Yelp’s 15 favorite mom and pop restaurants includes one in Missouri

by: Russell Falcon

Posted: Aug 6, 2023 / 02:01 PM CDT

Updated: Aug 6, 2023 / 07:22 PM CDT

(NEXSTAR) — Want to support local businesses across the U.S.? It’s not always easy to find mom and pop-type restaurants in an online search — and it’s not easy to figure out which ones are any good. Recently, Entrepreneur and Yelp partnered to find the top 15 mom and pop restaurants in the U.S. from among hundreds.

To formulate the list, Yelp ranked independently owned and operated businesses with no more than 4 locations based on volume and ratings of reviews. Businesses needed to be marked as “open” on Yelp as of May 15 and have a passing health score as of that same date, Yelp explains.

Topping the list is ITs Izakaya, a Japanese tapas restaurant located in Las Vegas. Among the restaurant’s most popular dishes are its takoyaki and yellowtail carpaccio.

Here’s all 15 of Yelp’s top Mom and Pop Restaurants:

In addition to the above list of restaurants, Yelp and Entrepreneur identified independently owned businesses in nine other categories, including home services (like locksmiths and pest control) and hotels/bed and breakfasts.

Yelp says it wanted to make sure the listing was “geographically diverse,” so only one business per state was eligible to be ranked in a category. Yelp says Arizona and California ranked best overall — both states had a ranking across all 10 categories.