Fort Collins’ Beijing Noodle nabbed a national honor this week when it was selected for the 2024 USA Today Restaurants of the Year list, alongside 46 other restaurants.
National recognition was never the goal for the cozy eatery, and Beijing Noodle’s placement on the list came as a complete surprise to Tianxi “Dennis” Zhang, who opened the restaurant with his wife, Yirong Sun, back in 2018. All the couple ever wanted to do was bring traditional Chinese dishes to their adopted Colorado hometown, realizing Sun’s longtime dream of having her own restaurant in the process, Zhang said.
“We feel very proud,” Zhang added, sitting at a small bistro table overlooking Beijing Noodle’s smattering of lunchtime diners on a mid-December afternoon. “We never thought that we (would get recognized) like this.”
Read the big list:Check out USA TODAY’s 2024 Restaurants of the Year.
What makes Beijing Noodle stand out?
In a land of sesame chicken and crab rangoons, Beijing Noodle bucks Americanized Chinese dishes in favor of the traditional fare Zhang and Sun both grew up eating in China.