Philly’s 2024 Eater Award Winners

Each year, the Eater Awards is an opportunity for editors to reflect on what made the best restaurants, bars, dishes, and otherwise exciting dining experiences across the country.

2024 was the year of transformation in Philadelphia as the dining scene saw culinary revivals, revisions, and revolutions. After a previous year of national acclaim, new restaurants in the city took things a step further — offering everything from experimental Polish cuisine to a well-executed Mediterranean all-day cafe in a hotel. To celebrate, Eater’s annual Eater Awards are here again this year, showcasing five favorite restaurants, hotspots, and chefs that made the city such an exceptional place to dine in 2024.

Bastia: Best New Restaurant

Presented by SevenRooms

At the start of the pandemic, Philly lost one of its most beloved restaurants: the charming Italian BYOB Res Ipsa in Rittenhouse. Chef-partner Tyler Akin’s love letter to all-day cafe dining felt like it would forever be lost in the storm of closings and industry pivots. Fortunately, Akin returned this year with Bastia, a day-to-night Mediterranean culinary journey in Fishtown worth endless visits. Here, dishes inspired by the coasts of Corsica and Sardinia (bluefin tuna with sun-dried tomatoes, sea urchin butter tartine with grilled octopus and salsa verde, and braised veal osso buco) take center stage alongside a stellar brunch menu and neighboring cocktail-piano bar Caletta. In partnership with the lavish hotel Anna & Bel, Bastia also represents the business savviness within the city’s dining scene — one that’s both conceptually ambitious and wisely collaborative.

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Bastia

Pierogi are nothing to mess with in Philly. This Polish dish is a mainstay on menus across the city and garners debate in certain circles in the same vein as our cheesesteaks and hoagies. So when the new critically acclaimed Little Walter’s in East Kensington served multiple versions of the local delicacy, all eyes were on them instantly. The results were beyond favorable — the dumplings are now considered some of the city’s best. The potato-less pierogi z dynia (made with hubbard squash, roasted lacinato kale, and horsey sauce) and the more traditional pierogi ruskie (made with potato, farmer cheese, caramelized onion, and sour cream) are savory, filling, and dynamic. Little Walter’s even serves dessert pierogi (including one that’s made with chocolate and peanut butter, and served with ice cream) that take the cake, literally. They are officially the new restaurant capital of pierogi in Philly — sorry, we don’t make the rules.

Gab Bonghi

Provenance: Best Tasting Menu Experience

It’s exquisite, experimental, and extraordinarily expensive ($225 per diner) – but the ambitious over 20-course tasting menu at Provenance works exceptionally well. An evening at this impressive new restaurant in Head House Square is a culinary expedition through France and Korea, as the masterful executive chef Nicholas Bazik serves an unforgettable kanpachi in a vibrant kabosu (East Asian citrus fruit) jus with a flagrant mussel vinaigrette, steelhead trout wrapped in the flakiest pastry, and a tasty mackerel tartare — a remarkable ode to seafood that’s both international and notably local.

Gab Bonghi

Angie Brown of Rex at the Royal: Chef of the Year

The “soul” in Philly’s Southern dining scene has become much harder to spot since the pandemic. Recent closings of several notable Black-owned restaurants (such as Warmdaddy’s, Relish, and Ms. Tootsie’s) have posed a setback for the beloved comfort cuisine. But when renowned Chef Angie Brown (a previous owner of four critically acclaimed restaurants, including her namesake spot Angie Brown’s) returned to the kitchen — this time, at the historic Rex at The Royal — it was one of the most unexpected comebacks of the year. Now as the restaurant’s new culinary director, Brown is serving her signature gumbo (made from locally sourced seafood), jambalaya, fried chicken, fried tomatoes, ​​and sweet potato soufflé. Not only has her presence served as a timely boost for an emerging hotspot on South Street, but a necessary revival of a diverse cuisine so desperate for an expert chef like Brown to help to re-invigorate it in the city of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. Not all heroes wear capes, but some wear aprons.

Angie Brown

The bar scene in Philly continues to grow, but no new bar is as stylish or impressive as 48 Record Bar in Old City. This intimate 35-seat hotspot located above the revered bar Sassafras has quickly made a name for itself with its eclectic cocktail offerings and vinyl music vibes. Live NPR Tiny Desk concert-inspired performances brighten the mood as customers sip memorable alcoholic and zero-proof cocktails such as Golden Hour drink specials like the Boxcar — a riff on the sidecar made with tequila, peach, lemon, hot honey, and tajin. Come here for a spirited evening, stay for a groovy, nostalgic blast from the past.

Gab Bonghi