Current:Home > NewsUSA TODAY's Restaurants of the Year for 2024: How the list of best restaurants was decided -Mastery Money Tools
USA TODAY's Restaurants of the Year for 2024: How the list of best restaurants was decided
View
Date:2025-04-17 19:03:06
When food writers dine together, sharing is the norm. Before anyone digs into their own order, plates go around the table so everyone can try a bite or two.
That love of sharing is what spurred the creation of our list of 2024 USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year.
We know other "best restaurant" lists exist. This idea is hardly new. So what makes ours stand out? While other organizations deploy teams of writers to parachute into places and try the food, our journalists live in the communities they cover.
The restaurants on our list are places we frequently recommend, places we take friends and family. These places are so lovable, we're often planning our next visit while sitting at the table finishing dinner there.
"Our food writers live here, they work here, they eat here," said project leader Liz Johnson, a senior director at The Record and northjersey.com and a former food writer. "They know their beats. These may not be the fanciest restaurants in the USA, though some are. These are the restaurants we want to eat at over and over again."
How many have you been to?Check out USA TODAY's 2024 Restaurants of the Year.
You'll notice our list doesn't skip flyover country, like many do. Yes, you can get a great meal in Los Angeles or New York (we have restaurants from those cities on our list, by the way), but you also can have excellent dining experiences in Goshen, Kentucky, and Shreveport, Louisiana.
With more than 200 sites in 42 states, the USA TODAY Network's roots run deep. We tapped into that expertise, asking our writers to share their favorites, the best of the best from the towns and cities they cover. We received more than 150 nominations.
A team of seasoned editors and writers then culled the list to 47, looking for places with consistently great service, unique atmospheres and food that never fails to delight.
We also looked for a rich buffet of flavors, and we found it — from a third-generation, counter-service seafood shack in Cortez, Florida, to a Laotian restaurant in Oklahoma City helmed by a James Beard Award-finalist chef.
Our criteria forUSA TODAY's Restaurants of the Year for 2024
"For me, reading this list was a delicious journey across America," said Todd Price, who writes about restaurants across the Southeast and is a former James Beard Award nominating committee member. He's one of the writers who helped choose and edit our Restaurants of the Year. "The restaurants from places large and small show how varied dining is today in this country. So many other national lists rarely do more than dip their toes outside the biggest cities, and they miss so much of how, and how well, people are eating today in the USA."
The majority of the restaurants we've spotlighted are in the communities we cover, though we have a few out-of-town entries. When not covering their home turf, our writers love traveling for food. If we didn't, how would we know how comparably great our hometown spots really are?
Now, we invite you to dig in and enjoy our USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year 2024.
Suzy Fleming Leonard is a features journalist with more than three decades of experience. Find her on Facebook:@SuzyFlemingLeonard or on Instagram: @SuzyLeonard.
veryGood! (546)
Related
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Dior triumphs with Parisian runway melding women’s past and future
- Swiss indict a former employee of trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid in Republic of Congo
- Prosecutor says theory that 2 slain Indiana teens died in ritual sacrifice is made for social media
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Swiss indict a former employee of trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid in Republic of Congo
- NFL power rankings Week 4: Cowboys tumble out of top five, Dolphins surge
- Minnesota teen last seen in 2021 subject of renewed search this week near Bemidji
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Hunter Biden sues Rudy Giuliani, attorney Robert Costello for hacking laptop data
Ranking
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Indiana man sentenced to 195 years in prison for killing 3 people
- Pakistan’s Imran Khan remains behind bars as cases pile up. Another court orders he stay in jail
- Rays coach Jonathan Erlichman is Tampa Bay's dugout Jedi – even if he didn't play baseball
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Government shutdown could jeopardize U.S credit rating, Moody's warns
- New York's right-to-shelter policy faces scrutiny amid migrant crisis
- United Farm Workers endorses Biden, says he’s an ‘authentic champion’ for workers and their families
Recommendation
Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
University of Wisconsin regents select Mankato official to serve as new Parkside chancellor
Minnesota teen last seen in 2021 subject of renewed search this week near Bemidji
20 dead, nearly 300 injured in blast as Armenia refugees flee disputed enclave
Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
Police fatally shoot man in Indianapolis after pursuit as part of operation to get guns off streets
'The Creator' review: Gareth Edwards' innovative sci-fi spectacular is something special
'The Creator' review: Gareth Edwards' innovative sci-fi spectacular is something special