RFK Cuisine · Steakhouse · Denver
Best Steakhouses in Denver 2026
Steakhouse · Denver · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
Denver's oldest restaurant has served elk, buffalo and rattlesnake under more than five hundred mounted animal heads since 1893, and it still hangs Colorado liquor license number one on the wall. That is the city's steakhouse history in one room — but the present is just as serious. Denver sits in cattle country, the beef is excellent and local, and the spread runs from that 1893 Western relic to a glassy downtown room from one of the city's best chefs, a Hall-of-Fame quarterback's name over the door, and a pair of polished hotel grills. Ranked on the steak, the room and what the bill buys, with what to order at each.
1.Guard and Grace
Troy Guard's glassy downtown steakhouse with dry-aged beef and a serious raw bar; book it for the best modern steak in Denver.
Guard and Grace, Troy Guard's flagship on California Street downtown, is the strongest all-round steakhouse in the city — a soaring, glass-walled room that does the classics without the dark-clubby cliché. The kitchen offers cuts across the spectrum: grass-fed and grain-finished, USDA Prime, dry-aged and Japanese wagyu, plus a genuinely good raw bar of oysters, crab and lobster and a long, smartly chosen wine list. Guard, who built a Denver restaurant group from this room, plates the sides and seafood with more ambition than most steakhouses bother with. It works equally for a celebration and a client dinner. Book a few days ahead, ask for a table away from the bar's hum, and pair a dry-aged cut with the seafood tower. The best contemporary steak in town.
Reserve a few days ahead; a dry-aged ribeye, the seafood tower, a bottle from the reserve list.
2.Elway's
The John Elway steakhouse, now flagshipped downtown at the Ritz-Carlton; book it for prime beef and a built-in conversation piece.
Elway's is the steakhouse the Broncos' Hall-of-Fame quarterback opened with partner Tim Schmidt in 2004, and after the original Cherry Creek room closed in August 2024 to mall redevelopment, the flagship is the downtown location at the Ritz-Carlton on Curtis Street. The cooking is classic American steakhouse done well — USDA Prime cuts, a signature "Elway's cut," big seafood platters, a lively bar — and the room runs with hotel polish and a sports-celebrity buzz that makes it a reliable special-occasion and out-of-towner pick. It is busy, social and comfortable rather than cutting-edge. Book a few days ahead, sit in the main room for the energy, and order a Prime cut with the crab cakes. The famous-name pick.
Reserve a few days ahead; the Elway's cut, the crab cakes, a martini at the bar first.
3.Buckhorn Exchange
Denver's 1893 original, walls of game mounts and license number one; book it once for the most Colorado steak dinner there is.
The Buckhorn Exchange, founded in 1893 by Henry "Shorty Scout" Zietz — a scout who rode with Buffalo Bill — is Denver's oldest restaurant and a piece of working Western history. More than five hundred mounted animal heads line the walls, Colorado liquor license number one hangs upstairs, and the menu still leans into game: elk, buffalo, quail and rattlesnake alongside aged steaks and a buffalo prime rib. It is touristy and proud of it, but the steaks are real, the room is unrepeatable, and the light rail drops you at the Osage station outside the door. Go for the experience as much as the meat. Book a few days ahead, start with the Rocky Mountain oysters or the rattlesnake if you're game, and order the buffalo prime rib. The history pick.
Reserve a few days ahead; the buffalo prime rib, the elk medallions, a rattlesnake starter if you dare.
4.Edge Steakhouse
The Four Seasons steakhouse, polished and quiet, leaning on Colorado beef and bison; book it for a calm, formal dinner downtown.
Edge, inside the Four Seasons Hotel Denver on 14th Street, is the most refined and least clubby of the city's steakhouses — a contemporary room that draws on Colorado's ranches, with the kitchen working closely with local purveyors on beef, bison and lamb. It earns Forbes Travel Guide's Recommended honor, and the experience is calm, polished and hotel-formal, with a strong wine list and a social bar that fills before theatre and games. It is the steakhouse to choose when you want quiet over spectacle. Book a few days ahead, take a table in the main room rather than the bar, and order a Colorado cut with a glass of something big and red. The polished, low-key pick.
Reserve a few days ahead; a Colorado ribeye or bison, a wedge salad, a bold Cabernet.
5.The Capital Grille
The dependable downtown classic with dry-aged beef and a real cellar; book it for a business dinner you don't have to think about.
The Capital Grille, downtown, is the national steakhouse done right — and in a business town it earns its place by being utterly reliable. The beef is dry-aged on the premises, the wine list is long and award-worthy, and the dark-wood, white-tablecloth room is built for the kind of dinner where the deal matters more than the discovery. You know exactly what you are getting: a properly aged bone-in ribeye, the Stoli Doli cocktail, crisp service and a quiet enough table to talk. It is not where you go for surprise; it is where you go when it has to work. Book a few days ahead, request a corner table, and order the dry-aged on-the-bone ribeye. The safe-hands business pick.
Reserve a few days ahead; the dry-aged bone-in ribeye, the lobster mac, a Stoli Doli to start.
6.Citizen Rail
A wood-fired, meat-heavy room by Union Station; book it for live-fire steak with more cooking on the plate than the old guard.
Citizen Rail, in the Kimpton Hotel Born beside Union Station, is the steakhouse for diners who want flame and craft over white tablecloths. Executive chef Christian Graves came from California with a long background in wood-fired cooking, and the kitchen runs an open hearth and a teaching ethos — house-aged and dry-rubbed cuts, smoked and charred sides, and a list of sauces that lets you build the plate. It is dark and clubby in a contemporary way, with a meat-forward menu but more ambition in the cooking than the traditional rooms. It also sits in the city's most walkable dining district. Book a few days ahead, sit near the open kitchen, and order a wood-fired cut with the charred vegetables. The live-fire pick by the station.
Reserve a few days ahead; a wood-fired dry-aged cut, the charred sides, a Colorado cocktail.
How Denver eats steak
Denver is cattle country, and its steakhouses reflect it: the beef is excellent, often Colorado-raised, and the city wears the Western tradition without irony — the National Western Stock Show still runs every January, and the Buckhorn Exchange has been carving game since the year the silver crash hit. The modern scene splits into three camps. There are the contemporary chef-driven rooms led by Guard and Grace; the polished hotel grills at the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton; and the live-fire newcomers like Citizen Rail that put more cooking on the plate. Across all of them, bison and game appear alongside the beef in a way they rarely do on the coasts.
A few practical notes. Most of the serious rooms cluster downtown — the 16th Street corridor, LoDo and Union Station — so they are walkable from the central hotels; the Buckhorn is the outlier, across the rail tracks but a short light-rail hop to the Osage station. Reserve a few days ahead, more for celebration weekends and stock-show season. Denver is a relaxed dining town: smart-casual works almost everywhere, and only the hotel rooms lean dressy. For the rest of the city's tables — its tasting menus, sushi counters and Mexican kitchens — the Denver dining guide maps it by neighborhood and occasion.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for a serious Denver steak
The chain steakhouses in the suburban strip malls. The national-chain rooms ringing the metro do a competent job, but they are not the city's best beef. For that, take a table at Guard and Grace downtown or the historic Buckhorn Exchange.
The Buckhorn Exchange if you want a quiet, modern, of-the-moment dinner. It is a loud, touristy, taxidermy-lined Western institution and that is the entire point. When you want contemporary cooking and a calm room, point yourself at Edge in the Four Seasons or Citizen Rail by Union Station instead.
Frequently asked
What is the best steakhouse in Denver?
Guard and Grace, Troy Guard's modern steakhouse on California Street downtown, is the city's strongest all-rounder — dry-aged and grass-fed beef, a serious raw bar and a wine list deep enough for a celebration. For history, the 1893 Buckhorn Exchange, Denver's oldest restaurant, is a destination in its own right. Choose Guard and Grace for the best contemporary steak in town and Buckhorn for the most Colorado room you will ever eat in.
What is the oldest steakhouse in Denver?
The Buckhorn Exchange, founded in 1893 by Henry 'Shorty Scout' Zietz at 1000 Osage Street, is Denver's oldest restaurant. When Prohibition ended it was issued Colorado liquor license number one, which still hangs on the wall, and the dining room is lined with more than five hundred mounted animal heads. It is a Western steakhouse in the fullest sense, serving game — elk, buffalo, rattlesnake — alongside its steaks, reachable by the light rail to the Osage station.
How much does a steak dinner cost in Denver?
Expect roughly $90 to $150 a head for a full steak dinner with a starter, sides and a glass of wine at the top rooms. Guard and Grace, Elway's, Edge and The Capital Grille sit in that band, with prime and dry-aged cuts and à la carte sides pushing higher. The Buckhorn Exchange runs similar once you add its game platters. Citizen Rail is a touch more accessible. Tasting add-ons, tomahawks and wine climb the bill at all of them.
Which Denver steakhouse is best for a business dinner?
Guard and Grace and The Capital Grille are the two downtown rooms built for it — generous tables, a strong wine program and the kind of polished service a client dinner needs. Elway's, now anchored downtown at the Ritz-Carlton on Curtis Street, carries the John Elway name and a built-in conversation piece. Edge, inside the Four Seasons, is the quietest and most hotel-formal of the group. Book a few days ahead and ask for a corner table.
Did Elway's in Cherry Creek close?
The original Elway's in Cherry Creek closed its doors on August 31, 2024, after two decades, owing to mall redevelopment. The brand that John Elway and Tim Schmidt built lives on: the downtown location at the Ritz-Carlton on Curtis Street is now the flagship, and there is an outpost at Denver International Airport. For the classic Elway's steak experience, the Ritz-Carlton room is the one to book today.
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