CITY GUIDES | NEVADA

The Best Restaurants in Reno, Nevada: From Basque Feasts to Soup Dumplings

By Mei Chen | Dec. 21, 2025

Cosmo’s Snack Bar

AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.

I come to Reno for work often enough that there’s basically a recurring event on my calendar. Two different employers have had data centers outside Reno, which means I have spent a good portion of my adult life in rideshares heading toward low-slung buildings look like they were designed by someone who hates windows.

The upside is dinner. Reno’s best places are not trying to cosplay as Vegas, and they are not interested in begging for your attention from a marquee. They just feed you well—sometimes in a Midtown dining room that runs on good lighting and better sauces, sometimes at a bar patio where soup dumplings show up delightfully fast.

So here then are my favorite restaurants right now in Reno, a city not just for data centers but for restaurants that’ll make even out-of-towners feel like home.

Arario Midtown

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Arario runs on Korean comfort food and craft-cocktail energy, which means you can go from banchan to a serious drink order without changing your posture. T.J. Cho and chef Hani Cho’s menu moves between staples and curveballs: bulgogi, a riff on loco moco, and things like porky pops. The kitchen serves everything at full volume and never seems to miss.

Best for: Korean food with a real bar behind it

Beaujolais Bistro

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Beaujolais is a restaurant that can win you over before the first plate hits the table: brick building, trees outside, and a front-yard setup that reads like a small dinner party. Chef-owner Bill Gilbert pulls from French-Canadian roots and does the classics with conviction—escargot, French onion soup—while keeping room for bigger specials like cassoulet or braised lamb with Moroccan spices. If you care about wine, this is one of the city’s strongest lists, and it wears that fact lightly.

Best for: A true French bistro, not a French-themed restaurant

Beloved's Bakery Bread Reno Nevada Best Restaurants

Beloved’s Bakery and Cafe

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Beloved is the kind of place that makes you understand how a bakery can become a routine: sourdough loaves, focaccia, Japanese milk bread, pretzels, and a steady drip of seasonal pastries. Founder and baker Zach Condron builds the operation around organic ingredients and slow fermentation, and you can feel that seriousness without getting a lecture. On the café side, it is also a real brunch move—crab Benedict, shakshuka, and a burger that shows up when you want something less polite.

Best for: People who are serious about sourdough

Casale’s Halfway Club

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Casale’s has been here since 1937, and it still reads like a family place that refuses to be trendy on principle: checkered tablecloths, red sauce, and the kind of menu you could navigate from memory. The lasagna is cooked to order in individual portions, which is a feat of effort from a restaurant that does not need to prove anything. Order the legendary ravioli split between meat and cheese, and you will understand why locals talk about it like it’s a civic asset.

Best for: Old Reno energy and classic Italian American comfort

Cosmo’s Snack Bar

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Cosmo’s takes wood-fired pizza seriously but keeps the room casual, the way a real neighborhood spot should. The menu stays tight: pizzas, seasonal vegetables, soft serve. That focus shows up in details like honey pepperoni with pickled jalapeños on the Rojo Tone, plus sides like harissa carrots or a whole cauliflower situation with pistachio and tahini. Pair it with a draft negroni or an Italian-leaning spritz and you have a full night without trying too hard.

Best for: The two things you need to night, namely pizza and a drink

Dumpling Queen

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Dumpling Queen operates out of a silver airstream trailer outside Abby’s Highway 40 (which is, if it isn’t already, going to be your favorite Reno karaoke bar). There’s a trifecta here ideal for a pregame snack or solid late-night decision: soup dumplings, bao buns, and hot dogs. There’s not a bad order, but you’d be doing it wrong if you didn’t burn the heck out of the top of your mouth on an order of soup dumplings.

Best for: Bar snacks by people who care to do it right

Kwok’s Bistro

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Kwok’s Bistro sits in a minimalist stand-alone building just west of downtown’s casinos, and chef-owner Kwok Chen runs it like someone who has no interest in trend-chasing. I come for the Beijing duck, which takes days to prep and is dry-hung with a seasoned rub so it lands at the table crackly, rich, and ready for moo shu-style wraps. When I am not committing to the duck, I order straight from the Cantonese-wok comfort zone: kung pao chicken, black pepper beef, or the sliced stir-fried lamb when I want real heat.

Best for: Beijing duck and Cantonese wok cooking

La Condesa Eatery

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La Condesa is chef Sergio Romero and co-owner Cesar Perez’s idea of fusion that actually earns the word: Mexican roots, global left turns, and a menu that refuses to stay in one lane. You can build a meal out of rib eye tacos and yellowfin ahi ceviche, then veer into carbonara with smoked pork belly, or come on Thursdays for paella night. The dining room feels like a party that happens to serve serious food, which is the best kind of multitasking.

Best for: Groups who can’t agree on one cuisine

Liberty Food & Wine Exchange

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Liberty started as a butchery and market, and you still feel that DNA—meat is broken down in-house, and the menu leans on a wood-fired oven that gets used for more than pizza. Mark Estee runs the show with a local-first instinct: regional ranch sourcing, nearby farm produce, and a kitchen that can pivot from a burger mood to something more ambitious without getting precious about it. The vibe stays loose—there is Riverwalk energy outside and black-and-white ’80s celebrity photos inside—so the food never has to carry the whole personality.

Best for: A “nice dinner” that still feels like Reno

Louis’ Basque Corner

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Louis’ is a Reno institution that still makes every newcomer feel like they’ve showed up to a family reunion. The Basque format works like this: pick your main meat—steak, salmon, or the more adventurous options like braised tongue or sautéed sweetbreads—then let the family style courses show up around it like a parade. Add a picon punch and accept the reality that you might be sharing a table, because this place was built for strangers to become temporary neighbors. Afterward, shoot pool at the upstairs cocktail bar.

Best for: Big, old-school, group-style dinners

LuLous Restaurant

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LuLous is where you go when you want to see what Reno looks like when it aims higher without getting stiff about it. Chef Troy Cannan has been in the national conversation before, and the kitchen cooks like it: menus shift, plating is precise, and the dishes can swing from house-cured salmon to lobster escargot to asparagus soup with sweetbreads, each course seeming to up the ambition. The room feels intimate and intentional—more “quiet confidence” than “special occasion theater.”

Best for: The most ambitious dinner in town

Süp

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Süp (pronounced “soup”) is built around always consistent, always good soups, salads, and sandwiches. Owners Christian and Kasey Christensen keep the vibe casual, but the operation is tuned: rotating soups, reliable comfort standards, and a space that feels like Midtown on a good day. If you just need something nourishing that does not waste your time, this is the answer.

Best for: A reset from the fancy side of Reno