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.”  

165 W. 900 South, SLC | barnohm.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

Every year, Hell’s Backbone has earned a nod from Salt Lake magazine. Our late editor Mary Brown Malouf long championed this experiment in sustainability, kindness and destination dining in Southern Utah. That’s a story you know. Here’s one few do. Mary lobbied tirelessly for the James Beard Foundation to create a new region for its annual national restaurant awards to bust out Utah (also Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) restaurants from under the shadow of California. Beard Judges in the newly created Mountain Region, gave Hell’s Backbone the nod in 2022. The tale, however, takes a frustrating turn. The Foundation, facing criticism about the lack of diversity and inclusion among its honorees (boxes Hell’s Backbone easily ticks) scuttled its awards that year. Hell’s Backbone’s richly deserved honor became collateral damage. But Blake and Jen aren’t ones to mope on the sidelines. The considerable slight became a rallying cry for the little restaurant in Boulder. With the addition of Chef Tamara Stanger. Blake, Jen and Tamara are still at it, this year again earning a nod from Beard. And us.

20 Utah Highway 12, Boulder | hellsbackbonegrill.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe 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. 

2843 S. 5600 West, West Valley City  |  lacasadeltamalutah.com

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 subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

St. George is overrun with chain restaurants that weaseled in alongside its explosive growth. But amid mediocrity, we’ve discovered an island of excellence. Wood • Ash • Rye, located in Advenire Hotel. In St. George, Executive Chef Shon Foster has his work cut out for him. We often talk about the “Utah Palate” characterized as a picky eater who would gladly eat nuggets shaped like dinosaurs for every meal. But as St. George has grown it has grown up as evidenced by Foster’s challenging menu and success in what we hope will be a more adult St. George restaurant scene. Example: The Silver Queen Goat Cheese appetizer that features cheese sourced from Park City Creamery. A big bold step in the right direction if we’ve ever seen one. 

25 W. St. George Blvd., St. George  |  theadvenirehotel.com/wood-ash-rye-restaurant

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

Chef Michael Richey is all growed up. Once the enfant terrible of Salt Lake chefs, Richey made his first splash at Pago, which we then considered one of the vanguards of a new dining scene when it opened in long-ago 2009. Richey has bounced around the always turbulent dining scene but never lost his edge. Now finally, he has a place to call home—Wildwood Restaurant in Salt Lake’s Avenues Neighborhood is his place. And he’s there, doing his thing. Wildwood is a sure thing on any given night and those of you who can remember Richey’s early days at Pago will see some of that heritage on the menu, including those beautiful little pillows of golden potatoes topped with a decadent clutch of sturgeon roe.

564 E. 3rd Ave., SLC  |  wildwoodslc.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

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.

Handle: 36 Heber Ave., Park City  |  handleparkcity.com
HSL:  418 E. 200 South, SLC  |  hslrestaurant.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

Caffé Molise and BTG have been quietly great since long before they moved to their massive location at 400 South and West Temple. (“The Bay” to old Salt Lakers.) And frankly, their consistency sometimes means we just count on them to be there. But as anyone who watches the restaurant world these days knows, nothing can be taken for granted. So first, let us apologize to Fred Moesinger and Aimee Sterling, it’s not you, it’s us. We are gonna be better because you haven’t ever stopped paying attention, serving quality Italian food made better with a cocktail and wine program that is attentive and challenging. As Stuart Melling says, “They don’t treat anyone like a dummy.” Food and wine without the attitude. Amen.

404 S. West Temple, SLC  |  caffemolise.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe 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.”  

1500 Kearns Blvd., Park City | tupeloparkcity.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe 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. 

3585 S. Redwood Rd., West Valley City  |  pho777utah.com

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and 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.”  

1223 U.S. Highway 40, Heber City| back40utah.com 

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.