On the hunt for the Best New Restaurants of 2024, our scouts consumed hundreds of dishes, including so many that we loved. But one dish rarely makes a best new restaurant, so plate upon delicious plate is woefully left on the cutting room floor, giving us reason to celebrate our favorite dishes of the year.
As we narrowed the list to these 16 standout plates, we noticed a few fascinating trends after all the jet-setting: several ingenious interpretations of the bread course, from escargot-studded rolls to charred whole wheat loaves kneaded with chunks of crisp chicharron; wonderful expressions of French pastries, from savory madeleines dusted with jalapeño powder to two daring reinterpretations of the architectural phenomenon mille-feuille—one holding layers of durian and caramelized milk, the other threaded with tender crab.
From an astounding salad at the reopened Vespertine in Los Angeles to a radically simple scoop of vanilla ice cream capped with crème de menthe in Philadelphia, this list reflects the endless ways chefs channel hospitality and creativity through dishes both high and low.
Here are the best dishes we ate at new restaurants in 2024—because delicious meals need to be shared.
Camote Asado
Alma Fonda Fina, Denver
The highlights at chef Johnny Curiel’s contemporary Mexican restaurant in Denver’s Lower Highlands include soulful frijoles puercos with sourdough flour tortillas and adobo-seared hamachi aguachile. But few tables skip out on the camote asado, an opener deserving of main dish status. Perched in Alma Fonda Fina’s airy, light-soaked dining room, you’ll likely watch the kitchen team assemble this sweet potato dish for nearly every table. Sweet potato spears roasted with agave until dark and caramelized arrive atop fennel-tinged whipped requesón cheese, finished with a smoky, nutty salsa macha that boasts a mellow spice that brings it all together. At the end of a journey that includes several excellent dishes and a very refreshing avocado margarita, you’ll seriously consider ordering another camote for dessert. —Kate Kassin
Esca-roll
My Loup, Philadelphia (a Best New Restaurant of 2024)
I ordered the Esca-roll at My Loup because I thought the name was clever, knowing well that a good food pun is not an automatic great dish. But whether the ingenious idea for the petite roll of bread filled with escargot started as a play on the similarly named endive or just a mash-up of two words, chef Alex Kemp has unleashed a dish that elicits much more than a chuckle. A lone sculpturesque roll arrives atop a pool of herb-rich butter, the whole affair showered in Parmesan. The steaming bread unravels like a roll of film, revealing generous chunks of meat. It’s as if a cinnamon roll has crashed head-on into a plate of France’s finest escargot. —Elazar Sontag
Mini Madeleines
Xiao Ye, Portland
Outside Xiao Ye, a large sign calls the restaurant’s cuisine “first generation American food.” Co-owners Louis Lin and Jolyn Chen,