25 Best Restaurants in 2010

It's a great pleasure to share with you our annual Best Restaurants issue in a year that (despite a tough economy and an unforgettable snowpocalypse) made our region's dining scene more vibrant than ever.

Experienced restaurant owners report having an easier time sourcing top-notch ingredients because demand is up (a change from years past when they had to drive out to the airport to pick up items such as specialty cheese). Local chefs, delighted with the growing number of independent chef-driven restaurants, say they’re especially inspired by their hard-working peers.

All of this means that our “Best 25” list offers plenty to chew on. As such former stalwarts as Lautrec at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort or Le Pommier on the South Side were suspended from the list because of chef departures, newly opened restaurants burst into the winners’ circle. These include Tamari, winner of our “Best New Restaurant” award, and Avenue B, whose chef-owner Chris Bonfili earned our nod for “Rising Star Chef.” And at two-year-old restaurant Mio, chef-owner Matthew Porco won our “Chef of the Year” award. Rounding out the winners was the Cross Keys Inn, which won for “Delicious Design.”

As always, the “Best 25” winners and “Legends” are selected based on the anonymous dining experiences of Pittsburgh Magazine’s Restaurant Review Panel and annual secret balloting. This year, we’ve added more detailed reporting to each of our 25 reviews, including specific dishes we loved eating during the last 12 months as a means of portraying the strengths of each particular kitchen. We hope you find this new and expanded coverage as inspiring as it is helpful.

Bon appétit!

(Restaurants serve alcohol unless BYOB is noted.)

The price range indicated under each restaurant listing is based on the average price of entrée as follows:

$ $10-$15
$$ $15-$25
$$$ $25-$35
$$$$ $35 and up

* indicates a restaurant new to our listing.

Click here to browse this year’s list of the 25 Best Restaurants in Pittsburgh.