The Dandy Dozen: Best Restaurants We Ate at This Year

We ate at over 200 restaurants this year across twelve cities, and narrowing it to twelve felt criminal. But these are the places that changed how we think about food — not the most expensive or most Instagrammed, but the ones we have already booked return visits to.

Tatiana at Lincoln Center in New York is chef Kwame Onwuachi's love letter to the African diaspora. The prix fixe menu ($175) moves through West African, Caribbean, and Southern American traditions with dishes like egusi-crusted halibut and coconut curry goat that are technically flawless and deeply personal. It is the most important restaurant opening in America this decade.

Don Angie in the West Village continued to prove that Italian-American food can be both nostalgic and innovative. The pinwheel lasagna — layers of pasta, ricotta, and meat ragu rolled into a spiral and sliced like a cinnamon bun — is the single best dish we ate in 2024. Reservations require planning, but the walk-in bar seats are worth the wait.

Maido in Lima, Peru, run by chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, delivers a Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian) tasting menu that is among the most creative in the world. The ceviche-sashimi hybrids, Amazonian river fish with miso, and charcoal-grilled octopus with aji amarillo showcase a cultural fusion that exists nowhere else. Currently ranked in the World's 50 Best at https://www.maido.pe.

Bavel in Los Angeles continues to be the dinner reservation worth fighting for. The Middle Eastern-inspired menu from Ori Menashe features lamb neck shawarma with tahini and date syrup that haunts your memory for weeks. The pita bread, baked to order in a wood-fired oven, sets a standard that every other restaurant's bread service will be judged against.

Noma alumni continue to reshape global dining. Inua in Tokyo, led by former Noma chef Thomas Frebel, interprets Japanese ingredients through Nordic fermentation techniques. The multi-course kaiseki-meets-New-Nordic menu is cerebral, surprising, and occasionally challenging — exactly what destination dining should be.

Also earning their spot: Sushi Noz in New York for the best omakase in America, Burnt Ends in Singapore for Australian-style open-fire cooking, The Clove Club in London for refined British creativity, Quintonil in Mexico City for contemporary Mexican, Chez Panisse in Berkeley for proving Alice Waters was right all along, and Central in Lima for Virgilio Martinez's altitude-based concept. Twelve meals that justified every dollar and every flight.