Denver's Ten Best Steakhouses

Mark Manger

Columbine Steak House

Here in cow country, there's no shortage of good steakhouses -- but LoHi SteakBar, Sean Kelly's new restaurant at 3200 Tejon Street, already ranks right at the top. Here are ten more of Denver's best steakhouses.

1. The Capital Grille (1450 Larimer St., 303-539-2500). The Capital Grille has done the impossible and found customers to fill another steakhouse in a town already overrun with steakhouses. And all it had to do was be better than everyone else in every possible way.

2. Columbine Steak House & Lounge (300 Federal Blvd., 303-936-9110).

Mark Manger

Columbine Steakhouse is a survivor, the kind of place they don't make anymore, haven't made for decades: a steak diner, with a faded dining room in front and a dim lounge in the back. This could be the last of the great $10 steaks.

3. Cowbobas (2991 W. Evans Ave., 303-934-3301). Cowbobas is a combination cowboy steakhouse and Vietnamese boba tea shop that also serves coffee, corn dogs and a jackfruit smoothie so syrupy sweet you'll think you're having a heart attack. The entrees are mostly steaks -- from a 22-ounce porterhouse for fifteen bucks to a nine-ounce strip loin for less than ten -- and a meal here is always a dip in to the culinary melting pot. $-$$

4. Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse (8100 E. Orchard Rd., Englewood, 303-796-0100). Del Frisco's exists for one reason and one reason only: to bring huge whacks of 100 percent American corn-fed beef to diners with big appetites and bigger wallets. Everything beyond that -- from the power-broker decor to the cigar lounge and high-tone bar -- is just theater, sideshows for the main attraction.

5. Elway's (2500 E. 1st Ave., 303-399-5353). Every neighborhood needs a neighborhood restaurant, and in Cherry Creek, that neighborhood restaurant is Elway's. Chef Tyler Wiard and his crew cook from a menu that speaks to the primal needs of Cherry Creekers: all steaks and swank and smarts.