The 20 Most Exciting Restaurant Openings Across the US in 2026

Get ready to step up to the counter for some of the year’s more anticipated cooking.

If there’s one restaurant trend to get excited about, it’s pedigreed chefs reinventing the concept of walk-up counters where customers order, then seat themselves. It’s an efficient model that allows operators to trim labor costs while featuring fine-dining-calibre ingredients.

The trend reflects the general movement of optimizing restaurants to meet the current moment. Inflation and rising living costs have generally left diners more selective on how and where they’ll spend their money. With that in mind, many luxury dining-room alums are opening more accessible, amped-up comfort food spots where the specialty ...