August 19, 2025

While in Denver last month, we enjoyed a multi-generational meal at Domo, a Japanese country food restaurant with a garden and museum. We were in town visiting our daughter, and my dad flew in from North Carolina to join us for a few days too. Our daughter wanted to try Domo, so we headed over early on a Friday evening.

Domo has wrestled with the impact of too much online attention in the past, including a viral TikTok video in 2021 that led to hours-long waits and, eventually, a let’s-calm-things-down shut-down by the owner. I’m confident my blog does not have the reach of a viral TikTok video, so I’m sharing these photos in a spirit of appreciation for the experience Domo creates.

We initially took a table in the garden. But after we got our appetizers, thunder started rumbling and raindrops plunking — monsoon season! — so we and other customers at that quiet hour moved indoors to one of these rustic tables with tree-stump pedestals and stone tops.

Me being me, I explored the garden before and after the rain. It is subtle and private, green and lovely.

Tables are scattered through the garden, which ambles around a pond with a bridge.

Open-air pavilions shelter some of the tables.

Shrines and colorful prayer flags are found here too.

Prayer wheel

Offerings

Inside, there’s an appealing aesthetic of homey simplicity.

The food was delicious too.

After dinner we explored Domo’s museum, which is accessible through the garden and set up like a Japanese country home.

It was all beautiful, tasteful, and tasty, a lovely experience of rural Japanese home cooking.

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Digging Deeper

Want ideas for your yard besides lawn? Sure you do! I’m giving a talk called “Lawn Gone: 8 Great Ideas for Your Yard” on Saturday, September 13, at the Concho Valley Master Gardeners Fall Symposium in San Angelo, Texas. The cost for the all-day symposium with 4 speakers is $30 per person; refreshments and lunch included. Register by 9/10 at this link to attend. I hope to see you there, West Texas homeowners and gardeners!

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