Epping’s on Eastside
CITY GUIDES | THE SOUTH
The Best Lexington Restaurants, From Bourbon-Fueled Classics to New-Guard Bistros
By Eric Barton | Feb. 25, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
The first time I came to Lexington, many years ago, I had a head-numbingly boring meeting that ran right up to happy hour. Afterward, downtown was full of people for a midsummer festival. I took a shot of bourbon at the first place I could find, then hit dollar-beer night at a Lexington Legends game, where I asked a random stranger to take my photo with the mustachioed mascot. It was a downright fantastic night.
It’s been like that every time I’ve come back to Lexington, a mid-sized city that knows how to play, how to drink, and especially how to eat. The restaurants here range from gems and Southern staples to chef-driven bistros, the kinds of places that make me debate whether to revisit an old favorite or chase the new one everyone’s talking about.
This list is a product of all those trips to Lexington over the years. So stop googling “best places to eat in Lexington” and dig into the real list: the best restaurants right now in Lexington, Kentucky.
Azur
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Azur could coast on its charming patio and the knowledge that it has regulars who will be back next week, and yet it still cooks like a kitchen that wants to impress. Chef Tim Perkins built a menu of crowd-pleasers: bourbon fried chicken with whipped potatoes, green beans, and a bourbon cream gravy.
Best for: A polished dinner that still feels like Lexington
Blue Heron Steakhouse
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Blue Heron has the steakhouse vibe dialed in, with the candlelight-and-fireplace lighting filling the place with a romantic charm. The menu is steakhouse comfort: chargrilled oysters, crab cakes, shrimp and grits, with none of it trying to reinvent the genre.
Best for: A serious steakhouse night out with low effort required
Carson’s Food & Drink
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Carson’s was built as a family business by founder and owner Mark Fichtner, and it still frames itself that way. The food aims for crowd-pleasing steakhouse range—think seared ahi tuna salad, steaks topped with all manner of indulgences, burgers, and a deep bench of desserts (banana bread pudding and derby pie show up). It is the kind of downtown place that can host a birthday, a work dinner, and a “fine, let’s go out” night without changing its personality.
Best for: A downtown all-occasion restaurant
Coles 735 Main
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Cole Arimes’ long-running Lexington calling card is both Southern-adjacent and globally influenced, the kind of place that will put spanakopita—spinach-and-feta “soufflé” in phyllo with caramelized shallot cream—on the same table as a Impossible Meatloaf smothered in mushroom gravy. Order the Scottish salmon with sautéed broccolini, cremini mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, and curried soubise, or the center-cut filet mignon over roasted red pepper Weisenberger grits with housemade compound butter. The room has the confidence of a restaurant that’s been doing this since 2012, dressed up without ever leaning fussy.
Best for: A serious dinner that still has personality
County Club
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County Club is chef-owner Johnny Shipley’s smoked-meat playground, and it wears the simplicity like a dare to overthink it. The menu changes monthly, but the operating principle stays steady: smoke, heat, salt, and the kind of sides and sandwiches that make brisket feel like a weeknight habit instead of a special event. It is barbecue for people who care about technique but still want the order at the counter to move fast.
Best for: Smoked meats in a casual, no-nonsense room
Distilled on Jefferson
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Distilled has been on Jefferson Street since 2014, and Mark Wombles’ menu swings from cornmeal fried oysters to pork belly with crispy brussels and a chili-peanut-herb situation. Then things head to comfort with fried chicken (house brine, chow chow, rosemary jus) and the Henry burger with b&b pickles. It is the kind of place that can talk bourbon without turning the dining room into a seminar.
Best for: Contemporary Southern cooking with a deep bourbon list
Dudley’s on Short
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Dudley’s has been a Lexington institution since 1981, founded by Debbie Long, and it still treats “local” as a baseline. Chef Hannah Coffey aims for polished American cooking that can handle both a downtown dinner and a lingering glass-from-the-wine-list night. It feels like a restaurant that has survived decades because it never confused consistency with boredom.
Best for: A classic Lexington night out that still feels current
Epping’s on Eastside
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This is Cole Arimes temple to Bluegrass cooking, with house-cured meats a local—ingredients-first mindset. The menu changes constantly, but some recent examples: six-ounce jumbo lump crab cake with wilted spinach, honey chipotle vinaigrette, and blue corn tortillas; a hot chicken sandwich with cayenne chili oil; and a Faroe Island salmon plate grilled with saffron cream and chermoula. Chris Hutchison—also a certified sommelier—runs operations and the wine-and-spirits program, which explains why the food lands like it expects a bottle to be involved.
Best for: Elevated cooking for brunch and dinner that feels like Lexington
Favor Kitchen
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Off North Limestone behind Arcadium, chef Wyatt Sarbacker runs Favor with a simple premise: what if we took what’s in season and made it tasty? Everything from loaded fries, deviled eggs and agnolotti get treated like they’ve made a slight detour to a fine-dining restaurant and then returned back here. While the salads and veg get treated with reverence, I’m still partial to the burger, with it’s absolutely pancaked patty, lacy bits of cheese-smothered beef jutting way out of that fluffy bun.
Best for: Low-key, chef-made bar snacks
Granddam
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Granddam is the Manchester Hotel’s restaurant, and the kitchen is led by chef Paula Endara, a James Beard Foundation bootcamp alum originally from Ecuador. The restaurant can handle everything from brunch to dinner, with a seasonal, locally minded menu that gets dressed up enough to match the setting: jalapeño chicken and waffle with buttermilk-brined tenders, deviled eggs topped with grilled Cajun shrimp and tazo ham, and a wood-fired filet with salsa macha and sweet corn risotto. Yes, it’s a hotel restaurant but it also feels part of the city.
Best for: A lively hotel dining room
Honeywood
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Honeywood is Ouita Michel’s Kentucky bistro at the Summit at Fritz Farm, and it is built on her long-running habit of treating local sourcing as the point. The menu is broad enough to support repeat visits—sweet potato beignets show up, and so does a duck-fat-basted New York strip—while still staying inside the “Kentucky, but polished” lane.
Best for: Kentucky-forward cooking with a real sense of place
ItalX
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ItalX is chef Jonathan Lundy’s downtown Italian project, and it aims for scratch-made pastas and reimagined small plates instead of red-sauce nostalgia. The point is “simple, fresh, quality ingredients,” and that’s clear with dishes like risotto, lasagna with pork-and-veal ragù, and bigger secondi like halibut. It’s Italian cooking filtered through a chef who has always been more interested in ideas than rules.
Best for: A modern Italian night with serious pasta energy
Lockbox
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The 21c Museum Hotel’s restaurant is led by chef Stephen Holden, with a menu that keeps the tone “artfully simple.” Dinner starts with shareables like sausage balls with creole hot honey mustard, baked feta with za’atar and seeded lavash, and baked oysters with lemon agrumato, then moves into crudo and seasonally shifting mains. It is the rare hotel restaurant that can feel like a neighborhood spot—just with better art on the walls.
Best for: A downtown dinner that feels decidedly upscale
OBC Kitchen
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OBC (Old Bourbon County) is built around a serious whiskey program—private selections, flights, and a list long enough to reward planning—and a chef-driven menu. The “bacon in a glass” starter tells the whole story: honey bourbon sugar glaze and peanut butter for dipping. Continue to more bacon with the waygu bacon cheeseburger or chicken and biscuits, before finishing with a churro cheesecake, a fine accompaniment for more bourbon.
Best for: Bourbon lovers who still want good food
Omakase Sushi & Sake Bar
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While the name means “chef’s choice,” the menu that makes room for both set experiences and signature rolls. The Chevy Chase roll (tuna, salmon, yellowtail, pickled ginger, soy-bean paper) is the kind of thing that tells you this is not a minimalist sushi counter.
Best for: Creative rolls and well-sourced nigiri
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