Mile High Asian Food Week kicks off with over 100 restaurants

DENVER (KDVR) — The Mile High Asian Food Week kicked off with over 100 participating restaurants on Sunday.

The celebration of Colorado’s growing Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander culinary scene lasts through May 4. This week, foodies can experience different cultural cuisines and get insider perks like discounts and secret menus.

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This year is only the second year that the Mile High Asian Food Week has been held, and the amount of participants has already doubled, according to a release from the event organizers.

“Beyond discounted offerings and other promotions, there are specialty dinners by reservation only, limited menu items, and vendor collaborations, such as Noisette and the James Beard finalist chef Penelope Wong of Yuan Wonton, that are exclusive to the food week,” organizer Annie Guo VanDan said.

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The celebration serves as a reminder for Denver foodies to visit some restaurants they have not been to, and it gives chefs an opportunity to “flex their creative chops” and try something different, VanDan said.

When the event began in 2023, organizers expected a dozen or so restaurants to participate, but the event included at least 50 last year and it expanded to include over 100 restaurants across the Denver metro area this year.

“It’s worth noting that Mile High Asian Food Week is a completely volunteer-run operation and our organizing and supporting teams consist of all AANHPI women,” Founder Joanne Liu said. “To grow Mile High Asian Food Week, we had to look beyond our small but mighty group and ask for additional support from the community so that we could revamp our website, reach out to restaurants through street team members, a number of which are bilingual, and seek additional marketing support to help spread the word. This has been a tremendous labor of love that could not have been possible without the help of our volunteers!”

The Mile High Asian Food Week website has an interactive map and a full list of all participating restaurants, which can be filtered by dietary restriction and location.

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