Filthy Animal, a jungle-themed wood-fired restaurant in Tempe, Arizona, has claimed the top spot on Yelp’s best new restaurant list for 2026. The ranking, which covers eateries that opened after 1 January 2026, is ordered by ratings and review volume across the platform.
The result will raise eyebrows among food writers who tend to fix their gaze on New York or Los Angeles. Tempe’s Filthy Animal beat out nine other restaurants spread across major American cities, including entries from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and Kansas City, to lead the national list.
From a former chain site to Yelp’s Filthy Animal best new restaurant crown
According to ABC15, the restaurant opened in March 2025, transforming a former P.F. Chang’s location into an immersive dining experience. The conversion is the work of restaurateur Teddy Myers and his Pretty Decent Concepts group, which also operates Carry On, Wren & Wolf, and Trophy Room in Arizona.
The kitchen is led by Executive Chef Rene Vargas, who, according to KTAR, builds the menu around American cuisine with influences drawn from Asian, Mexican and tropical flavours, all cooked over a wood fire pit. Brunch, lunch and dinner are all served, with headline dishes including Campfire Seabass and Tomahawk steaks.
A review published by Phoenix Magazine filled in further detail on the wider menu: milk bread at $7, grilled oysters at $19, beef tartare at $21, wood-fired Napa cabbage at $21, and ancho chile pork chops at $36. The range speaks to a kitchen comfortable moving between snacks and full centrepiece cuts without losing a coherent identity. The restaurant sits at 740 S. Mill Ave., Tempe.
Wood fire runs through Yelp’s 2025 and 2026 rankings
Yelp’s methodology is straightforward: restaurants must have opened after the first of the year, and the final order reflects ratings combined with review volume. For Filthy Animal, that translated into enough verified enthusiasm to clear the field nationally, not just regionally.
The wood-fire theme is not new to Yelp’s annual selections. The 2025 list featured Brooklyn’s Theodora at number three, where Chef Tomer Blechman roasts dry-aged fish over a custom grill, and The Amalfi Llama at number eleven in San Diego, which uses a traditional Patagonian parrilla for open-fire barbecuing. Filthy Animal’s Yelp best new restaurant placement continues that pattern, suggesting the format is finding a sustained audience beyond the initial trend cycle.
The full Yelp top ten for 2026 runs as follows: Filthy Animal in Tempe, Arizona; Firstborn in Los Angeles, California; Limusina in New York, New York; Eylan in Menlo Park, California; Lilo in Carlsbad, California; 1587 Prime in Kansas City, Missouri; Bar Boheme in Las Vegas, Nevada; Mezcla in Columbus, Ohio; Dorothy’s Downtown in Jacksonville, Florida; and Ambassador’s Clubhouse in New York, New York.
The list spans cuisines from seafood to prime steaks, with entries in cities ranging from mid-size markets such as Columbus and Jacksonville to the expected metropolitan centres. No single coast dominates the ranking, and the presence of Eylan in Menlo Park and Lilo in Carlsbad alongside the New York double-entry at tenth place suggests Yelp’s review base is broad enough to surface strong regional performers.
For Teddy Myers and Pretty Decent Concepts, the Yelp recognition adds national credibility to what was already a well-regarded local operation. The question now is whether the attention translates into the kind of reservation pressure that tests a restaurant’s consistency beyond its opening months. Filthy Animal has been open since March 2025, so it has had the better part of a year to find its rhythm before the spotlight arrived.