The Best Restaurants in Telluride

Vegetarians flock to this Oak Street gem for its addictive, meat-free menu offerings, like chips made from delicata squash, and chickpea cakes with plum butter. There’s also plenty here for carnivores, including the Rocky Mountain elk T-bone with goji-berry-walnut jam. If it all looks pretty enough for TV, that’s because chef Eliza Galvin appeared on Top Chef: Season 10. Fans should take advantage of her on-site cooking demonstration and wine pairing classes, which include 12 recipe tastings and up to nine wines. Go in summer and you’ll even get to learn on the restaurant’s leafy outdoor patio.

By day, Alpino Vino functions as a cozy, ski-in lunch spot, known for its tomato soup and grilled cheese. By night, however, it’s a world-class restaurant, with a five-course, Italian Dolomites-inspired menu that would satisfy any nonna. Open during the winter only, the on-mountain spot is accessible solely by snow cat but, once there, you can warm up in the Alpine-esque dining room, where exposed beams and seats made from wine barrels are all part of the charm.

If you think food tastes better al fresco, wait until you grab dinner at altitude. Allred’s Restaurant sits halfway up Telluride Ski Resort and is only accessible by gondola—from Lift 4 all the way up to San Sophia station. Once there, you should order the elk strip loin, marinated in juniper bourbon and served with sunchoke purée and black cherry compote, or the crispy Scottish quail with blue-corn cornbread and lingonberry-jalapeño sauce. Both are divine, especially when eaten with an eagle’s-eye view of the entire Telluride valley.

Picky eaters should make a beeline for eco-friendly Baked in Telluride, where menu offerings include gluten- and dairy-free cakes and cookies, plus traditional deli counter delights like Reubens bursting with enough pastrami to power you through an afternoon of black-diamond skiing. Don’t leave without trying the puff-pastry vegetarian burrito or a slice of the sourdough-crust pizza.

You might not expect a restaurant in a teensy town to have taken top prize in Parma, Italy’s Pizza World Championship, but that’s part of Brown Dog’s understated charm. The pizza here is unexpectedly delicious—especially the award-winning Pesto pie, with house-made pesto, fresh mozzarella and feta, and a dotting of cherry tomatoes. Bonus: Brown Dog serves Detroit-style, Chicago deep-dish, and classic American pies, so you can pick your pizza poison.

The epitome of fine dining, La Marmotte is as sophisticated as Telluride’s mountains are wild. While dining here, you can expect to enjoy expertly prepared dishes like beef tartare with caper berries and lemon, and roasted mahi-mahi, dusted with bee pollen and served with black garlic and sage sauce. Despite the elegant atmosphere, service is always fantastic, with no hint of snootiness.

This Oklahoma institution opened its first Colorado outpost in 2018 at the Lumière Hotel, offering unconventional menu items like cauliflower steaks with mushroom risotto, mahi-mahi mango ceviche, and new spins on local classics, like a green-chili chowder with roasted corn and poblano peppers. Beyond the food, the cocktails here really sing—you’ll want to try the Misty Maiden, with locally distilled vodka, lemon, grapefruit, and St. Germain.

Telluride is blessed with several great coffee shops, but Steaming Bean is special for its world-class loose-leaf teas. Sure, you could come in for the home blend, the local organic roast, the daily drip, or the French press. You could enjoy the peanut butter bagels or the blueberry Belgian waffles. Or you could even drop by late in the day for some homemade limoncello, a vodka affogato, or a Rock and Rye. But what locals return for again and again are the Steeping Leaf earl grey and the magnolia oolong, both of which embody the phrase “good cuppa.”

Even though Thailand is thousands of miles from Telluride, Siam has perfected an edible ode to the country. In fact, the food here is so good that 5280 magazine named Siam one of the best Thai restaurants in the entire state of Colorado. At this downtown spot, Thailand-born and -raised chefs cook the dishes of their home country, using as much local and organic meat as possible. The king crab and lobster tempura, pineapple-and-red-curry mussels, and peanut-dusted pra ram stir fry will have you so besotted with Thai cuisine, you’ll be digging for your passport to take the next flight to Bangkok.

With a name like The Butcher & The Baker, this locally owned favorite reads like a Disney movie storefront—and it should. Everything inside is pure magic, especially for the food-obsessed. Stop by to dine on local cheddar cheese curds and carrot cake with a buttermilk glaze, or pick up some picnic accoutrements, like house-roasted meats and handmade sausages. The almond croissants are so blissful, they rarely make it out the door.