General Tso&rsquo;s Chicken, Walnut Shrimp, whatever you&rsquo;re craving &mdash; Chinese, Japanese, Szechuan, or Thai cuisine &mdash; Mulan has all the bases covered and takes the BOM gold for Chinese fare.

Best Chinese

Whenever I ask someone for their date-night suggestions, the answer is always the same: Coastal Fish Company. The sweeping patio views of Hyde Lake, the schools of fresh fish, creative seafood dishes, the sweet fruity cocktail of tropical cheesecake. There&rsquo;s no better ambience to mark a special occasion.

Best Seafood

Donald Crump has been a fixture in the Memphis wing scene for a long time now and decks out his chicken with spice, more spice, and everything nice. Whether it&rsquo;s classic buffalo or dry-seasoned lemon pepper, Crumpy&rsquo;s delicious whole wings will be nothing but a dry bone by the time you&rsquo;re done.

Best Hot Wings

Best Patio

The smoothies at Smoothie King let you rule the day with customizable options to energize, recharge, or treat yourself &mdash; or, heck, a combo of all three. It&rsquo;s no wonder Memphis crowned the franchise the King of Smoothies.

Best Smoothies/Juices

All hail the Za at Memphis Pizza Cafe, where the pizza has that thin and flaky crust, baked to perfection &mdash; and that&rsquo;s in addition to reasonable prices and top-notch service.

Best Pizza

This is a place where many people can say, &ldquo;I celebrated my birthday there one time.&rdquo; They remember the balloons tied to their chair when they arrived. But you don&rsquo;t have to reserve this place just for birthdays; every dining experience in this elegant restaurant that looks as magnificent as its steaks and other fare can be a special occasion.

Best Fine Dining/New American 

Pho Binh is a long-standing Midtown institution, having won devoted fans for decades with its fresh cooking, not to mention its vegetarian and vegan-friendly dishes. Their lunch buffet alone has been a staple for many Memphis creatives on the lookout for affordable quality eats.

Best Vietnamese

Ever pair a Bloody Mary with a King Creole (crab cakes, poached eggs, andouille, crawfish, and Creole hollandaise!)? What about jambalaya (with gator meat!)? Memphis has, and we likey.

Best Bloody Mary

Best Restaurant  

Calvin Bell did it again. This long-standing Best Server winner again takes the top spot. You&rsquo;ll find him serving customers on the left side of the restaurant&rsquo;s north dining room. He&rsquo;ll take good care of you.

Best Server

A visit to Huey&rsquo;s &mdash; and their win in six categories &mdash; proves, Memphis can&rsquo;t get enough. Couples and families, late-night or to-go, give us a pile of cheese fries and a tried-and-true burger, and we are happy campers.

Best Late-Night Dining

Best Burgers

Las Delicias elevated the Memphis tortilla chip game. They are big, substantial, airy, chewy, crunchy, salty, and hard to describe, really. Memphians also find them hard to pass up, available in bags now in almost every grocery store here. This same devotion to the restaurant&rsquo;s authentic approach to Mexican food and drink packs its two locations on Park and Quince.

Best Mexican

You can now get a taste of Memphis from St. Petersburg to Chicago and from Wilmington to Durango. Over nearly a decade, Wiseacre has expanded its reach across the country while maintaining and celebrating its Memphis roots. And Memphis still celebrates Wiseacre in its OG Broad Avenue taproom and its wondrous new Downtown location.&nbsp;

Best Local Brewery

If you&rsquo;re in the mood for something elaborate like a maple bacon donut or something simpler like a plain glazed, Gibson&rsquo;s is the place. Or you might want a bear claw or a copy of manager/owner Britton DeWeese&rsquo;s children&rsquo;s book, The Donut Shop That Never Sleeps. Fresh donuts roll off the shelves as the line, which might literally be out the door, of hungry customers keeps moving.

Best Donut Shop

Flight Restaurant&rsquo;s innovative &ldquo;flights&rdquo; of wine tastings and food pairings are a favorite with Flyer readers year after year, and this year is no exception.

Best Wine List

Best Cajun/Creole

&ldquo;Cathead&rdquo; chicken biscuits, Elvis shortstacks, po&rsquo;boys, breakfast skillets, and more. Add on a Breakfast Dude (Big Bad cold brew, cream, vodka, Kahl&uacute;a), and it makes a winning combo for best new restaurant. That&rsquo;s just, like, Memphis&rsquo; opinion, man.

Best New Restaurant

The competition among Indian restaurants is fierce, but the Midtown institution keeps the crown to become a certified Best of Memphis. During the pandemic, their expanded take-out operation provided comfort food to the desperate masses missing the legendary buffet. Long live the king at India Palace!

Best Indian

Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant

Unlike most Thai restaurants, Bangkok Alley offers sushi, and that alone suggests they know a thing or two about using only the freshest seafood. Their sea bass with fresh ginger brown sauce and seared ahi tuna in garlic and basil sauce take Thai food to new heights.

Best Thai

An outing at Railgarten is a blast, from live music and games to great food and drinks. Even dogs love an adventure &mdash; and lots of pets from friendly strangers &mdash; on its 1.5 acres.

Best Dog-Friendly Restaurant/Bar

Cookies, cakes, pies &mdash; oh my! For seasonal favorites or good ol&rsquo; standbys (hello, Prozac Cupcake!), Memphis loves Muddy&rsquo;s.

Best Dessert Shop

Best Carry-Out

Nothing hits the spot better than starting the day with a perfect breakfast. Brother Juniper&rsquo;s knows how to do that. When you sit down to eggs, bacon, sausage, or whatever you want to eat, you might want to keep sitting there until lunch. It is perfection.

Best Breakfast

You just feel like you&rsquo;re going out to dinner when you eat at this iconic Memphis restaurant. You&rsquo;re eating top-notch spaghetti, ravioli, and other Italian dishes in the perfect dining-out decor. Lots of tables and booths. Lots of people. They also have a range of other items, including excellent steaks. Oh, and the stuffed celery and the crab cakes.

Best Italian

Not only is the Beauty Shop&rsquo;s food outstanding, but the brunch experience of saying howdy do to seemingly everybody in this offbeat restaurant &mdash; which is housed in a space that once really was a beauty shop &mdash; is unforgettable.

Best Brunch

Best Steak

There&rsquo;s no better way to start the day than with a cup of freshly roasted coffee. Either in store or at home, our readers think Ugly Mug is pretty cool.

Best Local Coffeehouse

It&rsquo;s in owner Greg Diaz&rsquo;s blood. As a single mother of 10 children, Diaz&rsquo;s mom managed to open a restaurant and turn it into a chain of eight. He now has multiple locations &mdash; and a BOM food truck &mdash; and is following in his mother&rsquo;s footsteps.

Best Food Truck

Best Bakery

Open Casablanca&rsquo;s door and teleport yourself to the lands of shawarma, shish kabob, falafel, and baba ghanoush. The air is scented with a mix of spices: cumin, cardamom, and coriander. The dim dining room and light Middle Eastern music complete the cultural immersion. (They also have chicken Alfredo and a cheesesteak for those wishing to stay closer to home.) &nbsp;

Best Middle Eastern

Kelly English personifies fine dining in Memphis. But he&rsquo;s also great at casual, relaxed fare. This New Orleans native brought his culinary experience to Memphis, where he opened Restaurant Iris and other establishments, including The Second Line and Panta. All you have to say is &ldquo;Kelly English&rdquo; to get people talking about great food.

Best Chef

Best Service

Winning best ribs and best barbecue in a barbecue town is an amazing feat. Central BBQ gets there slowly, methodically. For example, their ribs get a 24-hour meat marinade, a dust of a secret dry rub, and a slow smoke in a blend of hickory and pecan. For this and more (those wings!), Central is where Memphians send their out-of-town friends.

Best Ribs

Best Barbecue

Best Margarita

Best Bar Food

Memphians forget that people from all over the world come to see us. You&rsquo;ll see them on Beale Street. The punk-looking British couple who wandered over from the Rock &lsquo;n&rsquo; Soul Museum. The Johnsons from Portland strolling along in matching T-shirts. The preppy Nashville couple that keeps a wary eye open as they grab Big Ass Beers.

Best Place for People-Watching

Vegging out takes on a whole other meaning when it comes to City Silo, where sustainability and satisfaction are top priorities. With breakfast all day, bowls, salads, small plates, sandwiches, and burgers, there&rsquo;s something for everyone, whether you&rsquo;re vegetarian, vegan, or an omnivore.

Best Vegetarian/Vegan

Best Date-Night Restaurant

Fried dill pickles, a catfish plate, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread? If soul food is what you&rsquo;re after, Soul Fish Cafe is the place to be.

Best Home Cooking/Soul Food

Chef/owner Manuel Martinez offers a variety of tacos, but he says his restaurant isn&rsquo;t the &ldquo;burritos covered in cheese&rdquo;-type establishment. They offer &ldquo;traditional cooking, which is more like everyday cooking in Mexico &mdash; like people eat when they go out to eat at a taco stand.&rdquo;

Best Taco

Best Coffee Roaster

Elwood&rsquo;s Shack is more than steelhead trout fish tacos. Think sandwiches. They&rsquo;ve got hard-to-beat barbecue sandwiches. And homemade pimento cheese sandwiches. That&rsquo;s just to name a few. Check it out. And also get a steelhead trout fish taco.

Best Sandwiches

It&rsquo;s almost like when anyone around here says, &ldquo;fried chicken,&rdquo; they say, &ldquo;Gus&rsquo;s fried chicken.&rdquo; This mouth-watering chicken is so good. If you drive by, you&rsquo;ll usually see lots and lots of people waiting to get inside.

Best Fried Chicken

Best Lunch

When you&rsquo;re making small talk and the conversation inevitably turns to whatever sports team just played last night or last week or last year, it helps if you have Geoff Calkins on your side. All you have to do is read his sports column and you&rsquo;ll be the most informed small-talker in Memphis.

Best Newspaper Columnist

This just in: Joe Birch has been named Best Broadcast Reporter and Best TV News Anchor. Actually, it&rsquo;s not really just in seeing that Birch has won these categories year after year &mdash; and for good reason. Memphis trusts him, and he doesn&rsquo;t take that for granted.

Best Broadcast Reporter

Ron and Karen are back! Well, they&rsquo;ve been back, but the city still rejoices. Ron Olson and Karen Perrin woke up Memphis for 12 years on FM 100 before going different ways. They reunited recently for the morning shift at 104.5 The River, a light salve for the morning commute.

Best Local Radio Show

How serious is this storm? Well, if Ron Childers is live with no blazer and his sleeves rolled up, Memphians dust off their emergency weather plans. Emmy winner. Second-generation Mexican-American. Native Memphian. Ron&rsquo;s earned the city&rsquo;s trust in over 40 years on the Memphis airwaves.

Best TV Weatherperson

Best TV News Anchor

There&rsquo;s still some grit and grind, but there&rsquo;s also plenty of joy, pizzazz, and star power at every level of the Memphis Grizzlies organization these days. The future is only bright for the young team which has firmly enmeshed itself in the fabric of our city.

Best Sports Team

Nobody remembers phone numbers these days, but many Memphians can mark the day and time by the WEVL schedule. New Orleans Big Beat heralds the weekend Fridays at 4 p.m. Welcome to the Working Week brings you back Mondays at 6 a.m. The station&rsquo;s mix includes folk, reggae, country, jazz, blues, noise, swing, soul, and more.

Best Radio Station

Surely he won&rsquo;t, I always think, right before Ja Morant soars over his next unsuspecting, probably 7-foot-plus victim to throw down another vicious dunk. The spins, the speed, the tricks, the execution, the sheer audacity of it all! There&rsquo;s no player Grizz fans would rather have leading our team forward.

Best Local Athlete

That he was chosen to step into the legendary Bobby O&rsquo;Jay&rsquo;s spot at WDIA says a lot about Stan Bell. &ldquo;The Bell Ringer&rdquo; has been a Memphis morning radio mainstay for nearly 30 years. Listeners still look to the former Shelby County Schools teacher for life lessons. Stan still gives them with heart and humanity.

Best Radio Personality

Best Written Reporter

If you&rsquo;ve celebrated or shed tears over Memphis sports in the last 43 years, you&rsquo;ve probably done it with Jarvis Greer. His longevity, contagious smile, bright energy, and down-to-earth persona have earned him legions of fans at WMC-TV. Jarvis announced his retirement in March, leaving big shoes to fill and a perennial top slot in Best of Memphis up for grabs.

Best TV Sportscaster

Memphis sports memes. Party pics. GloRilla on the red carpet. Food photos. Funny Memphis TikToks. Happy-hour secrets. Introductions to our city&rsquo;s next leaders. Choose901&rsquo;s Instagram lets you see the fun and promise of our city. So, pull into their IG if you need a Memphis recharge or a respite from the headlines.

Best Local Instagram

Shelby Farms Park is popular with Flyer readers for several reasons, having taken the top prize for Best Park, Best Dog Park, and Best Outdoor Gathering Place. Hard to argue with any of those results, so get thee to Shelby Farms!

Best Dog Park

Best Outdoor Gathering Space

Google &ldquo;Almost Famous band,&rdquo; and you&rsquo;ll find many groups by that name, all specializing in recreating classic radio hits. But the band officially known as Almost Famous Memphis has an edge: Its members, as world-class players, have played on 23 gold and platinum records, having participated in projects garnering nine Grammy nominations and three Emmy wins.

Best Local Band

The best golf course in town plays host to the annual FedEx St. Jude TPC event for the PGA, which features the best golfers in the world. So it&rsquo;s not surprising that our readers like it a lot.

Best Golf Course

The Memphis Zoo added thrills to its quiver of delights this year when its Splash Park opened this summer. Add this to can&rsquo;t-miss family events like Zoo Boo and Zoo Lights &mdash; and the fact that the zoo is one of the best in the country &mdash; and there&rsquo;s little wonder why it tops our list.&nbsp;

Best Family Entertainment

Best Park

Southland Casino Hotel&rsquo;s gleaming new tower cuts a powerful profile on the West Memphis skyline, a new beacon to draw Memphians across the river. It&rsquo;s part of a $320 million expansion project that includes a gaming floor bigger than two football fields, plus five restaurants, 2,400 gaming machines, and 50 live table games.

Best Casino

Don&rsquo;t let Cobb&rsquo;s decades as a WEVL DJ obscure the fact that she&rsquo;s a stellar performer and interpreter in her own right. Though she excels at jazz, her first single was a country song, and her self-penned &ldquo;Dig the Gold&rdquo; borders on Afrobeat funk. Beyond category.

Best Local Singer

The Orpheum Theatre&rsquo;s chandeliers, gilded moldings, and Wurlitzer organ make it a jewel of the Bluff City, but it&rsquo;s the curation of world-class touring productions, from Alice Cooper to Alvin Ailey, that makes this a beacon for lovers of the performing arts. Its built-in acoustics and decor transport you to another realm.

Best Live Theater

What began in 1936 as the Memphis Open Air Theatre has gone through a few name changes, but now it&rsquo;s once again the Overton Park Shell. It&rsquo;s the perfect setting for music, with an historical legacy of timeless musical performances over the decades that elevates every new artist appearing there.

Best Place to See Live Music

We have an outstanding museum system in Memphis, but the deep, unflinching look at the high and low points of the most vital social movement of the last century is the beating heart of our city. Today, its lessons are more important than ever.

Best Museum

It seems like every city and region in the South claims to have the best barbecue in America. But if you want to put your reputation on the line and prove that you&rsquo;re the best, you have to come to Memphis to do it. The stakes are high, the competition good-natured, and the party unequaled.

Best Festival

Best Performing Arts Venue

The blockbuster exhibit &ldquo;Alice&rsquo;s Adventures at the Garden&rdquo; catapulted MBG to victory in this closely contested category. The highly successful Live at the Garden concert series probably didn&rsquo;t hurt, either. This oasis of nature in the middle of the city provides a favorite respite for Memphians.

Best Gallery

With his annual birthday bash concerts at the FedExForum drawing huge crowds, it&rsquo;s plain that Yo Gotti gets plenty of love from the hometown crowd. But it&rsquo;s also clear the artist who started out as Mario Mims of Memphis has taken the Memphis bounce and attitude to global heights, with no sign of slacking.

Best Local Rapper/Hip Hop Artist

It&rsquo;s haunted. It used to be a brothel, and a church. Howlin&rsquo; Wolf once punched the glass out of the front door. It&rsquo;s the scene of tragedy and triumph that was saved from oblivion. It&rsquo;s the subject of an upcoming documentary film. It&rsquo;s the dive bar to end all dive bars. It&rsquo;s a vital part of Downtown.

Best After-Hours Spot

Two of Alchemy&rsquo;s &ldquo;hours of fun&rdquo; are happier than the rest. The Cooper-Young bar&rsquo;s happy hour (between 4 and 6 p.m. on Wednesdays through Saturdays) has become an open secret for after-work drinks, a cozy catch-up, or a first stop for a big night out. Look for specials on craft cocktails like the Memphis Jam or the bar&rsquo;s big selection of local craft beers on draft.

Best Happy Hour

Taylor Swift once faked a smile so Drew wouldn&rsquo;t see, but at Dru&rsquo;s Place, no smiles are faked nor are there any teardrops on any guitars. After all, it has the best karaoke nights in town, plus drag shows, live comedy, trivia, and so much more in a clean, comfortable, fun environment.

Best Gay Bar

This isn&rsquo;t just a temporary appearance; Cameo is here to stay, and inside, the clock always reads &ldquo;Fancy Party Drinks&rdquo; time. Sip on a Gap Year at Burning Man, a Drunk Harley Grandmas, or any of the other exquisitely named drinks at this new bar.

Best New Bar

Everyone feels like a dancing queen (or king) at this legendary Memphis club, where Paula Raiford carries on her father&rsquo;s legacy. With classic disco tunes to today&rsquo;s top hits, fog machines, and big-ass beers, if Flyer readers want to hit the club, they choose Raiford&rsquo;s.

Best Nightclub

A dog walks into a bar. Er, wait, I haven&rsquo;t seen one over there, but Bardog never disappoints with its fully loaded hot dog specials, picklebacks, or whatever else it is you&rsquo;re looking for when stumbling around the Downtown streets for a nightcap.

Best Bar 

If you&rsquo;re at Brookhaven to watch the big game, the beer&rsquo;s got to keep flowing. Chances are that 2022&rsquo;s best bartender Amber Carey will be behind the bar, slinging drinks and keeping the raucous sports-viewers well-hydrated.

Best Bartender

Best Karaoke

Catching the game is serious business; you want visible, high-quality televisions (no glare!), room to watch, and plenty of like-minded (or opposing) fans with which to rub shoulders (or butt heads). And a special game-day menu at Brookhaven ticks all the snackable and drinking boxes.

Best Sports Bar

One look at the wall of taps in the Flying Saucer, and you know they&rsquo;re going to have something you like. And if you&rsquo;re not sure what you like, they&rsquo;ll help you find it &mdash; and in this case, the journey is as rewarding as the destination!

Best Beer Selection (in a bar)

Big shout-out to Memphis&rsquo; vital, but underappreciated comedy scene! Chuckles in the &rsquo;Dova is the place to be to hear the latest from the 901 and the greatest road warriors from all over.

Best Place to See Stand-Up

Have you ever hung out and just watched people shoot pool in the back of Young Avenue Deli? Those folks are serious. You better bring your A game, or get hustled. The good news is, you&rsquo;ll have great food and drinks while you swim with the sharks.

Best Place to Shoot Pool

The ladies at The Pony know how to titillate their patrons without having to turn to asinine theatrics. Now it&rsquo;s their time to reap the booty of being named Best of Memphis.

Best Strip Club

Best Craft Cocktails

Best Hole-in-the-Wall

It&rsquo;s not just the fact that it&rsquo;s right off campus, or the extensive shooter menu, or the stellar staff, or that the kitchen stays open late &hellip; okay, it&rsquo;s all those things and more (tofu nachos!) that make RP Tracks a perennial winner.

Best College Hangout

Oh, to be buried in books, swimming through mounds and piles of literature, pages galore in a private library. A bookworm&rsquo;s dream can be reality thanks to our local big bookstore&rsquo;s huge collection, with helpful staff picks always pointing readers in the right direction with fun selections.

Best Bookstore

Getting the right cut of meat is half the dinner battle. Charlie&rsquo;s Meat Market on Summer Ave. can provide any cut you like, and the wholesaler will have legs, shanks, loins, and plenty more sizzling on the grill in no time.

Best Butcher

The youths are bringing the &rsquo;90s back, so make every day a Flashback Friday with, well, Flashback. The purveyor of vintage and used clothing, collectibles, and accessories has all the 20th century swag a shopper could want, so grab all the bright neon colors you could ask for.

Best Place to Get Vintage/Used Clothing

Instead of spinning your wheels, you should be spinnin wheels on your brand new bike which Trek Bicycle has outfitted to make you feel like you&rsquo;re Lance Armstrong sprinting up and down that Greenline like a champ, wind in your hair, and ringing that shiny new bicycle bell.

Best Bicycle Shop

Walking up and down the many, many aisles at Sheffield, you&rsquo;re going to find something. Whatever you&rsquo;re looking for &mdash; whether its antiques or mid-century pieces or anything in between &mdash; it&rsquo;s there. Or has been there. Or more like it will be coming again. Remember: The time to buy an antique is when you see it.

Best Antiques Store

Let&rsquo;s face it: There&rsquo;s a lot of junk in the CBD space. With meticulous and caring customer service and a cutting-edge aquaculture operation that provides high-quality products made in Memphis, Ounce of Hope is the name our readers trust when they need a healthier way to relax.

Best CBD Store

Amro Music has been a Memphis music institution for 101 years, and that&rsquo;s just one reason it connects us to a legendary Memphis history. Not only are real (not virtual) instruments their bread and butter, they offer lessons, advice, maintenance, and a staff that includes some of the city&rsquo;s finest players.

Best Music Equipment Store

Memphis&rsquo; premier upscale clothing store will have you feeling fresh after picking out a whole new wardrobe. Oak Hall has been providing custom menswear and glow-ups for Memphis since 1859 and shows no signs of slowing down with a 200th anniversary not too far off.

Best Local Store for Men's Clothing

Fresh produce, baked goods, crafts, coffee, and more. Cooper-Young&rsquo;s year-round farmers market is a fave in our book.