Salt Lake Magazine’s 2024 Dining Awards

It’s the Eternal Question. “Where Should We Eat?” It’s a query that we ask ourselves as hunger sets in. It’s a question that couples and families text message around wildly as the dinner hour approaches. It’s a question that your out-of-town guests prod you with before arrival (but too late to make a reservation). The answer is often dull, “the usual spot” or “dunno, pizza?” Let’s remedy that. Eating out is about more than sustenance. It’s about company, friends and someone else doing the dishes. Each year, Salt Lake magazine gazes upon the dining landscape and presents its choices for our Dining Awards issue. These are experiences that will enliven your answers to the Eternal Question. They will challenge your palate with thoughtful and local solutions to the riddle. So without further fuss, we present our 15 Best Restaurants of 2024, including our Outstanding Restaurant of the Year, a collection of locales that are such standards that we name them Utah Classics, four restaurants to watch and five superlative standouts in the industry.  

So. Where should we eat? The answers are within.

Click on the images below to learn more about our 2024 winners

Meet the Salt Lake magazine Dining Awards Panel

Jennifer Burns

Jennifer is a freelance food and beverage writer and content creator. She primarily works with food brands and restaurants and has hosted over 3000 TV cooking and entertainment segments.

Darby Doyle

Darby Doyle is a food, beverage, and outdoor writer who covers the culinary and natural wonders of the American West.

Lydia Martinez

Lydia is a freelance food, travel and culture writer. She writes for Salt Lake magazine, Suitcase Foodist and Utah Stories.

Stuart Melling

Stuart is an award-winning journalist who has covered the Utah dining scene for 15 years. He’s also the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC and a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Side Dishes

Ones to Watch

Often a new restaurant comes on the scene with a splash that catches our attention but, hey, it’s a hard biz at any time, much less at this time. But these five newcomers raised our eyebrows and we’re excited to see what happens next.

• Matteo Ristorante Italiano
• Mint – Tapas and Sushi
• Chef Jon Dubois of Pago
• Chef Patrick LeBeau of Bambara
• Kita at the Pendry

Meet the five hot new spots on our radar.

Above and Beyond

Each year we pass out a collection of special awards for individuals and organizations who, well, have done something special, superlative even. (And, also, just because we can.)

• The #RandomPink Award: Margo Provost and the Team at Log Haven
• The Golden Spoon For Hospitality: Drew and Angie Fuller of Oquirrh
• The Blue Plate Award for Community Service: Lavanya Mahate of Saffron Valley
• The Good Bread Award: Nick Fahs of Table X
• The Spirit Award: Francis Fecteau of Libation, LLC

Utah Classics

Remind yourself of restaurants that are so good, they never went away.

Read more about these Utah Classics.

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Salt Lake magazine 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.