Our editors ate in hundreds of restaurants across the country this year, but certain dishes left a lasting impression, and we’re recognizing them in this new national Eater Award category.
From a textbook execution of the ubiquitous 2026 entree — roast
chicken — to an innovative fish preparation offering Midwestern diners a new way to experience a familiar ingredient, these dishes are all worth celebrating. —Missy Frederick, editorial director
Learn more about this year’s Eater Awards, presented by Capital One, and how editors selected them, here.
Puffed grain toast at All Well
Chicago, Illinois
When experiencing a five-course tasting menu ($145), I wasn’t expecting toast to be a main attraction. But even with competition from luxurious courses featuring everything from a complex Hokkaido scallop to an assertive charred rib-eye with peaches, All Well’s puffed grain toast left a lasting impression.
After three years at two-Michelin-starred Oriole, Larry Feldmeier partnered with Noah Sandoval, fellow Oriole alum and James Beard winner for Best Chef: Great Lakes, to open the ambitious West Loop restaurant All Well, which offers both a la carte bar options and the aforementioned tasting; the toast is only available as part of the latter experience.
The dish arrives to the table amplified with nutty buckwheat butter sweetened with honey, the backdrop for a pasta stuffed with triple-cream Délice de Bourgogne and a cauldron of salty chicken brodo. You’ll dive into the pasta, of course, using the bread to sop up the rich beurre blanc. Like a performer waiting in the wings for their monologue, the puffed grain toast takes center stage. The toast effectively offsets the creaminess and saltiness of the rest of the dish, but can stand on its own even without the accompanying pasta. Its subtle sweetness almost acts as a mid-meal dessert, a distinctive break in a seamless dinner you don’t quite want to end. — Isaiah Reynolds, audience editor
Island curry crab and callaloo dip at Dougla Kitchen
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The only thing about Oklahoma City that feels even vaguely reminiscent of the Caribbean is the sheet-pan-flat horizon. And yet, inside a gaping industrial dining room downtown, there’s Dougla Kitchen, where diners sip fruity rum drinks out of plastic bags, and acclaimed chef Andrew Black digs deep in his past to bring OKC locals a taste of his Indo-Jamaican upbringing. I fully admit this Midwestern-born, California-raised girl doesn’t encounter ruddy callaloo greens as often as she’d like (my hunch is neither do most Oklahomans). No matter. What Black manages to do with this deceiving pile of greenish-brown mush, dank with hand-picked crab and sparkling with curry spices, translates the soul of Caribbean home cooking in a single scoop. I didn’t know it was possible to be overwhelmed by a sense memory from a life that’s not your own, but this heady appetizer does that, served with a side of crisp taro chips and worth lingering over all afternoon with a couple of Red Stripes. — Lesley Suter, brand director
Roast chicken and Caesar panzanella at Henrietta
Los Angeles, California
To understand California cuisine in 2026, look no further than Henrietta, a neighborhood bistro that has struck a just-right balance of precision and ingenuity while imbuing a feeling of nostalgia that begs locals and travelers alike to return. The restaurant’s intentions come across most clearly in its roast chicken, served as a just-salty-enough half chicken hunked into handheld pieces with deep, smoky char marks. The prize chicken pile gets tucked onto a plate alongside a scorched lemon half and a heaping, chicory-heavy Caesar panzanella blanketed under a layer of Parmesan that could be a snowcap on a stretch of the San Gabriel Mountains. With the chicken, Henrietta nods to forebears (namely San Francisco’s Zuni), while making the dish its own with a Baja-born Caesar salad that feels distinctly Los Angeles, dotted with torn fistfuls of bread from the neighboring local Clark Street Bakery. Of course, 2026 continues to be the year of the Great Chickening, where roast chicken has become many a restaurant’s calling card — and an easy way into the cultural cache. In Los Angeles alone, Sqirl (with its new dinner menu) and Pasjoli have both put out progressive, near-intoxicating spins on the dish, but Henrietta’s has lodged itself into the collective imagination with its brazen simplicity. — Rebecca Roland, deputy editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest
Cantaloupe and verjus terrine at Junior
Nashville, Tennessee
The striking cantaloupe and verjus terrine at Nashville’s Junior offers a glimpse into the minds of chef Philip Krajeck and chef de cuisine Brian Mejia, the duo behind the high-technique kitchen. A “terrine” slice arrives with pieces of cantaloupe suspended in a clear gelatin made with verjus, the pressed juice of unripened grapes. One corner is covered in tiny, diced cubes of cantaloupe dressed in citrus-forward turmeric oil; another gets draped in chamomile-steeped cream. The mix of textures and flavors comes together in a dynamic symphony: the bright, acidic cubes of summer-ripened fruit against the calming mellowness of chamomile and gelatin layers that meld cantaloupe juice sweetness with crisp verjus.
The dessert’s structural elegance, which highlights a French variety of melon grown by a local farmer, may not immediately reveal its full complexity: Clear gelatin features a layer of clarified cantaloupe juice with encased melon slices, stacked between two layers of verjus gelatin. The melon gets compressed to intensify its flavors. Somehow, Junior managed to make Jell-O cool again — and dare I say, even sophisticated? — an example of Junior’s steady confidence that makes the restaurant an irresistible experience. — Dianne de Guzman, lead editor, Eater SF
Pickled walleye cheeks at Rosy
Cleveland, Ohio
Though people outside the Midwest may not be familiar with freshwater whitefish walleye, there it’s a classic comfort food, a staple of Lenten fish fries, state fair booths, and Lake Erie fishermen’s freezer stashes. At Rosy, chef Vinnie Cimino leans on that familiarity to help convince his customers to experience a beloved ingredient in an entirely new way. Pickled walleye cheeks ($17) have been a recurring staple — if a fleeting one — on Rosy’s Eastern European-leaning menu since the restaurant opened in February 2026. Kate’s Fish in Cleveland’s historic West Side Market provides walleye filets for sister restaurant Cordelia; when breaking down and fileting each fish, the fishmongers save the cheeks until they have a formidable stash. About every three weeks, Rosy can offer pickled walleye cheeks for around four days at a time. It’s a thoughtful move for sustainability, but also for succulence, as fish cheeks are a prized cut for their luscious texture.
Cimino conceived the dish as a nod to Jewish fish-pickling practices (for me, the results also brought to mind a tender ceviche). Seasonal vegetables are pickled with lemon — an earlier version invoked German-style potato salad, spring brought asparagus, and, when I went in June, bell pepper, carrot, and dill were in the mix. They’re then combined with the cheeks, which get a separate hot-pickling treatment involving red wine vinegar, salt, sugar, bay leaf, peppercorns, and coriander. “People really gravitate toward it,” Cimino says. “We’ve built up a great trust with our diners.” While the dish won’t be replacing fried walleye at area fish fries anytime soon, Cimino feels proud that when at Rosy, diners have been more than willing to go along with him for the ride. — MF
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