Each year, the Columbus Monthly food team stays busy sampling the city’s new restaurants. Which ones live up to the hype? Which places deserve hype they aren’t getting? What restaurants are adding something truly unique to Columbus’ offerings?
In addition to this being—let’s be honest—very fun work, it’s also illuminating. We love discovering new cuisines and dishes we didn’t even know we’d been missing.
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The restaurants selected this year represent a diversity of cooking styles, experiences and price points. From an indulgent chef’s tasting menu in Merion Village to an inexpensive upgrade of your lunchtime burger in the form of a Japanese Heele Katsu fried pork sandwich, we’ve got something on this list that’s sure to suit your tastes.
Full-service restaurants that opened between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025 were eligible for this list. (Haru Omakase, a Polaris-area omakase restaurant, opened within this timeframe but has already been named a Best Restaurant by Columbus Monthly, so we made space here for other newcomers.)
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. We hope you’ll enjoy learning about them and sampling their offerings as much as we have.
On March 18, our annual Best New Restaurants event at Vitria on the Square will offer a chance to taste the offerings of our Best New Restaurants. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
Columbus Monthly’s Best New Restaurants of 2026
Click the link to read about each selection and see additional photos
This story appeared in the February 2026 issue of Columbus Monthly as part of the Best New Restaurants of 2026 feature package. Subscribe to Columbus Monthly here.
This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: These Are Columbus Monthly’s Best New Restaurants in Columbus of 2026
Reporting by Linda Lee Baird, Amy Bodiker Baskes, Lucy Clark, Nicholas Dekker, Katy Smith and Bob Vitale, Columbus Monthly / Columbus Monthly
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
