Galletto Ristorante
CITY GUIDES | CALIFORNIA
The Best Restaurants in Modesto, From Old Favorites to Newer Standouts
By Mei Chen
Updated May 13, 2026
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 became a Modesto regular in the unromantic way: through work trips, calendar gaps, and the recurring problem of finding somewhere good to eat before the next meeting started. I’ve been here enough now to know that the city doesn’t give up its best restaurants in one sweep. It takes repetition, asking around, and remembering which restaurant turned out to be better than the place with the nicer sign.
That’s how this list came together over the years. It started with the obvious Modesto names, then got trimmed, rebuilt and updated as restaurants opened, closed, coasted or finally made their case. The newest version leans less on convenience and more on the places that give Modesto a real dining life: chef-run kitchens, family-owned restaurants, old dining rooms with staying power, and newer spots bringing fresh energy to the city.
These are the best restaurants in Modesto right now.
Bauhaus
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Tye Bauer’s Bauhaus is compact, lovably oddball, and built around a menu that moves wherever the kitchen feels like going. Portuguese and German influences run through the place, with recent menus offering pork belly, sausage plates, roasted bone marrow, gambas al ajillo, beef Wellington and pastries like raspberry-brie-walnut and churros. It’s small, specific and a little strange, which is usually where the good stuff starts.
Best for: Small plates with a point of view
Camp 4 Wine Café
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Camp 4 carries a Yosemite thread right into downtown Modesto: owner Damon Robbins is the son of climbing legend Royal Robbins, and the café takes its name from the famous Yosemite campground. The food stays in wine-bar territory, with panini, salads, cheese, charcuterie, beer and a smart glass-and-bottle list doing most of the work. It’s the kind of low-pressure place where a board, a sandwich and another pour can feel like the whole plan.
Best for: Wine, panini and Yosemite lore
Craft BBQ
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Two longtime Modesto chefs, Jesse Padilla and Matt Martin, started Craft in late 2024. It’s built on smoked meat cooked with patience: 17-hour brisket, tri-tip, pulled pork, ribs, and smoked Hawaiian sausages. Sides are all part of the equation, with five-cheese macaroni, charro beans, and garlic cheddar biscuits. Barbecue can stick too closely to tradition, but this one makes its case with smoke, timing and proper sides.
Best for: Chef-run barbecue and proper sides
Dewz
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Dewz has been Modesto’s polished dinner since 1997, when Judy and Scott Aspesi opened it in honor of Scott’s brother Dewayne. The kitchen is now led by chef Daniel Jacinto, and the menu still has the restless quality that keeps a long-running restaurant from turning into a museum piece. The menu changes often, but recent dishes have included butter chicken croquettes, pumpkin brie with kabocha squash caramel, pork belly with tonkatsu sauce and bonito flakes, Norwegian halibut with savoy cabbage and mustard jus, and DemKota Ranch beef.
Best for: Fine dining with a restless kitchen
Fuzio Universal Bistro
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Part of downtown Modesto since 1997, Fuzio has managed to keep some personality in its very wide lane, with rigatoni in garlic cream sauce with pomodoro and hickory-smoked bacon, pork fusilli with ginger-braised pork and habanero pesto, fresh catch pasta with prawns and Ora King salmon, firecracker lettuce wraps, baked brie dip, burgers, salads and a firecracker tri-tip roast. It’s the kind of place that can keep an entire table happy when the group is split between pasta, steak, seafood and cocktails.
Best for: A reliable downtown option
Galletto Ristorante
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Galletto gives Modesto its grand Italian dinner, set inside a 1930s Art Deco former Wells Fargo Bank building. Tom and Karyn Galletto opened the restaurant in 2001, and the kitchen is led by chef Stephanie Chavez, with a menu that includes pizzas made with Stanislaus Foods tomato and Ratto Bros. basil, stuffed chicken Florentine, salmon with lemon-caper beurre blanc, tiramisu and house-made gelato. The dining room has the drama, but the better reason to go is that the cooking still feels tied to the valley around it.
Best for: Italian dinner in Modesto’s grand dining room
Harvest Moon
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Harvest Moon has been part of downtown Modesto since 1996, which gives it the kind of local permanence that can’t be manufactured with subway tile. The menu works a familiar American lane with crab toss salad, roast tri-tip sandwiches, bruschetta, Thai chicken sticks, Cajun prawn skewers, pork chops with chutney, ribeye, rack of lamb and herb-roasted chicken. It’s the old-school pick for dinner, and it’s always exactly what you’re expecting.
Best for: A longtime downtown Modesto meal
Memo’s Cocina & Tequila Bar
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Karina and Guillermo Ramirez opened the original Memo’s in Turlock in 2014 before expanding to Modesto. The food moves through a modern Mexican lane with Oaxaca cheeses, from-scratch cooking, and dishes like chile relleno en nogada, while the bar leans into tequila and mezcal with more intent than the usual house margarita routine. It’s bright, family-rooted and built for a dinner that can handle both tacos and a proper cocktail.
Best for: Modern Mexican cooking and tequila
Modesto Sukiyaki
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Chef Hiroyuki “Hiro” Yokosuka and Shigeko Yokosuka opened Sukiyaki in 1986, with Tokyo training and sukiyaki, tempura and teriyaki at the center of it. The current version has expanded into sushi rolls and ramen, but the appeal is still that Japanese comfort-food foundation.
Best for: Japanese comfort food with local history
Sofia’s Bar & Grill
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Sofia’s is a family-owned Mexican restaurant rooted in the cooking traditions of Apatzingán, Michoacán. There’s chiles rellenos filled with queso fresco, asadero and Monterey cheese, plus brochetas de camarón, La Tampiqueña, Combo Pacifico, Camarones Sofia’s, and, of course, a whole lot of margaritas. It’s polished without losing the family-restaurant pulse.
Best for: Michoacán flavors and margaritas
Surla’s
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John Surla’s longtime Modesto restaurant has always lived comfortably between upscale casual, Asian fusion and American comfort. The current menu includes chef John’s lumpia, house-made Spam musubi, Hawaiian ahi poke crisps, miso-glazed salmon, prime rib dip, ribeye beef bowls, shrimp and ahi poke bowls, and local Cipponeri peach crisp. It’s part steakhouse, part island cooking, part downtown dinner spot, with enough personality to hold the whole thing together.
Best for: Asian fusion, steaks from a chef-owner staple
Tresetti’s World Caffe
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Tresetti’s is a downtown bistro with a wide reach and enough talent to pull it off. The menu includes roasted garlic and brie, burrata with fig toast and market fruit, squash fritters with broken elote and chipotle-yuzu aioli, red cola pork tacos, Cajun pasta Alfredo, braised lamb shank and filet mignon with blue cheese and red wine demi. It’s a Modesto regulars’ restaurant with a kitchen that still seems interested in giving them something new.
Best for: A downtown bistro with range
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