I'm heading to Vail for 4 days and Estes Park for 3 days on Thursday.

Any dining recommendations?

Mike,

Although I can't really help you with Estes Park (I prefer Grand Lake--on the other side of RMNP) here are some of my favs in Vail.

1. Left Bank: Excellent French cuisine served in the same location for twenty plus years. The head chef/owner Luc Meyer recently died of Cancer but his wife and son are continuing in his place.

2. Sweet Basil: Another Vail institution specializing in "imaginative American cuisine with diverse influences."

3. Grouse Mountain Grill (actually next door to Vail in Beaver Creek). Innovative American featuring game, fowl and fish.

Hope this helps,

Davidcs

I'll second Sweet Basil's. Had a great meal there last summer. Great martini, yummy shrimp (hubby had pork chops, said they were great)fantastic appetizer called "the tower of tomatos"---I don't even really like tomatoes, but the variety was wonderful: red, yellow, even a fried green one---beautiful AND delicious. Fun atmosphere----was glad I changed out of my hiking boots tho.

In Estes Park, for dinner, I recommend "Nicky's" on Fall River Road, just west of town. Very good food and attentive service. We had a wonderful breakfast at the Fall River Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park. There is a restaurant there with an outdoor deck that faces Deer Mountain. The view is amazing and the food was very good and affordable. If the Aspen trees are turning to gold, the view is even more beautiful. Those were the only 2 outstanding meals I had in Estes Park. The other restaurants were not very memorable...and that's why I can't even remember their names to tell you what to avoid. I do remember one was an old converted Pizza Hut near a miniature car race track and near a microbrewery. Service was bad and the food boring (no seasoning and very bland).

Thanks for the replies...

In estes park, the hotel on the hill that was shown in the movie The Shining had a good brunch.