A love letter to Yak & Yeti’s chicken tikka masala

Editor’s note: Each week in Staff Favorites, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).

When I moved to Arvada in December 2019, I had no idea I was moving within miles of one of the region’s best Indian and Nepalese restaurants. It was simply luck that I stumbled into Yak & Yeti Restaurant and Brewpub’s storied original location and got to pile my plate high at the epic buffet just weeks before the pandemic would close it down.

In fact, pandemic life would not have been the same for me had I not experienced the soul-warming deliciousness of one of Yak & Yeti’s signature recipes, the chicken tikka masala. Almost weekly, my roommate and I would split an order of the masala (medium spice), a side of onion kulcha and a six-pack of the Sun Temple hazy IPA, made in-house by the restaurant’s affiliate brand, Spice Trade Brewing Co.

And had I not tried these dishes before to-go was the only pandemic-friendly option, I may not have thought the oh-so-tender chicken in its saucy, spicy bath and the hot flatbread stuffed with chopped onions was worth the hour-plus wait, as it often was on busy weekends. Perhaps it was more than luck; let’s call it fate that I found such comfort food to help me through the darkest days of at-home isolation.

Since moving to the Western Slope, Yak & Yeti’s chicken tikka masala is the one dish I crave regularly. So if you’ve never indulged, Yak & Yeti has locations in Arvada, Thornton, Westminster or Denver offering food for dine-in and to-go. Spice Trade Brewing Co. also expanded to a new facility in Greenwood Village in 2020 where you can try its full lineup of beers, all of which are gluten-reduced.