Columbus Monthly magazine has come out with its annual Best New Restaurants picks.
In its February issue, the magazine spotlights nine top eateries that opened during the last year. Their specialties are brunch to fine dining, and they represent cuisines that span the world.
“The … restaurants selected this year represent a diversity of cooking styles, cuisines, experiences and price points,” Columbus Monthly editors wrote. “From well-known restauranteurs to those just entering the business, there’s a common love of craft and a care for clientele that you feel in each of these spaces.”
The list and stories about each of the Best New Restaurants for 2026 are posted now at columbusmonthly.com. The Dispatch and Columbus Monthly magazine are owned by USA TODAY Co.
Here are all of Columbus Monthly’s picks on the nine Best New Restaurants. If you’d like to sample food from each in one place on one night, come to Columbus Monthly’s annual Best New Restaurants evening March 18 at Vitria on the Square. Early-bird tickets are available now.
Isla
The dinners that Andrew Smith and Devoney Mills hosted in their Westgate home for more than six years are in a formal restaurant setting at Isla in Merion Village. Not that formal, though. Although Isla’s cuisine and décor are impeccably fine-dining, the atmosphere is relaxed and communal.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Indulge in the chef’s counter meal for additional courses and a view of the kitchen.
Metsi’s
BJ Lieberman and Bronwyn Haines closed the celebrated Chapman’s Eat Market in August 2025, but their opening of Metsi’s two months earlier helped ease the pain. The Italian restaurant in, appropriately, Italian Village makes good use of the wood-fired of its predecessor, Hiraeth, which occupied the space in 2023 and 2024.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Try Radiatori alla Roma, a classic Roman dish to which Lieberman adds ricotta and chili flakes.
Astra Rooftop
With a dinner and cocktail menu to match its eighth-floor views, Astra Rooftop is the successor to Lumin Sky Bar atop the AC Hotel Columbus Downtown. It features entrees such as steaks, roasted chicken and Chilean seabass, as well as sandwiches, flatbreads and a few pasta dishes.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: The Flaming Tomahawk is a 32-ounce bone-in ribeye that can serve two or three people. It’s wheeled to the table and given another dose of live fire.
Food Street
Since its opening in December 2024, Food Street has turned many Columbus diners into fans of something new in the city: Pakistani street food. Burgers and chicken sandwiches share a menu with paratha rolls, a flaky flatbread wrap and other popular dishes from Lahore and Peshawar, Pakistan.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Gappa Chaat, which is chickpeas, potatoes, yogurt, chutneys and several spices served inside a large cracker.
Orale Güey Café Bar and Grill
Things haven’t slowed down for owners Jose Rodriguez and Salvador Martinez since a viral TikTok video last year began drawing customers into their then-brand-new Orale Güey Café Bar and Grill. The East Side restaurant offers breakfast and lunch customers some American standards such as pancakes and omelets, but it really draws people in for authentic, affordable Mexican fare such as chilaquiles and street tacos.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Chilaquiles, the Mexican breakfast dish of tortillas in salsa with eggs and refried beans – the restaurant offers five versions.
Mezcla
At least one chef on the Best New Restaurants list – and it’s not owner Garrett Talmage himself – has named Mezcla his favorite new dining spot. Talmage, who used to cook around the corner at the former Cosecha Cocina in Italian Village, has created a menu of unique Latin dishes and tequila- and mezcal-focused cocktails.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Hamachi tiradito, a fusion of the Japanese fish in a Peruvian presentation is sliced and served with yuzu-pickled serrano.
Bar Italia
A familiar Columbus restaurant name, Lindey’s co-owner Rick Doody, returned to his hometown with Bar Italia, a brand already established at four other locations in Florida and the Cleveland area. In the middle of Easton Town Center – it’s the former location of Smith & Wollensky – Bar Italia serves lunch and dinner menus of scratch-made classic pastas, pizzas, piccatas and more.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Spicy Vodka Rigate has a creamy vodka tomato sauce that’s spiked with Calabrian chiles.
Fiery Sky Asian Kitchen
One of the newest Asian-food destinations on Bethel Road is Fiery Sky Asian Kitchen. Owner Lu Sha was a Best New Restaurants honoree in 2020 as well with Xi Xia Western Chinese Cuisine. At Fiery Sky, Sha and his wife, Codie Cui, focus on authentic Sichuan dishes and food from Sha’s native Ningxia province. There’s also a menu of American Chinese dishes labeled “local favorites.”
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Try the dry pot fried fish fillets; dry pot is a Chinese style of cooking in which food is stir-fried over high heat and then finished with sauce in a sizzling pot.
Osaka Ton Katsu
Ton katsu, a breaded and fried pork cutlet, is one of the more accessible Japanese dishes. It’s served a few different ways at Downtown’s Osaka Ton Katsu: as a meal with rice, miso soup and cabbage salad, in a rice bowl, as a curry, or in a sandwich. The restaurant also sells four types of the Japanese rice balls called onigiri: ginger beef, pork, salmon and tuna mayo.
Columbus Monthly’s recommendation: Tonkatsu Teishoku is the full meal, which comes with miso soup, finely shredded cabbage with sesame dressing, rice, and pickles.
Follow Dispatch dining reporter Bob Vitale on Instagram at @dispatchdining. You can reach him directly at rvitale@dispatch.com.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nine new favorites named Columbus Monthly’s 2026 Best New Restaurants
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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