America's Best Live-Fire Restaurants

Drawing on the Middle East for inspiration, Bestia owners Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis’s new restaurant in Los Angeles quickly landed a spot on Eater’s list of “The 18 Best New Restaurants in America.” Here, pita bread puffs up in the wood-fired oven while other dishes like grilled prawns marinated in harissa pick up a char from the hearth.

Visit Bavel.

“Gathering around a fire to share good food and drink with friends….as far as we’re concerned, there are few things better in life,” proclaims the menu at this Southern California restaurant. Chef Andrew Bachelier tends to the fire here, which is oak-fueled and used to grill dishes like brassica with Korean chiles and burrata. And for dessert, yes, there are s’mores.

Visit Campfire.

Christopher Kostow is a three-Michelin star chef, but the aim of his one-year-old Napa restaurant is to be anything but fussy. As GQ correspondent Brett Martin explains, “The hearth here works as the blazing anchor of a fun and delicious scene.”

Visit The Charter Oak.

Eleven Madison Park alum David Nayfeld wanted to keep things casual when he opened this Italian restaurant. While relaxed, it’s still one of the hottest spots in San Francisco at the moment. Diners line up for pastas, wood-fired pizzas, and chicken that comes with agrodolce, chilies, onions, and creamy polenta.

Visit Che Fico.

There’s a “fun atmosphere, lots of outdoor space, and wonderfully flavorful wood-fired fare,” says Eater Seattle editor Adam H.Callaghan. Meats from the grill like cider-brined pork shoulder and harissa chicken are sold by the pound, so it’s easy to mix and match here.

Visit Ciudad.

Chef Brian Malarkey’s menu changes daily, but live fire is always present. Pizzas like one topped with marrow still in its bone are cooked in a wood-fire oven, while avocados which are served with trout roe, fish sauce, sesame seed crunch and burrata get a nice char on a Grillworks grill. On warm days, grab a seat on the giant patio that features a double-sided fireplace.

Visit Herb & Wood.

At Vitaly Paley’s all-day restaurant in Portland’s Hotel Lucia, native hardwoods and fruitwoods burn in a 60-inch grill and rotisserie from Universo in Italy. The menu is a celebration of the Pacific Northwest’s bounty, including hazelnut-finished pork that’s served with romesco and grilled leeks and a coal-roasted sweet potato with charred onion butter.

Visit Imperial.

Phoenix chef Claudio Urciuoli uses a handmade wood-burning oven and steel grill to turn out a vegetable-focused menu that’s announced on a chalkboard daily. Expect dishes like wood-baked rye topped with avocado, tomato, and peekytoe crab. While the restaurant has gained critical acclaim, the vibe is anything but stuffy—fittingly, meals are served on paper plates.

Visit Pa'La.

Pull up a seat at this mostly outdoor dining destination in Los Angeles, where the menu draws inspiration from Sonora, Mexico, near Baja California. Fittingly, flour tortillas are grilled and served hot with carne and pollo asada, and al pastor or pork sweetened with pineapple.

Visit Salazar.

A large wall at this Colorado destination is lined with wood, ready for chef Caroline Glover and her team to throw into their wood-fire grill and smoker. “Almost every dish touches our grill (or smoker),” she says.

Visit Annette.

Every savory dish that comes out of the open kitchen at Trey Cioccia’s downtown Nashville restaurant and cocktail den is cooked in the restaurant’s wood-fire oven or the hickory-fueled Demant grill. That includes sourdough served with vegetable butter, charred peppers with country ham, and a half chicken that comes with beans in buttermilk and Hawaiian rolls.

Visit Black Rabbit.

Chef Elise Wiggins returns to Italy every summer to bring back new inspiration for her Denver restaurant. Grill options include half a cornish game hen stuffed with pheasant sausage, but if you’d prefer pizza, try a wood-fired pizza with nduja, burrata, fontina, spigarello and fennel pollen.

Visit Cattivella.

Grilled meat takes center stage at this Austin restaurant and butcher shop. Choose from composed plates like grilled wagyu baby back ribs with spicy sweet corn honey, stewed pinto beans, and fermented zucchini, or from the a la carte section which includes pork chops and a 20-ounce Wagyu ribeye.

Visit Dai Due.

An homage to Argentina’s grilling tradition is the heart of Chicago’s El Che Bar. The restaurant boasts two NorCal Ovenworks grills, three Wayward Machine Co. chapas, and a Wayward Machine Co. wood smoker. For the full effect, opt for the parrillada, a shared order of flank steak, morcilla, a marrow bone, sweetbreads, chorizo verde, and several sauces to go with the meats.

Visit El Che Bar.

Husband and wife David and Anna Posey helm the kitchen at this Chicago restaurant that’s powered by a custom-made wood-fire hearth and a binchotan grill. As the team explains: “Most [of our] proteins spend time on the grill [and] we hearth roast a lot of fruits and vegetables that end up on the menu in some form.” This includes dessert, which should not be skipped.

Visit Elske.

Like its predecessor in Charleston, Husk celebrates modern Southern ingredients and cooking, Nashville-style. The menu changes frequently, but look out spaghetti squash roasted in the embers, hearth cornbread, and locally-sourced proteins cooked on the grill.

Visit Husk.

Forget what you know about steakhouses: Chicago’s Maple & Ash is a decadent yet raucous party. Caviar comes with potato chips and there’s an “I Don’t Give a F*@k” option on the menu where you put yourself in the kitchen’s hands. If you’d rather choose for yourself, opt for one of the numerous steaks cooked in the restaurant’s wood-fire hearth.

Visit Maple & Ash.

Born in Buenos Aires, chef Daniel del Prado has brought Argentine-inspired cooking to Minneapolis. Grilled fare appears all over the menu, inlcuding grilled cucumbers with chile oil, octopus with fingerling potatoes, and a parrillada for two with sweetbreads, blood sausage, and more.

Visit Martina.

“Peche has found a way to breathe new life into traditional Louisianan dishes,” explains food writer Anne E. McBride. The James Beard Award winning team celebrates local and sustainable seafood like grilled tuna with tomato and a crispy rice salad cooked over live fire.

Visit Peche Seafood Grill.

Bon Appetit deputy editor Julia Kramer explains that this Nashville restaurant “is literally just a couple guys and an enormous live-fire grill. It's wild and crazy and fun and one of the most delicious meals I had last year.”

Visit Urban Cowboy Public House.

Open for less than two years, this St. Louis restaurant has already garnered a glowing mention in nearly every major restaurant-focused publication. Food & Wine restaurant editor Jordana Rothman calls the restaurant and its daily changing menu “radically light in the meat-and-potatoes Midwest. Cheeky, interactive, [and] fine."

Visit Vicia Restaurant.

Jeremiah Langhorne is revitalizing Mid-Atlantic cooking in Washington D.C. at the much-lauded new restaurant. And nearly everything the kitchen turns out, from hearth-roasted vegetables with farro to whole grilled porgy with grilled cucumber and nduja vinaigrette, is made in the restaurant’s open hearth.

Visit The Dabney.

The latest restaurant from chef Ashley Christensen, who snagged last year’s “Chef of the Year” award from Eater, is dedicated to cooking with live fire. Evern the embers from her Grillworks grill fire aren’t overlooked; she uses them to cook sweet corn served with smoked butter, and to char tomatoes for a vinaigrette that tops heirloom tomatoes dotted with house-made ricotta.

Visit Death & Taxes.

Everything is casual at this Argentine restaurant in Pittsburgh. Order one of five cuts of steak that’s cooked over live fire at the counter, and it will be brought to your table inside or on the patio if the weather’s nice.

Visit Gaucho Parrilla.

A short ride across the river from Philadelphia sits chef Dominic and Lindsay Piperno’s hearth-focused restaurant. Oak logs fuel the fires here, infusing dishes with smoke like a 30-day dry-aged porterhouse and specials like a hearth-roasted rack of lamb with kale saag, charred cabbage and black lentils. Make sure to grab a bottle of wine before heading over; the restaurant’s BYOB.

Visit Hearthside.

At this Miami restaurant, chef Michael Lewis turns out wood-grilled Asian-inflected fare like beef tenderloin with toasted garlic soy butter and fire-roasted kimchi, and grilled jumbo tiger prawn with black bean vinaigrette and Korean mint. Don’t miss the duck breast burnt ends. Plus, for every tree burned, the team replants five to take its place.

Visit KYU.

“Our planning phase is getting the product here. Once it’s here, I have fun with it,” says chef Daniel Bojorquez. He cooks much of it over a wood-fired grill and oven, including a skirt steak, wood-roasted oysters and a sweet potato loaded with goat cheese, pistachios, walnuts and a honey vinaigrette.

Visit La Brasa.

Missy Robbins’s Brooklyn restaurant is perhaps best known for its fresh housemade pasta, but, as food writer Andrew Friedman explains, “It's not the only style of cooking done here... from the steaks to seasonal specials, some of the best food comes from the wood-burning oven.”

Visit Lilia. Photo: Noah Fecks.

Arguably, there are few chefs who know more about live-fire cooking than Argentina’s Francis Mallmann. If you can’t swing a trip to his homeland, this Miami restaurant is a good stand-in. For the complete experience, opt for the meat parrillada, which comes with skirt steak, slow-cooked ribeye, chorizo, and more.

Visit Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann.

A refreshing find in the posh Hamptons, Lulu’s kitchen blazes with a Grillworks Infierno grill and oven. Fire-licked flavor shows up across the menu from a grilled heirloom cauliflower with spicy grapes, toasted sesame, and cooling yogurt, to Saturday night’s special: a cowboy ribeye that serves two.

Visit Lulu Kitchen & Bar.

The flavors of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucuses come together at this D.C. restaurant—and everything is centered around the restaurant’s fire pit. “It is a lot of fun, to say the least,” says co-chef Chris Morgan. It’s used to grill carrots that are topped with harissa, fuel clay ovens where the house’s signature flatbread is cooked, and singe kebabs like duck breast with ras el hanout.

Visit Maydan.