The Restaurants That Defined Dining in America in 2025
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It’s not that we don’t love vibes — vibes will always be with us in our restaurant lives, just a part of life after the pandemic. But 2025 added another crucial ingredient in American dining, one that can be summed up in a single word: personal.
This was a year when many of the most compelling restaurants across the country felt more earnest and intimate than they have in a while. They leaned into their chefs’ and owners’ cultures and perspectives. We’ve been moving toward that for a while, of course. But somehow in 2025, there seemed to be distinct space for restaurants to tell stories, be anchored to a specific narrative, and feel like they were created from individual experiences, rather than a formula.
That’s doubly impressive because, candidly, this wasn’t an easy year for American restaurants. The economy was not especially kind to chefs trying to buy great ingredients, or diners considering whether to enjoy a night out. In some cities, there was flat-out crisis, as with fires in L.A. that became an indelible mark of the year. There was, in short, uncertainty.
And yet so many great restaurants this year remained resilient. They leaned into the virtues of personal experience on the plate, as with New York’s Lei or Nashville’s Tantísimo. They took familiar notions and gave them more distinct personality, as with Chicago’s Dimmi Dimmi, which rewrote the red-sauce rules. It was, perhaps, no coincidence that this was the year Philadelphia, a city that embodies a put-it-all-on-the-plate ethos, found a new sort of national attention: Diners seemed to want connection more than some sort of soigné high touch.
That didn’t mean cooking had to diverge from the classic. It’s fascinating just how many standout spots this year leaned into French cuisine, as with D.C.’s Maison or the revived Emeril’s in New Orleans. Diners still seem to have a soft spot for the beauty of French food, especially when spun forward to a 21st-century contemporaneity. The fact that Emeril’s is now 35 years old and still able to break boundaries affirmed another thing we deeply believed this year: that the fascination with shiny new restaurants is at long last being balanced by a respect for the tried and true. (That was one point we aimed to make with our debut of The Resy 100.) A great restaurant can not merely survive, but thrive and reinvent itself — and not just over a year or two, but 10 or 15 or more.
That was also a lesson to be taken from the latest changes at Mister Jiu’s, in San Francisco, which effectively launched the rise of personal, modern Chinese American cooking nearly a decade ago — and is still breaking new ground. You can see its impact not just in the Bay Area but everywhere, as with Lei as well as Miami’s Double Luck, which take a familiar cuisine and find a new, distinctive prism to see it through.
Somehow in 2025, there seemed to be distinct space for restaurants to tell stories, be anchored to a specific narrative, and feel like they were created from individual experiences, rather than a formula.
Finally, in a year when it seemed you couldn’t pass a day without hearing about how Americans are drinking less, it was telling just how much excitement cohered around the latest generation of wine and cocktail bars — not just Lei, again, but also Maison and Madeira Park in Atlanta, or Boston’s Darling. Could it be that, rather than abstaining, we’re getting more choosy and specific about when, and what, we want to drink?
In any case, as we do each year, we asked Resy Hit List contributors in our key cities to weigh in on what defined dining in their town during the past year, and to choose a restaurant that added to the national conversation about dining. Their choices revealed all of the above — as the following list shows — thanks to 16 restaurants that not only set a tone for excellence but for progress and for inspiration. They helped shape culture in their cities, and inspired others to keep pushing forward.
Perhaps that’s why 2025 felt like the year when an arc that started a half-decade ago with COVID landed us in a place with a far more mature dining culture. Yes, vibes are still with us (and we love them!) and yes, there may be some choppy seas ahead. But the confidence, and the personality, of great restaurants today are a cause for joy. We’re excited — hungry, you might say — to see what 2026 will bring.
Lei NEW YORK | Chinatown
Next to the city’s oldest Chinese restaurant, Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street, is one of the newest, and most exemplary. What King co-founder Annie Shi created is truly special: a jewel box where the food is distinctly Chinese American, yet in the form of a globally minded wine bar. Yes, it’s the latest in a string of standout wine bars in New York, but both Shi’s deep expertise and her personal inspiration make Lei distinct. For one, chef Patty Lee’s menu is not composed of “traditional” Chinese American classics, instead leaning on new inspirations, like Lady Edison Jinhua ham with thinly sliced seasonal fruit and a generous sprinkling of freshly cracked pepper; a Chinese omelette reminiscent of a tortilla Española; a warm sesame shao bing with a cold pat of butter tucked inside. Yes, you could easily linger for a full meal, but you can also stop in for a quick bite of fried whiting dusted with tai tiao seaweed powder, paired with a glass of dry Jurançon. That makes it the kind of place you find yourself going to again and again. But more than that — it’s proof that the wine bar has finally been fully realized as part of today’s vibrant dining culture.
baby bistro LOS ANGELES | Victor Heights
Baby Bistro reflects Los Angeles in a way that makes us feel seen. It’s 2025, and people no longer yearn for four-hour dinners served in hermetically sealed rooms. Instead, invite us over to, say, a tastefully restored 1920’s home in Victor Heights, and we’re there. The menu rotates through seasonal dishes that bear utterly pronounceable names like “pork belly, figs,” or “blue prawns, tomato.” But there’s more going on: Baby Bistro, at its core, is a rigorous and very serious restaurant, with two industry veterans running the show — chef Miles Thompson (formerly of Michael’s and Konbi), and Andy Schwartz, a seasoned wine pro, overseeing the front of the house. It’s a Trojan horse, of sorts, simple on the surface; while leaving room for the team to try some genuinely daring, exciting stuff behind the scenes. Because while it might be hard to sell “experimental farm-to-table fine dining” to a friend, what about a place called Baby Bistro? See? Genius.
Maison WASHINGTON, D.C. | Adams Morgan
D.C.’s most exciting restaurant of the year is tucked away in a historic Adams Morgan rowhouse with a menu of extravagant French dishes. It’s not just a wine bar, though some might start with bubbles, or perhaps a vibrant Beaujolais. Whet your appetite with some small bites — freshly shucked Mid-Atlantic oysters or tuna crudo, perhaps? Then go for the crispy eel croquettes or impossibly savory, puff-pastry topped escargots. Continue your Francophile journey by indulging in the brioche chicken, stuffed under the skin with green garlic and Parmesan cheese. Chef Matt Conroy roasts the whole bird, then carves it to order with a side of gravy and chanterelles. It all captures the ongoing fondness for modern French cooking — not just in the District but across the country. More than that, Maison feels like home, if everything from your kitchen tasted perfect.
Madeira Park ATLANTA | Poncey-Highland
We could say Atlanta has entered the era of highly niche, chef-led wine bar-slash–restaurants with the arrival Madeira Park, but that would be an understatement. Rather, we’ve exploded into it with Miller Union’s Steven Satterfield and Neal McCarthy and Dive Wine’s Tim Willard’s new venture. The gnocchi, dressed differently for each season (currently with squash fonduta, roasted mushrooms, and truffle vinaigrette), has already reached iconic status, and the light bites they launched with have gotten heavier for the winter, with items like steak with crowder peas and curried shrimp risotto beefing up wine-friendly snacks like beef tartare, ham and cheese beignets, and the usual suspects of hummus, charcuterie, and fries. Naturally, all dishes are meant to be paired with wine, and sommeliers McCarthy and Willard’s enthusiasm benefits us all with more than two dozen selections available by the glass at any given time. Their talents have long served wine-loving Atlantans, and Madeira Park provides a bold new stage.
Double Luck MIAMI | Upper Eastside
It was never just luck. As we close out the year celebrating that one of Miami’s favorite local pop-ups is now officially a full-fledged permanent restaurant, Double Luck has proven that the Tâm Tâm crew’s gift for turning dinner into a party is the real deal. With its playful regional flair and devotion to spectacle, Double Luck brought Miami the kind of high-energy, personality-filled Chinese dining it didn’t know it needed. The dining room glows under red lanterns with Cantopop buzzing, and servers arrive tableside to set the Hennessy orange chicken ablaze in a fiery showstopper. Even the crab rangoon goes maximalist, each crispy wonton parcel wrapped around an entire claw. By blending fun with full-throttle flavor, Double Luck channels Miami’s love of big vibes — everyone’s love of big vibes, actually — while creating something entirely new.
Dimmi Dimmi CHICAGO | Lincoln Park
“Red checkered tablecloth energy, minus the plastic couch,” said a recent Instagram post from Dimmi Dimmi—which perfectly captures the vibe at this cozy Italian-American spot. Chef Matt Eckfeld is at the helm, and he brought both technical skills and the sense of visual drama from having spent the past decade with Major Food Group in New York. But Dimmi Dimmi was a chance to take that big Carbone energy and get more personal. Inside the warm, eclectic 78-seater, you’ll find Eckfeld and team turning out craveable family-style dining, with plenty of pasta and excellent tavern-style pizzas to appease a Chicago crowd, but also a few contemporary twists, including a hamachi crudo diavolo with almond chile crisp, and an “Italian beef” carpaccio with housemade giardiniera. Yes, Italian American spots generally hit in the Second City, and yes, America has been all about red-sauce revival of late. But Dimmi Dimmi reveals both the pedigree and the savvy to make even something familiar feel exciting and new.
Dancerobot PHILADELPHIA | Rittenhouse
Photo by Aaron Richter for Resy
The thing about Dancerobot is: It’s great, it’s only going to get better, and it’s an emblem of a bold new chapter for Philly dining. How do we know? First, it’s Jesse Ito’s new spot. The eight-time Beard Foundation award nominee behind the perpetually waitlisted Royal Sushi has never met a laurel he’d rest on. So when he and chef-partner Justin Bacharach opened this buzzing Japanese spot in Rittenhouse after years of testing recipes — plus an epic research trip to Japan — they made clear they’re in it for the long game. (Expect late-night menus.) But Philly has turned out for this combo, in a year when it received a new level of national spotlight. So book a seat in the neon-infused dining room, start with the fork-tender fried pork with katsu curry, mentaiko cream pasta, and Hokkaido milk soft serve. And see why Ito’s magnetism keeps making waves.
Photo by Aaron Richter for Resy
Mister Jiu's San Francisco (Chinatown)
The last couple years, many of the buzziest, new, critically acclaimed restaurants in San Francisco have been modern Chinese restaurants (looking at you, Four Kings and Happy Crane). But it would be impossible for these to exist — or thrive — without the OG S.F. chef who paved the way: Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s, which opened almost a decade ago in the historic Four Seas space in Chinatown. A meal there continues to have style and finesse, with modern reimaginations of Chinese classics set in a very vibey, dim-lit room. And Jew is too savvy not to keep adapting to the times; this year he sunsetted a tasting menu format in lieu of both an à la carte and a communal style banquet menu. (His famous Peking-style roast duck is the main event of the latter.) The newest format showcases the most enjoyable expression of the restaurant to date, and shows that Mister Jiu’s remains a benchmark for what has become a nationwide boom in modern Chinese American cooking.
Emeril's NEW ORLEANS | Warehouse District
Photos courtesy of Emeril’s
How does a 35-year-old restaurant emerge as one of the buzziest in the nation in 2025? The secret lies with E.J. Lagasse, son of star chef Emeril Lagasse, who took over in the kitchen at the esteemed fine-dining destination in 2023. His — and the restaurant’s — star power has exploded since then, thanks to a total reimagining of dishes that, on their face, sound simple: oyster stew, trout amandine, and banana cream pie, to name a few. These versions are so bold, delicate, and intricate that they are nearly unrecognizable from their inspiration. The oyster stew, for example, is frothy with anise-tinged Herbsaint cream, bursting with bright green herb oil, dotted with nutty honshimeji mushrooms, and topped with crisped foie gras. Of all of New Orleans’ world-class restaurants, this one draws the most influence from its Louisiana roots — while building something altogether new.
Photos courtesy of Emeril’s
Da Gama HOUSTON | Houston Heights
After the success of their Portuguese mainstay Oporto, husband-and-wife team Rick and Shiva Di Virgilio opened Da Gama in 2021 as a tribute to their respective Portuguese and Indian roots. It has become a truly distinctive effort, not just for Houston but anywhere in the country. The restaurant also draws inspiration from the travels of its namesake, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama — famous for discovering the first sea route from Europe to India by rounding Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. That spirit of cross-cultural exploration makes its way across the menu, where dishes like the Goan fish curry (brimming with snapper, Gulf shrimp, and crab), piri piri chicken served with gunpowder fries, and the aloo gobi bravas (a true marrying of the couple’s cultures) shine brightly. The net effect is entirely new, and distinctive, and a reminder of how Houston can seamlessly mesh cultures together,
L'Échelle PORTLAND, ORE. | Richmond
The final project of restaurant titan Naomi Pomeroy was in its toddler-hood when the beloved chef tragically died last summer. As an homage to her impact and presence on the city’s food scene — really, there’s no chef more pivotal to Portland’s role as a culinary destination today — the rest of her team forged ahead in her honor. Now over a year since her passing, L’Echelle has become, in many ways, a love letter to her influence and spirit, and a sign of how French and Portlandian sensibilities align: a bright, buzzy, and warmhearted space that feels like the perfect blend of yesterday and tomorrow. A short but expansive bistro menu offers all the hallmarks of French classics with signature PNW flair. With dishes like pillowy oeufs as large as snowballs buried in an airy, lemony aioli and a cozy French onion soup, browned to perfection with the elbow of a crouton sticking through the cheese, it’s easy to see why this is one of Portland’s buzziest restaurants, and drawing attention from afar.
Far-Out DALLAS | East Dallas
For whatever anyone says, Dallas always has space for the new and groundbreaking. Case in point: Christopher Jeffers’ return following a three-year break from the city’s restaurant scene. A West Texas native, Jeffers is accustomed to spotting potential in less-known places, like this revamped Quonset hut, south of I-30, in an area still recovering from redlining that began in the 1930s. Jeffers scored a second lucky strike in culinary director Misti Norris, who more than any other Dallas chef has pushed, teased, and thrilled our culinary imaginations. Norris is marching on with seasonal pig tails and evolving menus highlighting her customary tools of fermentation, Texas produce, and cuts of meat that most restaurants bypass. But Norris’ life story has been about showing all that’s possible from the improbable. And now with Jeffers’ backing, she’s made Far-Out into Dallas’s most original, creative, and reliably delicious, restaurant.
LENOIR AUSTIN | Bouldin Creek
We didn’t need Michelin to tell us that Lenoir was a beloved if slightly hidden gem in South Austin — though we were excited to see their well-deserved official recognition. For more than 13 years, Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher have offered a twist on local ingredients alongside a stellar wine program. This year, with prices everywhere growing higher, the $88-per-person tasting menu at Lenoir, including omakase and aged steak offerings, feels like it was tailored to meet the moment, overdelivering on impeccable service and food. Don’t miss the crab fingers in a creamy curry sauce, or the honeycrisp apple salad along with a glass of chilled red wine. And don’t miss a chance to sit in the wine garden — where you’ll get the full effect of that magic that makes Austin dining at its best so special. It’s further proof that you don’t need to be brand new to set a great benchmark.
Darling BOSTON | Cambridge
For all the good energy in 2025, it can be a bummer to see just how many cocktail menus, not just in Boston but everywhere, seem to chase the same trends. Did that new bar genuinely want to put out its own “spin” on the espresso martini, or is it just capitulating to the TikTok gods? Darling, fortunately, is just the exact opposite — its Asian-inspired drink menu feels as if it were born out of genuine discovery, not squeezed out of an algorithm. After all, where else might you pull up a bar seat to enjoy a Hope I Packed a Parachute with Irish whiskey, barley shochu, and taro foam, or A Line of Demarcation with local rum, koji peach, and mung bean? Just don’t get too attached — the cocktail menu changes daily. But it’s all is matched by excellent bites from the dim sum-style bar menu. And it presents a template for what a great bar can be now that craft cocktails are merely a baseline.
Merci CHARLESTON | Harleston Village
Merci’s beautifully outfitted 26-seat dining room is tucked into an 1820s building in the heart of Harleston Village, and it has a stunner of a menu to match — or rather menus, as they change regularly. Nightly selections have included a crowd-favorite steak tartare, pitch-perfect charred cabbage Caesar, squash gratin with crab, and crispy duck ballotine. But the beef Wellington for two is the dish you might already have heard about: a generous tenderloin wrapped in mushroom duxelle and draped in golden-brown pastry, presented tableside. (All part of America’s quiet puff pastry revival.) It all adds up to make Merci one of the latest cohort of modern French standouts currently arriving around the country. And it affirms the dedication of co-owners Courtney Zentner and chef Michael Zenter, who plotted Merci after garnering fans during their pandemic-era break baking. (Which, don’t miss the flaky focaccia, stuffed with cheese and topped with Benton’s ham, pickled peppers, and pistachios.)
Tantísimo NASHVILLE | Sylvan Park
What started as a pop-up selling empanadas and sweet pastries at a farmers market has grown into one of the most exciting additions to Nashville’s restaurant community in a long time — and a symbol of how food cultures can happily collide everywhere and anywhere. Tantísimo is the project of Josh Cook and Ana Aquilar; he, a Nashville native and she, a Guadalajaran raised in California. The pair met while cooking at Husk and bonded over their love of pan-Latin cuisine. Together, they have created what they call a “Mexicana-owned Spanglish Shop” offering deeply flavorful and artfully plated tapas to combine as part of a “choose your own adventure” meal or paired with a rotating list of large plate proteins for a more conventional dinner service. Weekend brunches allow Cook and Aguilar to show off their considerable pastry skills — and continue their farmers market tradition.
Explore our picks from coast to coast:
Resy City Contributors
Amanda Albee (Dallas), Vickie An (Houston), Samantha Bakall (Portland), Chris Chamberlain (Nashville), Tim Ebner (Washington, D.C.), Lyssa Goldberg (Miami), Adele Hazan (Austin), Kat Hong (Los Angeles), Ariel Kanter (Chicago), Su-Jit Lin (Atlanta), Clair Lorell (New Orleans), Sarah Maiellano (Philadelphia), Omar Mamoon (San Francisco), Sam Spence (Charleston), Deanna Ting (New York), Eric Twardzik (Boston).
