OHIO
The Ohio Michelin Guide: 20 Buckeye State Restaurants That Deserve Stars
By Jamie Dutton | Aug. 23, 2025
Coppia
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.
Ohio has never seen a Michelin restaurant inspector, not one.
The French guide famously skips entire swaths of the country, a decision that makes as much sense as ignoring bourbon in Kentucky or jazz in New Orleans. Still, the chefs here cook like they’re auditioning for the little red book, plating dishes with the kind of precision and ambition that would normally earn stars.
If Michelin ever wakes up and books a flight to Columbus, Cleveland, or Cincinnati, here’s where the inspectors would be dining.
Agni – Columbus
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Chef Avishar Barua blends his Bangladeshi roots with Midwestern staples, creating dishes that feel both comfortingly familiar and daringly new. His menu might include tamarind pork ribs, rice-crusted walleye, or playful snacks that recall his upbringing while rewriting tradition. Agni shows just how far Columbus cooking can stretch.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Alqueria – Columbus
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Chef Jacob Hough turns local farms into fine dining with dishes that feel seasonal without being predictable. His plates often center around Ohio produce—heirloom carrots, just-dug potatoes, orchard fruits—transformed into elegant, layered courses. Alqueria delivers a sense of place that’s rare in Ohio, a meal that could only happen here.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Amba – Cleveland
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Doug Katz’s Amba is a moody, spice-driven restaurant that takes cues from the Indian subcontinent without ever feeling derivative. The menu veers from smoky eggplant to lamb keema to butter chicken dumplings, each layered with Katz’s signature precision. It’s one of the rare places where bold flavor and refinement share the same table.
What it deserves: Michelin star
The Aperture – Cincinnati
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Chef-owner Jordan Anthony-Brown keeps the menu deliberately small—just a handful of mezze-style plates cooked over open fire, each one a precise riff on Mediterranean flavors. The New York Times put it on its list of best restaurants in 2024, and USA Today followed by calling it a 2025 Restaurant of the Year. Add in Anthony-Brown’s James Beard nomination for Best Emerging Chef, and it’s clear this place is running out of wall space for accolades.
What it deserves: Michelin Star
Boca – Cincinnati
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David Falk’s Boca is one of the state’s most ambitious dining rooms, a space where chandeliers and marble meet cooking at the very top level. Falk draws from French, Italian, and American traditions—truffled tagliatelle, dry-aged duck, precisely composed seafood courses. Michelin would find it impossible to deny this one.
What it deserves: Two Michelin stars
Bouquet – Covington
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Stephen Williams’ Bouquet was farm-to-table before the phrase went stale. Every ingredient here has a story—honey from a local apiary, heritage pork from a nearby farm, breads from grains you can trace to the source. The result is food that feels alive with the seasons, while service keeps it all grounded.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Chez François – Vermilion
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Chef John D’Amico and owner Matthew Mars run this lakeside French institution just west of Cleveland. Décor speaks of a secret cellar in the French countryside—white-tablecloth elegance, exposed brick, and the Vermilion River shimmering just outside. Think a traditional escargot, beef Wellington with black truffles and foie gras, and braised heritage pork shank, all paired with a 700-bottle wine list. It’s one of Ohio’s most romantic spots and fine dining at its most earnest.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Comune – Columbus
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Chef Brooke Shoree proves that vegetables are more than side dishes. Comune’s menu leans into plants with real creativity—charred cabbage under miso glaze, polenta with mushroom ragù, plates that deliver indulgence without meat. Michelin would respect the clarity of vision here.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Coppia – Willoughby
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Coppia brings Piedmontese traditions to Ohio with a modern sensibility.
Co-owner and sommelier Hedy Trovato and chef Talia Trovato run this fine-dining destination beside the Lake County Executive Airport, shaping a seasonal menu that swings from luxe comfort to high polish. Recent plates range from orecchiette with summer truffle and chilled lobster on Japanese milk bread to duck confit gumbo with wild boar sausage and an Elysian Fields lamb chop, plus a chef’s-table tasting for the full experience. The room feels intimate and intentional—exactly the kind of cooking and service Michelin tends to notice.
What it deserves: Two Michelin stars
Cordelia – Cleveland
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Chef Vinny Cimino calls his style “Midwestern nice,” but the food has bite and technical depth. Pierogi get stuffed with braised beef, fried chicken arrives reimagined, and lake fish shows up on plates with unusual polish. Cordelia balances comfort with craft in a way Michelin usually notices.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Gene’s – Columbus
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In Dublin’s historic core, chef Bobby Moore applies his Québec Institute of Tourism & Hospitality training to a menu that’s rooted in New-American seasonality. Plates shift between familiar and adventurous—a cloud of whipped ricotta on charred sourdough, or eggplant tonkatsu balanced over yogurt brightened with sumac. The restaurant feels refined but never fussy, a place that may not have James Beard buzz yet but carries the kind of confident cooking that should.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Grist — Dayton
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Casey and Patrick Van Voorhis turned what looks like a neighborhood counter into a place where every plate lands with purpose—fresh pasta, sandwiches that feel engineered rather than assembled, and simple dishes that carry surprising depth. The cooking is confident without ever straining to impress. And maybe it’s just me, but a husband-and-wife team chasing the same dream makes the food taste a little better.
What it deserves: Michelin star
HARU Omakase – Columbus
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HARU is intimate dining boiled down to its essence: a counter, a chef, and a progression of courses. Each piece of nigiri lands with studied balance, and the omakase experience rivals coastal sushi temples. For a landlocked city, Columbus punches way above its weight here.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Nicola’s Ristorante – Cincinnati
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Nicola Pietoso built a Cincinnati institution with Nicola’s, and the kitchen continues to deliver on his legacy. Handmade pastas like lobster tagliolini and taleggio gnocchi are standouts, and the white-tablecloth service gives it an enduring gravitas. Michelin usually rewards consistency at this level.
What it deserves: Michelin star
The Refectory – Columbus
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Richard Blondin has been at the helm here for more than 30 years, bringing the training he picked up under Pierre Orsi and Paul Bocuse to a dining room that feels like it belongs in another century. His menus lean on sauces built over days and game dishes—pheasant, ostrich—that arrive with fine-dining polish. Inside the candlelit nave of a converted church, with a Grand Wine Spectator Award and AAA Four-Diamond plaque to show for it, The Refectory is proof that “old-school” can still surprise you.
What it deserves: Michelin Star
Scorpacciata – Shaker Heights
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Chef and founder Peter Reuter, a Cleveland Heights native trained at Johnson & Wales, launched this scratch-kitchen Italian spot in 2018 and opened a full dining room on Larchmere by 2024. Scorpacciata Pasta Co. plates change with the seasons, but highlights include handmade orecchiette with fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, breadcrumbs, and pecorino; 12-inch pizzas like mortadella with pesto and pickled shallots; arancini; rich carbonara and linguine with clams. It’s pasta and pizza elevated by technique, local sourcing, and real heart—absolutely star-worthy.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Sotto – Cincinnati
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Owner David Falk and chef de cuisine is Jacob “Woody” Wood keep Sotto among the city’s most beloved dining rooms by doing Italian classics with obsessive attention. Handmade pastas, rustic meats, and those ricotta doughnuts define the menu. It’s Italian as Cincinnati knows it best—simple, soulful, flawless in execution.
What it deserves: Michelin star
Sueño
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Jorge Guzmán builds his menu on live fire and heirloom corn, a foundation that gives the dishes both weight and originality. Tortillas come thick with masa, meats char over wood until they hum with smoke, and suddenly Dayton feels like a city that can claim Mexican fine dining. The mezcal cocktails don’t just sit pretty—they burn with the kind of bite you want in the glass.
What it deserves: Michelin Star
Veritas – Columbus
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Josh Dalton doesn’t bother with theatrics, instead leaning on technique and well-sourced ingredients. His scallops arrive perfectly seared, his risotto built on whatever the season gives him, each dish speaking more to discipline than dazzle. The room mirrors that same restraint: elegant, polished, never stuffy. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t need fireworks because the craft itself is the show.
What it deserves: Michelin Star
Watershed – Columbus
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Aaron Lawrence runs the Watershed Kitchen + Bar kitchen behind a distillery, turning out Midwestern plates that feel both polished and rooted—confit chicken with sweet corn purée, strip steak glossed with bourbon demi. The cocktails are as serious as anything you’d find in Manhattan, but the room stays easygoing, helped by a staff that clearly enjoys the work. Each year the cooking sharpens a little more, making it the sort of place Michelin would reward if its stars weren’t capped at three.
What it deserves: Michelin Star
The Cleveland Michelin Guide: 12 Restaurants That Deserve Recognition
The Michelin inspectors haven't made it to Cleveland, so we combed the city for the restaurants that deserve a place in the storied guide.
