FINE DINING CUISINE
Due to COVID-19, some of the information below may be temporarily different as restaurants navigate these uncharted times. Please visit each establishment's website for their most up to date information, how they are responding to COVID-19, and short term changes in services offered. Thank you for supporting our community!
FAVORITE SPOTS
Grouse Mountain Grill — Elegant, progressive American cuisine overlooking the Beaver Creek Village, Grouse is known for utilizing local and seasonal Colorado ingredients and making everything in house. Piano entertainment by Tony G is available seasonally.
Juniper — Located in Edwards Riverwalk, Juniper serves creative American cuisine. Locally sourced and seasonal ingredients provide a rotating selection of menu items, featuring high end proteins and contemporary takes on comfort food favorites. The owners are always there, greeting guests and running food with the wait staff, and the chefs create magic in an open kitchen you can see the moment you walk in the door. Fun fact…I have a standing reservation here on my birthday! 🙂
La Tour — La Tour is renowned for its modern French American cuisine in a relaxed, yet elegant atmosphere. La Tour’s chef is award winning, and they pride themselves in their excellent menu and service, as well as community cultural and educational outreach.
Mountain Standard/Sweet Basil — I would be remiss if I made a list of restaurants and didn’t include Sweet Basil and Mountain Standard, who both hail from the same owners and are beloved by not only locals, but Zagat, New York Times, and visiting celebrities alike. Odds are, you already know about these two, and my guess is they need no introduction. The accolades are well earned, and both Sweet Basil and its younger sister, Mountain Standard, are worthy of their praises, and worth reservations (which they begin accepting 60 days in advance, and I highly recommend calling since they are not on OpenTable!).
Splendido at the Chateau — For over 25 years, Spendido features exceptional American fine dining cuisine with a seasonally evolving menu, impeccable service, and piano entertainment nightly. Splendid focuses on locally sourced ingredients, with their chef team foraging for mushrooms themselves, and produce coming from Colorado’s farm country. Their pastry chef is one of the most whimsical in the Vail Valley, so make sure to save room for dessert!
Up the Creek — Up the Creek prides themselves in gourmet, organic, farm to fork cuisine in a beautiful setting along the Gore Creek in Vail and has been family owned and operated since its opening in 1988. Whenever possible, they source as locally and sustainably as they can to ensure not only a delicious, yet eco-conscious dining experience.
RESERVATION INFORMATION
Even though the cuisine is elegant, we know here in the Vail Valley no one wants to get dressed in a sport coat or stilettos after a day of skiing or hiking. Our fine dining restaurants have a dress code which is more “smart casual” and want you to feel invited and comfortable.
It is especially important to make your dining reservations in advance for our fine dining establishments because many of them are the most well known and popular restaurants in the valley. Please keep in mind prime dining hours for dinner are 5:30 – 8:00PM. Peak season is considered the entirety of the winter season or during the height of the summer season (mid-June through Labor Day). It’s difficult to “wing it” for these preferred hours, and cancellations are rare. Don’t be surprised by the 24 hour cancellation policy and request to hold a credit card for the reservation—this is to help protect themselves against last minute cancellations and to be able to staff accordingly. These popular restaurants may also have a booking policy (whether booking by phone or online) so ensure you are familiar with the policy when you are booking. You can be charged if you no show or if you cancel within 24 hours and they are unable to rebook the table. Remember, many of the restaurants in the Vail Valley are very small, especially in comparison to larger cities.
If you are travelling during the winter, I would recommend booking your reservations for Christmastime in October/November (depending on when the restaurant opens), and for the rest of the winter you can begin in December. For summertime, you can begin making your reservations approximately 1 month prior to arrival, unless you are coming for 4th of July weekend—if so, I’d start calling when the restaurants open in May! It’s always better to have a reservation and cancel it than it is to risk not being able to get into your favorites because you waited too long. It’s counterintuitive, especially in this day and age of instant-everything, however our valley is small and popular restaurants fill up quickly. Be mindful of each restaurant’s booking window–sometimes these restaurants will sell out for a popular date (like Christmas Eve, for example) the very day it becomes available to book.
Remember—if you can’t find the restaurant on OpenTable, just call them! Not every restaurant out here utilizes OpenTable, and if they do, not every restaurant puts every table on the platform so it’s always worth a call.
