2025’s most vital Philly restaurants
It’s a brand-new year for The 76, The Inquirer’s annual list of the most vital restaurants in the Philadelphia area. This year, we started fresh with a new batch of dining scouts and an even wider purview, diving deeper into pockets of Philadelphia that we didn’t get to eat through last year. The result is a list that we hope is as vibrant, diverse, and interesting as the city that it reflects.
You’ll find some favorites from last year on 2025’s 76, which held on to their spots by being just as impressive as they were the last times we ate there (Friday Saturday Sunday still dazzles, as does Gabriella’s Vietnam).
But you’ll notice that there’s a good deal of turnover, too. More than half of the list is fresh — either classics we felt deserved their time in the spotlight, like the white-tablecloth red-gravy stalwart Dante & Luigi’s or chef favorite Pho 75, or new and new-to-us spots that reflect the shifting energy of the dining scene, like Indonesian karaoke hot spot Niki Echo and the revived Tequilas, a three-restaurants-in-one experience.
Our scouts, all 18 of them, fanned out across the Philadelphia area and ate through cuisines we were curious about, like the wide-ranging food truck landscape and the vibrant Mexican community in Norristown. We found a Main Line cheesesteak (Johnny’s Pizzeria) that rivals South Philly’s best. The result is a list filled with gems, some in plain sight and some that required a bit more hunting.
We think this list, which is unranked and alphabetical, is the most useful list of Philadelphia-area restaurants out there. Some hotly anticipated openings like Stephen Starr’s Borromini and Phila Lorn’s Sao opened too late to make the cut. But don’t worry, there’s always next year.
The 76 is how we think Philadelphia is eating right now, and — we hope — might help you uncover your next favorite spot. Grab a plate and dig in.
