The 20 Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings in the U.S. This Year
From Michelin-starred chefs to Top Chef fan favorites to award-winning restaurateurs—and a lot of people in between—there are so many exciting new concepts expected to open this year. When we survey the upcoming restaurants across the country, we can’t help but be excited by the diversity of flavors and ideas that will be joining the national conversation. Here are the 20 restaurant openings we’re most excited for in 2025.
JouJou, San Francisco
David Barzelay and Colleen Booth, the team behind Michelin two-star Lazy Bear, are bringing another restaurant to the City by the Bay this spring. JouJou will be a seafood-focused eatery that merges French and Californian cuisines. The duo promises “no shortcuts, no garnishes, nothing avant-garde” at this new spot, where you can expect dishes like oysters and frites, pommes dauphines, and king salmon with sauce Americaine.
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Elmina, Washington, D.C.
Top Chef fan favorite Eric Adjepong is readying an upscale restaurant devoted to West African cuisine, with a heavy focus on Ghanaian food. A mix of small plates and family-style platters will include dishes like fufu, spiced plantains, and jollof rice. In addition to à la carte offerings, Adjepong will craft a four-course tasting menu.
Raon, New York City
This 14-seat chef’s counter will be the latest entry to New York’s exciting Korean fine-dining scene. Chef Soogil Lim and Sasook Youn of East Village restaurant Soogil will open this new spot in Midtown East and focus diners on a celebration of kimchi. Different forms of kimchi will be reimagined and presented as their own courses on this culinary journey that will also spotlight foundational Korean ingredients like doenjang and ganjang.
Lielle, Los Angeles
Taking over the two-story L.A. building that previously held Bicyclette and Manzke, chef Marcus Jernmark will open a pair of restaurants, the first of which being Lielle. The former executive chef at Stockholm’s Frantzén—one of the world’s best restaurants—Jernmark relocated to L.A. earlier this decade to open a different restaurant. Those plans fell through, and he has rebounded with a new plan where he’ll show off his new Nordic-California concept.
Crying Tiger, Chicago
Thai Dang, the chef behind the hit restaurant HaiSous: Vietnamese Kitchen, will partner with hospitality powerhouse Lettuce Entertain You for a new Southeast Asian concept called Crying Tiger in the city’s River North neighborhood. The partners will tap David Collins Studio, the architecture firm behind the lavish Tre Dita, to head up the restaurant’s design. The moniker “Crying Tiger” is a nod to the marinated beef dish of the same name.
Maison Passerelle, New York City
French luxury retailer Printemps is crossing the Atlantic for its first U.S. location, and it’s clearly making the culinary offering a priority. James Beard Award-winning chef Gregory Gourdet has partnered with Kent Hospitality Group to oversee five concepts that includes fine-dining restaurant Maison Passerelle. The new venture is a homecoming for the Brooklyn-born chef, who cut his teeth in three of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurants. The flagship spot inside the building on One Wall Street will explore French cuisine through the lens of its former colonies. So duck confit will be served with a West African-inspired spinach stew, and a chicory and apple salad will have a vinaigrette that nods to flavors of Vietnam. Of course, he’ll still be running his hit wood-fired Haitian restaurant Kann and the subterranean cocktail bar Sousòl back in Portland, Ore., too.
Perseid, Houston
Aaron Bludorn, Cherif Mbodji, and Victoria Bludorn are at the helm of yet another Space City restaurant, this time inside the new Hotel Saint Augustine. This 118-seat all-day restaurant will give hotel guests and Houston residents alike Bludorn’s take on bistro fare through a Gulf Coast lens. Perseid joins the group’s three existing restaurants: Bludorn, Navy Blue, and Bar Bludorn.
Alex Hong Project, San Francisco
Taking the place of the legendary Slanted Door inside San Francisco’s Ferry Building will be a new restaurant from Alex Hong and Josh Wilkerson of Michelin-starred Sorrel. While details are still a little scarce—a name has yet to be revealed—our experience with Hong’s exceptional cooking in the past has us excited for what he’s saying will be a menu devoted to the bounty of the California coastline.
The Alston, Chicago
Jenner Tomaska, the chef behind the Michelin-starred Esmé, is working on a new Chicago steakhouse and members’ club in the Gold Coast neighborhood. Partnering with Scott Weiner and Greg Mohr of the Fifty/50 Group, the wildly inventive chef isn’t planning a typical Windy City chophouse. Instead, he’s going to merge the Chicago tradition with 1920s French Nouvelle cuisine for an opulent experience that will include tableside preparations and Tomaska’s take on duck à la presse.
Cote, Las Vegas
One of America’s best steakhouses is expanding again. This time Simon Kim, David Shim, and co. are heading to Sin City after already notching Michelin stars for their outposts in New York and Miami. Opening inside the Venetian, which announced a $1.5 billion renovation last year, the country’s preeminent Korean steakhouse will serve up its famed butcher’s feast alongside plenty of A5 and impressive array of banchan. And, of course, the David Rockwell–designed space will have its own dry-aging room for its steaks.
Kabawa, New York City
For years, Paul Carmichael led the Australian outpost of David Chang’s Momofuku empire; now the chef is back in America, transforming the group’s former Ko space into a showcase for his Caribbean-influenced cooking. Like with Ko, the space will be divided between the tasting-menu restaurant and a bar serving casual à la carte bites.
Schezwan Club, Los Angeles
Avish Naran, the restaurateur who brought L.A. the hit Indian American sports bar Pijja Palace, will open Schezwan Club, his ode to Indian Chinese cuisine. The concept pulls from Naran’s youth, where he would frequent Indo-Chinese restaurants with his family in Cerritos. The menu will also be inspired by flavors throughout Southeast Asia, pulling ideas from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The Happy Crane, San Francisco
After spending time at Bo Innovation and Ta Vie in Hong Kong, chef James Yeun Leong Parry eventually made his way to San Francisco to work for Corey Lee’s Michelin three-star Benu. Parry’s debut restaurant, the Happy Crane, began as a pop-up at a boba shop as well as other bars and restaurants around the Bay Area. Now he’ll show off his homage to Chinese cuisine at a standalone spot through dishes like char siu, house made noodles, and dim sum.
Lilo, Carlsbad, Calif.
Phase one of John Resnick and Eric Bost’s reimagining of what was once a Southern California boogie board factory opened back in December, with the all-day café Wildland. Still to come in the same space is Lilo, an intimate 22-seat fine-dining concept where diners encircle an open kitchen. These new projects join the duo’s Michelin-starred tasting-menu spot Jeune et Jolie and the more casual wood-fired restaurant Campfire.
Duoro, Portland, Maine
When the pandemic hit, Colin Wyatt was one of those New Yorkers who decided to leave the city for more comfortable environs. The former chef at Eleven Madison Park and Daniel ventured with his family to Portland, Maine, creating the New England-focused restaurant Twelve. At his follow-up, Douro, he’s creating an all-day spot with a focus on the region’s outstanding seafood.
Nic & Junior’s, Chicago
Stellar chefs Nicholas Yanes and Junior Borges have joined forces to take their Austin-based hospitality company to the Windy City with their contemporary restaurant that will serve up global flavors. Borges, the chef behind one of the Best New Restaurants in America in 2022, Meridian, will feature his Brazilian heritage in the offerings, as he’ll lead the 30-seat, prix-fixe restaurant that will sit behind the more casual bar with an à la carte menu.
Lucia, Los Angeles
Restaurateur Sam Jordan and chef Adrian Forte are teaming up for a fine-dining take on Caribbean cuisine in L.A.’s Fairfax District. The 118-seat restaurant will feature Afro-Caribbean fare that pulls from Jamaican-born Forte’s roots. So expect dishes like a jerk-marinated ribeye, oxtail pepperpot, and saltfish and fig croquettes.
Cantina Contramar, Las Vegas
At her groundbreaking Contramar, chef Gabriela Cámara helped changed the Mexico City food scene, elevating food she ate growing up, like tostadas. Now she’s opening a new take on her seafood-driven restaurant inside the recently opened Fontainebleau on the Vegas Strip. The restaurant will include a Casa Dragones Tasting Room devoted the tequila brand’s luxury agave offerings.
Camaraderie, Houston
A veteran of Michelin three-, two-, and one-star restaurants around America is opening his solo debut in Houston this year. Shawn Gawle has been a pastry chef inside some of the country’s top kitchens, including March in Houston, Quince in San Francisco, and L20 in Chicago. Now he’s also going to tackle the savory side of the kitchen with his fine-casual Camaraderie.
Huso, New York City
Two-time Top Chef champ Buddha Lo will unveil a new chapter of his fine-dining concept that he co-owns with Marky’s Caviar. This new restaurant in Tribeca will give Lo a large space for his seasonal tasting menu, as well as a new outpost of the family-owned food company that has its own sturgeon aquafarms where it produces its caviar.
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