Quick Summary
A curated guide to 18 of the best restaurants in Salt Lake City, covering every price point and cuisine. The list pulls from fine dining, casual neighborhood spots, and local fast food icons that define what eating in SLC actually looks like.
Who This Is For:
- Visitors planning a trip to Salt Lake City who want more than generic “top 10” advice,Â
- Locals looking to explore beyond their usual rotation
Key Takeaways:
- Red Iguana’s seven house-made moles are unmatched in the city and a must-try for any first-time visitor
- Table X and Urban Hill represent the high end of SLC dining and are worth planning around
- Pretty Bird and Crown Burgers prove that the most memorable food in a city is sometimes the least pretentious
- Takashi, Manoli’s, Valter’s Osteria, and Caputo’s each do one thing exceptionally well, and that focus is the whole point.
Salt Lake City has a food problem. There’s a huge selection of delicious options, yet people still underestimate it. Visitors show up expecting burgers and chain restaurants. What they find instead is a city with some genuinely ambitious kitchens doing work that would hold up in any major food city.
This list covers the best food in Salt Lake City across every category, price point, and craving. Some of these restaurants have been open since 1965. Others earned their first Salt Lake Magazine Dining Award in 2025, and all of them are worth going out of your way for!
Red Iguana
Red Iguana has been voted the best Mexican restaurant in Utah for more than 25 consecutive years, and they’ve earned it.
The mole is just the first reason to go. There are seven house-made versions, each built from a completely different set of ingredients, and no other restaurant in Salt Lake is doing anything close to this. Order the mole sampler on your first visit so you can taste the spectrum before committing to a full dish.
The Cochinita Pibil (slow-roasted pork rubbed with achiote, orange juice, and vinegar, served with pickled red onion) is the other entree that separates this place from every other Mexican restaurant in the city.
You can taste Red Iguana at three locations: the original at 736 W North Temple, Red Iguana 2 at 866 W South Temple, or Taste of Red Iguana, their newest location at 5434 Center Field Drive in Daybreak.
Takashi
Takashi is the consensus pick for best sushi in Salt Lake City, and it’s not particularly close. Takashi makes creative rolls worth standing in line for, and there will be a line. The restaurant opens at 5:30 pm and rarely has an empty table at 5:31. No reservations for most seatings, so get there early or head next door to the Post Office Place bar and wait with a Japanese whiskey cocktail.
The Crunchy Ebi roll at Takashi is a dish people come back for specifically. Shrimp tempura, avocado, spicy mayo, masago, eel sauce, and tempura crumbs, and it somehow holds together into something more interesting than the sum of its parts. The nigiri program is where Takashi really separates itself. Head over and give it a try.
Urban Hill
The first restaurant to open in Salt Lake’s Post District, back in 2022, Urban Hill has quickly become the go-to for special occasion dinners downtown. The 192-seat glass-enclosed wine room was built with real ambition, and the team clearly knows what they’re doing. Start with the skillet rolls and the barbecue oysters. The dry-aged ribeye is one of the better steaks available in downtown SLC.
Chef Nick Zocco’s menu leans New American with open-fire technique and Southwestern touches. It’s been called the best fine dining restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City, and the accolades from Salt Lake Magazine and Gastronomic SLC back that up.
Log Haven
For scenery alone, nothing in the city competes. Log Haven is four miles up Millcreek Canyon in a historic log mansion built in 1920, surrounded by waterfalls and old-growth trees. Chef Dave Jones runs a menu that leans Southwestern with seasonal Utah ingredients. Dishes at Log Haven include achiote-grilled calamari with Fresno peppers and pork tenderloin with huckleberry gastrique. The wine list is curated by a dedicated wine director with a connection to Santa Barbara’s Longoria Wines.
It’s the right call for a romantic dinner, a milestone celebration, or any occasion where the meal should feel like an event.
Oquirrh
Chef-driven New American cooking from husband-and-wife team Angie and Drew Fuller. Oquirrh is smaller and more focused than some of the city’s splashier restaurants. It’s a cozy downtown spot where the seasonal, locally sourced menu changes with what’s available. Salt Lake Magazine included it among its top restaurants in the 2025 Dining Awards, alongside Table X and Urban Hill. Oquirrh is good for a quiet, serious dinner.
Franklin Ave
Chef Matt Crandall’s restaurant in Salt Lake has become one of the stronger newer spots in the city. The approach is modern American, hyper-seasonal, and farm-driven. In this kitchen, the menu shifts based on what came in that week rather than what the printer says. Gastronomic SLC has called Franklin Ave his best work yet.
Arlo
2025 Salt Lake Magazine Dining Awards winner. Contemporary American with globally influenced technique, and a quieter dining room than some of its peers, Arlo is where you go when you want excellent food without the scene.
Valter’s Osteria
Valter’s Osteria is old-school Italian hospitality in the best possible sense. Owner Valter Nassi runs a dining room where tableside preparations are part of the experience and the personal attention is genuine. This is the restaurant for people who find most Italian places in America too casual or too chain-adjacent. The pasta is serious, the service is personal, and the room feels like it belongs in a different decade.
Matteo
Looking for house-made pastas and a warm trattoria feel? Matteo has quickly built a reputation for consistent, well-executed Italian cooking. A simple bowl of pasta, a glass of red wine, and a good booth. This is an easy call for a first-date dinner or a midweek meal that feels a little more fun.
Manoli’s
Greek tapas, locally owned, and one of the better date-night restaurants in the city. The food at Manoli’s leans into the sharing format. Here you gather around a table with several small plates, good wine, and enjoy good food with a fun vibe. The Salt Lake Magazine 2025 Dining Awards recognized Manoli’s for good reason.
Eva
A downtown Mediterranean fixture that has held its position for more than 15 years, Eva is the reliable anchor for anyone who wants quality Middle Eastern-influenced food without a long reservation wait. It’s been around long enough to feel like an institution, and the kitchen hasn’t lost its edge.
The Copper Onion
The Copper Onion is a downtown brasserie that opened in 2010 and has never stopped being worth a visit. Gastronomic SLC calls its burger the best in downtown Salt Lake City, and the ricotta dumplings with Parmigiano Reggiano have been on the menu since day one.
The Copper Onion does comfort food at a level that most restaurants call elevated, meaning the burger actually is better, the salads are thought through, and the room stays lively without getting loud.
Pretty Bird
Pretty Bird is Iron Chef Viet Pham’s fried chicken sandwich operation. Each boneless thigh comes double-battered, buttermilk-brushed, and fried to a crackly crust, served on a buttered bun with coleslaw, pickles, and Pretty Bird sauce. The chicken sandwich lines move fast. This is the most beloved casual spot in the city for good reason: it does one thing and does it better than anywhere else in Salt Lake.
Crown Burgers
Crown Burgers is SLC’s most iconic fast food institution, and the home of the pastrami burger. A beef patty topped with hot pastrami, it’s a Utah original and a genuine piece of local food culture. The French fries are properly done. Crown Burgers won’t impress anyone looking for a tasting menu, but it belongs on this list because it belongs in Salt Lake City. Skip it, and you’ve missed something real.
Caputo’s Market & Deli
Caputo’s is part specialty food market, part deli, part restaurant. The downtown location on Main Street is the flagship. Italian roots, an outstanding cheese selection, house-made sandwiches, and imported products you won’t find at a standard grocery store. Caputo’s is the right stop before a picnic, after a downtown dinner when you want something for tomorrow, or any time you want a proper lunch that doesn’t require a reservation.
Beirut Cafe
Frequently cited as the best Middle Eastern food in Salt Lake City. The kibbeh is the dish most regulars point to first, followed closely by the hummus and fresh pita. Beirut Cafe is the kind of restaurant that doesn’t advertise much because it doesn’t need to. Word of mouth has kept it full for years. Lebanese cooking done with care and consistency.
Ready to Dig In?
Salt Lake City’s dining scene rewards the people who look past the obvious. The institutions have earned their status, and the newer spots show a city that’s pushing forward without losing the warmth that makes SLC dining feel different from bigger food cities. Eat your way through this list, and you’ll understand why the locals stopped apologizing for their city a long time ago.