Best New Cheap Eats in Denver to Try in 2024

A quick note: most of what I covered leans casual. Pizza, dumplings, bagels, tacos — the kind of food that's easy to love and easy on the wallet. If you're looking for a $200 tasting menu, this isn't that. But if you want to actually eat well in Denver without the damage, keep reading.

MAKfam

MAKfam made my list because it's doing something specific and doing it well. It's one of those spots where the menu reflects a clear point of view on food, and that comes through in what you're eating. Worth checking out if you haven't been yet.

Call Your Mother

Call Your Mother is a bagel shop, and it's a good one. Bagels in Denver have historically been a tough category — the altitude thing is real — but Call Your Mother has figured it out. The shop has a personality to it, which makes it more fun to visit than a standard deli counter situation.

Red Tops Rendezvous

Red Tops Rendezvous is one of the newer additions I was keeping an eye on through 2023. It's the kind of place that feels like it fills a gap in whatever neighborhood it landed in. I'd put it on your list if you're actively trying to work through new Denver spots.

Dough Counter

Dough Counter is pizza, and it's pretty good pizza. Denver's pizza scene has gotten more competitive over the last few years, and Dough Counter holds its own in that conversation. If you're a pizza person who likes trying new spots around the city, this one is worth a visit.

Linglon Dumpling House

Dumplings are one of those foods where the gap between a good version and a mediocre version is immediately obvious, and Linglon Dumpling House lands on the right side of that. Chinese food in Denver has been expanding in terms of variety and quality, and Linglon fits into that trend in a real way. If dumplings are your thing, this place should be on your radar.

Kike's Red Tacos

Kike's Red Tacos started as a food truck, which I think is relevant context — food trucks that successfully make the jump to brick and mortar don't always maintain what made them worth following in the first place. From what I saw, Kike's kept it together through that transition. Red tacos are a specific style, and if you haven't had them before, this is a good introduction to what they're about. The fact that it now has a permanent location makes it easier to plan around than chasing a truck schedule.

Why Cheap Eats in Denver Still Matter

I want to be straightforward about something: Denver's restaurant scene has gotten expensive. That's just true. A lot of places that opened in the last few years have price points that feel like they're written for a different city's cost of living, or at least a different era of Denver. So when good food shows up at prices that don't require you to check your bank account first, it's worth paying attention to.

Everything I covered in the video — and everything listed here — hit that mark in 2023. These aren't places cutting corners to stay affordable. They're places that picked a lane, stayed focused, and kept the prices reasonable. That combination is harder to pull off than it sounds.

What I Look for in a Cheap Eats Spot

It's not just about price. A $10 plate that isn't good is still a bad deal. What I'm actually looking for is value — where the quality of what you're eating matches or exceeds what you're paying. Every place in this list met that bar when I visited.

I also think about repeatability. Can I see myself coming back here on a random weeknight when I don't want to think too hard about where to eat? That's the real test. A lot of places pass on a first visit and lose you by the third. The spots I keep recommending are ones that hold up over time.

A Note on the Denver Food Scene in 2024

2023 brought a good wave of new spots, and I'm curious to see what carries into 2024 and what doesn't. Some of these places are still finding their footing — that's normal for any restaurant in its first year. A few of them I think are going to be around for a long time.

If you're newer to Denver or just trying to eat your way through what the city has going on right now, this list is a reasonable starting point. None of these are obscure or hard to find. They're just good, approachable places that opened recently and are worth your time.

I keep a running list of Denver spots on the channel — everything from cheap eats like this to brunch places to weekend food itineraries if you're visiting from out of town. If you want more context on any of the spots listed here, the video goes into more detail on each one.

Denver's food scene doesn't need to be expensive to be worth exploring. These places are proof of that.