Angelo's Taverna - Littleton

The Angelo's Taverna in Littleton opened around 2017 as the second location of the original Denver restaurant on East 6th Avenue, which has been operating since 1956. The Littleton spot at 6885 S Santa Fe Drive sits in old-town Littleton near the light-rail station, in a renovated commercial building with a bar-forward layout and a real oyster shucker working the back of the bar most nights. The original generation sold to chef Robert Thompson, who kept the bones and built the oyster bar that's now the actual draw.

Oysters move at roughly 7,000 a week between the two locations, with daily deliveries of East and West Coast varieties and rotating selection on the chalkboard. The char-grilled oysters (split, sauced, hit with the broiler) are the order if you want one thing here; the menu has run that dish for over a decade and it's the consensus standout in every review pass we did. Raw oysters are fine but unremarkable next to a real seafood-forward restaurant; come here for the char-grilled, not the cold half-shell.

The pasta side of the menu is a mixed bag. The fresh pastas (porcini with butternut squash and brown butter, pappardelle bolognese) hold up. The sauces are hand-made daily, and the dough is rolled in house. But the bowl-of-pasta-for-$17 reviews are real: portions skew small and the bread basket isn't included, which adds up faster than the menu suggests. Pizzas are competent; not a destination.

If you sit at the oyster bar and order the char-grilled oysters and a glass of dry white, you'll have a great hour. If you sit at a table and order pasta, you'll have a fine but expensive dinner.