Smoked by AI · Salt Lake City
The people.
The chefs, critics and writers and bar people, owners and locals whose picks shape the Salt Lake City list, grouped by what they do for a living. Every name is a real person with a public track record, and each one appears against a room only where they endorsed that room themselves.
Chefs 13Critics and writers 11Bar people, owners and locals 7
Chefs.
Chefs cook for a living, and a chef who sends you to somebody else's room is putting their own name on it.
- Adam VickersChef1 pick
Italian cooking in Utah; a long-running Salt Lake fine-dining kitchen.
- Ethan LappeChef1 pick
Seasonal American cooking and all-day dining in Salt Lake.
- Mike BlocherChef1 pick
Seasonal tasting-menu cooking, kitchen gardening and preservation.
- Romina RasmussenChef1 pick
Pastry and viennoiserie; the kouign-amann in particular.
- Ryan LowderChef1 pick
The modern Salt Lake restaurant, and the generation of rooms that opened after The Copper Onion.
- Andrew FullerChefno picks on this list yet
New American cooking off the season, built on humble ingredients.
- David ChonChefno picks on this list yet
Korean and Japanese cooking held deliberately apart rather than blended.
- Manoli KatsanevasChefno picks on this list yet
Greek cooking read through France, Spain and Italy; shared plates.
- Martín BabíoChefno picks on this list yet
A seasonal tasting menu built on foraged and local produce, out of French, Italian and South American training.
- Milo CarrierChefno picks on this list yet
A seasonal menu rewritten month to month, with no fixed repertoire and no cuisine allegiance.
- Nick FahsChefno picks on this list yet
Bread, fermentation and preservation.
- Takashi GiboChefno picks on this list yet
Sushi and Japanese cooking in Utah, and the Peruvian-Japanese crossing his own life carries.
- Zach WadeChefno picks on this list yet
House-made bread and pasta; the Central Ninth restaurant block.
Critics and writers.
Critics ate the meal, wrote it up under their own name, and the review is linked so you can read it yourself.
- Stuart MellingCritic24 picks
The whole Utah dining scene, seventeen-plus years of it; the longest continuous memory of this city's restaurants in print.
- Ted SchefflerCritic20 picks
Utah restaurants and wine, with the second-longest memory in the city after Melling's.
- Jenny WilldenCritic16 picks
Salt Lake City restaurants for a visiting and a local audience.
- Sarah EntwistleJournalist13 picks
Salt Lake City restaurants across every price band, written for Eater's national maps.
- Lydia MartinezJournalist10 picks
Salt Lake food and drink for Salt Lake Magazine: the annual James Beard round-ups and the monthly Food Crush column.
- Alex SpringerCritic7 picks
Salt Lake restaurants across every price band, and Utah craft beer.
- Heather L. KingCritic7 picks
Salt Lake restaurants at every price, with a cheap-eats beat in her current work.
- Avrey EvansJournalist2 picks
Salt Lake bars and bar food for Salt Lake Magazine.
- Darby DoyleAuthor2 picks
Food, drink and travel across the Intermountain West; spirits and Utah's liquor law in particular.
- Kolbie PetersonJournalist2 picks
Salt Lake food news and the Tribune's Utah Eats newsletter.
- Penelope BassJournalistno picks on this list yet
Bars and drinks, for a national drinks magazine.
Bar people, owners and locals.
Bartenders, owners and locals know the things a review misses, like where the trade actually drinks.
- Angie FullerOwner / operator1 pick
Front of house and service; the hospitality half of a chef-owner pair.
- Scott EvansOwner1 pick
Local sourcing, and the Salt Lake restaurant group that has run longest on it.
- Sean NevesBartender1 pick
Cocktails and the Salt Lake bar scene under Utah's liquor law.
- Steven RosenbergOwner / operator1 pick
Produce, cheese and provisions; who is growing and making what in Utah.
- Francis FecteauSommelierno picks on this list yet
Wine, and the Utah market's particular constraints on it.
- Lavanya MahateOwnerno picks on this list yet
Indian regional cooking in Utah, and immigrant-run restaurants in this city generally.
- Scott GardnerBartenderno picks on this list yet
Cocktails, dive bars and Utah beer.