8 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.

Elevated pub food, rotisserie meats, duck-fat fries, and creative craft cocktails somehow marry perfectly on this modern menu. Warm wood paneling and vibrant ski photography decorate the cozy dining room centrally located in Vail Village.

With spacious glass windows, this sleek, sophisticated space in Gravity Haus looks as if it belongs in a big city, with only the fireplace reminding you that this is Vail. The menu puts a modern spin on the classic steak house, featuring food from Rocky Mountain ranchers and farmers.

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.

With elegant marble columns and clean Italian linens, this posh eatery is the height of opulence. The tasting menu is a perfect sampling of the chef's new American cuisine improved only by the on-site sommelier's perfect wine pairings. Retire for a nightcap to the classically elegant piano bar.

The freshest seasonal ingredients available are used here, so the menu changes about once a month. You might find grilled Muscovy duck breast with pistachio salsa verde and smoked-cherry gastrique, or Berkshire pork rib eye with tapioca corn pudding and chanterelle mushrooms. Pair these entrées with one of the thousands of wines from the restaurant's expansive cellar, which you can view from the dining room. Tables also overlook Gore Creek. Leave room for the luscious desserts.

The large sunny patio in the center of Lionshead Village is the perfect slope-side location for people-watching while enjoying stellar Bloody Marys and poutine, or heartier après-ski fare like the coffee-cured elk, Colorado striped bass, or the Cubano sandwich. Ingredients are locally sourced and the menu aims for an elevated take on comfort food.