Help! Need restaurant recommendations from former East or West coasters!

[dexy]

I see there Sbarro Pizzeria in Denver. Did you try them? Sbarro has very good pizza in NY. If taste is not the same, then it's definitely the water issue :-)

[Augie Daugie]

Pizza - Virgilio's in Lakewood (Italian owner from Hartford, CT) and Marco's Coal-Fired Pizza in LoDo(authentic Napoletana)

Chinese - Star Kitchen for Dim Sum and seafood and JJ Chinese Restaurant for "real" Chinese. Great Wall claims to be New York style Chinese.

Other must try restaurants:

Pho 95, simply the best pho in Colorado
Tarasco's New Latino Cuisine, awesome mole and other regional flavors from Southern Mexico
El Paraiso, best overall mex food
Los Carboncitos, incredible tacos al pastor and amazing salsa
Biker Jim's Gourmet Hot Dog Stand, no restaurant, but some of the best street food in Denver. Anthony Bourdain visited Biker Jim last month
Gastro Cart (18th & Champa), really creative sandwiches, tacos and other handheld food items.

[Claudia M.M]

Chinese : Heaven Dragon they are in Thornton the food is very good and worth going the prices are very reasonable you can check their website.www.heavendragonco.com's home (http://www.heavendragonco.com/aboutus.asp - broken link) quote"favorite of some of the most powerful local and state politicians: Governor owens,Sen. Wayne Allard, U.S. Reps mark Udall and Bob Beauprez,Thornton mayor noel busck and even president bush, who ordered takeout when he was in town"
Italian : Cuccina Calore in Denver www.cucinacolore.com

And Pizza I had not got a change to find the plece I can recomend.

[eagle06]

I've never had pizza in NYC city but I tried this place the other night. Was excellent. I can't tell you it tastes the same as pizza in NYC but it's definitely worth a try. Only a couple bucks a slice (and a slice being the size of a whole, small, pizza.)

Benny Blanco's Slice of the Bronx - Southwest - Denver, CO

[steveindenver]

Pho 95, simply the best pho in Colorado

That is a terrible -- terrible -- terrible pho joint. Someone recommended it and we gave it the three chances. Each and every experience was worse than the previous.

Denver has no NY like pizza. It is in the water. Perhaps Two fisted Marios they have good dough anyway.

The above mention of the Chinese Joint Heaven's Dragon. ****ty Chinese food to be generous. That guy is in prison or soon to be as the result of the largest weed bust in metro history. Yes, many politicians ate there -- because he donated enough money to overcome his ****ty food.

The rest of the places I can't really say -- I don't frequent strip malls in search of food. I would say you should avoid the "gastro-cart" downtown -- and any cart for that matter as the health department frequents them about as often as a vegas hooker does the doctors office.

[StillLookingToo]

As a NY pizza lover and former Coloradan, I'd suggest Sauce in the DTC and Il Vicino's in Denver & Littleton. While both are not true NY pizza, they are thin crust and excellent, and highly recomend giving them a try.

[Mo11]

BobbyDigital, to help gauge what your tastes are before I make any specific recs, what are some of your favorite restaurants in NY and what are some recommendations you have received in CO which you have not enjoyed? I had a problem with poor recs from co-workers and such when moving here initially too, but have found many places I enjoy in the ten years since. I think the dining scene has improved leaps and bounds in that time.

You might try looking at the Café Society blog on Westword for ideas: Denver Restaurants and Dining - Cafe Society - Westword
A couple of local magazines with dining sections are Denver Magazine and 5280.
A food writer friend of mine who moved here from Boston and loves everything from dive bars to white tablecloth dining has a blog with many dining ideas: Denveater

(I apologize that I've tried editing the URLs and can't get them to be inserted as clickable links. I don't see an option for Insert Link or URL here...)