This restaurant is my wife's favorite in Vail. We frequently are seated on the porch at lunch. At the moment the front is getting a face lift (June 2006).

Sweet Basil is located in the heart of Vail Village, two hours west of Denver along Interstate 70. Surrounded by the majestic Gore Range, the restaurant is warm and contemporary. The menu features Imaginative American cuisine with an innovative array of diverse influences. The impressive wine list has received notable recognition including Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence."

WINE SPECTATOR
"This remains one of the best restaurants in Vail. Bruce Yim is the latest in a line of virtuosos to man the kitchen, and his Asian heritage plays perfectly into the restaurant's Pacific Rim style. Pastry chef Charles Broschinsky's hot sticky toffee-pudding cake is the best dessert in the mountains... The establishment of Sweet Basil by Kevin Clair in 1977, two expansions and three remodelings ago, marks a seminal moment in Vail's evolution. It's creative American menu with Pacific touches swiftly became among the most interesting in the Colorado mountains, and most of Vail Valley's top restaurants would never have existed without
GOURMET
"ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHS"
"Yet I have to say my favorite restaurant in Vail is among the easiest to get to: Sweet Basil, overlooking Gore Creek in Vail Village. It isn't among the most expensive restaurant in the Rockies, but it's certainly one of the best.