What’s your favorite restaurant in Cincinnati? Downtown walkers answer
We asked random people Downtown to give us their favorite restaurants in Cincinnati. The answers we received were … unexpected.
One of the best new restaurants in the country is right here in Greater Cincinnati, according to USA TODAY’s readers.
Carmelo’s, an Italian-American restaurant in Covington, recently ranked No. 2 on the Best New Restaurant list by USATODAY’s 10Best Reader Choice Awards.
The restaurant opened in November 2024. Enquirer food writer Keith Pandolfi praised the restaurant in a 2025 review, “Though Carmelo’s is a new restaurant, it has the feel of a neighborhood joint that’s been here for decades.”
He also named it to his list of the seven best new restaurants in the area in 2025.
Items on the menu include sesame sourdough bread served with “house red gravy” and olive oil, garlic soup, 101-layer lasagna, lamb sausage and more.
Wildweed, an Italian restaurant in Over-the-Rhine, was also nominated for Best New Restaurant by USA TODAY’s 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards but wasn’t selected in the final ranking.
For the full list and ranking of the best new restaurants, see below.
Best New RestaurantKoast (Wailea, Hawaii).Carmelo’s (Covington, Kentucky).Squares & Fare (Somers Point, New Jersey).Via Cassia (Hudson, New York).The Frybread Lounge (Scottsdale, Arizona).Coco Deck Kitchen + Bar Lahaina (Lahaina, Hawaii).Dogwood Southern Table and Bar (Charlotte, North Carolina).Uncle Ray’s Chicken Rice (New York City, New York).Barometer Waterfront Grille (Orange Beach, Alabama).855-ALOHA (Honolulu, Hawaii).What is USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards?
USA TODAY’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards highlight the very best in travel, food and drink and lifestyle. Every week, USA TODAY 10Best invites a panel of industry experts to nominate their favorite points of interest and attractions across a wide range of categories. 10BEST editors then vet these nominations and select a final set of nominees to be presented to the voting public for a period of four weeks.
USA TODAY and The Enquirer are owned by the same parent company.
Dining and Cooking