MA Restaurant Makes Elite List Of America’s Best By New York Times

One Massachusetts restaurant is included in The Restaurant List 2026, an elite compilation of the 50 best restaurants in America by The New York Times.

A 16-person scouting team traveled across the country for the list, eating everywhere from small-town Wisconsin to downtown Manhattan. The critics made reservations, waited in lines and arrived unannounced, paying for their meals and accepting no freebies.

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Included from Massachusetts is:

Dalia, which recently opened in April, is located at 429 W. Broadway in South Boston and is known for Spanish tapas.

The Times singled out chef Nicholas Dixon's inventive takes on Spanish dishes, including calamari "dan dan" noodles with sobrasada and almonds and extra-crispy, pavé-style patatas bravas.

The list also highlighted Dalia's colorful dining room and open kitchen, where Basque grills cook dishes including Iberico pork.

"Many Spanish restaurants in the United States still mostly peddle a tapas ideal from 30 years in the past (delicious as it may be)," The Times wrote. "But Dalia treats Spanish cooking not as a destination but a point of departure."

The restaurants aren't ranked, and none appeared on a previous edition of the annual list. The selections include places that opened only weeks ago, as well as restaurants that have served customers for decades.

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