This month features our annual best restaurants rankings for the first time in three years. Wait, what? Well, Cincinnati Magazine has published a Best Restaurants issue every March since 2003, mixing things up with an occasional Best New Restaurants list to document a noteworthy wave of openings and emerging chefs.
The pandemic did a number on the restaurant business, which operates on thin profit margins even in the best of times. A few long-term challenges have hung around, from the popularity of to-go orders and delivery to debates over staff pay and tips. Restaurant owners continue to adjust, re-evaluate, and (here comes that pesky COVID verb) pivot.
The magazine’s dining coverage has pivoted in recent years as well. We published a top 10 ranking in March 2020, and then everything went to hell. There was no point trying to judge restaurants when they were simply trying to keep the lights on, so we focused instead on restaurant families in 2021 and local classics in 2022. Returning to a top 10 ranking in 2023 and a new restaurants list in 2024 felt like a bit of normalcy again.
Our restaurant critic Brandon Wuske put those two rankings together and was poised to helm last year’s effort when he died suddenly from a short illness in August 2024. We were devastated. We tried to figure out a way to publish a top 10 list without him, but it didn’t feel right, so we pivoted to having local chefs interview each other about the city’s dining trends.
The magazine’s approach to ranking Cincinnati’s top restaurants is based on one person doing the research, evaluating his or her experiences, and writing the critiques. We’ve tried every possible method for comparing restaurants in other food packages: score sheets, blind taste tests, everyone eating together. For Best Restaurants, though, we’ve found that one person works best.
We welcome M. Leigh Hood, one of our veteran food writers, to the head of the table this year, and I hope you enjoy her journey through Cincinnati’s incredible dining scene. Pull up a chair and join her.
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