If you live in Fresno, there are plenty of restaurants you should know.
Beyond that, there are specific dishes at those restaurants that Fresnans rave about. Some are tied up in Fresno’s identity.
They range from a tri-tip sandwich that people line up for to pasta made with another local favorite, sweet corn grown at Fresno State.
So here’s a look at the must-try foods at Fresno restaurants, in no particular order.
10 must-try foods at Fresno restaurantsBread pudding from Cracked Pepper Bistro Bread pudding at the Cracked Pepper Bistro is plated with caramel and whipped cream in this file photo. DARRELL WONG The Fresno Bee
This bread pudding is easily Fresno’s most famous dessert. And Cracked Pepper is one of Fresno’s top restaurants.
You can get the dessert at the restaurant near Herndon and Palm avenues (and you might try another of the restaurant’s top sellers while you’re there, the mala-insana Napoleon, an eggplant appetizer that can impress even people who don’t like eggplant).
The bread pudding is made with day-old Danishes, croissants and dinner rolls. It has a brandy-based sauce and is topped with homemade whipped cream. Chef Vatche Moukhtarian once shared the recipe with The Bee and you can find it on our website.
There’s an urban legend that a pregnant woman in labor once made her husband stop and pick up an order of it on their way to hospital so she could have some before she gave birth.
Sweet corn agnolotti from The Annex Kitchen The Annex Kitchen uses Fresno State sweet corn as the filling for its agnolotti pasta. THE FRESNO BEE
These little pillows of pasta filled with the popular Fresno State corn and sprinkled with cheese made a splash when chef and co-owner Jimmy Pardini debuted them at the West Shaw Avenue restaurant.
Back in 2016, food critic, author and podcaster Simon Majumdar announced the dish was the best thing he’d eaten in the United States all year.
It’s only available when the sweet corn is in season, usually in from late May til August.
Annex is one of several top-notch restaurants in town created by Pardini, part of a family with a long history of restaurants in Fresno. He opened Annesso Pizzeria, and recently Willow Osteria in Clovis.
Max’s Bistro & Bar’s sweet potato fries Sweet potato fries, pictured here as part of Max’s Bistro & Bar’s trio of signature french fries, are a popular favorite among Fresnans. Special to The Bee MAX’S BISTRO & BAR
If you go to Max’s with any regular customer, they’re going to order the sweet potato fries. Or at least the trio of sweet potato fries with jalapeno-arugula aioli, eggplant fries with sriracha aoili and truffle fries with Parmesan.
There’s a lot more to this classy restaurant at Bullard and West avenues, of course — like its Kobe beef meatloaf and seafood — but those fries are a Fresno favorite.
Bierocks from The Berrock Shop Traditional bierocks from The Berrock Shop at Bullard and West avenues in Fresno are made with ground beef, cabbage and onions. Fresno Bee file photo THE FRESNO BEE
A bierock is fresh-made dough filled with ground beef, cabbage and onions and baked until golden brown.
It’s the specialty at The Berrock Shop at the northwest corner of Bullard and West avenues.
In addition to the classic bierock, you can also get a barbecued beef version, a Mexican version with beef, cheese and green chiles, and a breakfast bierock with scrambled eggs and ham or bacon.
The restaurant also serves chicken pot pies and sandwiches. It’s been around since 1977 (back when bierock used to be spelled berrock).
Chicken and waffles at Chef Paul’s Cafe Chef Paul’s Cafe won The Fresno Bee poll of favorite Black-owned places to eat and drink in 2022. SPECIAL TO THE BEE
Chicken and waffles are a popular favorite of many Fresnans at Chef Paul’s, the soul food restaurant on F Street in Chinatown.
The braised oxtails almost made this list, too.
But as for that fried chicken atop a waffle, you can get wings, a breast, thigh, a drumstick — or all of the above.
And the waffles are no ordinary waffles either. The batter has spices mixed in that give it a little extra something.
Me-n-Ed’s pizza Pizza like this one is popular at Me-n-Ed’s, a staple with more than 40 locations in the central San Joaquin Valley. PAUL MULLINS Special to the Bee
Love it or think it’s overrated, Me-n-Ed’s is still a Valley classic.
Whether it’s the straight-up pepperoni or the Valley Veggie pizza, Me-n-Ed’s is the most well-known local pizza spot in Fresno.
The Fresno-based company has more than 40 pizzerias across the Valley, along with sister restaurants such as Blast & Brew locations.
The brothers behind it, John and Tom Ferdinandi Jr., were featured in The Bee’s Restaurant Royalty series about families who have shaped the Fresno restaurant scene.
The first Me-n-Ed’s was founded in 1958 in Sacramento. (The “Me” in the name is Russ Johnson, brother of Shakey Johnson of Shakey’s Pizza.) The Ferdinandis’ father and a partner eventually took over the company before passing it along to their sons.
Tri-tip at the Dog House Grill Francisco Sanchez pulls dozens of cuts of tri-tip out of the smoker at Dog House Grill in Fresno. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com
Tri-tip is a Fresno favorite and the most popular place to get it is a Fresno favorite too: the Dog House Grill.
You can get the tri-tip in a sandwich, on a taco or a salad.
Tri-tip is so popular here that Dog House goes through 400 cuts of it a day — 700 on weekends. That’s what’s being smoked out front of the business on Shaw Avenue.
The sports-themed restaurant is on Shaw Avenue, across the street from Fresno State. It’s also a big supporter of the university’s teams.
Pho from restaurants at the Mayfair Shopping Center A steaming bowl of pho awaits customers at Nho Kitchen in the Mayfair Center at First Street and McKinley Avenue in Fresno. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com
Pho is a Fresno classic. The Vietnamese soup is pronounced “fuh” and made with a clear broth, thin rice noodles and a protein, usually beef, but sometimes chicken or seafood.
It’s a reflection of the city’s Southeast Asian population, but one that the rest of the city has eagerly adopted.
You can find pho at restaurants all over town. But there’s one shopping center that’s home to four pho restaurants.
The Mayfair shopping center at the northeast corner of McKinley Avenue and First Street is home to Pho 99, Pho 75 #2, Nho Kitchen and Pho #1.
The fancy burrito at Sal’s Mexican Restaurant The fancy burrito with chile con carne is a popular favorite at Sal’s Mexican Restaurant. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
This burrito features beans and chili con carne in a large flour tortilla topped with more chili con carne and lots of melted jack cheese. It’s a gooey, wet burrito that you eat with a fork.
Sal’s Mexican Restaurant founder, Sal Salazar, invented it in the 1970s using his mother’s chile con carne recipe. Bee readers voted it Fresno’s most famous dish in a poll a few years ago.
You can get it all three Sal’s locations: Fresno, Selma and Madera.
Tacos from El Premio Mayor or La Elegante El Premio Mayor’s Bianca Loza, top, serves a plate of three tacos from the restaurant’s taco trailer in this file photo. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
You didn’t think we’d make this list without tacos on it, did you? This is Fresno, after all, where almost everyone loves a good taco and it’s home to the Taco Truck Throwdown.
The hard part was picking where to get tacos from. So for that, we narrowed it down to two classic, longtime taco shops.
El Premio Mayor has a new location at McKinley Avenue and First Street. It also has a taqueria at Maroa and Shields avenues.
La Elegante is another longtime favorite on Kern Street in Chinatown in downtown Fresno.
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Bethany Clough covers restaurants and retail for The Fresno Bee. A reporter for more than 20 years, she now works to answer readers’ questions about business openings, closings and other business news. She has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and her last name is pronounced Cluff.