Jeremy Pugh is Salt Lake magazine's Editor. He covers culture, history, the outdoors and whatever needs a look. Jeremy is also the author of the book "100 Things to Do in Salt Lake City Before You Die" and the co-author of the history, culture and urban legend guidebook "Secret Salt Lake."
In 2022, we asked Utah’s top chefs to name their favorite restaurants for the ‘Chef’s Choice Edition’ of the Salt Lake magazine Dining Awards. David Chon’s Nohm got the emphatic nod from many, especially Copper Common’s Ryan Lowder who said, “With David Chon, you have a guy with a vision and he’s not changing it. You gotta admire that.” Despite all the love, the restaurant named Nohm struggled to find its audience and went on a hiatus. It emerged late last year, with a new partnership with the Water Witchers who knocked a hole in the wall between the Witch and Nohm (because, duh) and rechristened the operation Bar Nohm.
Retooling nearly every aspect of the experience, adding communal tables and the weight of Water Witch’s bar program to the mix, David Chon finally helms a restaurant worthy of his intensity and dedication. Chon, you see, is into precision in the way Switzerland makes watches. As much mad scientist as a chef, the partnership with the Witch freed his mind from niggling details like forks and tablecloths and let him do what he does best, which is, as Dining Awards panelist Darby Doyle described as revealing an “aesthetic experiment in real-time.”
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winnershere! And while you’re here, why notsubscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
Let’s start here. “I had one of the best meals of my life,” says panelist Jennifer Burns. And where was this life-changing experience made manifest? Tupelo in Park City. “There wasn’t a bad bite.” Gush. This sentiment, however, was shared by all of our gathered panel. We often lament the scene in Park City, as it seems more designed for, well, not us. But Tupelo is a home-grown restaurant that deserves a gush from time to time. It is in, but not of, Park City. Chef/Owner Matthew Harris sets his sights on local and real in a place that often seems neither. One last sigh from Jennifer: “His creations are incredible.”
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why notsubscribeand get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
We are in an era of nostalgia for the cowboy, specifically the western cowboy. OK, we’re talking John Dutton and Kevin Costner here. The sagebrush and the rooting tooting rodeo are enough, hence the Carhartt and Pendleton jackets and sweaters on the red carpet. The Back 40 in Heber, espouses that don’t fence me in ethos. You will find a lot of meat on the menu, beef in particular, but there is an art to fixin’s and these guys are serving them up right, with little concession to the vegan in your family. There is a place for this culinary aesthetic. And that place is Heber City. According to our panelist Darby Doyle, who is a self-described “little bit country, little bit rock ’n’ roll,” this place is “real good.”
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winnershere! And while you’re here, why notsubscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
Here’s the thing about Pho. It’s kind of like that old saw about pizza even when “it’s bad, it’s not that bad.” Except here’s where that breaks down. Bad pizza is so ubiquitous that people think bad pizza is just, well, pizza. So it goes with pho, there are easily more than 100 joints around the city serving pho. But only a few make more than a bowl of broth with “stuff” in it. The quality of the “stuff” (and the broth) is what matters. And Pho 777 has the good stuff. This award will be hotly debated because pho, like pizza, is a preferential creature. Here’s why Pho 777 stands out. The broth is made from bones. It is made from scratch every day. The ingredients are fresh and it all comes together to allow the soup sipper to improvise, as is required.
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winnershere! And while you’re here, why notsubscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
Photograph from our 2023 Best Restaurant: Handle and HSL article.
These are two different restaurants in two very different spaces. Handle, located just off of Park City’s Historic Main Street, stands out in a town that caters to visitors where some operators, frankly, phone it in. HSL, on the edge of downtown SLC, is Handle’s cousin in the city. The common denominator is, of course, Chef Briar Handly. Of course, we said all of this last year, but, because it remains the same, it bears repeating. Quality and consistency pair with Handly’s creativity and poor attention span. This double-barrelled approach creates a menu that just won’t sit still. It bobs and weaves through the seasons and isn’t afraid to buck its own traditions. Keep up the good work, chef.
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winnershere! And while you’re here, why notsubscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
Photograph from our On The Table: La Cevicheria article.
La Cevicheria opened in 2023, on the continuingly beleaguered downtown block of 200 South, in the space formerly occupied by the small chain Cancun Cafe. Its owner and chef, Manuel Ortega, made major renovations and now the building is impossible to miss, with giant blue octopus tentacles splayed on its exterior. The inside is a Mexican playa vacation meets an Insta-worthy Malibu Barbie home (with fish scales). Vibe aside, what comes out of the kitchen has our attention. “No one in the city is doing ceviche like this Chef,” says panelist Lydia Martinez. Ortega offers an innovative approach to the dish he brings from the coastal traditions of Mexico, including a vegetarian option (somehow). The menu offers a rotating and challenging menu from basic to advanced (think: from shrimp to octopus). You’ll also find traditional agua chile, another version of marinated seafood, along with a self-proclaimed “hangover cure” with shrimp, lime juice, and Maggi seasoning mixed with a chiltepin sauce.
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winnershere! And while you’re here, why notsubscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
It’s the Eternal Question. “Where Should We Eat?” It’s a query that we ask ourselves as hunger sets in. It’s a question that couples and families text message around wildly as the dinner hour approaches. It’s a question that your out-of-town guests prod you with before arrival (but too late to make a reservation). The answer is often dull, “the usual spot” or “dunno, pizza?” Let’s remedy that. Eating out is about more than sustenance. It’s about company, friends and someone else doing the dishes. Each year, Salt Lake magazine gazes upon the dining landscape and presents its choices for our Dining Awards issue. These are experiences that will enliven your answers to the Eternal Question. They will challenge your palate with thoughtful and local solutions to the riddle. So without further fuss, we present our 15 Best Restaurants of 2024, including our Outstanding Restaurant of the Year, a collection of locales that are such standards that we name them Utah Classics, four restaurants to watch and five superlative standouts in the industry.
So. Where should we eat? The answers are within.
Click on the images below to learn more about our 2024 winners
Meet the Salt Lake magazine Dining Awards Panel
Jennifer Burns
Jennifer is a freelance food and beverage writer and content creator. She primarily works with food brands and restaurants and has hosted over 3000 TV cooking and entertainment segments.
Darby Doyle
Darby Doyle is a food, beverage, and outdoor writer who covers the culinary and natural wonders of the American West.
Lydia Martinez
Lydia is a freelance food, travel and culture writer. She writes for Salt Lake magazine, Suitcase Foodist and Utah Stories.
Stuart Melling
Stuart is an award-winning journalist who has covered the Utah dining scene for 15 years. He’s also the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC and a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for The Salt Lake Tribune.
Side Dishes
Ones to Watch
Often a new restaurant comes on the scene with a splash that catches our attention but, hey, it’s a hard biz at any time, much less at this time. But these five newcomers raised our eyebrows and we’re excited to see what happens next.
Each year we pass out a collection of special awards for individuals and organizations who, well, have done something special, superlative even. (And, also, just because we can.)
The #RandomPink Award: Margo Provost and the Team at Log Haven
The Golden SpoonFor Hospitality: Drew and Angie Fuller of Oquirrh
The Blue Plate Award for Community Service: Lavanya Mahate of Saffron Valley
The Good Bread Award: Nick Fahs of Table X
The Spirit Award: Francis Fecteau of Libation, LLC
Utah Classics
Remind yourself of restaurants that are so good, they never went away.
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Salt Lake magazine Dining Awards winnershere! And while you’re here, why notsubscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
Cristina Olvera immigrated to Utah in 1999 from Hidalgo, Mexico. A single mother to five children, she always had multiple jobs. And on the side, she would make tamales out of her kitchen at home, explains daughter Salma. “My mom was a hard worker making tamales on the weekends to support us. As we got a little older, we helped her with whatever we could. She would have us cut cheese or clean corn husks.” Cristina would still make tamales overnight and then, at 7 a.m., deliver them from Tooele to Park City and all around the Salt Lake Valley. As her reputation grew, clients started asking to cater and she began catering quinceañeras and weddings. After moving into a tiny commercial kitchen space, Salma’s older sister started promoting the business on social media platforms right at the start of COVID. And business took off. La Casa del Tamal was born.
We featured the Olvera’s holiday tamale tradition in our 2023 Nov/Issue! Read it here.
Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribeand get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.
We’ve all been there.Peering forlornly into the fridge or listlessly scrolling through delivery apps. But. Suddenly. Inspiration. “Ah ha! Come on! Let’s go out. Let’s go somewhere new!”
Then, depression sets in…but where?
Jeremy Pugh, Executive Editor. Photo credit Natalie Simpson
It is after all one of life’s eternal questions. It comes up constantly, with friends, family, out-of-town guests—never mind birthdays. And all too often, we admit defeat. “Fine, we’ll get a pizza, again.” This is nothing against pizza, of course, but this town is filled with unforgettable dining experiences that are unique, local and delicious, and we can help you find them. Once again, Salt Lake magazine presents its list of the best restaurants in Utah. Let us guide you to answers to the question.
Inside this year’s Dining Awards Edition, you’ll find the 15 Best Utah Restaurants, some will be familiar and some will be discoveries. We chose these restaurants because they represent something more than just a place to be fed. Dining is about company, friends and someone else doing the dishes. Our winners demonstrate high bars in service, atmosphere and something ineffable that is always hard to put a finger on. “Best,” after all, is a subjective term. We also take the occasion to recognize industry standouts who go above and beyond “best” in areas of hospitality, community service and education. Utah’s food and beverage industry is a community of people who share a common passion for making food that extends beyond their tables.
So if you haven’t guessed, this issue is dedicated to the premise that we should make eating an occasion to feel special—not just something for special occasions.
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