Twenty restaurants. Twenty reasons Reno is worth your time at the table. Each one belongs here for a different reason — some for their history, some for their creativity, some simply because Reno wouldn't be Reno without them. Not ranked. Just essential
Tacos La Canasta de Jalisco
Every weekend, Ruth Ibarra parks her faded food truck on Wells Avenue and serves Guadalajara on a paper plate. It's the most important taco you'll eat in Reno.
R Town Pizza
Caramelized cheese edges, creative pies, cast iron meatballs, and a bar that completes the Michigan circle. R Town Pizza is one of Reno's most essential tables
Hinoki Sushi
Hinoki Sushi in Reno is the essential introduction to the city's legendary all-you-can-eat sushi culture — creative rolls like the Burning Man and Emi, a delicious Godzilla archetype, and nigiri ranging from Donald Duck to Escolar, all for $35.99 per person. Reno's most distinctive dining tradition, at its best.
Beloved's Bakery & Café
Beloved's Bakery & Café in Reno is one of the best breakfast and lunch spots in the city — artisan sourdough, life-changing shakshuka, and the best fried chicken sandwich in the region. An essential Reno bakery and café from master baker Zach Condron.
Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint
Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint in Carson City is the best restaurant south of Reno — a scratch kitchen in a 1928 building serving Asian chicken tacos, a proper Muffaletta, and a peanut butter bacon burger that shouldn't work but absolutely does. An essential Nevada dining destination.
Papa What You Cooking
Papa What You Cookin' in downtown Reno is the only Southern soul food restaurant in the region — slow-cooked oxtails, shrimp and grits, cornbread, and pecan pie from a former lawman and pastor whose cooking makes people cry for all the right reasons.