L’Hostaria

Not impressed, especially since it is fine dining. Most meals were bland, and those that weren’t were unfortunately not too much better tasting than a mediocre Italian red sauce joint in your local neighborhood. Wish I had better news, because the ambience and service fit the fine dining label — just missed on the most important part: the food.

Stuffy atmosphere, expensive and marginal food execution. Pasta Bolognese meaty, but not saucy enough. Veal shank tender but flavorless. Sea food soup had good broth but questionable freshness. Staff gives off a cold vibe, with notable exception of bus boy. Not going back.

THE locals place –whether in the bar for bar menu or the dining room. Extensive wine list and great sommelier. I’m a veg so I can’t speak to the meat and fish. Soups are perfect. Salads too. Love the pastas –sauces are inspiring.
So there are a couple of good Italian places in Aspen but this isn’t stuffy and full of itself. Real people and a great staff. Always crowded and it’s usually people you know.

This restaurant is amazing, and a bit of a hidden gem as far as Aspen is concerned! We sat at the bar and had a cozy and delicious meal. The Tiramisu was my favorite part, it was homed… and not to be missed. I loved the steak as well, and the service was excellent.

Alarmingly bad service, mediocre food and bad prices. There are many local businesses in Aspen run by wonderful people that deserve your business. This isn’t one of them.
If you want to overpay for basic Italian food and be treated badly, this is the place. If you’re lucky, they might even cancel your reservation for no reason. The blonde hostess and European host/​manager were especially condescending and lacked a basic understanding of customer service.

One of the better Italian restaurants in Aspen. Has a kind of old school rustic décor on the inside. Always great atmosphere as the place is quite full most nights as it’s popular with the locals as well as the tourists.
Great food and an excellent wine selection. The staff were always nice and the service is quite good and fast. Definitely a place to check out if you’re in the market for some good Italian food.
Would recommend and would come back.

Locals favorite bar menu with a salmon dish, creamy carbonara, a robust bolognese, and much more. Good for kids & adults. Yum!

The service was horrible. I stayed at a very nice hotel that made the reservation for me. The hotel told them it was my birthday and asked to make it special. They did not acknowledge it was my birthday, which may have been fine except the service was just horrible. The waitress was completely indifferent. The only staff who were pleasant were the bus boys. But the white, blonde waitress (I was never told her name) and the other male hostess were just entitled jerks. Waste of money and time. A burger on the side of the road would have been more enjoyable.

Our local Aspen hotel had recommended this restaurant and we made reservations based on our initial search of previously posted reviews. We were promptly seated and warmly welcomed by the hostess. The server came by shortly after to take our drink order. If you’re a martini aficionado, would recommend their dirty martini albeit it could have had an extra splash of «dirty» although generous serving and an ice cold glass.
We enjoyed two appetizer dishes — the Caprese and prosciutto platter. Nothing extraordinarily special with the Caprese. The simple but ample presentation of the prosciutto made up for the average Caprese and absolutely loved the delicate and subtle salt flavor.
I ordered the Maine lobster and pasta dish with high expectations and unfortunately felt somewhat disappointed. The lobster was a bit chewy and the pasta almost too al dente. The sauce was perfect — dense but pleasingly simple.
Hugely enjoyed the tiramisu for dessert! Ample serving with a nice but not too overpowering espresso flavor and an awesome texture.
The major sour taste in our entire meal came from our server admonishing us for requesting him to split our bill into separate checks especially given the fact that they were busy. It’s not often that I’ve dined in restaurants to be lectured to by the staff. A bit too pretentious for me and thankfully not something I’ve often experienced. Overall good food, a lovely atmosphere, but not what I expected.

Great atmosphere here. Really average food.
Loved the live music and the wine though! Would come back for that.

³⁄₅ it is what it is.
came highly recommended — i ended up here on what was supposed to be a dinner for a bunch of conference attendees. it ended up just being 3 of us. which the company was great — we had good, solid conversation. the food was good. i had a squid ink pasta (i think), and my companions also grabbed items off the homemade pasta menu. as many reviewers point out, you just have to throw out the price factor given location. that aside though, i thought my dish was ok. it was al dente, but also a bit dry — could have used some butter or sauce or something. decent amount of seafood mixed in, but overall i think we found ourselves hunkering down on the bread to kinda get to a more filling spot (without having to order other items, which again $$$). there was some live music, but it wasn’t really audible from our room. the lighting is on the dim side, which isn’t really my favorite.

Dinner at the bar is a really good idea. The selections are the same but they are a few dollars less. There are no reservations at the bar so there could be a wait during season. No such trouble this evening.
We had 2 great steaks, lobster risotto and pasta for the baby. Wine and beer and several appetizers all for about $ 135.00 plus tip.
Great service, no real dress code.

I’m not sure how meaningful this review is, as we ate when we weren’t particularly hungry, having had some appetizers at a wine-​tasting before we dined here.
Our table shared what can best be described as non-​memorable dishes – a few days after we ate them, only one person can really remember exactly what he/​she had for dinner. I specifically remember that I had the Bresaola, which was good, even above average among the similar dishes I’ve eaten. The portion size was enormous.
The other four diners had «some sort of a pasta dish» (their description), and while no one complained about their dishes, no one raved about them, either.
We were seated at a small round table, which made cutting the meat on my Bresaola very difficult, as I kept hitting the window with my elbow – no other tables were available when we arrived. The restaurant is quite noisy.
Take this review for what it’s worth, as we weren’t hungry when we went in, and we certainly didn’t have a full meal.

One of three absolutely incredible dinner I had on a recent trip to Aspen.
Made a reservation at L’Hostaria on a Tuesday night in September… happy we called ahead because this place was packed!
Other reviewers talk about great prices with the bar menu… I ate in the dining room with my parents, but would love to check out the bar if I’m back by myself!
The Prosciutto di Parma and Burrata appetizers were top of the line — reminded me of a trip to Rome!
The biggest surprise was my entrée, Tagliolini with Lobster. I’m used to being disappointed with pasta dishes… always a pile of pizza with so little meat. This dish had at least six lobster claws and wasn’t ridiculously priced!
The restaurant had a lively, loud atmosphere with live music on the small patio outside. Maybe not the most romantic spot, but certainly a great place to be «out.»
Will definitely be back at the bar during a future visit!

Back again, not sure we would come back next trip. The menu NEVER changes, not that it isn’t good — it is but after awhile it is boring. Some of the wait staff is condescending as well. Who needs that?

I hope you come hungry because the portions are HUGE! Service was quick and easy, the patio is absolutely adorable, and from what I understand, they serve food pretty late (past 10ish). The wine list was expansive and the risotto was to DIE for.

So happy I discovered this place and the bar menu! Finally an affordable bite in aspen! Beautiful and romantic ambience and a diverse bar menu with fresh ingredients, amazing taste and great price! I had the Bolognese and asked for spinach pasta al Dente. A lot of sauce but quite delicious. I’ll be back … A lot! :)

We had a very large group dinner here and the restaurant did a great job of handling everyone. The food was also very good. I had a very nice caprese salad. The bread they put out was also pretty tasty-​a nice assortment of different Italian breads. The pastas also looked delicious. The place had a great vibe too-​also great for a romantic date.

After reading all the reviews I guess you visit is at hit an miss. We had dinner here an it was great. We had excellent service an the food for the most part was great. I had the gnocchi an my husband had the pork shank both very good. I would go back again for sure. Hopefully my experience would be the same.

Best restaurant in Aspen! The food is incredible!!! The staff are knowledgeable, incredible wine and just simply a wonderful dinning experience!