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

PITTSBURGH, PA — A Pittsburgh 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.

Included from Pittsburgh is Titusz in Lawrenceville, which opened last year. The Austro-Hungarian restaurant occupies the former Merchant Oyster Co. space and is named after Chef Csilla Thackray's great-grandfather.

The Times said that Thackray takes the foundations of Hungarian cooking - papprika, root vegetables, and smoked sausage - and transforms them into dishes that feel both personal and wholly fresh, drawing on her family history.

"Chilled sorrel soup gets dill oil and kornspitz croutons. Langos, a deep-fried potato flatbread, comes layered with a tangy, spreadable cheese, goat Gouda, and lemony herbs. And a roasted duck leg is bathed in a floral apricot-riesling reduction," the Times review stated.

"That same personal touch carries through the room, from gold letter-pressed menus to vases abundant with wildflowers."

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 been serving customers for decades.