The 8 Best Restaurants in Aspen Right Now

Aspen’s restaurant scene doesn’t hibernate after ski season. If anything, it gets better. As the snow recedes, chefs trade winter indulgences for peak-season produce, and tables spill onto patios beneath bluebird skies.

Whether you’re in town to hike, bike, or simply people-watch, these are the restaurants, bars, and cafes worth building your itinerary around.

Jump Ahead:

• Lola 41
• Marea
• Mawa’s Kitchen
• Mawita
• Petit Trois
• Silvers Aspen
• Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge
• West End Social

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Lola 41

• Address: 110 W. Main St., Aspen
• Cuisine: Japanese

Lola 41 opened this summer inside the brand new White Elephant Hotel, becoming an instant hit with the town’s locals, according to the restaurant staff. It’s closer to Aspen’s residential neighborhoods than to downtown, and it offers an affordable happy hour where sushi rolls run you just $14.

Lola 41, an abbreviation of “longitude/latitude” and a reference to the 41st parallel where its Nantucket, Japan, and now Aspen outposts operate, is helmed by chef Seth Halpin, whose menu is tailored specifically to mountain-town clientele. The Caesar salad ($24) swaps romaine for bitter lettuce, which Halpin says is “very Aspen,” and is dressed in a fish sauce to infuse Southeast Asian flavors. Topped with a black truffle Parmesan crisp, fresh lemon zest, and sourdough crouton crumble, it’s a next-level salad, perfect for Aspenites. Even the burger ($30) adheres to the Aspen dress code: grilled onions are elevated to a red onion compote and foie gras sauce takes the place of ketchup.

Elsewhere on the upscale Asian-meets-alpine menu you will find Hokkaido scallops and king crab sushi rolls, A5 beef and wagyu appetizers, and a whole menu of martinis and spritzes.

Marea

• Address: 315 E. Dean St., Aspen
• Cuisine: Italian

If seafood pasta is your love language, head to Marea at the St. Regis Aspen Resort for your epic romance. Choose from three homemade pastas: red-wine braised octopus with bone marrow, shrimp in a lemon garlic sauce, or leek and jumbo lump crab ($62), the most avant-garde offering. The pasta itself is bright orange, made with high-quality organic eggs you can taste even through the decadent sauces and piles of seafood. The meat dishes are just as rave-worthy—like the rack of lamb ($58) with chimichurri-like sauce made with Castelvetrano olives, fennel, and mint.

Marea is technically a pop-up, expected to run through the 2026 summer season, so consider moving it up your priority list.

Mawa’s Kitchen

• Address: 305 Aspen Airport Business Center, Suite F, Aspen
• Cuisine: International

Newcomers to this Aspen staple quickly learn why regulars call the owner and Michelin Guide–recommended chef Mawa McQueen “the Queen.” The nickname is as much about her magnetic “Yes, Queen!” energy as it is her cooking. Leaning on French, Moroccan, Tunisian, and Arabian cuisine, McQueen rules her kitchen with bold flavors. As Aspen’s only Black restaurant owner, McQueen continues to expand what Aspen’s culinary scene looks like, creating space for new flavors and a more inclusive vision of mountain dining.

Since December 2025, McQueen has elevated dinner at Mawa’s Kitchen from an à la carte ordering experience to a set tasting menu ($148 for four courses, plus an optional wine pairing for $75) that walks diners through her complete culinary story. The food is centered around “a seasonal exploration of Afro-Mediterranean flavors with Greek Island spirit in Colorado terroir,” as the menu states.

During the day, stick a fork into a stack of fonio (similar to quinoa) blueberry pancakes, a classic croque madame, signature Joyce Farms rotisserie jerk chicken, and a seasonal mango salad.

Mawita

• Address: 305 Aspen Airport Business Center, Suite J, Aspen
• Cuisine: International

Next door to Mawa’s Kitchen, Mawita, which opened in December 2025 after moving from Snowmass, offers a more casual, tapas-centric way to try chef Mawa McQueen’s globally inspired dishes. Take the jerk chicken: For $18, get four skewers bursting with citrusy marinade and sided with a spicy jerk sauce that hits hot but fades quickly. Manage the heat with a fresh salsa made from seasonal fruit. The plantain bravas ($24) are a sweeter take on the traditional potato dish, and the paellas ($72 for the vegetarian option or $120 for meat and fish) are works of art heaped with chorizo, prawns, mussels, scallops, and chicken.

Inside, the space feels like a designer’s haven wrapped in bright colors and filled with midcentury modern furniture. Outside, pines shade the patio and flower baskets stand in for fine art.

Petit Trois

• Address: 111 S. Garmisch St., Aspen
• Cuisine: French

Michelin-starred chef Ludo Lefebvre took his LA-based bistro to 7,890 feet in December 2025. The romantic little restaurant comprises only 20 tables or so and a small patio facing Paepcke Park. Mussels ($38) come in a traditional buttery white wine sauce with an untraditional hit of curry and turmeric. The steak frites ($52) is wagyu bavette that comes with an herby clarified-butter Béarnaise sauce that brightens the dish.

A bit removed from downtown, Petit feels like a mini trip to Paris, complete with crème brûlée.

Silvers Aspen

• Address: 710 E. Durant Ave., Aspen
• Cuisine: Deli

If you’re looking for something delicious that doesn’t require a white tablecloth (or a bank loan), head to Silvers Aspen. Opened in 2025 by a group of locals, Silvers is a New York–style deli with a menu of pocket-friendly bagels, sandwiches, and pasta salads starting at $9. The sourcing is equally Big Apple: Pastrami comes from Lobel’s in Manhattan, they stock Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray celery soda from Brooklyn in the fridge, and the team boils all the bagels in water filtered to taste like NYC tap.

Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge

• Address: 307 S. Mill St., Aspen
• Cuisine: American

Before there was the Whiskey Lodge, there was the lore. Since 2004, Stranahan’s has cultivated a cult following willing to camp out for prized bottle releases. Now, that devotion has a home in Aspen’s newest watering hole. Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge opened in 2024 on Aspen’s Wagner Park. The small space is crammed with nods to Aspen’s mining history like a miner’s lunchbox, wooden skis, and antique photographs. More importantly, the lodge also offers exclusive-release bottles from Denver’s first craft distillery. This summer, ask for Sauternes Cask, a whiskey finished in a white-wine barrel for an oaky profile and smooth finish.

The whiskey cocktails (starting at $17) take a less-is-more approach. Drinks like the old fashioned, clarified Blind Melon, and whiskey smash showcase Stranahan’s quality spirits with simple, well-executed recipes. Not a whiskey person? Go for the vodka-based lavender mule ($19). A menu of small bites ($10 to $36) includes upscale bar food like crab cakes, pasta salad, and watermelon feta skewers.

West End Social

• Address: 845 Meadows Road, Aspen
• Cuisine: American

Aspen’s buzziest restaurants tend to cluster downtown. West End Social doesn’t. Tucked away on the 40-acre Aspen Meadow Resort’s campus, this peaceful patio feels blissfully removed from the see-and-be-seen scene, despite sitting just five minutes away from the heart of town.

Executive chef Justin Kalaluhi leans into that sense of escape with a Hawaii-meets-Rockies menu. At lunch, try the cajun fish tacos with pickled cucumber and mango relish ($27) and sweet Olathe corn soup ($19), or come for dinner and start with a lobster and avocado salad ($38) before digging into Colorado trout ($42). Cap any meal with a walk among the property’s art collection.