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Dayton’s Best Restaurants: 12 Spots That Prove the Gem City is Fire
By Jamie Dutton | Aug. 22, 2025
The Foundry Rooftop
AUTHOR BIO: With family spread across the Midwest and a job that has her in airports almost daily, Jamie Dutton finds herself across the center of the U.S. regularly. She’s partial to BPTs a Bell's.
I’m in Dayton often for work, a city that, as a kid, I only knew as the place with the Wright Brothers Memorial. Back then, it felt like a stopover, a historical footnote along the highway. Now it’s a place that seems to have enough restaurants to feed a town five times its size—spots where chefs are doing things with fire, seafood, and pizza that I never would have expected here.
Club Oceano Seafood & Bar
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Dayton isn’t a seafood town, which makes Club Oceano feel like a surprise. The fish is clean, well-prepared, and plated with a refinement that signals ambition. If you’ve got a reason to celebrate, this is where you order the lobster.
Best for: Seafood splurges inland
Coco’s Bistro
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Coco’s nails that elusive sweet spot between casual and polished. The menu leans contemporary American—short ribs, salmon, big salads—with execution that feels sharper than you’d expect. Lunch or dinner, it’s a restaurant that always feels like the right call.
Best for: Business dinners and date nights that never feel stuffy
The Foundry
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On top of the AC Hotel, Foundry pairs skyline views with a menu built around a wood-fired oven. The pizzas are inventive without being silly, and the cocktails match the energy of the room. It’s the rare rooftop that feels more about food than selfies.
Best for: Rooftop dining with substance
Grist
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What looks like a casual counter spot reveals a menu with real ambition—house-made pasta, sandwiches built with precision, and plates that never overreach. It’s the kind of restaurant where you order something simple and end up impressed by how much thought went into it. Run by Casey and Patrick Van Voorhis, Grist is about house-made, yes, but I’ll forever be a fan simply because I’m a sucker for a restaurant love story like theirs.
Best for: Elevated everyday eating
Lily’s Dayton
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Part tiki bar, part neighborhood bistro, Lily’s serves comfort food with a global passport. Chef Don Warfe leans into fried chicken and shrimp and grits, but the drinks—rum-heavy and unapologetically fun—steal the show. The room feels like a vacation you didn’t expect to find on Fifth Street.
Best for: Brunch and tiki cocktails
Marion’s Piazza
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A Dayton institution since 1965, Marion’s turns out cracker-thin, square-cut pizzas that Daytonians defend like a sports team. The pepperoni is legendary, scattered edge to edge with just enough grease to make the paper plate translucent. It’s loud, bright, and exactly what it should be.
Best for: Dayton-style pizza with a side of nostalgia
The Paragon Supper Club
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A throwback in all the best ways, Paragon has been serving charbroiled steaks and stiff martinis since the late ’70s. The regulars will tell you the strip is the thing to order, but the fact that the servers will know your name after one visit is what keeps them coming back. It’s Dayton’s idea of fine dining before that phrase got complicated.
Best for: A classic night out when you’re not looking for highfalutin food
Pine Club
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Since 1947, Pine Club has been serving steaks that barely fit on a dinner plate in a dining room where time seems to have stopped. No reservations, no desserts, no credit cards—it’s a system that works because the food justifies every bit of stubbornness. The ribeye with hash browns might be the single most Dayton meal you can order.
Best for: Old-school steakhouse tradition
Rusty Bucket
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A neighborhood tavern that does exactly what it promises—cold beer, burgers, and scratch-made bar food. The pretzels and wings are good enough to make you forget it’s a mini-chain. It’s where you end up with friends when you don’t want to overthink dinner.
Best for: Good bar food in a place that makes you want to be a regular
Salar Restaurant and Lounge
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Chef Margot Blondet blends French technique with flavors from her native Peru in a dining room that feels stylish without trying too hard. The cremini mushroom lomo saltado and duck fried rice show off her range, refined but soulful. It’s the kind of place where you order a second cocktail because the night feels like it should last.
Best for: Global fusion done right
Sueño
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Chef Jorge Guzmán brings live-fire cooking and heirloom Mexican corn to a menu that’s both rooted and inventive. His wood-grilled meats and masa-rich tortillas make it a destination in a city not known for Mexican fine dining. The cocktail program keeps pace with mezcal-heavy drinks that actually have bite.
Best for: A modern take on Mexican from a talented chef
Wheat Penny Oven & Bar
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Italian-American classics get reimagined here with wood-fired pizzas, hearty pastas, and small plates that could double as full meals. The cocktails are strong, the room is warm, and the polenta might ruin you for all others. It’s the kind of mid-range dinner spot that makes a city feel livable.
Best for: Italian-American comfort with a twist
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