Restaurant in Boulder, United States
Special-occasion dinner with serious wine credentials.
Flagstaff House is Boulder's most credentialed dinner destination: 42 Forbes Four Star ratings, a World of Fine Wine 3-Star wine list with 14,500 bottles, and a Google rating of 4.7 across 1,345 reviews. At $$$ pricing for dinner and a seriously deep wine program, it's the right call for a milestone occasion — but book well in advance and go for the wine as much as the food.
If you're planning a special occasion dinner in Boulder, book Flagstaff House's first seating of the evening (doors open at 5 pm) and request a window table when you reserve. The mountain views are the same at every seat, but an early arrival gives you the light — and the room before it fills. This is a hard-to-book restaurant: 42 Forbes Travel Guide Four Star ratings and 33 consecutive AAA Four Diamond awards have made it one of the most credentialed dining rooms in Colorado, and it earns those distinctions consistently enough that reservations at peak times require planning weeks in advance.
Flagstaff House has been marking milestones for decades as a family-owned property on Flagstaff Road, sitting at roughly 6,000 feet elevation in the Boulder foothills. Chef Chris Royster runs the kitchen, General Manager and co-owner Adam Monette oversees the floor, and Wine Director Connor Sullivan stewards a list that numbers 2,900 selections and 14,500 bottles in inventory. That wine program earned a World of Fine Wine 3-Star Accreditation — a serious credential that puts the cellar in the same conversation as the country's most serious restaurant lists, with particular depth in California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Rhône, France broadly, and Italy. For a wine-driven celebration dinner, this list is the reason to choose Flagstaff House over any other room in Boulder.
The cuisine is New American, priced at $$$, meaning a typical two-course dinner without beverages runs $66 or more per person. Add wine at $$$ pricing (many bottles north of $100) and you are looking at a genuinely high-spend evening. That spend is justified if your priority is a destination-quality experience in a room with real credentials. If you want serious food at a lower price point, Frasca Food & Wine or Basta are the right alternatives. But for a milestone birthday, anniversary, or a dinner where the wine list matters as much as the food, Flagstaff House is the right call in Boulder.
Opinionated About Dining ranked Flagstaff House #551 in North America in 2024 and listed it as Recommended in 2023 , a peer-review signal that puts it in the company of restaurants that serious diners track. Its Google rating holds at 4.7 across 1,345 reviews, which is a durable signal of consistency for a restaurant at this price tier. Comparable destination American restaurants like Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg or The French Laundry in Napa operate in a higher price bracket with more press attention, but Flagstaff House competes on credentials while remaining a more accessible booking than either of those.
Flagstaff House is a dinner-only restaurant, open every day of the week from 5 to 10 pm. There is no lunch service. If you're looking for a daytime option after exploring the Boulder foothills, you'll need to look elsewhere , our full Boulder restaurants guide covers the full range. For the evening, plan to arrive with time to settle in: the drive up Flagstaff Road is part of the experience, and parking at the restaurant lets you transition directly into the room without rushing.
The wine program is the single most differentiated asset here. A 14,500-bottle inventory with 2,900 selections is not a supplementary list , it is the kind of cellar that warrants consulting the sommelier directly. Connor Sullivan and Rocco McKeel run the floor; asking for guidance by region, occasion, or budget is the right move. California and Burgundy are the reported strengths, but with depth across Bordeaux, Champagne, Rhône, and Italy, this is a list worth spending time on rather than defaulting to a by-the-glass pour.
On the question of takeout and delivery: Flagstaff House is a white-tablecloth, occasion-dining room with a formal service model. There is no indication in available data that off-premise dining is offered, and the nature of the experience , paired wines, mountain views, Forbes-rated service , does not translate to a takeout format. If you are looking for quality food to bring home in Boulder, Blackbelly Market is the better option for that use case. Flagstaff House is worth the table.
See the comparison section below for how Flagstaff House sits against its Boulder peers.
Come for dinner (it's the only meal served), arrive at 5 pm for the leading light on the mountain views, and treat the wine list as a feature rather than an afterthought. The cuisine is New American at $$$ pricing , plan for $66+ per person before wine. The room has 42 Forbes Four Star ratings and 33 AAA Four Diamond awards, so this is a formally credentialed dining experience, not a casual meal. If you're new to the venue, consulting the sommelier on arrival is the move that separates a good dinner from a great one.
Specific menu items are not available in Pearl's current data for Flagstaff House, so we won't speculate on dishes. What is confirmed: the kitchen runs New American cuisine under Chef Chris Royster, and the OAD ranking (#551 in North America, 2024) and Forbes Four Star record suggest the kitchen earns its reputation across the menu rather than on one or two signature plates. Ask your server what's performing leading on the night , at this price point and service level, that question will get a useful answer.
Dietary accommodation details are not confirmed in Pearl's current data. Given the service model , family-owned, Forbes Four Star rated, 42 consecutive years of that rating , the restaurant almost certainly has experience handling dietary requests, but you should contact the venue directly before your reservation to confirm specifics. The phone number is not listed in our current data; check the restaurant's website or your reservation confirmation for contact details.
Dinner is the only option , Flagstaff House is open exclusively for dinner service, Monday through Sunday, 5 to 10 pm. There is no lunch. If you want a daytime meal with comparable ambition in Boulder, Frasca Food & Wine or Basta are worth checking for midday availability. For Flagstaff House specifically, an early dinner at 5 pm is the practical recommendation: better light, less noise, and the full evening ahead to extend at the bar or explore the wine list without watching the clock.
Bar seating details are not confirmed in Pearl's current data. In a restaurant of this format , white-tablecloth, occasion-driven, Forbes Four Star , bar seating, where available, can be a useful route around reservation difficulty. It's worth calling ahead to ask whether the bar takes walk-ins or same-day bookings. If bar seating isn't available or the room is full, Boulder's bar scene has options for a pre-dinner drink before heading up Flagstaff Road.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flagstaff House | WINE: Wine Strengths: California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Rhône, France, Italy Pricing: $$$ i Wine pricing: Based on the list\'s general markup and high and low price points:$ has many bottles < $50;$$ has a range of pricing;$$$ has many $100+ bottles Selections: 2,900 Inventory: 14,500 CUISINE: Cuisine Types: American Pricing: $$$ i Cuisine pricing: The cost of a typical two-course meal, not including tip or beverages.$ is < $40;$$ is $40–$65;$$$ is $66+. Meals: Dinner STAFF: People Connor Sullivan:Sommelier Wine Director: Connor Sullivan Sommelier: Rocco McKeel Chef: Chris Royster General Manager: Adam Monette Owner: Adam Monette, Chris Royster; Partners Chris Royster and Adam Monette welcome you to The Flagstaff House Restaurant for an unparalleled Colorado dining experience. Located at an elevation of 6,000 feet and nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, The Flagstaff House offers breathtaking views, awarded New American cuisine, and a world-renowned wine list with impeccable service and the touches of a family-owned restaurant. The Flagstaff House has earned 42 Forbes Travel Guide Four Star ratings and 33 consecutive AAA Fo; {"wbwl_source": {"slug": "the-flagstaff-house-restaurant", "page_type": "star_accreditation", "category_slug": "star-accreditation", "award_result": "Accredited", "is_global_winner": "False"}, "scraped_details": {"hero_image": "", "page_title": "3-Star Accreditation", "page_url": ""}, "source_row_snapshot": {"raw_name": "The Flagstaff House Restaurant"}}; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #551 (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Recommended (2023) | — | |
| Basta | $$ | — | |
| Frasca Food & Wine | Michelin 1 Star | — | |
| Blackbelly Market | $$$ | — | |
| Boulder Dushanbe Tea House | $$$ | — | |
| Zoe Ma Ma | $ | — |
Comparing your options in Boulder for this tier.
Come with a clear occasion and a budget for wine. Dinner runs $66+ per head before drinks, and the wine list — 2,900 selections, strong in Burgundy, Bordeaux, and California — is genuinely where this restaurant earns its reputation. Flagstaff House has logged 42 Forbes Travel Guide Four Star ratings and a World of Fine Wine 3-Star accreditation, so the formality and pricing are backed by consistent recognition. Book in advance; this is not a walk-in restaurant.
The menu details aren't listed in our database, so we can't point to specific dishes — but chef Chris Royster runs a New American kitchen, and the kitchen has earned repeated recognition from Opinionated About Dining (ranked #551 in North America in 2024). Your best move is to ask sommelier Connor Sullivan or Rocco McKeel to pair wine to whatever the kitchen is running that evening; the list's depth in Burgundy and Rhône makes that pairing conversation worth having.
Specific dietary accommodation policies aren't documented in our data. For a $66+ New American restaurant with a family-ownership structure and attentive service reputation, contacting them directly before your reservation is the right move — especially for serious allergies or complex restrictions.
Dinner is the only option — Flagstaff House runs a dinner-only format, open every day from 5 to 10 pm, with no lunch service. Book the first seating to catch the mountain views at dusk before the room goes dark.
Bar seating specifics aren't confirmed in our data. Given the formal format — Forbes Four Star-rated, $66+ per head, dinner-only — this skews more reservation-table dining than a casual drop-in bar experience. Call ahead if a bar seat matters to your plans.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
