Food magazine Bon Appétit released its annual best new restaurants list on Monday, and it includes two Philadelphia restaurants.
Honeysuckle, Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate’s fine-dining restaurant in North Philadelphia, and Sao, Phila and Rachel Lorn’s East Passyunk oyster bar, were among the 19 establishments that made the cut. They joined restaurants in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Nashville, and Birmingham, Ala., and more.
The unranked list defines new restaurants as those that opened between March 2025 and March 2026. Scouts visited restaurants in 43 U.S. cities and rated them according to seven criteria: flavor, technique, hospitality, ambiance, cultural significance, innovation, and sense of place.
To be considered the best, “a restaurant must serve dishes and drinks that are complete in terms of flavor and technique, from the pre-meal cocktails to dessert, like an album with no skips,” wrote Bon Appétit editor-in-chief (and former Inquirer food editor) Jamila Robinson.
Tate and St.Aude-Tate opened Honeysuckle at 611 N. Broad St. in April 2025. The restaurant’s five-course tasting menu evolved from the couple’s beloved West Philly café-market, Honeysuckle Provisions, which closed in 2024. The couple uses the menu to weave a dynamic and complex narrative about how the Black diaspora has shaped American food culture.
Inquirer critic Craig LaBan called the new Honeysuckle “joyful [and] irreverent” with a “vibrant” flow of new ideas, from the caviar-topped and gold-flecked McDonald’s Money burger to a a cocktail inspired by Haiti’s national drink of clairin and lime. The restaurant landed a spot on The Inquirer’s 2025 edition of The 76, while Tate and St.Aude-Tate were first-time semifinalists for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic at the 2026 James Beard Awards. Honeysuckle is also recommended by the Michelin Guide.
“Chefs Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate deliver a showstopping walk through nostalgia, pop culture, Philadelphia, and Black American history through dishes that spark new reflection and conversation,” Robinson wrote of Honeysuckle.
Chef Phila Lorn and his wife, Rachel, opened Sao at 1710 Passyunk Ave. in September 2025 as a follow-up to their acclaimed Cambodian noodle house, Mawn, where Lorn earned a Beard Award for Emerging Chef in 2025 alongside commendations from Food & Wine, the New York Times, and The Inquirer.
While Mawn is known for being one of the toughest reservations in town, Sao isn’t far behind. The 33-seat oyster bar combines favorites from the noodle bar — like the papaya salad and beef skewers — with dishes that meld Phila’s Cambodian heritage with South Philly’s Italian American ethos, such as the ultra-thin Mawn chicken cutlet coated in a fish sauce caramel and a rendition of crab gravy made with coconut curries.
Sao serves dishes “that hit like uppercuts,” Bon Appétit food director Chris Morroco wrote. “Enjoy letting your taste buds get knocked around when you least expect it.”
