9 Best Restaurants in Steamboat Springs and Northwest Colorado, Colorado

Drawing inspiration from Pablo Picasso's artwork, the pizzas at this funky joint make for a diverse palette of flavors and fun. Specialties include creations such as Popeye's Passion (featuring spinach and "olive oyl") or Dracula's Nemesis (studded with roasted garlic). For kids, they even serve a mac-and-cheese pizza. With brick walls covered only by eclectic local paintings, Pablo's can get loud when busy. They pour local wines by the glass and Palisade Brewery beer and root beer by the bottle.

Aromatic goodies are baked with whole grains and fresh local fruits at this down-home-style bakery known around the region for its melt-in-your-mouth pastries, "jamocha" brownies, and fresh-fruit cobblers. Owners Tim and Mary Lincoln have made their fruitcakes craveable commodities, studding them with fresh Palisade peaches and mailing them around the country (in fact, they do lots of great things with peaches, including pie). Cold sandwiches and fresh-baked bread are also available.

New batches of homemade ice cream show up almost every day at this roadside shop, where the walls are a gallery for the owners' photography and artwork. The shop sells fresh sandwiches—including a terrific roast beef on house-baked rolls—and specialty coffees, bottled root beer, cream soda, and ginger ale. The Depot's immaculate restroom makes for one of the most pleasant pit stops on the long drive ahead.

This café's hearty breakfasts and lunches, which are crafted to get folks through a day of skiing or biking, are served in a casual atmosphere that's family—and group—friendly. The most popular item on the menu, and for good reason, is the roster of four eggs Benedict choices, including the "Cowboy Downhill," with smoked beef brisket, chargrilled onions, and pickled jalapeños. On nice days, ask to sit on the patio next to pretty Soda Creek. In season the place is usually jam-packed. Everything on the great kids' menu is $9.

Casual and colorful, Dos Hombres serves the usual variety of combination platters and Mexican specialties, and loads up the plates for low prices. The fajitas and enchiladas are particularly well made, with quality meats and a noticeable lack of grease, and they have an unusually large menu of interesting salads (check out the Cancun version, with pineapple and fried tortilla strips). Service is snappy and friendly, and the staff is accommodating to kids. The margaritas and cervezas are inexpensive, too—they're half-price during the weekday three-hour happy hour and all day Tuesday.

Authentic and family friendly, this Mexican restaurant serves good food in huge portions. Try the chiles rellenos, super nachos, and especially the Chile Colorado: fork-tender beef simmered in a savory red-pepper sauce. The appetizer combo plate is a meal in itself, and to feed an army, order Fiesta Fajitas. There's a second location in Grand Junction.

The staff is friendly and the pizzas are excellent, thin-crust, and "Philly style," which means they also offer that town's famous stromboli with the same thin, crispy crust. If you'd rather have pasta, the jumbo beef ravioli is a local favorite. An exposition kitchen means lots of give-and-take between the dining room and the family that runs the place, and they still have the large, foliage-lined patio with its backyard feel.

Between the appealing kids' menu and the memorabilia that suggests Elvis has not left the building, Johnny's is all about fun and family. Breakfast (until 2 pm), lunch, and dinner are served daily, and they are all budget minded and large portioned. The menu is mostly what you'd expect—comfort food like meat loaf and mashed potatoes, burgers, milkshakes, and biscuits and gravy—but they also do an above-average rib eye and some tasty Mexican, as well as a popular list of hot "dawgs." A pie happy hour happens from 3 to 5 pm daily, with $2 off slices.

This Southwestern and Tex-Mex establishment is among Steamboat's most popular restaurants, and with good reason. The kitchen incorporates indigenous specialties into the traditional menu. Among the standouts are sunflower seed–crusted tuna with a margarita beurre blanc, enchiladas layered with Monterey Jack and goat cheese and roasted peppers, and buffalo loin crusted with pecan nuts and bourbon cream sauce. Excellent (read; strong) margaritas, and the light, cinnamon-spicy Mexican twist on bananas Foster is a worthy finale.