I dined like an A-lister at 5 Aspen restaurants that attract celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Katy Perry. Here's what it was like.

Aspen, which is known to lure celebrities, billionaires, and influencers, has a food scene that matches the town's ritzy atmosphere.

In the eight blocks of downtown Aspen, visitors looking for somewhere to eat can discover everything from casual après ski to fine dining.

There are famous chefs, an abundance of high-end truffle dishes, and fish imported from around the world. The quality — and status that comes with it — entices everyone from the Kardashians to Katy Perry.

I cushioned my five days in the ritzy ski town with some of Aspen's most well-known restaurants.

I referenced food guides and scoured previous paparazzi stories to decide on where to go. Once I arrived in Aspen, I spoke to waiters, realtors, and Aspen locals who gushed about celebrity spottings and pointed me in new directions.

When I heard Leonardo DiCaprio dined on a burger at The White House Tavern, I knew the après eatery had to be on my itinerary, and when the mention of truffle fries and "Bachelor" stars came up time and time again from locals, Ajax Tavern made my list, too.

During the trip, I stopped at five restaurants known for their food and the high-end customers they entice.

All the meals were paid for by Insider per our reporting standards.

From Eater's Aspen food guide to Food and Wine's Aspen restaurant list, Matsuhisa is mentioned on nearly every list of best places to eat in Aspen.

When I arrived in the ski town, realtors, who showed me multi-million-dollar homes, all agreed that Matsuhisa has the town's best sushi.

The Aspen outpost is just one of the 11 locations of the LA-based restaurant. In Aspen, Matsuhisa sits in a quaint, two-floor Victorian home.

The famous Japanese chef behind the restaurant, Nobu Matsuhisa, isn't the only familiar name associated with Matsuhisa.

Kendall Jenner has reportedly dined in the basement restaurant along with other celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

"In the winter, you're going to see celebrities every day," my waitress told me when I visited.

The menu at Matsuhisa was pages long and filled with ingredients I had never heard of.

Simply put, I was overwhelmed. I decided to start simple and ordered the restaurant's most popular cocktail, The Gardener, which cost $18 and was a refreshing gin-based cocktail, and a $6 cup of miso soup.

After that, I ordered the $33 bigeye tuna jalapeno and $32 new-style New Zealand tuna.

The waitress took the time to describe how to eat each dish and made sure to note that I should include a piece of cilantro in every bite, for instance.

After that, I had the off-menu, $22 dragon roll, which had both tuna and eel, and a $12 negihama roll. Finally, I ended with a $15 dessert bento box.

I felt like a celebrity when I ordered rolls that weren't listed on the menu, and left Matsuhisa full of some of the freshest sushi I've tasted to date.

Ajax Tavern serves casual fine dining and sits at the bottom of Aspen Mountain, attached to The Little Nell, a five-star hotel.

It's both a popular place for dinner and for spotting celebs.

"Arrive and let the people-watching begin; there's no better seat in town," the restaurant's website boasts.

A hostess navigated my friend and me to a corner vinyl booth, which I'd later find out from our waiter was the same table where Neil Patrick Harris once dined.

In our waiter's six years of working in Aspen, he told us that he's worked at Ajax while Arnold Schwarzenegger, Orlando Bloom, Demi Lovato, and Katy Perry dined. Other celebs include "Bachelor" stars Matt James and Rachel Kirkconnell, who were spotted dining at Ajax last spring according to US Weekly.

Our waiter walked us through the menu and pointed out some of Ajax Tavern's more popular dishes.

The $19 truffle fries are what the restaurant is most well known for; we paired that with the $19 cauliflower gratin to start.

Quickly, a heaping basket of crispy fries coated in a mountain of grated parmesan cheese arrived.

For entrées, my friend ordered the $27 Wagyu double cheeseburger, which is what Matt James ordered and the restaurant's most popular entrée, according to our waiter. I opted for the $31 roasted acorn squash.

The meal was pure abundance. Sure, the cauliflower was technically a vegetable, but when swimming in a rich cashew cheese sauce, it felt as far away from healthy as possible. And the burger, according to my friend, was one of the best of her life.

From the locals I spoke with during my time in Aspen, The White House Tavern topped most of their lists for a favorite casual bite after skiing and snowboarding.

Located in Aspen's historic downtown, The White House Tavern is one of Aspen's oldest buildings, according to the restaurant's website. The white structure, originally built in 1883, once served as a miner's cottage.

Today, it's both a local and celebrity favorite. Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted eating fries and a burger on the restaurant's patio in December 2019, according to the Daily Mail, and Elton John previously raved about The White House Tavern's food, according to Galuxee.

When I ate there in December, my waitress said she was working in the restaurant when Katy Perry, Kourtney Kardashian, and Dua Lipa all visited.

The White House Tavern is known for its sandwiches that cost between $21 and $26 without fries, and rotisserie salads that range between $22 and $25.

There weren't many options for non-meat eaters, so I chose the $8 fries and $12 kale salad.

The kale salad had a bright, peanut salad dressing and was topped with crushed peanuts and cheese. The peanuts gave the salad a nice crunch, and I happily ate the entire plate of leafy greens. The fries had the right amount of crisp while keeping a pillowy, fluffy potato center.

The bustling atmosphere and filling food felt like the ideal post-ski spot, and I could see why celebrities would gather here.

Aspen's five-star, luxury hotels are often hotspots for some of the town's best bars, restaurants, and celebrity spottings.

J-Bar is exactly that. The 19th-century bar historically served cowboys and miners, according to Amuse. Today, it's shaking cocktails for Aspen's elite.

The bar was American journalist Hunter Thompson's favorite spot, according to Amuse. And when he died, celebrities like Bill Murray, John Cusack, Benicio Del Toro, and Johnny Depp all had celebrated him in the Old West bar, Amuse also reported.

J-Bar has a small food menu and claims Aspen's title for best burger, according to its website.

When my friend and I stopped into the cozy bar, we slide into large leather booths and a waiter offered us bar nuts while we made cocktail decisions.

The drink menu had wine, beer, and $18 cocktails. I opted for the Green Origin, a gin-based drink with Greenbar Grand Poppy, lemon, and sparkling water.

It was refreshing and quickly consumed. Between comfy booths and the welcoming atmosphere, I could easily see why the J-Bar was a spot with devoted regulars, which includes more than a few celebrities.

By day three of my trip, Clark's Aspen had been mentioned by a handful of locals.

A quick scroll on the restaurant's location on Instagram revealed many influencers that regularly frequented the oyster bar.

Famous Cuban television presenter Raúl De Molina was spotted underneath Clark's bright-yellow patio umbrellas in the fall, according to his Instagram page, and other food influencers like @chewyorkcity, @hillaryzio, and @camillestyles have posted images of oysters on the half shell and piles of shoestring French fries.

Not only is the oyster bar and restaurant supposed to have some of the town's freshest seafood, I was also told over and over again that it has one of the best happy hours.

The happy hour menu had a $12 burger and fries, $4 oysters, half-priced martinis, and an $8 beer and shot combo every day between 3 pm and 5 pm.

I stepped into Clark's unsure if I was an oyster fan. But after trying four from both the East and West coast, I was convinced.

And while I only paid happy-hour prices, I felt like an in-the-know influencer each time slurped a fresh oyster.

My time in Aspen only scratched the surface of the local dining scene.

Some locals urged me to stop at a cozy fondue restaurant French Alpine Bistro, while others raved about Woody Creek Tavern, a historic Aspen bar. Others told me I was sure to spot celebs and influencers if I skied up to Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro, a European-inspired restaurant known for Champagne sprays and ski parties, according to Vogue.

Beloved restaurants like Matsuhisa and the French Alpine Bistro have rightfully earned their place in Aspen's food scene, one Aspen local told me. "A bad restaurant doesn't last long in town," she said.

And I see why. Restaurants I visited met the high-end standards I imagined for the expensive ski town, and I'm eager to go back and check even more places off my list in the future.