fort Collins area next week and are looking for restaurant suggestions for Fort Collins, Loveland, and Estes. Our tastes in food/restaurants range from tasty inexpensive eats in a whole-in-the wall to four start foodie spots. We like ethnic....Italian, Mexican, Greek, etc. as well as Continental and American and especially love fresh, local ingredients. Restaurant suggestions for brkfst/lunch and dinner would be greatly appreciated!

For Fort Collins:

Italian: Bisettis, always enjoyable.

Mexican: Rio Grande (food is only OK, but margs are killer and the place a fun Fort Collins institution. Hard to say what elderly parents will think.)

Vegetarian: Tasty Harmony. It is tasty and very different. Almost all our friends (including meat and potato types) like it. Save room for desert.

Brew Pub: Coopersmiths

Fish: Fish (yes, Fish is it's name!)

French: Le Creperie (breakfast and lunch only)

(Above are within a few blocks of each other, downtown)

Better (and hotter) Mexican food than Rio: Los Tarascos (College, one block north of Laurel)

Famous hole-in-the-wall: Big City Burrito ( a block north of Los Tarascos)

Eclectic: Rainbow (Laurel and Mason), vegetarian, southwest, pastas, salads, chicken dishes. Great breakfast place.

Ethiopian: Nyola (south College, cross street is Harvard)

Have fun!

THANK YOU, Nelson! Your extensive list covered a wonderful variety of options and they all look interesting. Before we leave, I'll check menus for those that have a website.

BTW, my parents are elderly, but extremely young at heart and fun....and they love a good margarita! That's why we enjoy taking them along on our travels when we can

lovebug,

Have a great trip. I thought of two more places:

For "fine dining", Jay's Bistro downtown on Oak Street:
http://www.jaysbistro.net/

Asian: Youngs Cafe, on south College north of Horsetooth behind Red Lobster. Been in Fort Collins at the same location since 1987 and still popular.
http://www.youngscafe.com/

Here are links to some of the other places:
http://www.riograndemexican.com/fort-collins
http://www.coopersmithspub.com/
http://www.tastyharmony.com/
http://www.bisettis.com/
http://fishmkt.com/
http://www.rainbowfortcollins.com/

BTW, we like our margs at the Rio "up, no salt", but they have the various strawberry and mango varieties frozen / rocks as well. My wife and I are often at the salsa dancing on Tuesdays, where we are one of the older couples on the floor. We have had a marg for fortification.

Hi Nelson - So kind of you to provide more restaurants and all the links. Thanks! Too bad we won't be in Ft Collins on a Tuesday to see your 'fortified' salsa dancing We get to town on Thursday and leave the next Monday. Looks like the weather should be pleasant at least from today's forecast. We're looking forward to being in mountain country again!

lovebug, just curious if you got to try any of these while you were in town. Hoping the recommendations were OK. One never knows about subjective things like restaurants!

ttt