Nice birthday dinner near the Denver International Airport
 

Hello, our family will be spending two nights in Denver and are staying at a hotel near DIA. It is my mother in law’s birthday and we would love to take her out to a nice restaurant to celebrate. We are open to travel anywhere in Aurora. Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

There's really not 'fine dining' near the airport, or in Aurora, that I know of.

There are tons of chain restaurants for family dining, some authentic Mexican, Brazilian steakhouses, etc. We like Ted's Montana Grill, but it's not special, per se.

You're probably better off to travel into Denver or Cherry Creek if you want a special restaurant. I'm very familiar with those areas, if you want recommendations.

What kind of menu are you looking for?

Thanks for responding! We are open to cuisine, just looking for upscale ambience

Go into Denver and have an outstanding dining experience--someone here can recommend.

Somehow I posted twice!

Since you sound open to different ideas, I suggest you look into these restaurant locations that are fun areas to visit. You’d probably need to Lyft to them.

We like the atmosphere at historic Larimer Square, and there are lots of dining choices, so I’d start there—

Rioja is our favorite https://www.riojadenver.com

Tamayo for Latin cuisine https://www.eattamayo.com/menus/dinner

Bistro Vendome, French cuisine https://bistrovendome.com/phone/index.html

The Capital Grille https://m.thecapitalgrille.com/menu/...and-sandwiches

Ocean Prime, very $$$$$
https://oceanprime.olo.com/menu/ocea...larimer-square

Union Station downtown—Several choices, but none that I know personally

Cherry Creek North— Lots of choices:
NoRTH Italia is good, and prices won’t break the bank https://www.northitalia.com/location...s/dinner-menu/

Sixth Avenue—
Fruition (a favorite— elegant & tiny place, will print for you a personalized birthday menu with enough advance notice, if table is available ) https://www.fruitionrestaurant.com/dinner ,

Table 6,

Barolo Grill (very good, but pricey and small portions)

Historic hotel restaurants downtown—
The Brown Palace,
Hotel Monaco

That should keep you busy! Have fun looking

Fruition and Barolo Grill are really really good/memorable.

Agree. But the last time we went to Barolo, they had only their tasting menu available that night. The portions were laughable. The amount of our bill, not so funny. It was about $250 for the two of us, and we only had two glasses of house wine. We were still hungry when we left.
Barolo might be resting on its stellar reputation a bit too much.
If you go, I’d recommend going on a week night for the full menu. And eat in the dining room.

Try Texas de Brazil in the Shoppes at Northfield. It's not too far from the airport. Not cheap, but good. It's one of those restaurants that waiters come round with various cuts of meat, and you turn your card over to red or green if you want some more. The price includes a large salad bar, at least it did when we were last there about 4 years ago. It was our go to place for a special meal.

Thank you all so much for so many good options! Sounds like it will be a trip to Cherry Creek or downtown Denver. Really appreciate having such great advice
Best,
Nancy

I'm a bit confused . . . are you rolfene (the OP) - seems so because of the 'rolfe' bit ;)

You didn't provide a time line but if it is the month of August, then public transportation is free and you could catch the train from the airport area to downtown and avoid parking and driving hassles. Harder to get to the Cherry Creek area via public transit. And parking is a pain in the Cherry Creek area.

Now -- if you truly want an almost unique dinning experience but requires a drive to the far west side of the Denver area would be the The Fort in Morrison. Watching the sun set on Denver from the side of a mountain is unique. And then the lights slowing coming on as twilight ends. This all occurs on the patio of one of the truly unique restaurants in the Denver area. But close to a 45 minute drive from the DIA area.

You have some great suggestions already but I'm going to offer one more. There is a small family run Italian restaurant, The Cherry Tomato, in the historic Park Hill neighborhood, easily reached from DIA and much closer than downtown or Cherry Creek North. Started about 20 years ago by chef Tom Feleese, who still cooks every night. Delicious food, wonderful service, a fun historic location in an old pharmacy from the 1900s. Not sure how upscale this would be, but they do have white tablecloths. Here's the link: cherrytomatodenver.com - give it a look. This was our "local" place when we lived in Denver - and one of the very few things about it we miss. Hope you enjoy whatever you choose.