The Top 50 Nominees for America’s Best New Restaurants 2018

Each year I kiss my loving family goodbye (both the one at home and the one at the office) and hit the road for weeks at a time, crisscrossing the country and eating everything in sight, in search of the Hot 10: our annual list of America’s best new restaurants. This year I stumbled upon a beachy ramen-ya in Venice; a lakeside retreat with crispy whole flounder; not one but multiple Jewish-style delis reinventing the genre; and bowls upon bowls of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Japanese noodles. These are the 50 eclectic, inspiring, and very delicious nominees for America’s best new restaurants. Make sure to check back on August 14, when we’ll reveal which of these spots earned a place in the Hot 10.

The Top 50

Bavel (Los Angeles)

Better Luck Tomorrow (Houston)

Bitter Ends Garden & Luncheonette (Pittsburgh)

Brenner Pass (Richmond, VA)

Bywater American Bistro (New Orleans)

Cadence (Philadelphia)

Cafe Roze (Nashville)

Call (Denver)

Carnitas Lonja (San Antonio)

Cervo’s (New York City)

The Charter Oak (St. Helena, CA)

Che Fico (San Francisco)

Drifters Wife (Portland, ME)

Driftwood Oven (Pittsburgh)

Ellē (Washington, D.C.)

Felix (Venice, CA)

Flowers of Vietnam (Detroit)

Folk (Nashville)

Freedman’s (Los Angeles)

Frenchette (New York City)

Hearthside (Collingswood, NJ)

Hello, Sailor (Cornelius, NC)

JuneBaby (Seattle)

Kado no Mise (Minneapolis)

Kamonegi (Seattle)

The Lakewood (Durham, NC)

The Line – A Rake’s Progress, Brothers and Sisters, and Spoken English (Washington, D.C.)

Majordōmo (Los Angeles)

Marisol (Chicago)

Maydan (Washington, D.C.)

MTN (Venice, CA)

Nimblefish (Portland, OR)

Nonesuch (Oklahoma City)

Nyum Bai (Oakland, CA)

Palmar (Miami)

Pammy’s (Cambridge, MA)

Proud Mary (Portland, OR)

Robin (San Francisco)

Rose Foods (Portland, ME)

RT Rotisserie (San Francisco)

Sorrel (San Francisco)

Sour Duck Market (Austin)

Suerte (Austin)

Suraya (Philadelphia)

Talat Market (Atlanta)

Tempesta Market (Chicago)

Ugly Baby (Brooklyn)

Vespertine (Culver City, CA)

Wa’z (Seattle)

Yume Ga Arukara (Cambridge, MA)

Written By: ANDREW KNOWLTON