A popular Cincinnati Mediterranean restaurant has been named one of the best in the country. Here’s what you need to know before you go.
The Aperture named a USA TODAY best restaurant of 2025: Video
Take a look inside The Aperture in Walnut Hills, named one of USA TODAY’s best restaurants for 2025.
The Aperture, a Cincinnati restaurant known for its open-fire cooking and innovative Mediterranean cuisine has already been named one of the top 50 restaurants in the New York Times. This week, it made national news once again.
According to USA TODAY’s 2025 Restaurants of the Year list, the restaurant, located in the city’s historic Walnut Hills neighborhood, is one of the top 44 places to eat in America right now.
“We’re honored to be included by USA TODAY in this group of restaurants,” chef and owner Jordan Anthony-Brown said of the honor. “It’s a humbling testament to the work that our team has done — not only to create and provide great food, drinks and hospitality — but also to maintain and uphold the culture and values that we want to represent through The Aperture.”
What makes The Aperture stand out
Anthony-Brown’s culinary career spans decades, including three years at Rose’s Luxury, a Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning restaurant in Washington, D.C., where he worked his way up from line cook to sous chef. During his time there, Bon Appetit magazine named it the Best New Restaurant in America in 2013.
When he returned to his hometown of Cincinnati, Anthony-Brown joined the Boca Restaurant Group as a sous chef and later spent time at Baker’s Table, in Newport, Kentucky, which was named one of the Best New Restaurants in America by Eater in 2019.
His own restaurant took Cincinnati by storm when it opened in 2023, offering a mezze-style menu of small plates and sharables that balance complex textures and flavors without abandoning familiarity or comfort. There are always surprises to be had on the ever-changing menu. One night you might find a comforting dish of shell pasta cooked in tomato sauce, Fresno peppers and a guanciale ragu. The next, it might be a gorgeous bowl of Carolina Gold rice, heirloom red peas and pastrami burnt ends tossed in a peppery vinaigrette.
Anthony-Brown, along with his sous chef Paige Trout, keeps diners on their toes. One constant is their hummus selections, which are blended with a range of ingredients, from eggplant and black garlic to a lamb and chickpea ragu.
Anthony-Brown was fortunate to secure a lease in one of the neighborhood’s most architecturally significant landmarks, the art deco-style Paramount Square Building, which opened in 1931 but has been vacant since its last tenant, a pawn shop, shuttered in 2005. Instead of duplicating the building’s historic exterior inside, the chef opted for an ultra-modern dining room (bright white with bursts of color provided by sunshine-yellow chairs) that simulates a modern art museum as much as it does a restaurant. It’s centered around an open kitchen outfitted with a wood-burning oven.
Getting The Aperture off the ground wasn’t easy. After dealing with the pandemic, construction delays and other obstacles, it took Anthony-Brown five years to open the restaurant of his dreams. But hey, that’s all in the past now. It is now the crown jewel of a burgeoning stretch of Walnut Hills that has recently seen new investment via a Black-owned brewery, a Korean chicken joint, a high-end cocktail bar and a neighborhood grocery store and market.
“We feel this is a testament to the hospitality community in Cincinnati, and the city as a whole, both of which have supported and embraced The Aperture during our short time here in the city,” Anthony-Brown said of the USA TODAY honor. “This is yet another indication that Cincinnati is a special place, and always has been.”
What to order at The Aperture
Labneh-poached carrot: Anthony-Brown’s menu is ever-changing, but some of the highlights of past menus have included a tender labneh-poached carrot the chef chars in a wood-fired oven and rolls in Middle Eastern and African spices. It’s served atop a rich carrot puree with spicy-sweet lamb sausage.
Hamachi collar: Anthony-Brown serves his hamachi collar in a sweet orange glaze, zig-zagged with a crab paste miso aioli and polka-dotted with sliced serrano chilies. After devouring the crispy skin, diners tend to pick at the bones with their forks (or fingers) to scrape off every single morsel of meat.
Wedge salad: Napa cabbage replaces iceberg lettuce in Anthony-Brown’s wedge salad that’s topped with a mayonnaise-based fish dressing, hard-boiled egg, rye bread crumbs, dill and smoked fermented tuna.
Oyster mushrooms: This dish is served on a bed of whipped tahini with a little brown butter mixed in. The fungi are topped with hazelnut pesto and a pillow of shredded Manchego, creating a meaty, nutty dish you won’t forget.
See the full menu.
Details: The Aperture, 900 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, Ohio; 513-872-1970, theaperturecinci.com.
Book your reservation now on Open Table.
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See the entire list of USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year 2025 here: