CITY GUIDES | PENNSYLVANIA

12 Stellar Erie Restaurants, From the Bayfront to West Erie Plaza

Oysters at Sassafras Pier, tapas in Millcreek, and newer downtown tables make the case for an Erie trip planned around meals.

By Maria Rodriguez | Oct. 10, 2026

AUTHOR BIO: With a day job that requires constant travel, Maria Rodriguez is likely a regular at your favorite restaurant. She’s reviewed restaurants since 2007 in magazines from Spain to Seattle.

In Erie, dinner can begin with oysters at Sassafras Pier or a butter candle in West Erie Plaza, and lunch can mean smoked brisket or an empanada on North Park Row. Recent arrivals have added fresh choices downtown, while a few established kitchens still deserve a place in the itinerary. This guide of my favorite restaurants covers Erie and neighboring Millcreek, including stops near the approach to Presque Isle. These 12 restaurants make a useful eating route through Pennsylvania’s lakefront city and its western neighborhoods.

Bar Rōnin

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The ginger-pork gyoza at Bar Rōnin arrive with cabbage, wagyu fat, and XO chili crunch, a fairly persuasive argument for ordering another small plate before choosing dinner. Chefs Dan Kern and Adam Williams run this Japanese-inspired restaurant in Millcreek’s West Erie Plaza, where the menu wanders from karaage with tonnato aioli to pork-belly ramen and crispy pork belly cavatelli with miso brown butter panko. For the splurge, Miyazaki A5 wagyu comes with a hot stone and mustard ponzu. Yuzu panna cotta brings the meal back down to something you can eat with a spoon.

Best for A dinner that starts with gyoza and ends with a hot stone

Bay and Berry Cafe

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Four homemade biscuits and a flight of butters start breakfast at Bay and Berry Cafe, which understands that breakfast can benefit from a little excess. Opened in 2025 on Peninsula Drive in Millcreek, the cafe also makes French toast with homemade cinnamon-swirl bread and serves eggs Benedict with potato pancakes or home fries. The French toast flight offers three specialty slices, with flavors that change, useful when ordering just one breakfast just isn’t enough. Its location near the approach to Presque Isle makes this an easy stop before the beach, trails, or another attempt at doing something athletic.

Best for Breakfast before a day on Presque Isle

Bay House Oyster Bar & Restaurant

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At Bay House, oysters can be the opening act for a steak cooked over a wood-fired Argentine grill, making a respectable case for ordering from both sides of the menu. The restaurant occupies the first floor at Sassafras Pier, beneath the separately named Pier 6 rooftop restaurant. Seafood gets considerable attention beyond the oyster bar: scallops come with risotto and a brûléed lemon, while pappardelle gathers shrimp, mussels, and bay scallops in spicy arrabbiata. A dry-aged bone-in strip or Black Angus ribeye makes this one of the more expensive dinners in Erie.

Best for Oysters and a steak on the bayfront

Born & Braised

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Born & Braised opened in 2025 at West 18th and Liberty, with a menu that gives its name plenty of work to do. The Big Ragu brings braised beef short rib, pork shoulder, and Italian sausage together over fresh pappardelle; elsewhere, duck fricassee pairs the breast with squash, parsnips, potatoes, mushrooms, and duck jus. Smaller plates include hand-rolled sweet potato gnocchi in marsala cream with sage and a duck taco with serrano pepper and golden beets. Popcorn ice cream with caramel corn offers a less solemn ending to dinner.

Best for A long dinner built around braises and fresh pasta

Bro Man’s Birria N’ Burgers

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Chef-owner Steve Stanbro has built a small local operation around two things that require more napkins than table manners: smash burgers and birria tacos. At the Glenwood Park Avenue location, quesabirria folds braised beef, onions, cilantro, and melted cheese into tortillas, with consommé supplied for dipping. Burgers include the Big Smash, dressed with lettuce, onion, pickle, American cheese, and smash sauce; the dipper fries deserve a place in the order, too. Bro Man’s also has a Millcreek location, so check the menu for the branch you plan to visit.

Best for Birria tacos with a side of smash burger

Empanissah’s

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Anissah Sanchez opened Empanissah’s on North Park Row in 2025, giving downtown another reason to make lunch plans beyond a sandwich. The empanadas range from beef and cheese with onions, peppers, and potatoes to chicken seasoned with sofrito, while stuffed potato balls provide another way to wrap lunch around a filling. For something larger, build a plate with an empanada, a choice of meat such as pernil, and sides including Spanish rice or macaroni and cheese. The dessert list extends the empanada idea to apple pie and strawberry cheesecake fillings.

Best for Empanadas and a substantial downtown lunch

Federal Hill Smokehouse

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Federal Hill has been around since 2016, but its reputation reaches well beyond Erie: Food & Wine included it in its guide to the best barbecue in every state. Ryan and Autumn Atzert’s Peach Street smokehouse keeps the focus on meats such as brisket, smoked turkey, and sausage, with beef ribs worth watching for when available. The restaurant serves lunch and closes when it sells out, so a late arrival can turn your preferred order into a theoretical one.

Best for A lunch organized around smoked meat

Firestone’s Kitchen

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Firestone’s began with a straightforward idea: let guests watch cooks work over open fire alongside Gordon’s meat market on Peach Street. Chefs Martin Firestone and Matt Mackrell have taken that premise in several directions, including smoke-roasted pork belly tacos with pickled red onion and cotija, and a smash burger made with Gordon’s brisket, chuck, and short rib blend. The pizza list gets less predictable with dill pickles and pistachio mortadella sharing a garlic-cream base. Green chili mac and cheese makes a useful addition when somebody claims the table has ordered enough.

Best for Watching the fire work while deciding between tacos and pizza

Lucero

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At Lucero, an herb-garlic butter candle gives the bread course an unusually literal sense of occasion. Opened in 2023 by Dan Kern and Adam Williams, the Spanish-inspired restaurant in West Erie Plaza builds much of dinner around small plates: whipped ricotta with orange-blossom honey and za’atar, potato crisps with Iberian ham, and a crispy mortadella and cheese sandwich on brioche with onion jam and Dijon mayo. Larger plates include trout a la plancha with Boursin, brown butter, and herbs. Basque cheesecake provides a good reason to stop ordering tapas before the kitchen makes that decision for you.

Best for A table of tapas and something to mop up with bread

Oba Sushi

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Oba brings another sushi option to State Street, with a menu that lets dinner stay as simple as a sashimi combination or get considerably more involved. The namesake roll starts with spicy tuna, greens, avocado, and cucumber, then adds salmon, tuna, baked baby shrimp, bay scallops, tobiko, and spicy mayo; it is unlikely to leave anyone wondering what happened to the toppings. For a smaller start, try tuna tataki with ponzu or dine-in salmon aburi. Mochi ice cream offers a compact finish after one of those less compact rolls.

Best for Downtown sushi, from sashimi to an elaborate house roll

Samurai Kitchen and Sushi Erie Best Restaurants

Samurai Kitchen + Sushi

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Jufi and Sara Andreas’ Millcreek restaurant gives diners two useful routes through the menu: Japanese sushi and dishes from Southeast Asia. The Samurai roll combines shrimp tempura and avocado with seared scallops and jalapeño, while the nigiri box mixes sushi with torched salmon and tuna. On the kitchen side, Indonesian bakso brings rice noodles, meatballs, tofu, and fried wonton together in a bowl; mie goreng and nasi goreng offer noodle and rice alternatives. The menu allows a sushi dinner to take a useful detour through Indonesia.

Best for Sushi with an Indonesian detour

Serafini’s Trattoria

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The Serafini name has deep roots in Erie, but the State Street trattoria opened in 2025, giving the family’s Italian cooking a new downtown address. Start with spinach-and-Parmesan arancini over marinara, or Italian sushi, which wraps mozzarella, arugula, and roasted tomatoes in prosciutto and requires no discussion of raw fish. Lunch includes a mortadella-and-whipped-ricotta focaccia sandwich with pistachio and honey, alongside spaghetti in the family’s slow-simmered tomato sauce. A soup flight puts Italian wedding soup beside two rotating selections, a practical solution for anyone who has difficulty committing to one bowl.

Best for A new downtown address for a family Italian tradition