Salt Lake Magazine takes wraps off 2025 Dining Awards

This Monday evening saw Salt Lake Magazine unveil their always eagerly anticipated dining awards list. A constellation of some of the brightest stars on SLC’s food gathered for the event – including yours truly, amiably stumbling through presentation duties.

You can see the full list and blurbs about the restaurants in this piece. Here’s the TL;DR list of the winners, starting with those recognized as the best in the business over the past year:

• Arlo (Capitol Hill)
• Casot (SLC)
• Copper Common (Downtown SLC)
• The Foundry Grill (Sundance)
• Franklin Avenue (Downtown SLC, pictured top)
• Handle (Park City)
• Hearth & Hill (Park City)
• Kimi’s Chop & Oyster House (Holladay)
• Manoli’s (SLC)
• Matteo (Downtown SLC)
• Oquirrh (Downtown SLC)
• The Pearl (Central 9th)
• Table X (Millcreek)
• The Charleston – (Draper)
• Tupelo – (Park City)
• RIME (Park City)
• Table 25 (Ogden)
• Xetava & Rusted Cactus (St George)

The following six names also scooped awards as best newcomers, and ones to watch in the year ahead:

• Koyote
• Felt Bar & Eatery
• Scelto
• Basalt at Black Desert
• Bambara
• Rouser at Asher Adams

Lastly, a few other awards were received by:

• #RandomPink Award: Harbor Seafood & Steak
• The Golden Spoon For Hospitality: Ali Sabbah and the Team at Mazza
• The Blue Plate Award for Community Service: Scion Cider Bar
• The Green Thumb Awards for an Outstanding Grower: Frog Bench Farms
• The Spirit Award: Alpine Distilling

A rifle through our own archives then for the backstory on some of these. Be sure to read our stories on Copper Common, Koyote, Felt, Franklin, Manoli’s, Matteo, The Pearl, RIME, and Scion Cider.

Other useful links

• Free newsletter – signup and receive our weekly newsletter for free
• Food talk group – chew the fat with other like-minded Utah foodies over on Facebook.
• Best of SLC 2024 – what you can’t miss in the Beehive right now.

Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC.  I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have written in myopic detail about the Salt Lake City  dining scene for the better part of seventeen years.

I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV.   Pause those credits, yep, that’s me! I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.    I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   What they’re saying about me: “Not inaccurate”, “I thought he was older”, “I don’t share his feelings”.

Want to know more? This is why I am the way I am.