February 29, 2008
Restaurant review: "Duo Restaurant"
By Stan Dyer
As part of the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau's annual Denver Restaurant Week promotion, I joined some friends at "Duo Restaurant", 2413 W. 32 nd Avenue, for the $52.80 special, three-course dinner and had a great time. The restaurant was cute, the food was excellent and our server was very professional. Everyone in our group was pleased with our restaurant choice and their meals.
As part of the Denver Restaurant Week special promotion, Duo prepared a three-course offering featuring a first course choice of the Duo salad, the White Bean Minestrone Soup, or the Salt Cod Fritters. The second course was a choice of Slow-Cooked Pork, Grilled Escolar, or Gnocchi. The third course was dessert and the choices were either Chocolate Truffle Cake, or Sticky Toffee Pudding.
I wanted to try the White Bean Minestrone, but it was not vegetarian, so I had the salad. Everyone else had the salad except for one who tried the fritters. The salad was fresh, tasty and light. The fritters were reported to be very good, but I am not to certain about the value. It was three, ping-pong ball sized fritters and usually sells for $8. The salad is usually $7.
On the next course, two people went for the pork, one went for the escolar, and three went for the gnocchi. All three dishes got rave reviews for outstanding flavor and presentation. The chef mixed the flavors nicely so that everything was just right. I have seldom seen my dinner friends exclaim so profusely about the flavors in their entrees. Personally, I loved the flavor, but, as always, thought the portions seemed small.
The last course was dessert and my favorite. Three went for the truffle cake and three went for the pudding. I had the pudding and it was divine. I would go back just for the pudding. It was not too sweet, yet just sweet enough to make one crave another bite. Tantalizing is a good word.
This restaurant gets an "A+". Yes, it is expensive, considering the size of the portions, but the quality of the food is exceptional. This restaurant would be a great place to take a first date you really wanted to impress and you weren't too worried about spending a lot of money. I guess that is just the way it is going with Denver restaurants these days.
Duo Restaurant is located near the corner of 32 nd and Zuni at 2413 W 32 nd Avenue. It is in a cute, old storefront just west of the café on the northwest corner of the intersection. It is small, popular and busy. Reservations are a good idea. They are open for brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and open daily for dinner at 5 p.m. The phone number is 303-477-4141, or try the website at
www.duodenver.com . The restaurant is owned by Keith Arnold and Stephanie Bonin, the Executive Chef is John Broening and the Pastry Chef is Yasmin Lozada-Hissom. Give it a try and your taste buds will thank you.