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If you were to take bets on where America’s best new restaurant of 2026 would be, you'd have won big by picking Tempe, Arizona. (Has anyone ever picked Tempe before?)
Yelp just unveiled its Best New Restaurants of 2026, a list of 25 culinary newcomers selected using a combination of review volume and ratings from January 2025 through June 11, 2026. And the number one restaurant is Filthy Animal, a jungle-themed restaurant in Tempe named after a line from Home Alone (if you can keep all of those disparate inspirations in your brain).
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The restaurant, from restaurateur Teddy Myers’ Pretty Decent Concepts, occupies a former P.F. Chang’s on Mill Avenue, where executive chef Rene Vargas works an open fire pit, turning out dishes that pull from Asian, Mexican and tropical influences. The decor goes all in on the safari fantasy, with leopard prints, lush greenery, dramatic lighting and stuffed exotic animals. Yelp describes the vibe as “sexy, dark and moody,” which is considerably more appealing than Rainforest Cafe.
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The menu is equally maximalist, with miso tomato-butter milk bread, tuna pineapple ceviche, beef tartare and roasted oysters with gochujang butter and Chihuahua queso. Yelpers are particularly enthusiastic about the lemongrass half chicken and lobster mac and cheese. There’s even a ’70s-inspired speakeasy, Drop Dead Gorgeous, tucked inside for pre-dinner cocktails.
Coming in at No. 2 is a restaurant far closer to the usual dining-world radar: Los Angeles’ Firstborn. The Chinatown newcomer from chef-owner Anthony Wang serves a seasonal Chinese-American tasting menu informed by classic European technique. The $68 prix fixe can include caviar blinis, duck sausage and Chongqing fried chicken, while duck-fat rice and melon shaved ice have also earned serious Yelp love.
New York lands two spots in the top 10, with Limusina at No. 3 and Ambassadors Clubhouse at No. 10. Menlo Park’s Cal-Indian Eylan comes in at No. 4, while Carlsbad’s Michelin-starred Lilo takes No. 5. Kansas City’s celebrity-backed 1587 Prime, from Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, is No. 6, followed by Las Vegas’ Bar Boheme at No. 7 in the Arts District.
The list also reflects some bigger 2026 dining trends: Yelp says searches for steak have jumped 59-percent over the past year, while interest in Indian food has surged, with searches for Indian bowls up 135-percent. Brunch, meanwhile, remains the most-searched restaurant cuisine in every major food-loving city Yelp studied.
The top 10 Best New Restaurants of 2026, according to Yelp:
1. Filthy Animal – Tempe, Arizona
2. Firstborn – Los Angeles
3. Limusina – NYC
4. Eylan – Menlo Park, California
5. Lilo – Carlsbad, California
6. 1587 Prime – Kansas City, Missouri
7. Bar Boheme – Las Vegas
8. Mezcla – Columbus, Ohio
9. Dorothy's Downtown – Jacksonville, Florida
10. Ambassadors Clubhouse – NYC