2025 Guide to Philly’s Michelin-Honored Restaurants

Since taking over the Rittenhouse Square corner staple Friday Saturday Sunday in 2016, husband-and-wife Chef Chad and Hanna Williams’ proverbial trophy case has become a roll call of the culinary world’s top accolades. The New York Times, the James Beard Awards and, now, the Michelin Guide have all come calling, awarding the Contemporary American restaurant some of its highest honors.

The Black-owned fine-dining eatery features an elegant, seasonally inspired eight-course prix fixe tasting menu served in its luxurious-yet-intimate upstairs dining room. While indulgent culinary classics are the draw, don’t sleep on the expansive, rave-worthy cocktail list replete with excellently prepared (and named!) concoctions.

When Amanda Shulman was a student, she threw elaborate dinner parties for her University of Pennsylvania classmates. The buzzy, warm and welcoming vibe of her dorm room shindigs has carried over to her Rittenhouse Square fine-dining restaurant, Her Place Supper Club — a sentiment that the Michelin Guide inspectors say directly contributed to the Shulman’s freshly minted one-star status.

Accompanied by a well-crafted wine and cocktail program, Her Place’s communal-ish, fixed-price tasting menu is ever-changing, rotating out every two weeks (talk about impressive!), and features a mix of Italian, French and Jewish-inspired flavors. Previously, the intimate restaurant has garnered nods from the James Beard Awards and Bon Appétit.

A newcomer in Philly’s eclectic Society Hill neighborhood, chef Nicholas Bazik’s Provenance subverts traditional French cuisine by integrating noteworthy Japanese and Korean influences — and its 20-to-25-dish, seafood-focused tasting menu honors each and every ingredient.

Operating out of a converted rowhome, the uber-ambitious fine dining restaurant operates on all four cylinders, night after night, catching the attention of Michelin inspectors with upscale items — like duck confit with corn polenta — served from a massive soapstone table with a kitchen view, a gallery-esque room with original Korean artwork or a wine cellar that includes an adjacent private bar.

Nearly every Philadelphian has a regular spot for hoagies, for slices and for cheesesteaks. But to a lot of folks, it’s all one place: Angelo’s Pizzeria South Philly.

Piled high with finely sliced steak, oozing cheese and sautéed onions on a seeded Sarcone’s roll (along with their top-shelf bubbly-crust pizzas and craveable hoagies), the Bella Vista spots’ popular cheesesteaks and equally delicious pizza pies are the reasons for often-long lines down the block — and now some serious recognition from the Michelin Guide.

When you catch Michelin’s eye, you know you’re doing something right.

While its hefty hoagies and flavorful burgers are nothing to sneeze at, Dalessandro’s has been drawing crowds for its massive cheesesteaks — featuring finely chopped rib-eye and extra-chunky, hand-sliced sautéed onions — at its Roxborough shop since 1960. The neighborhood staple sets its steaks apart by melting its cheese into the steak — creating a more integrated melt — and packing the soft rolls with juicy, high-quality cuts.

Along with offering perfectly caramelized onions, diners can take their pick of complimentary toppings like hot peppers, raw onions, sweet peppers, marinara sauce and more.

In many Philadelphians’ minds, Del Rossi’s Cheesesteak & Pizza Co. — with its perfectly grilled sirloin piled high on handmade seeded sourdough rolls — has long cemented its place in Philly’s sandwich hall of fame. It’s no surprise that Michelin’s inspectors found themselves privy to its magical appeal, too.

The narrow Northern Liberties shop just off Spring Garden Street features an expansive menu, including a Long Hot Cheesesteak, a Chipotle Cheesesteak of hand-cut rib-eye marinated in housemade chipotle sauce, six different chicken cheesesteaks, including chipotle, Buffalo and barbecue, plus fantastic pizza pies.

As one of the most prolific teams in Philadelphia’s food scene, Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook are behind some of the city’s favorite and most critically acclaimed restaurants, from fine-dining staples like Zahav (below) to take-out joints like Federal Donuts.

For years, the duo’s Israeli hummusiya, Dizengoff — named for a Tel Aviv street lined with outdoor cafes — has drawn long lines for its creamy, smooth, and silky-soft chickpea dips that are swirled in shallow bowls, drizzled with olive oil and loaded with shredded chicken, pepper walnut, beets or mushrooms.

A culinary journey through Mexico, El Chingon highlights chef Carlos Aparicio’s hometown of Puebla.

The lively and colorful South Philly spot churns out a menu full of aguachiles, tacos and other delicious Mexican specialties, but it’s famous for its hearty, Puebla-style cemitas: adobo pork-, chicken- and beef-stuffed sandwiches served up on chef Aparicio’s signature freshly baked and sesame-seeded bread.

Before winning the hearts and tummies of Michelin inspectors, the restaurant was named one of the best restaurants in the nation by the New York Times.

Famous 4th Street Delicatessen is about as old-school as they come.

This established corner deli located off South Street has been whipping up authentic Jewish breakfast fare — think corned beef hash with eggs, challah French toast, omelets with a side of smoked fish, a variety of fresh bagel sandwiches, and sandwiches that tower with layer after layer of pastrami, roast beef and bologna — since 1923.

The portions are enormous and the pride is palpable in a way that only comes from serving generation after generation of Philadelphians for over a century.

James Beard Award-winning chef Marc Vetri helped put the city’s dining scene on the map in the late 1990s with his fine-dining eatery Vetri Cucina. The Philly native’s pasta bar Fiorella — Vetri Cucina’s more casual companion — prominently features an old-school neon sign and a 220-pound solid-brass cash register, but the frequently changing menu of fresh pasta dishes is the main attraction.

The intimate Italian Market spot serves up a menu full of delectable, handcrafted pastas — tonnarelli, ricotta gnocchi and rigatoni topped with the restaurant’s namesake sausage ragu — and a drink menu of Italian-inspired cocktails and wines.

Joe Beddia and his pies first took the nation by storm in the late 2010s when Pizzeria Beddia was named Bon Appétit’s Best Pizza in America and then proclaimed one of the World’s Greatest Places by Time magazine.

Things have only continued to heat up for the Fishtown landmark, which serves up perfectly crafted 16-inch pies with a crispy crust in a minimalist space located down a nondescript alley. For a special night out, you can reserve Beddia’s “Hoagie Room,” where your party is treated to a five-course, two-hour private pizza and hoagie omakase experience you won’t forget.

Are you in the mood for a full sit-down upscale Japanese meal or a swanky sushi prix-fixe experience? Clearly, you’re in great company alongside the Michelin team, and luckily, both are at your service at James Beard Award nominee Jesse Ito’s unassuming Royal Sushi and Izakaya.

The casual first-come, first-served Royal Izakaya side offers an inventive a la carte menu of sushi, sashimi, soups, salads, bao buns of the highest quality and plenty of sake. If you’re lucky, you can kick your night up a notch at Royal Sushi with an eight-seat, 17-piece nigirizushi and temaki omakase for $230. Just be warned: Reservations for Ito’s omakase experience are exceptionally hard to come by.

This is not your father’s pizza place. Chic Rittenhouse Square spot Sally takes pizza culture to the next level with fresh small plates, a robust drink menu and inventive sourdough pizzas.

Sally’s wood-fired, naturally leavened thin-crust pizzas are piled high with flavorful toppings, with offerings like the Soppressata (Biellese salami, Fat Cat cheese and pepper jelly); the Mushroom (mozzarella, Comté cheese, porcini béchemel and pickled Spanish onions); and the Red (Jersey tomatoes and olive oil, with optional mozzarella and basil).

Round out your meal with crowd-pleasers like the meatballs with red sauce, garlic and parmesan cheese, or the house ricotta with fig jam, toasted walnuts, honey balsamic agrodolce and focaccia — and don’t miss out on the creative cocktails and natural wines.

Plants are placed on a pedestal at Pietramala. Chef Ian Graye’s imaginative and ever-changing menu of salads, small plates, entrees and desserts doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t, allowing the natural flavors of the fresh produce and the chef’s culinary creativity to shine.

Today, the menu boasts fluffy sourdough focaccia, tasty durum cavatelli and a rich peanut mousse bar. Next season? The sky’s the limit. One constant: Served tapas-style in a cozy,  candle-lit, greenhouse-like dining room, the vegan menu highlights sustainable ingredients sourced from foragers and small local suppliers.

Take your pick from two diverse culinary experiences at Ambra, a modern Italian concept.

Pull up a chair to The Chef’s Counter, which is set up for two to four guests. You’ll find yourself at the heart of the restaurant with a front-row seat to the fun and hardworking team of chefs, who spend about three-and-a-half hours leading you through a behind-the-scenes look at preparing the seasonal — and elaborate — tasting menu.

Larger groups can reserve The Dining Room, a private, family-style space where the night starts with an aperitivo of drinks and hors d’oeuvres, before chefs guide you through a multi-course meal hallmarked by food memories, storytelling and local, seasonal products.

Something of a prodigy, chef Christopher Kearse got early practice in the kitchen at home on — guess where —  Forsythia Drive in Bucks County. Fittingly, his Old City bistro, Forsythia, embodies both the uninhibited creativity of childhood and the elevated luxury of fine French cuisine.

Fresh, seasonal ingredients are elevated by finely tuned French cooking technique, resulting in dishes like tempura frog legs with saffron aioli — a favorite of the Michelin crew — in a dining room just as vibrant as the produce on the plate.

Another feather in the hospitality cap of James Beard award-winning restaurateur Ellen Yin, Washington Square West’s High Street Restaurant & Bar (actually on South 9th Street) is a rustic American-style spot specializing in some of the city’s best artisan breads — baked in-house daily.

Lunch and dinner menus feature items like gourmet sandwiches, fresh salads, handmade pastas and inventive pizzas, while brunch options include breakfast staples, plenty of innovative baked goods and a well-appointed coffee bar.

Fishtown sushi restaurant Hiroki is minimalist on the inside, but that’s because the real seller here is the omakase-style menu.

There are 20 (!) courses, beginning with zensai — two-, three- or four-ingredient bites used to wake up the taste buds — before feasting on hot courses, a variety of sushi, miso soup and dessert. Take your experience to the next level with an optional seven-course sake pairing.

Hiroki is an experience as much as it is an exploration of renowned chef Hiroki Fujiyama’s hometown of Kyoto, Japan.

Couple and 2024 James Beard Award semifinalists Cybille St. Aude-Tate and Omar Tate’s West Philly cafe has moved uptown to North Broad.

With a new focus on fine-dining dinner service, Honeysuckle continues to pay homage to the flavors and cultures of the Black diaspora with a $95 ($135 with drinks and dessert) tasting menu. Menu items include Akra (a plantain, cassava and shrimp dish) and $PAY4HAITI (a Haitian-style spaghetti).

The drink program is just as bold, with house-fermented ingredients, natural and biodynamic wines from women and people of color producers, and spirited creations like the Black Cake cocktail, named for the Caribbean fruitcake.

Local seafood and produce are the stars of the show at this Gray’s Ferry BYOB.

A menu of delightfully simple small plates — like marinated mussels and chicory salad — joins entrees like Norwegian mackerel with daikon and ginger, lobster with potatoes and cabbage, and monkfish with honeynut squash and lemongrass.

Pro tip: Don’t sleep on the bread and butter. General manager and baker Sophie Weiber serves up fresh, thick sourdough each day.

Talk about a trophy case. Not only was Kalaya named Esquire’s Best New Restaurant in America when it opened in 2020, but chef/owner Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon walked away from the 2023 James Beard Awards, bestowed with the title Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

It was from her mother that Suntaranon learned to craft the authentic southern Thai dishes served up at the restaurant she named in her honor, chock full of her signature crowd-pleasing spicy curries.

Taking its name from the butcher in Fiddler On The Roof, 2022 James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist Laser Wolf is like a little sister to Zahav (see below), also from co-owners Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook, with 2023 Best Chef semifinalist Andrew Henshaw at the helm.

The Fishtown-area Israeli skewer house — also named one of the world’s best restaurants by Condé Nast Traveler — churns out delectable delicacies such as shishlik (available in chicken, steak or mushroom), whole dorade, koobideh and other kebabs, along with included salatim and signature hummus and pita. L’chaim!

Chef Randy Rucker — known for netting a 2024 James Beard Award nomination for his East Passyunk restaurant River Twice — teams up with his wife, chef Amanda Rucker, for this contemporary coastal restaurant.

Channeling the Ruckers’ experiences living in multiple coastal towns, the upscale eatery celebrates the diversity of the ocean with a menu featuring dishes like swordfish Milanese, fried whole snapper with cabbage and caramel, creamy crab salad with apple and black walnuts, and a bevy of creative cocktails curated by Ben Spirk (formerly of Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co.).

Plus, eat good and feel good: The restaurant supports local farms and fishermen with locally and sustainably sourced ingredients.

A hanging sign of a giant apricot marks the spot for Mish Mish, a cozy restaurant whipping up Mediterranean-inspired dishes in the heart of East Passyunk.

Fresh, in-season items dot the menu — like beef bacon-braised roasted half chicken with mustard greens and brûléed sweet potato soufflé with a smoked pepper chocolate sauce —  which also embodies Middle Eastern influences.

Fun fact: The concept is a labor of love from one of Philly’s ultimate foodies, Alex Tewfik, who previously spent five years as the food editor at Philadelphia Magazine. All that’s to say: Your taste buds will be in good hands here.

It can be hard to find quick success in one of America’s great culinary cities. But Rittenhouse Square’s My Loup didn’t seem to have much problem, with an opening in 2023 that garnered it a James Beard Award semifinalist honor for Best New Restaurant within just eight months.

The sensation from married chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp of Her Place Supper Club (see above) offers an ever-changing menu of Quebecois-influenced French cuisine, featuring items that are as playful as they are decadent, like roast beef au poivre with frites and horseradish, and the popular Escar-Roll featuring escargot baked inside a flaky pastry and bathed in a green butter sauce.

Pro tip: Sit at the bar and enjoy creative cocktails crafted by bar manager Jillian Moore, whose resume includes some of Philly’s top restaurants.

In 2019, Philly native Amanda Rucker and her Texan husband, Randy, relocated from Massachusetts to Philadelphia to open River Twice in East Passyunk, focusing on their passion for thoughtfully sourced ingredients and sustainable design.

The couple sure knew what they were doing, as Randy was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef in 2024 (his second such honor, the first coming in 2011 in Texas).

The modern American BYOB with a minimalist vibe serves globally influenced dishes through a seasonally appropriate four-course menu with additions that change daily and an extensive wine list.

Formerly a creative (and slightly chaotic) one-woman show based in the Italian Market, Alex Holt’s adventurous culinary experiment Roxanne moved to South Street in 2025, painting the walls lavender and DIY-ing much of its charm (Holt’s mother — the Roxanne — even handcrafted the tables).

The menu — coined “American Expressionism” by the chef and inspired by her life in the wider world — is bold, out-of-the-box and ever-changing, with a full tasting menu experience or a la carte options like raw cheesesteak, arctic char cooked in beeswax and a room-temperature cheeseburger (for dessert).

Other standout dishes include the Iberico pork with persimmon, duck with black pepper and plum, and basil-fed escargot in a wheel of cheese. Delicious, avant-garde and, dare we say, whimsical.

A Queen Village darling by husband-and-wife team Chris D’Ambro and Marina de Oliveira — and the older sibling of Ambra (more on that spot above) — Southwark bridges New American-style cuisine with Italian and Mediterranean influences for an experience worthy of its Michelin honors.

Locally sourced ingredients take center stage on this restaurant’s ever-rotating seasonal menu, which has featured small plates like beef tartare and smoked pumpkin tortellini, along with entrees like rigatoni Bolognese and aged duck breast with risotto. Get cozy in the dark vintage dining room, sip on handcrafted cocktails at the lively bar or enjoy a meal alfresco on the tucked-away brick-paved patio.

Pro tip: Leave room for dessert. Featured items have included the chocolate Napoleon, the almond brioche Charlotte and a ginger mascarpone mousse.

A 12,000-square-foot restaurant, bar, garden patio, market and café, Fishtown’s Suraya is less “eating spot” and more “Middle East dining complex.”

Celebrating the flavors of the Levant — Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and particularly Lebanon — Suraya offers a menu of aromatic items like man’oushe flatbreads, baba ganoush, taboulé, ful mudammas and heaping plates of hummus.

Don’t leave before partaking in dessert: James Matty and his cache of Middle Eastern-inflected French pastries and sweets picked up a 2019 James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef.

Even in a city famous for cheesesteaks, you should still eat your vegetables — and upscale vegetarian eatery Vedge has you covered.

When James Beard Award-nominated chef-owner-partners Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby opened Vedge, they purposely eschewed reliance on meat substitutes, putting vegetables front and center. Their constantly changing menu of seasonal ingredients features mostly “medium plates” (somewhere between tapas and entrees) for dinner and a fun selection of happy hour snacks at their bar alongside excellent cocktails.

Be sure to peruse the scrumptious dessert menu full of genius dairy-free creations.

Where are you eating in a month? If your answer is Rittenhouse Square’s Vernick Food & Drink, start planning now, as James Beard Best Chef award-winner Greg Vernick’s upscale dinner spot takes reservations four weeks out — and fills up quickly.

Spring for the six-course tasting menu served in Vernick Wine’s “jewel-box” dining room, or choose an à la carte adventure from the casual seasonal menu. If you’re feeling particularly fishy, visit sister spot Vernick Fish, a modern seafood restaurant at the street level of the Comcast Technology Center.

James Beard Award-winning chef Marc Vetri knows what the people want — and exactly how to give it to them.

Inside its intimate Center City townhouse (formerly home to the world-famous Le Bec-Fin), Vetri Cucina has elevated Italian food to an art form, with a new way to experience it: Vetri’s fixed quattro piatti four-course menu with options within each, the restaurant’s sole offering.

What more can be said about Zahav that hasn’t already been said?

Fifteen James Beard recognitions since 2008, including chef category victories for both co-founder Michael Solomonov and rising star Camille Cogswell (now working in North Carolina), all topped by a Best Restaurant in America title in 2019.

Single-handedly elevating Philadelphia’s food scene with its modern take on Israeli specialties, Zahav’s open kitchen plates shareable selections like fried cauliflower, lamb with beet-pickled turnips and branzino with roasted cucumber in a friendly and casual atmosphere.