1. Sleepy Bee Cafe

2. First Watch

3. Sugar n’ Spice

4. Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey

5. Taste of Belgium

6. The Echo

7. The Original Pancake House

8. Hang Over Easy

9. Maplewood Kitchen and Bar

10. Half Day Cafe

Reader Picks

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Staff Picks

Best Sunday Pizza Pop-Up to Open a Brick-and-Mortar

Best Psychedelic Gelatin Creations

Best Way to Increase Outdoor Dining (and Drinking) Options in Cincinnati

Best Taste of Honduras without Leaving Kentucky

Best Reason to Wake Up Before 9 a.m. on a Saturday

Best Hot Chocolate Bombs

Best Peanut Butter Curry Donuts

Best Century-Old Pickle Purveyor

Best Coffee Pop-Up Shop

Best Egg Hoagie

Best Scratch-Made-Tortilla-Slinging Taco Truck That Will Leave You Craving More

Best Tater Tot Waffles

Best Tater Tot Nacho Bowl

Best Roman-Style Artichokes

Best Focaccia Sandwich You Can Only Get On Saturdays

Best Stripmall Sub Shop

Best Farmers Market Pickles with a Kick

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Best Expansive Vegetarian Options at an Indian Restaurant (That Isn’t Strictly Vegetarian)

Best Upscale Riff on a Classic 3-Way

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Best Almost-Unachievable Deep-Fried Coney Challenge

Best Use of Walnuts

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Best Sunday Self-Care Smoothie

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Best Taco Pop-Up to Find a New Place to Park

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Best German Spaghetti Ice Cream

Best Way to Make Sotto or Boca at Home

Best Grandma-Inspired Small-Batch Covington Bake Shop

Best Reopening of a Thai Favorite

Best 150-Year-Old Birthday Cake

Best Alternative to Asian Food Fest

Best Food Legends We Said Goodbye To

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Best Adult Happy Meal

Best Farmers Market Tech Innovation

Best Pasta at Pompilio’s That Isn’t Made with Red Sauce

Best Sausage Spot to Replace Kroeger & Sons Meats in Findlay Market

Best Sweet Potato Latte

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Best Wild One-Day-Only Lattes

Best Retro Breakfast Expansion

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Best Kitchen Collective Supporting the Local Food Community

Best Puerto Rican Pop-Up Turned Permanent

Best Free Fridge

Best Toilet Paper with a Side of Fried Chicken

Best Restaurant Worker Relief Center

Best Coffee Subscription

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Best Curry Jalapeño Hot Sauce

Best Eateries Getting National Recognition

Best Fry Sauce

Best Relocation of a Late-Night Staple

Best Frozen Momos

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Best Syrian Flatbread Wrap

Best Transformation from a Seafood Chain to a Sprawling Foodie Destination

Best Cantonese-Style Wontons

Best Second Sweet Spot

For its 150th anniversary, Graeter’s released a special birthday cake-flavored ice cream. Described as a “blend of cake pieces and sprinkles in cake batter ice cream,” it’s like Funfetti in a cone. Or cup. Or pint. graeters.com.

Over-the-Rhine’s Dunlap Cafe started making their own grown-up “happy meals” for carry-out during the pandemic. The perfect lil’ combo pack included an entree with a side of fries, Twizzlers, a Dunlap Koozie as a prize and an adult beverage — a beer, hard seltzer or a cocktail. Entree options included cheeseburgers, chicken tenders or a fried chicken sandwich. And the meals came wrapped and organized in a cute branded box, ready to devour in the car, or at home — if you could wait that long. dunlapcafe.com.

The Northside Yacht Club really wasn’t fucking around this year and in February 2021, they brought back their deep-fried cheese coney, also known as the “Cincinnati chimichanga.” The now-annual infamous Midwestern monstrosity features a chili cheese coney topped with more chili and cheese, wrapped in a flour tortilla and then deep-fried (they also make vegetarian and vegan versions). But to really kick things up a notch, and give people a goal to strive for as the pandemic approached the one-year anniversary mark, NSYC invented a coney-eating challenge. The “5 Coney Food Challenge” asked intrepid idiots to scarf down five deep-fried coneys and a basket of fries in 69 minutes. If you triumphed, you got a free T-shirt and your name on the wall of fame. If you failed, you had to pay $69 for your meal and your photo was added to the wall of shame. Only one person — Randy “Rando” Sullivan from Hamilton — was able to do it. northsideyachtclub.com.

While Cincinnati’s super popular Asian Food Fest was canceled in 2020, fans were still able to enjoy a ton of local Asian eats in the fall. Asian Food Week ran from Nov. 2-8 and more than 20 eateries from across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offered either a special $20 prix fixe, three-course meal or a secret menu item. As Asia encompasses an extensive collection of cuisines, so too did Asian Food Week with offerings from Vietnamese, Hawaiian, Indian, Chinese restaurants and more. Both Asian Food Fest and Asian Food Week were started by the Asian American Cultural Association of Cincinnati. asianati.com.

1. Sotto

2. Incline Public House

3. Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse

1. Marx Hot Bagels

2. Bruegger’s Bagels

3. The Bagelry

1. Eli’s BBQ

2. Lucius Q

3. City Barbeque

4. Montgomery Inn

5. Pickles & Bones Barbecue

6. Just Q’in

7. Sweets & Meats BBQ

8. Midwest Best BBQ

9. Pontiac

10. Harmon’s Barbecue

1. Yard House

2. Taft’s Ale House

3. KungFood Chu’s AmerAsia