See the restaurants USA TODAY named best across the West, including an Arizona frybread stand, an Italian destination in Las Vegas and must-try Detroit-style pizza in Colorado.
Restaurants of the Year celebrates standout dining across US for 2026
USA TODAY’s Restaurants of the Year spotlights top dining destinations across America for 2026, from roadside gems to chef-driven hotspots. See the list Feb. 11.
Every year, our journalists from across the country come together with a singular mission: to spotlight the restaurants they love in their communities for USA TODAY’s Restaurants of the Year list.
It’s a love letter to the spots we know best, the ones we come back to again and again. These are the restaurants we’d recommend wholeheartedly to friends, family, and of course, our readers.
This year, we’ve got a particularly strong showing from restaurants across the West.
That includes a frybread stand in the Arizona desert, a neighborhood Mexican restaurant in California’s Coachella Valley, or a next-level Detroit-style pizza joint in Colorado.
Here’s a look at the best this region has to offer in 2026.
Details: 814 N. Central Ave.; 602-773-1413, huarachis.com
Huarachis is the first solo venture for Rene Andrade, the 2024 James Beard winner for Best Chef Southwest. Inside the pink-hued restaurant, guests bob in their seats to a variety of musical genres – including cumbia, corridos, merengue, salsa, rap and R&B – while sipping on agave cocktails and perusing a menu of tacos, tortas, vampiros and sides like the killer papas al disco made with baja crema, olive oil, chiltepin peppers and queso cotija. During the week, guests can order tortas mamalonas. The carnitas torta is a savory blast of toasted bread, crispy-edge cheese and charred meat stacked with creamy avocado and soft ham slices. Sharp onions and fresh tomatoes cut through the fat. The restaurant is playful, the dishes and drinks solid, and the chef is known as a mentor and a consistent force for good in the community. There’s nothing not to love. — Bahar Anooshahr, Arizona Republic
Details: 6208 N. Scottsdale Road; 480-219-9774, theindibar.com
Indibar was born from Dr. Jonathan Rodrigues’ love of Indian food and mixology. Originally from an area near Goa, India, he wanted to create a place to honor the act of sharing a meal in a modern way. He has done just that with a restaurant that features opulent pops of gold but doesn’t require a dress code. This balance of fine dining and homestyle hospitality continues with familiar dishes presented in modern and elegant ways. Some of the best are the chef’s signature lamb chop and kheema dosa. The bar program includes cocktails with personal backstories and spice-box flavors, including nonalcoholic sips like the delicate, floral Honey Heist, made with Lyre’s Dry London spirit, cardamom, saffron, honey and ginger. It’s the kind of restaurant where there is always a new bouquet of flavors to try. — Bahar Anooshahr, Arizona Republic
Details: 3996 N. Alma School Road; 480-519-1108, facebook.com/SRTheStand
Never has a restaurant’s name been so fitting as The Stand – a literal, wooden lean-to on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, complete with handwritten menu signs and a ceiling made of tarps. But don’t let the humble exterior fool you. The Stand offers one of the truest tastes of a dish that embodies the culture of Arizona and the Southwest: frybread. The menu includes frybread topped with red or green chili, beans and cheese or ground meat. The restaurant also makes Native-style tacos. Owner Mick Washington makes the frybread and chumuth (Indigenous-style tortillas) by hand. There isn’t a lot of seating. And you’ll have to park in a dirt lot. But the fluffy, fresh frybread and meltingly tender, meaty green chili are worth getting your shoes a little dirty for. — Eddie Fontanez, Arizona Republic
Details: 43-430 Monroe St., Suite A; 760-342-2333, elmexicalicafe2.com
In a region with no shortage of great Mexican restaurants, El Mexicali Café II has legions of devotees drawn to its friendly, familial atmosphere, menu heavy on classic, time-tested dishes and, perhaps most of all, the famous Chiles Gueritos Rellenos de Camarón. That’s the beloved appetizer consisting of six yellow peppers stuffed with shrimp that family matriarch Carmen Murguia brought to California from the border town of Mexicali, creating what may be the area’s most popular Mexican dish and inspiring countless imitators. A more spacious and vibrantly decorated alternative to the original restaurant in downtown Indio – both have the same menu – El Mexicali II’s spot near Interstate 10 makes it a popular stop for those traveling between Southern California and Arizona. — Paul Albani-Burgio, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Details: 133 Remington St.; 205-920-2988, postcard.pizza
Tucked inside Fort Collins’ Equinox Brewing, Postcard Pizza has pushed what the city knows about pizza to a new crispy, cheesy edge. The two-man operation dishes up Detroit-style pizza out of its cozy brewery shop and has become known for its inventive weekly specialty pies. Try its specials, which have included a banh mi pie and a potato pesto variety, or go with its trusty favorites, such as the classic fancy pepperoni with cupping pepperoni, swirls of whipped ricotta and drizzles of hot honey. Don’t forget to pair it with a beer from Equinox Brewery, which lends its lived-in Fort Collins brewery vibes to Postcard Pizza’s new, but growing, operation. — Abigail Flores-Johnson, Fort Collins Coloradoan
Details: 1131 S. Main St.; 702-570-7864, estherslv.com
The Las Vegas Strip is dotted with five-star restaurants surrounded with dress-to-get-noticed tourists awaiting their moment for once-in-a-lifetime dining. But just a few miles north, it’s Las Vegas locals who are circling for a parking spot in the city’s Arts District, hoping to make their reservation time at Esther’s Kitchen. The environment is comfortable. The dress code is casual. The servers are over-the-top attentive. The menu is elevated, but without pretension. The sourdough bread will make you rethink how good meals should begin. The dessert wine list will make you wonder how your visit passed so quickly. And the rotating menu of seasonal entrees makes every seating – brunch, lunch and dinner – feel like the restaurant’s main event. — Brett McGinness, Reno Gazette Journal
Details: 837 Lincoln St.; 458-240-7564, yardyrumbar.com
Since he was young, chef Isaiah Martinez wanted to run a Caribbean restaurant. Now, his dream is a reality. His beloved Yardy Rum Bar is a cozy dining space filled with rich colors and smells that he envisioned as a youngster. Candlelit tables outfitted in floral cloth are topped with bountiful plates of fried chicken, doubles (Caribbean chickpea flatbreads), seasonal salads and rum-based cocktails. Though it seems contradictory, Martinez’s tropical cuisine is right at home in rainy Oregon. Menu staples like sorrel punch and the fried chicken sandwich transport diners from their dreary surroundings to a delicious culinary world. — Samantha Pierotti, Eugene Register-Guard
See the rest of the list here:
Dining and Cooking