Five Points Denver Restaurants: Soul Food and More

Five Points Denver restaurants center on Welton Street, where family-owned soul food cafes with Caribbean roots are neighborhood anchors, with Taiwanese kitchens on California Street and Southern-style plates a few blocks away. Pick a plate, walk the street and rate what you order.

This page covers the soul food cafes of Welton Street, the Taiwanese kitchens on California Street, jerk chicken and Southern plates, and how to string them into one easy food day.

Which Five Points Denver restaurants should you try first?

Start on Welton Street. Soul food cafes here serve Southern and West Indian dishes, including fried chicken, red beans and rice, black-eyed peas, greens, fried catfish, pates and jerk chicken, cooked by families with Caribbean roots.

Small family cafes keep their own days and often add a weekend brunch, so call ahead or look at the door. A Five Points visit works as a lunch and a walk.

What is Welton Street soul food known for?

Welton Street soul food is family cooking that blends Southern and Caribbean traditions. Look for a jerk chicken plate, a fried chicken sandwich, a beef, broccoli and cheese pate and, above all, red beans and rice.

Order a plate with a pate on the side if you want to taste both traditions. Rate the dish by name, and add a note about the spice level. A family-run cafe is slower than a chain by design, so allow time, order what the table next to you is eating if you cannot decide, and ask what is freshest. If you bring children, ask about milder dishes, and say in your rating how the staff handled a table with kids.

What is Denver soul food like?

Soul food is Southern home cooking, built on fried chicken, greens, beans, rice and cornbread. In Five Points it sits next to Caribbean flavors, so a single plate can combine both. Plates are hearty, so share or take the second half home.

Compare two soul food plates if you can, and rate the sides as well as the main. Greens and beans carry a kitchen's reputation.

Where is Denver Taiwanese food?

Taiwanese kitchens on California Street serve chili wontons, lu rou fan (braised pork over rice), jellyfish salad, fried chicken, pork belly buns and spicy shrimp wonton. Many close one or two days a week, so check before you go.

Some small kitchens are eat-in only, so ask when you order. Share several dishes, and rate the wontons and the rice dish separately.

What about Five Points jerk chicken and Southern plates?

Jerk chicken is a spiced, grilled chicken dish with Caribbean roots. In Five Points you can find it at the soul food cafes, and Southern-style kitchens on Welton Street serve fried chicken, sides and seafood salads.

Pick one place for jerk chicken and another for Southern plates, and compare the seasoning. Say how spicy the jerk was.

How do you plan a Five Points food day?

Eat lunch on Welton Street, walk the neighborhood, and plan dinner on California Street. The two streets are a short distance apart. Check the days each place is open, since several close one or two days a week.

A good rhythm is a late lunch of soul food, a slow walk through the neighborhood, and a lighter dinner of shared Taiwanese plates. Splitting the day this way spreads out the heavy dishes, so you can taste fried chicken, pates and wontons without feeling stuffed by mid-afternoon.

Bring a friend so you can order more, and arrive a little early on weekends. Dress for the weather, since the walk between the two streets is outdoors, and look at the posted menus before you commit to a place. If you are planning around a game or a show, eat earlier, because both streets fill up before an event. A short list of the places you want to try, with their closing days beside each, keeps the day on track.

How do you keep track of Five Points with Mosey?

Rate each dish by name. Mosey needs only the place and stars; then you can name the dish, such as a jerk chicken plate or chili wontons, add tags such as Family Friendly, Group Dining or Great Value, and add a photo. A rating that says "jerk chicken, spicy, red beans and rice, plenty to share" helps a visitor.

Make a list called Five Points with a line on what to order at each stop, and share the invite link so a friend can add their own. Follow friends to see what they rated and saved, and tag the people you ate with so each can add their own rating of the same meal. The lists page explains sharing.

What else should you read?

For more of the city, the RiNo guide covers the next neighborhood, the Highlands and South Pearl guide covers two more and the brunch guide covers the weekend. See the Denver page, the Colorado page and the US food guides.

On your next Five Points walk, open the Mosey app, rate each dish by name and keep the best in a list.