The 8 Best Dishes of 2025, According to F&W Editors

Our editors eat some of the best food the United States has to offer. As food lovers, we regularly seek out new restaurants for dinner and on vacations, but for many of us, it’s also built into the job — traveling across state lines to search for the country’s Best New Chefs and Restaurant of the Year. Here are eight of the most exciting, innovative, and most importantly, delicious bites we tasted along the way.

Sunn’s Salad (New York City)

At Sunn’s, a tiny Korean wine bar in Chinatown, chef-owner Sunny Lee’s salad changes with the seasons, but one thing always stays the same — you eat it with your hands. Diners are instructed to pick up the lotus root and seasonal vegetables, then scoop them into whipped silken tofu. It’s bright, crunchy, and an absolute joy to eat.

Les Eggs (Friends and Family, Oakland, California)

In a playful interpretation of the classic French dish oeufs mayonnaise, 2021 F&W Best New Chef Gaby Maeda, executive chef of Friends and Family in Oakland, covers shoyu-marinated jammy eggs in a tangy yuzu kosho mayo and tops them with smoked trout roe. Hiding underneath it all are crunchy bubu arare pearls for added texture. It’s eggs on eggs on eggs.

Pancake Soufflé (Pitt’s, Brooklyn)

Imagine the fluffiest, most ethereal pancake in the world — that’s what this show-stopping dessert from Pitt’s is like. After the server places the towering, pancake-flavored soufflé at the table, they cut into the center, drizzle it with maple syrup, and instruct you to add a spoonful of salted butter before taking a bite.

Dutch Baby (Bread & Friends, Portland, Maine)

A Dutch baby — that oversized, popover-style pancake — is usually a sweet affair, served with syrup, fruit, or preserves. But the bakery and restaurant Bread & Friends takes it in a savory direction with roasted mushrooms, a local bloomy-rind cheese, porcini powder, and sea salt. Sometimes it’s even topped with truffles.

Tam Tam Wings (Tâm Tâm, Miami)

There’s a reason why Tâm Tâm’s chef and co-owner Tam Pham has kept these Vietnamese-inspired chicken wings on the menu since day one. Lacquered in a salty-savory-sweet fish sauce caramel and finished with fried garlic and fresh lime, they’re shatteringly crisp from the very first bite to the last.

Arroz Negro (Acamaya, New Orleans)

A seafood paella by way of Mexico, the arroz negro at 2022 F&W Best New Chef Ana Castro’s restaurant, Acamaya, is a smoky, funky, sensational study in contrasting textures, with delicate huitlacoche; juicy mussels; and earthy, jet-black, squid ink–coated rice that’s crispy around the edges.

McSatan (Evil Cooks, Los Angeles)

At Evil Cooks, a heavy metal–themed taqueria, chefs Alex and Elvia Garcia posed the question, “What if a Big Mac were a taco, but also really good?” Their answer: this freshly made corn tortilla topped with an American cheese–draped burger patty, bacon, caramelized onions, and avocado crema.

Chicken Liver Mousse (Recoveco, South Miami)

The velvety chicken liver mousse at Recoveco gets piped into artful, squiggly ribbons on top of a crisp, speculaas-inspired cracker with dots of a tart star fruit jam. Creamy and crunchy, sweet and savory, the whole dish reverberates with subtle, peppery spice notes.