Explore our curated restaurants, hotels, bars, and wineries in Lincoln.
Accolades in Lincoln
The Oven and Casa Bovina hold Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for 2026, and both wine programs are exceptional. L's Kitchen in Irvingdale keeps a curated wine program with French and Italian fine dining.
The Oven is a restaurant in Haymarket. Northern Indian tandoor cuisine is served with an exceptional wine program. Expert sommeliers curate the cellar, which holds over 2,200 bottles. The Wine Spectator award is Best of Award of Excellence for 2026.
Casa Bovina is a restaurant in Northeast Lincoln, an Italian-inspired Piedmontese steakhouse. Certified Piedmontese beef is the specialty, in an open kitchen. The restaurant offers a tasting menu and an a la carte menu. The wine program is exceptional and sommelier-led, with an extensive wine list. For 2026 the awards are a James Beard Award Semi Finalist and a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence.
L's Kitchen is a restaurant in Irvingdale serving fine dining French and Italian cuisine. A Paris-trained chef leads the kitchen. The room is cozy fine dining, and the menu is a la carte. The wine program at this Irvingdale restaurant is curated.
Blue Sushi Sake Grill pours sake in Haymarket, Koen Japanese BBQ & Sushi pours sake in South Lincoln, and Kasumi Sushi pours sake in Downtown Lincoln.
Blue Sushi Sake Grill is a Haymarket bar serving creative sushi rolls in an energetic room. Premium cold sake and signature cocktails are part of the drink program, and wine is also served.
Koen Japanese BBQ & Sushi is a restaurant in South Lincoln built around authentic Japanese BBQ with personal smoke-less table grills. Guests cook pre-marinated dishes at the table, and the venue also combines that format with a sushi program. Craft cocktails and sake are poured here.
Kasumi Sushi is a Downtown Lincoln bar running an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet with fresh fish and a varied menu. Sake is poured here with the sushi buffet, and wine is also served.
Lincoln has zero Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide, and the citywide Michelin stars total is zero. Our guide counts 9 restaurants in Lincoln, and the restaurant count for Lincoln is citywide.
Haymarket and Northeast Lincoln are the neighborhoods named in our top venues with exceptional wine programs, at The Oven and Casa Bovina. Citywide, our guide counts 3 exceptional wine programs.
Casa Bovina in Northeast Lincoln serves a tasting menu. It is an Italian-inspired Piedmontese steakhouse with an open kitchen, an a la carte option and a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for 2026.
The Oven and Casa Bovina hold Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for 2026. Citywide, our guide counts three Best of Award of Excellence awards and one Award of Excellence. The Oven is in Haymarket and Casa Bovina is in Northeast Lincoln. Both wine programs are exceptional.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Lincoln
Lincoln
Selected entries from the current guide for Lincoln.
Lincoln, United States
Casa Bovina occupies a spot on Lincoln's north side at 4841 N 84th St, placing it within a dining scene that rewards those who look beyond the downtown corridor. The name signals bovine territory, situating it in Nebraska's deep cattle-country tradition. For Lincoln diners thinking about where red meat fits into the city's broader restaurant conversation, this address is part of that answer.
Lincoln, United States
Positioned in Lincoln's downtown core at 201 N 8th St, The Oven occupies a specific niche in a city whose dining scene has grown considerably beyond its Great Plains roots. For visitors assessing Lincoln's independent restaurant options against the broader Midwest, The Oven represents a locally rooted choice worth understanding in context before booking.
Lincoln, United States
Canyon Joe's Barbecue occupies a spot on South 18th Street in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, placing it within reach of the city's broader dining scene that runs from steakhouse tradition at Fred & Steve's Steakhouse to contemporary formats at Restaurant Pearl Morissette. For visitors tracing Lincoln's casual-to-serious dining range, barbecue holds a distinct and culturally rooted position on that spectrum.
Lincoln, United States
Fattoush Restaurant brings Middle Eastern and Lebanese cooking to Lincoln's North Bottoms neighbourhood, offering a distinctly different dining register from the city's steakhouse and American bistro circuit. The bilingual name signals a kitchen oriented around the regional traditions of the Levant. For Lincoln diners looking beyond the familiar, this address on North 27th Street represents a clear alternative.
Lincoln, United States
A neighborhood kitchen on Lincoln's south side, L's Kitchen at 2785 S 17th St draws locals who value the ritual of a properly paced meal over spectacle. The address places it squarely in a residential stretch of Lincoln, NE, where the dining room format rewards repeat visitors rather than one-time drop-ins. Consider it a counter to the louder, higher-concept options elsewhere in the city.
Lincoln
Selected entries from the current guide for Lincoln.
Lincoln, United States
Graduate by Hilton Lincoln earned a MICHELIN Selected designation in 2025, placing it among a small cohort of hotels in Nebraska to receive formal recognition from the guide. Located at 141 N 9th St in downtown Lincoln, the property operates within the Graduate Hotels brand, a chain that has built its identity around university-town settings and campus-adjacent culture.
Lincoln, United States
The Kindler Hotel occupies a carefully restored building at 216 North 11th Street in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, earning Michelin Selected recognition in the 2025 guide. It sits within a broader shift in mid-American cities toward design-led independent hotels that position themselves against the standard chain tier. For travelers who treat the room as part of the experience, it represents Lincoln's most credentialed lodging option.
Lincoln
Selected entries from the current guide for Lincoln.
Lincoln, United States
Positioned in Lincoln's downtown core at 201 N 8th St, The Oven occupies a specific niche in a city whose dining scene has grown considerably beyond its Great Plains roots. For visitors assessing Lincoln's independent restaurant options against the broader Midwest, The Oven represents a locally rooted choice worth understanding in context before booking.
Lincoln, United States
Barred Owl sits inside Lincoln’s bar conversation as a useful case study in how smaller American cities read cocktail culture: less spectacle, more reliance on format, pacing, and trust. With for chef, awards, price, or booking channels, the sensible lens is comparative rather than declarative, placing it against Lincoln’s wider dining and drinking circuit.
Lincoln, United States
Blue Sushi Sake Grill at 808 R St sits within Lincoln's compact but increasingly serious Japanese-influenced dining scene, occupying a position closer to accessible Japanese-American fusion than traditional omakase. The bar program and sake selection pull their weight alongside the food, making it a reasonable case study in how the genre performs outside major coastal markets.
Lincoln, United States
On East O Street in Lincoln's near-downtown corridor, DISH Restaurant occupies the kind of address that rewards those paying attention to where the city's dining conversation is heading. The kitchen works a food-and-drink pairing format that positions it closer to the bar-kitchen hybrids reshaping mid-sized American cities than to the standard Nebraska steakhouse template.
Lincoln, United States
Japon Bistro on Lincoln's south side brings a Japanese-inflected dining concept to a city that has steadily expanded its range of Asian cuisine options. Located at 3520 Village Dr in the Village Drive corridor, the bistro format positions it between casual carry-out and full-service destination dining. For Lincoln diners tracking the city's evolving restaurant scene, it merits attention alongside peers like Kasumi Sushi and Blue Sushi Sake Grill.
Lincoln, United States
Kasumi Sushi operates at 151 N 8th Street in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, within a city whose Japanese dining scene has grown more considered over the past decade. The address places it close to the Haymarket district, where a concentration of independent restaurants has shifted Lincoln's dining conversation toward specificity and craft. For those working through Lincoln's Japanese options, Kasumi sits alongside a small peer group that includes both specialist sushi counters and broader bistro formats.
Lincoln, United States
Kinja occupies a strip-mall address on Lincoln's south side, the kind of location that filters out casual visitors and rewards those who find it. The cocktail program anchors the experience, placing Kinja within a growing tier of technically serious bars that have emerged outside Nebraska's larger urban centers. It is a reference point for anyone tracing Lincoln's evolving drink culture.
Lincoln, United States
Koen Japanese BBQ & Sushi occupies a strip-mall suite on Jamie Lane in Lincoln's southwest side, combining yakiniku-style tableside grilling with a sushi program under one roof. The format places it in a small niche within Lincoln's Japanese dining tier, where the dual-concept model is uncommon. Find it at 2601 Jamie Ln #100, Lincoln, NE 68512.
Lincoln, United States
LeadBelly occupies a spot in Lincoln's downtown bar corridor at 301 N 8th St, operating in a city whose cocktail culture has grown considerably more considered in recent years. The address puts it within walking distance of the Capitol district's broader dining and drinking cluster. For travelers passing through Nebraska's capital, it sits alongside a small cohort of bars worth factoring into an evening's itinerary.
Lincoln, United States
A Lincoln neighborhood fixture at 105 S 25th St, The Tam Restaurant & Pub occupies the space where pub-format dining and restaurant menus converge — a combination that defines a specific tier of mid-city American dining. The dual identity, part bar, part kitchen, shapes what the menu promises and how the room feels on any given evening.
Lincoln, United States
A fixture on Lincoln's O Street dining corridor, Yia Yia's draws a cross-section of the city's restaurant-goers with a format that prioritizes atmosphere and accessible pricing. The address at 1423 O St places it squarely in the commercial heart of downtown, making it a practical reference point for anyone building an evening out in Nebraska's capital.
Lincoln
Selected entries from the current guide for Lincoln.
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