Yelp just revealed a best new restaurants list and, along with it, a series of dining trends on the company’s radar for 2026. Among this year’s trends, the San Francisco-based review and reservation giant says, are buzzy steakhouses, Indian cuisine and big brunch energy. According to the way the list shook out, though, California restaurants are pretty hot, too.
Three Golden State restaurants cracked the top five of Yelp’s nationwide 25 best new restaurants of 2026 roundup, giving California the most representation within the top 10 and on the list overall. The top scorers include a Los Angeles restaurant reimagining Chinese American cuisine, a Menlo Park stunner specializing in Cal-Indian cooking and a Southern California tasting menu destination.
Firstborn, a Michelin-recognized restaurant helmed by Anthony Wang in LA’s historic Chinatown, came in second place on the list. Wang’s affordable and imaginative four-course Chinese American prix fixe menu clocks in at $68 and features dishes like crispy Chongqing fried chicken with house-made chili crisp.
Anthony Wang, the chef-owner of Firstborn in Los Angeles. (Ron De Angelis/Courtesy of Firstborn)
“Many of the ideas are rooted in nostalgia from my upbringing,” Wang told Yelp.
Menlo Park’s Eylan, operated by James Beard Award finalists chef Srijith Gopinathan and restaurateur Ayesha Thapar, came in at No. 4. Eylan serves modern Indian cuisine punctuated with live-fire cooking and seasonal Bay Area ingredients (think: pani puri–style chilled green grape chaas and smoky hispi cabbage) in a lush, ornate dining room.
The final Golden State restaurant to crack the top of the list is Michelin-starred Lilo in the sleepy SoCal coastal city of Carlsbad, which came in at No. 5. Restaurateur John Resnick and chef Eric Bost’s jewel-sized tasting menu restaurant is a love letter to coastal California cuisine, with dishes like Santa Barbara sea urchin with English pea and rose geranium.
A kaluga caviar dish at Lilo in Carlsbad, Calif. (Elodie Bost)
The immersive, jungle-themed and open-fire restaurant Filthy Animal (yes, named for the “Home Alone” line) in Tempe, Arizona, took the top spot on Yelp’s list, and the upscale Mexican restaurant Limusina in New York City clocked in at No. 3 to round out the top five. The rest of the top 10 includes restaurants from Kansas City, Missouri; Las Vegas; Columbus, Ohio; and Jacksonville, Florida.
Hong Kong-style San Francisco restaurant Ah Ma’s Kitchen and LA Caribbean fine dining destination Lucia made the list as well, coming in at No. 16 and No. 19, respectively.
Yelp’s annual best new restaurants awards pull from a nationwide list of restaurants that have opened after Jan. 1, 2025. The company then “ranked those spots using a number of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews, between January 1, 2025, and June 11, 2026.” The company also “consulted with Yelp Trend Expert Tara Lewis to zero in on what spots Yelpers were loving.”
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This article originally published at California lands 3 of Yelp’s top 5 best new restaurants in America.
Dining and Cooking