4 Best Restaurants in Vail Valley, Colorado

The huge, seasonal menu includes highlights like a high-end Colorado Kobe steak served with asparagus spears and bleu cheese fritters, a crispy pork shank with a sherry-apricot glaze, and a variety of delicious sandwiches, pizzas, and lighter, tapas-style plates. Meals are rounded out with expert wine and beer pairings that make this somewhat out-of-the-way restaurant well worth the free shuttle from the village.

One of the memorable experiences during a trip to Beaver Creek is traveling in a sleigh to this former hunting lodge. In summer you can get here on horseback or by wagon. During the journey, your driver will undoubtedly fill you in on some local history. The pine-log cabin, warmed by a crackling fire, is an unbeatable location for a romantic meal. On the prix-fixe menu, choose from entrées such as potato dumplings with bing cherries and chanterelles, or a wood-grilled Rocky Mountain elk chop with sweet corn–rabbit belly hash. The menu changes seasonally.

Dive is all about seafood, flown in daily from Hawaii and both coasts. This oyster and crudo bar also offers the likes of Carolina grits and charred tomato sauce, and calamari and squid ink pasta with lemon beurre blanc cioppino. Check out Wednesday's "hump day" oysters and champagne special, all night long.

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.