Farmhouse Thai Eatery

"Can you operate on autopilot here with your usual order of satay, tom yum, and pad Thai? Yes. Should you? Heck, no: There’s a reason one section of the menu is labeled “Must Try.” Here you’ll find vibrant seasonal salads, intensely aromatic stews, and other specialties you’re not likely to see anywhere else on the Front Range: yen ta fo, for instance, brimming with plump shrimp, calamari, fish balls, and rice noodles as well as bok choy and scallions in a red bean broth that’s at once lightly sweet, markedly sour, and electrifyingly spicy.  All that said, the kitchen prepares everything with aplomb, vegans and celiacs can find plenty to eat, and so can diners with low spice thresholds." - Ruth Tobias

"This Lakewood star comes by its reputation thanks to a family-run kitchen that honors seasonal ingredients, preparing them with clarity and gusto from roast duck curry with pineapple, grapes, and tomatoes to pork-leg stew with kale and pickled cabbage. Delicately fried tofu, with its creamy interior and lightly sweet, peanut-topped chili sauce, may be the best in town, and the nam phrik ong (ground pork dip) gives the best bolognese a run for its money; to follow them, choose anything from the often-updated “Must Try” section of the menu, be it the intensely earthy floating market noodle soup with beef or the fresh tea-leaf salad tossed tableside." - Ruth Tobias

"Can you operate on autopilot here with your usual order of satay, tom yum, and pad Thai? Yes. Should you? Heck, no: There’s a reason one section of the menu is labeled “Must Try.” Here you’ll find vibrant seasonal salads, intensely aromatic stews, and other specialties you’re not likely to see anywhere else on the Front Range: yen ta fo, for instance, brimming with plump shrimp, calamari, fish balls, and rice noodles as well as bok choy and scallions in a red bean broth that’s at once lightly sweet, markedly sour, and electrifyingly spicy.  All that said, the kitchen prepares everything with aplomb, vegans and celiacs can find plenty to eat, and so can diners with low spice thresholds." - Ruth Tobias