BEST RESTAURANTS 2019
2018 BEST NEW RESTAURANTS
Best New Design Trends
Ron Novak, design architect and partner at Oakley’s Drawing Dept—which has created spaces for Boca, Sotto, and Taft Ale House—says, “the best trend is no trend.”
Best New Markets
Feed your need for the obscure, hard-to-find, and mom-and-pop-iest of foods. (Sorry, Findlay, this isn’t your list.)
Top 10 Best New Restaurants
A roundup of the tastiest additions to our local dining crop.
Best New Bars
Whether drinks are a prelude, the evening’s main event, or a nightcap after a pleasant dinner, there are plenty of watering holes to satisfy your needs.
Best New Sandwich Joints
The Queen City is experiencing something of a sandwich renaissance, with small-batch, homegrown, and handcrafted creations in the spotlight.
Best New Breweries
We’re awash in enough new breweries to float a coal barge. Narrowing the field to our favorites was tough, but we tackled the hard work of hoisting a few so you won’t have to wonder.
Local Chefs on the Best Restaurants, Best Bars, and What’s Missing
We sat down with 8 chefs from the best of Cincinnati's dining scene to learn their favorite spots in the Queen City.
2017
Best Restaurants 2017: The Art of The Restaurant Build-Out
As a vice president with the Boca Restaurant Group, Fries is tasked with creating spaces that are as sumptuous as the food. We talked to him about creating the experience of dining at Boca.
Meet The Guy Who Convinced Us To Drink Charred Jalapeños
When the seasons change, Metropole beverage manager Chris Brown nerds out for a new lineup.
Best Restaurants 2017: The Art of Impeccable Service
"When I dine out, I want to be greeted right away. And when I’m ready to pay, I want to be able to pay. The worst is when you’re finished and your credit card is on the table and you’re waiting."
Bird Is the Word
For a lot of chefs, chicken is the equivalent of a culinary cop-out. It’s an amateur order, for sure, but no menu would be...
Theory of Evolution
Cincinnati's dining scene has become quite a melting pot (or hot pot, if you prefer).
Blessed Are the Cheese-Makers
Cheesemaking requires a level of care that might intimidate the most natural obsessives, i.e., chefs.
Podcast: Inside the 2017 Best Restaurants Issue
A look inside the making of the Best Restaurants issue
Smooth Operator
Wary of tucking into a jar of liver? Fear not. This smooth spread is poised to become your best new drinking buddy.
Local Women Hold Their Own in the Historically Male-Dominated Wine Industry
In the last 10 years, women have taken the wine world by storm—and Cincinnati is no exception.
Orchids at Palm Court
If you want to feel—and dine—like Jay Gatsby for an evening, this is the place.
2016
Q&A: Metropole’s Jared Bennett
Metropole Executive Chef waxes philosophical on personal growth, kitchen culture, and squash blossoms.
Recipe: Mazunte’s Mole Coloradito
At Mazunte, owner Josh Wamsley sticks to traditional ingredients and multiplies the following recipe by 40. It’s served over a house favorite, tinga de pollo (chicken enchiladas).
The Baba Ghanoush Curtain
While Dan and Lana Wright’s Abigail Street has been riffing heavily on Mediterranean cuisine since 2011—the two met working at Chicago’s Souk in 2003—the Middle Eastern restaurant scene has blossomed, sometimes in unlikely parts of town.
Dish of the Year: Mita’s Cordero Al Ajillo
The year’s best bite transports even the most jaded traveler to Spain’s colorful southern coast, home of sherry, flamenco music, and bullfighting.
Dinner à Deux
Shareable entrÉes have come a long way. As we ate our way around town we couldn’t help but notice more menus embracing food for two, or even a crew.
10 New Rules of Dining Out
It's time to collectively update our etiquette manuals.
Is Octopus the New Pork Belly?
“Every time you eat octopus, you taste the ocean.”
The Soufflé: A History
Randy Sebastian’s chocolate soufflé at Boca blew the collective Dine Team mind.
Best Restaurants 2016: The Bars
Often the best seat in the house is at the bar.
The 6 Dining Trends That Need to Go Away
Enough already with Shishito peppers.
