The 56 Best Places in Richmond

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America

A stained glass window of, let's say, assertive subject matter sets the tone before you've ordered a thing. L'Opossum is a fine dining room where French technique meets full-on theatrical excess, the kind of place that serves lobster mac and cheese under a name like "swank bank" and wraps a cocktail in plastic like a certain *Twin Peaks* corpse. The bathroom is clowns. All of it is intentional, and somehow it holds together.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

A Church Hill dining room in a building old enough to have opinions, the Roosevelt runs Modern Southern cooking through a genuinely soulful lens. The chef, a 2026 James Beard semifinalist, draws on food-anthropologist sources and old family recipes, so the menu feels more inherited than invented. Virginia bottles anchor the drinks list, with regional beers and inventive cocktails filling out what's become a quietly serious beverage program.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Leah Branch

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year

The chalkboard specials change often enough that regulars check it before sitting down, which tells you most of what you need to know about Alewife. It's a modern seafood restaurant in Church Hill with a sustainable-catch ethos and cocktails that earn their own moment. Groups of four tend to anchor the table around the Siren Song, a lazy Susan of fresh catches built for sharing. Reservations are the move; this place stays busy.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

The bar at this Mexican restaurant mills heirloom corn daily for its tortillas, which tells you something about the priorities. Chef Danny Mena, Mexico City-born and a mezcal producer himself, keeps a serious agave spirits collection behind a gorgeous counter worth sitting at. Tostadas, taquitos, and seasonal tacos fill out the menu with the kind of street food logic that makes you order more than you planned.

1. AAA Approved
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

The garlic and oregano hit you through the door before you've even reached for the handle. Stella's is a Greek neighborhood restaurant run by the same family for years, the kind of place where the table fills up fast with flaky tiropita and saganaki flaming tableside. The braised lamb and artichoke moussaka are built for sharing, and the portions make sure nobody goes home arguing about it.

1. AAA Approved
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

A marble Thomas Jefferson presides over the Palm Court, which sets the tone for this grand Beaux Arts hotel a block from Virginia's state capitol. The rotunda's original Tiffany glass ceiling stops people mid-stride. Rooms lean residential and plush, and the whole place has a pleasantly odd streak, namely alligator motifs tucked into unexpected corners, a nod to the live ones that once shared the lobby.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Peter Chang

A boutique hotel next to Virginia Commonwealth University, Graduate Richmond leans into the city rather than the campus, with décor paying tribute to Richmond tennis legend Arthur Ashe instead of the usual school-colors approach. The Graduate chain is built on the idea that a college-town hotel should feel nostalgic without feeling cheap, so expect something warmer and more considered than a standard chain property.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Check-in happens at the bar, where you're handed a cocktail before you're handed a key. Moxy Richmond Downtown is a compact, design-forward hotel where the lobby runs as a full lounge with retro games and a soundtrack, and the grab-and-go station means nobody goes hungry at midnight. Rooms are small by intention, built around walk-in showers and clever storage. The crowd skews younger, but then, so does the playlist.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The building used to be a department store, and there's still something pleasingly grand about the Italian Renaissance bones underneath all the art. Quirk Hotel is a boutique stay in Richmond's downtown arts district, grown out of the gallery next door, and the walls read like a curated show rather than filler. Locals drift through the lobby as if the hotel is partly theirs, which is more or less the idea.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Folk art, hand-painted tiles, and block-printed quilts fill a six-story early 20th-century apartment building that the Fan District has quietly needed for years. Shenandoah Mansions is a boutique hotel with a slightly gothic streak, each suite shaped around a piece of Virginia history. Two cocktail bars, an all-day dining room, and a small garden mean there's rarely a reason to leave the block, which the neighborhood seems perfectly fine with.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A Colonial Revival townhouse from the Edwardian era, tucked into Richmond's Fan District, with high ceilings and antique woodwork that make the handful of rooms feel like staying in a well-curated old house rather than a hotel. The owners bring New York and Puerto Rico hospitality backgrounds, which means a personal welcome and a daily European-style breakfast rather than a front-desk transaction. The leafy streets, galleries, and restaurants of the Fan are right outside.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The bar top is salvaged antique wood and marble, and the menu is a chalkboard that changes by the week. This intimate neighborhood restaurant in a historic space runs on local seafood, beef, and game, with a roast chicken that regulars treat as non-negotiable. The staff, many of them art students, walk you through whatever the kitchen is doing that evening. A good place to go without a plan.

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

The Croque Park Avenue, draped in mornay sauce over Black Forest ham and gruyère, is a good argument for eating lunch at a corner cafe more often. Garnett's is the kind of relaxed, homey spot where first dates go well and regulars linger, with French-leaning sandwiches and wine poured without ceremony. The happy hour pricing borders on anachronistic in the best possible way.

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

A French bistro in Richmond where the steak frites is the answer whether the question is date night or Tuesday. The wine list is short, approachably priced, and chosen with genuine taste, which pairs well with a charcuterie spread that doubles as a reasonable case for skipping an entree. The chef behind it also runs a wine shop and a bakery nearby, so clearly one project was never going to be enough.

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Richmond, Virginia

1. Bon Appétit #3 · America's Best New Restaurants