It’s rare to find a restaurant with a mission as sincere as Cafe Momentum’s. Its guiding light is embracing rolling cohorts of 15- to 19-year-olds impacted by the criminal justice system and providing paid, hands-on training across front- and back-of-house. Add mentorship and wraparound support, such as mental health counseling, education advocacy and legal assistance for the more than 130 young people who have come through in the past couple of years, and you have a restaurant that doubles as a workforce development program.

The Downtown establishment’s mission makes it an important part of Pittsburgh’s dining landscape, just as it did when it was founded in Dallas, but it wouldn’t have earned a spot on this list if the food weren’t up to par with the other establishments we’re honoring. Cafe Momentum made a big shift this year, bringing in Cory Hughes (Fig & Ash) as culinary adviser and Robert “RC” Carter as chef de cuisine.

Lunch leans into all-American comforts: macaroni and cheese, a standout burger with short rib and bacon, Maryland crab cakes and a wedge salad. Many of those items also appear at dinner, which expands to larger-format dishes such as Momentum’s signature smoked fried chicken with mashed potatoes and collard greens, a luxe grilled pork chop and Korean-style chicken wings. 

Casbah is Pittsburgh’s most stalwart restaurant. While many establishments fall back on their heels after settling into a rhythm, the Shadyside spot, now delighting its customers for 30 years, shows no signs of scaling back. Instead, it relies on a sure-footed cadence that stays just ahead of the curve.

The restaurant’s original executive chef, Bill Fuller, is now the president and corporate chef of big Burrito Restaurant Group (which also includes fellow Best Restaurant, Eleven). His vision of a Mediterranean menu shaped by the California good food movement of the late 1980s and early ’90s helped lay the foundation for Pittsburgh’s farm-to-table economy. That ethos continues to guide Casbah and has influenced many of the restaurants on this list, as has a stream of alumni who have moved on to help define Pittsburgh cuisine in 2025.

Regulars know Casbah’s offerings well: It leans heavily into pasta, shared seafood plates, market-driven salads and crowd-pleasing entrees. It’s a place you go to month-by-month for years to get your favorite dishes from your favorite servers; no surprises, but it always hits the spot. The draw, and the reason Casbah is included on this list, is consistency, though special theme weeks such as Winter Festa di Pasta and the summertime smash Festa di Pasta: Tomato & Corn continue to keep things lively. 

Wei Zhu took a big risk when he decided to open a second location, in the North Hills, of his popular Sichuan restaurant in 2022. The lauded chef is celebrated locally for advancing regional Chinese cuisine in Pittsburgh with his Squirrel Hill original, which dates back to 2014, and nationally with six James Beard Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic nominations.

Zhu brought his reputation to the sprawling Chengdu Gourmet 2, anchoring a burgeoning stretch of international dining on McKnight Road. The decor is brighter, seating more bountiful and service a little more assured than the original (and there are also fish tanks), but the menus and execution largely overlap, with Zhu bouncing between spaces.

With two menus — one Sichuan, one American-Chinese — the options are expansive. For a clearer point of view, zero in on Sichuan specialties, which carry the clearest throughline of flavor, balance and craft, for your first few visits. You’ll want to go with a group. 

Squirrel Hill:

Ross:

Dish Osteria and Bar is the kind of place where a first-timer might feel like they’ve walked into one heck of a hullabaloo. The front barroom buzzes, the rear dining room is packed elbow to elbow and there’s a constant flow of greetings as guests pass one another.

Does everyone here know everyone else? It sure seems like it sometimes.

Executive chef/co-owner Michele Savoia draws on his Sicilian roots to offer a menu balancing longstanding favorites with in-season items. Servers ease their way through the dining room and bar with plates highlighting top-quality ingredients prepared in a way to let them speak for themselves.

Seafood is a big strength, and some of the pasta dishes are beloved. Whatever you decide to order will be the “right” choice, and you’ll do well to split a bunch of the starters with your table. Don’t miss the soup, which always feels right for the moment.

Dish’s bartenders are as friendly as the rest of the staff, and the bar program sports one of the most complete digestivo programs in town. By the end of the night, it’ll be clear why the regulars are so loyal, and you’ll likely feel like you’re one of them, too. 

You could practice Spanish while ordering when Duo’s Taqueria opened in 2022 as a walk-up window from the language-learning company Duolingo, where Marcella Ogrodnik and her team served Mexico City-style street tacos.

A year later, the window gave way to a full-service restaurant, and Ogrodnik expanded the menu to a deeper exploration of Mexican cuisine.

Those gorgeous tacos remain a focal point of the East Liberty establishment, fillings spilling from pliant, scratch-made corn tortillas. But now there also are desirable small bites and exceptional platos principales, all of which you’ll want to dive face-first into.

Lunch service was introduced last year, and I love it just as much as dinner. You’ll find seasonal dishes such as quesadilla de calabaza (local squash blossoms in a corn tortilla), plus classics such as crispy fish tacos and dreamy carnitas burritos wrapped in a big flour tortilla.

Duo’s sports a top-notch cocktail program and one of the best mezcal and tequila lists in Pittsburgh. 

When big Burrito Restaurant Group opened this Strip District restaurant in 2004, it filled a gap in upscale dining and helped set the stage for the city’s restaurant revival following a period of lag. Eleven’s numerous alumni later helped spur the region’s restaurant revolution, one that continues today.

Executive chef Eli Wahl’s menu blends refinement with approachability. Many dishes are reliable crowd-pleasers, with accompanying sets that change a few times every year. Specials, known in Burrito parlance as “off menu,” typically offer more opportunity for boundary-pushing for diners looking for something new.

Those in search of quicker, more casual options prepared with the same attention to detail as the main menu should head to the lounge, where a streamlined menu (including the stellar Eleven burger) is offered. You’ll also find the sweet-deal happy hour menu in the bar. 

We’ve long been told that vegetables should be the center of the plate, with meat playing, at best, a supporting role. Easy enough at home, but is that a draw for a restaurant? Perhaps not most of the time for omnivores, yet Michael Godlewski has figured out a way to do it at EYV in East Allegheny.

Yes, the name is an acronym for “Eat Your Vegetables.” Here, that translates to celebrating Western Pennsylvania’s farmer-led bounty with classic fine-dining technique and a touch of modernist gastronomy. Godlewski, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, guides guests through an orchestrated experience of culinary whimsy.

As of press time, Godlewski is running EYV with a prix fixe menu. The three-course meal (a steal at $45) comes with a parade of snacks followed by a choice of a mid-sized starter and entree-sized third course. Desserts, which are terrific, are an additional $15 (and guests also can add more savory courses). He also offers an extended, eight-course chef’s counter tasting menu for $150.

EYV has a high standard of service and an excellent bar program. 

It’s not shocking that Fet-Fisk founders Nik Forsberg and Sarah LaPonte seamlessly transitioned their beloved pop-up series to a brick-and-mortar home in Bloomfield.

They had the talent: Forsberg earned his first James Beard Award nomination as a pop-up chef, and LaPonte earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina in 2022. And they were smart enough to partner with even more talent — Kate Romane of Black Radish Kitchen and Greg Austin of 412 Food Rescue — while recruiting local standouts for the opening team.

The shift stuck the landing when they opened in 2024. This year, Fet-Fisk became Pittsburgh’s first-ever finalist for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, and the restaurant has received nods of praise from The New York Times, Eater, Bon Appétit and other national publications.

Forsberg’s menus start from a Nordic-influenced foundation and show a close alignment with local farmers. You won’t see strawberries in April unless they’re preserved from the prior year, but they’re on the table as soon as they’re truly in peak form in late May. Seafood takes a starring role, with vegetables (and, to a lesser extent, land-based meats) getting equally thoughtful attention.

The moodily lit bar and seaside tavern-inspired dining room are both fun to dine in, with the bar being more high energy. New general manager Sam Suter brings a wealth of experience to the already exceptional front-of-house team.

This was one of the first new restaurants to rise from the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing dishes inspired by Sunday family dinners and classic American standards refined with a chef’s touch to the North Side when the city most needed an infusion of elevated dining experiences.

Now five years into its run, Fig & Ash, which Cory Hughes owns with his wife, Kate Hughes, and brother-in-law, Alex Feltovich, feels like a Pittsburgh staple. The wood-fired hearth remains the focal point of the semi-open kitchen (you can snag a few seats at the chef’s counter for a theatrical experience), with some of the early anchors, such as short rib and pork belly meatloaf, still leading the charge.

Hughes’ menu balances blockbuster meat dishes that would feel at home in a steakhouse with more delicate seasonal items, such as artfully dressed grilled summer squash and house-made pastas, all combining for a menu that suits a wide variety of dining experiences.

Fig & Ash has one of the stronger beer programs of the restaurants on this list, with equally excellent cocktail and wine offerings.

The romance of a white-tablecloth dinner in an 88-year-old restaurant built to resemble a Tudor “castle in a cornfield” is certainly enough to get people in the door, but it’s the top-notch execution of the menu that keeps people coming to the Moon restaurant year after year.

Longtime executive chef Chris O’Brien purchased Hyeholde from Barbara McKenna, daughter of founders William and Clara Kryskill, in 2022. He’s kept the Old World charm of the restaurant, which offers a bit of an escapist fantasy into a bygone era of romantic dining.

You don’t need to dress up for a meal at Hyeholde, but you’ll probably want to as there are few special-occasion dining rooms like this left in the region. (Your special occasion, by the way, can be as simple as, “I want to have a lovely meal tonight.”)

O’Brien’s menu draws from the grand repertoire at the crossroads of Continental cuisine and rustic American, with a heavy dose of seasonality thrown into the mix. Everyone from conservative diners to adventure-seekers will find something to love here. Hyeholde was one of the first establishments in the region to offer a “chef’s table” dining experience, a tradition O’Brien continues (with advance reservations) in the grand kitchen.

A quiet side street in New Kensington isn’t where you would expect to find one of the region’s most dedicated farm-to-table restaurants. Yet Phillip and Jillian Call’s venture has thrived there, despite remaining way more under the radar than it would if it were located closer to the city.

It’s time to get to know Jillian’s if you’re not already one of the seekers who do.

Phillip Call’s meticulously sourced menu is as tied to the harvest as they come. You’ll find morel mushrooms, asparagus and ramps in abundance come spring, the minute his cadre of local foragers and farmers have them.

The chef shows exemplary range, able to pull off vegetarian options, such as marinated wild mushrooms with white beans, that go toe to toe with meaty heavy hitters like big-format steaks and pork chops. While every dish is thoughtfully composed, it isn’t cheffy: Call’s kitchen isn’t the spot for tweezers.

Jillian Call shapes the front of house with warmth and precision. The restaurant is located in a former neighborhood pub, and the New Kensington native does a top-notch job of making every guest feel at home.

Owner Maria Elizabeth “Betty” Hernandez and a team of matriarchs are offering Pittsburgh’s most delightful Salvadoran and Honduran cuisine (along with some fantastic Mexican dishes) at this humble eatery in Beechview.

While the dining room might be more bare bones than other establishments on this list, Hernandez, who immigrated to Pittsburgh from her native Honduras in 2013, offers an assembly of dishes as delicious as any other spot named here.

First, introduce yourself to Honduran and Salvadoran dishes that share a similar culinary heritage. Make sure to get an order of pastelitos Salvadoreños, flaky shells stuffed with meat and beans that rival any hand pie around. Baleadas sencillas, a Honduran breakfast staple with hand-made lacy flour tortillas, and corn-based Salvadoran pupusas are other tip-top places to start.

Those items are distinct from the Mexican dishes on the menu, though you do also want to indulge in the glory that is Betty’s torta Cubana, the excellent costillas de puerco en salsa verde and the pan-Central American sopes with their crisp, scratch-made masa shells.

A basic knowledge of Spanish is helpful and appreciated at the restaurant (you’ll be met with smiles just for trying), but the menu is written in Spanish and English, so you’ll be fine either way.

When longtime chefs-for-hire Jamilka Borges and Dianne DeStefano teamed up to open their first restaurant as co-chefs and co-owners, the friends set out to offer a softer touch than the male-dominated dining world typically embraces. Their 2-year-old restaurant, a destination dining establishment that feels like a neighborhood spot, is a statement of those values.

Borges, a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist (Rising Star in 2015, Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2019), leads the savory side. Drawing on her Puerto Rican roots and an eclectic career running some of Pittsburgh’s most enticing restaurants, she builds dishes rich with coastal and subtropical flavors, finished with polish and restraint. Her menu is one of the city’s most hospitable to vegetarians and pescatarians.

DeStefano runs the baking and pastry side of the kitchen, with bread front and center as part of a gracious table service. Her dessert list rivals many small-plate menus in length, and for good reason — she crafts finales with as much complexity as the openers. Her signature items, such as baked Alaska, rotate with the calendar, and there’s always an option for gluten-free and vegan guests.

Lilith’s compact dining room is often packed, but in a way that feels convivial rather than constraining. Chalk that up to smart design and a “we’re here to make your night marvelous” mentality from staff.

Morcilla is a study in evolution. Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott-Severino opened the Basque-influenced taverna in 2015 as a follow-up to their lauded, now-closed Cure, entrusting longtime lieutenant Nate Hobart with day-to-day kitchen operations.

A decade later, Hobart, now partner and executive chef, stands as one of the city’s most respected, if understated, restaurant proprietors. On most nights, you’ll find him engaging with customers front-of-house while bouncing back into the kitchen to check in on the team delivering a cross-section of tasty small bites and large-format showstoppers.

A side-by-side comparison of today’s menu and one from a few years ago wouldn’t show big changes, yet nothing is stagnant — dish sets are highly influenced by micro-seasons and even the longest standing items are refined over time. There are always new items, too.

The beverage program at Morcilla is, as it’s always been, one of the very best in the city. It features smartly curated wine, beer and cider lists, top-flight cocktails and an incredible selection of fortified wines such as sherry and vermouth.

Its service is among the most polished in Pittsburgh.

In mid-2024, chef Chris Frangiadis and business partner Andrew Tepper took a gamble and shuttered the original version of Spork, their high-end Bloomfield restaurant. A few months later, it reopened as One by Spork — an intimate, fine-dining concept.

Just 16 guests dine each night the restaurant is open, with everyone seated around a single, semicircular table at the center of the room.

Frangiadis, a 2020 James Beard nominee for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, offers a set menu of 10 courses for the experience. He and his team marry classic cooking techniques, timeless fermentation methods and a laboratory of technology for the frequently changing parade of gastronomic delights. The ingredients are of the highest quality, with many coming from the restaurant’s adjacent farmette and meat from lauded providers such as Elysian Fields Farm and duck from Joe Jurgielewicz & Son.

General manager and beverage director Cecil Usher orchestrates the pairings, offering both wine-and-cocktail and alcohol-free options. The experienced barman puts just as much thought (if not more) into the zero-proof options, a welcome move for those who choose not to imbibe.

At $275 plus tax and tip as of press time, it’s a splurge. But for those who can swing it, One offers an experience unlike anything else in Pittsburgh.

Few Pittsburgh dining experiences feel as transportive as Pusadee’s Garden. The long-standing restaurant caps Butler Street in Lawrenceville’s superb parade of dining with a menu of Thai dishes served in an escapist atmosphere.

Head chef Bootsaba “Gik” Tongdee, a 2024 James Beard Award Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic semifinalist, runs the kitchen alongside family members including her mother, the eponymous Pusadee Tongdee. Their menu is crafted from homestyle family recipes and regional Thai favorites, transformed into destination-worthy, layered dishes via charcoal grill, wok, fermentation and stew pots.

The establishment’s design is striking: a series of connected dining rooms of various sizes, a glass-enclosed jewel box bar (with terrific cocktails), a stunning entryway and an open kitchen. Inside it all is the modern courtyard garden, which deepens the sense of escape when weather allows.

Pittsburgh’s boom in regionally focused Chinese restaurants has grown so robust over the past decade that chefs are now relocating here to showcase their work.

The noodle king Fu Li Zhang, known as Brother Fu, is doing it with flair. Guests can watch through a glass wall as the Kaifeng, China-born chef thwaps, snaps, stretches and pops custom flour, oil and water blends into a variety of hand-pulled and knife-sliced noodles at the Ross restaurant he runs with wife Rachel Yuan.

(If you’re wondering, “Should I get Japanese ramen?,” this isn’t the spot for that. The restaurant’s name reflects the Chinese origin of the noodles, which are known as lāmiàn.)

Zhang serves those noodles in soups (with long-simmered broth featuring the perfect pinch of five-spice powder, which made me shout “Hallelujah!”) and stir-frys, most of which are influenced by the foodways of China’s northern provinces.

“Sister” Man and the rest of the pastry team work alongside Zhang, preparing delicate dumplings and “you’re drooling, dude” bao.

The modern, spacious dining room is matched by servers who know the menu well and help newcomers navigate toward a balanced meal. Zhang and Yuan also continue to operate their original Ramen King location in a former Subway in Canonsburg. They serve a similar menu there.

Every so often, a restaurant opens that does something so singular it becomes a destination even though it serves a very specific menu. That’s the case with the latest iteration of Rockaway Pizzeria, which opened in Regent Square earlier this year.

Owner/pizzaiolo Josh Sickels moved his popular spot from White Oak, where he’d run the joint since 2017, to be closer to his core clientele. He’d expected a quick flip of the space, but the turnaround took significantly longer than expected. Rather than sit on his hands, Sickels took the delay as an opportunity to hone his craft, including a deep-dive research trip along the Northeast’s Pizza Belt. He also stepped up his sourcing of ingredients, bringing in high-quality stuff from purveyors such as Brooklyn’s generations-old Lioni Latticini.

Now, he’s crafting modern-day New York-style pies that would make a “best of” list in their city of origin. There’s a crispness to the crust, which still has hints of the leathery tug of the old-school version of the style. More importantly, Sickels keeps his toppings in balance — the right amount to build layers of flavor, restrained enough to avoid throwing the pie out of whack. He’s also delved deeper into other regional styles of the original Pizza Belt, crafting expert Sicilian, Grandma and New Haven-style clam pies.

Whole pies are available for preorder by phone and can be enjoyed in the laid-back dining room or taken to go. Feeling like rolling the dice? Just show up and order piece by piece from the slice case for your own pizza adventure.

Here’s a nice bonus: Sickels is sourcing custom-made hoagie rolls (with sesame seeds, as it should be) from Squirrel Hill’s Allegro Bakery to offer killer Italian, meatball and vegan sandwiches.

Senti’s even-keeled combination of refined cooking and warm hospitality makes it stand out among the city’s many Italian restaurant options. Now a decade old, the Lawrenceville mainstay reflects the charming owner Franco Braccia’s nearly 50 years in the industry. He moves easily from guiding a young couple through their first white tablecloth dinner to trading stories in his native Italian with longtime regulars sitting on the patio.

Executive chef Antonio Garcia’s menu is Northern Italian. It features a mix of long-running favorites such as the layered, velvety lasagna alla Veneta and linguine with clams, alongside dishes like summer squash and tomato soup and insalata di cocomero — wedges of sweet watermelon with goat cheese, pistachios, microgreens and a flicker of sly heat from Calabrian chili honey — that land only when the primary ingredients are harvested.

Braccia oversees Senti’s first-rate wine list. The multipage catalog leans heavily toward Italy, but makes exceptions for top-notch bottles from California, France and other geographies. Braccia and his talented front-of-house staff are very helpful in selecting pairings.

Sure, Siempre Algo means “there’s always something,” but in Pittsburgh in 2025 it translates to a focused, of-the-moment restaurant on East Ohio Street. Chef/owner Brian Hammond might draw from no particular style at Siempre Algo, yet what he’s offering is very firmly rooted in the vision he has for the East Allegheny restaurant.

When he opened the restaurant in 2018, Hammond was an early pioneer of what is now one of the city’s hottest dining corridors. It took a few years for the establishment to find its voice, but today it is confident and energetic, and it’s deeply enjoyable to dine in the inviting space.

Siempre Algo’s menu is styled as snacks (pates, preserves, cheeses and canapes), small plates (salads, soups, tartares and seasonal bites) and mains (larger format composed dishes). While items such as blistered garden peppers with limey hollandaise and fermented garlic honey, or perfectly seared steak with creamed corn and summer squash, can be stunning, it’s best not to get attached to any one dish. The menu shifts frequently, and the surprise is part of the charm.

The restaurant is vegetarian-friendly, and offers substantial options for gluten-free diners. It also sports an excellent bar program.

The region’s longest-running vegetarian restaurant remains as vital as ever. When Manjunath Sherigar opened Udipi Cafe in 1996, he aimed to serve worshipers at Sri Venkateswara Temple — one of the oldest traditional Hindu temples in the United States — and feed the growing community of Indian immigrants working in Pittsburgh’s emerging destination as a technology hub. It also, of course, was a magnet for all vegetarians, who had few options at the time.

Nearly 40 years later, Udipi is still a gathering place for both, but the rest of the region has caught on as well. On any given night, tables fill with an age- and ethnically diverse mix of diners sharing Southern Indian specialties and a few pan-Indian favorites. Massive dosas made from fermented rice and lentils, some stretching halfway across the table, arrive crisp-edged and stuffed with spiced potatoes, onions and more lentils. Curries, stews and rice dishes deliver depth from layers of spices and herbs.

While the cooking is sophisticated, the atmosphere is decidedly unfussy. The cafe-like space is full of lively conversation, with servers moving through with gracious ease. It’s perfect for groups.

A decade into its run, The Vandal is hitting its stride in gold-medal fashion. The Lawrenceville restaurant debuted as a stylish outpost in a rapidly hip-ifying neighborhood, moving through a series of chefs and front-of-house vibes. It has also served as a launchpad for a good number of hospitality industry professionals over the years.

Co-owner Joey Hilty has always been active in the direction of The Vandal’s culinary offerings, and right now he’s squarely in the pocket. The market-driven small plates and varieties of preserves and pates can at times be extraordinary, and the larger format main courses are prepared with just as much care to the provenance of the components. Like many restaurants of its ilk, you’re going to want to share what’s on offer.

Hilty’s business partner Emily Slagel oversees the sleek and romantic interior design of the snug restaurant. The Vandal’s well-curated wine list highlights primarily natural and biodynamic producers, the cocktail program is a lot of fun (with some good nonalcoholic options) and its after-dinner drinks program is among the strongest in Pittsburgh.

Here’s a nice bonus: The Vandal stays open late on Saturdays to offer a sophisticated contrast to the commotion of Central Lawrenceville, with corner slice pies and tiramisu from La Grassa paired with excellent beverages.