With the year winding down, here are my favorite Columbus food reviews in 2025
A little over three years ago, I wrote my first food review for the Ledger-Enquirer on one of my favorite restaurants growing up, Clearview BBQ. I’ve enjoyed highlighting the plethora of good, unique and nostalgic food in restaurants and other businesses across Columbus.
I want to express my appreciation to you, the audience, who have read these stories over the years. Without your support, I wouldn’t be able to continue doing these food reviews I love..
With the year wrapping up, I went through the reviews I’ve done this year and chose three of my favorites in 2025. I thoroughly enjoyed all the reviews I did this year. However, these three are special to me, primarily due to nostalgia:
“The best” breakfast in Columbus
Coming in third place for my favorite food review this year is my review of Express Market, 1465 54th St.
Express Market claims on their sign to have the best breakfast in Columbus. The breakfast food there was amazing and definitely reminded me of the breakfasts I’d wake up to when I was a child.
I was especially impressed with the smooth and creamy grits, the smoky sausage biscuit and the peppery sausage gravy. Will I likely choose to pair the food with a white Monster energy drink again? Probably not.
For those wanting a good breakfast spot to pick up your food on the go, I’d definitely suggest Express Market.
Scrambled Dog competition
In second place is my food review pitting scrambled dogs from restaurants around the city against each other. This is by far one of the hardest food reviews I’ve done.
It was tough to pick up the dogs, making sure I didn’t know which dog was which, and ultimately choosing a winner out of all the amazing scrambled dogs.
It was incredibly difficult to place the originator of the dish, Dinglewood Pharmacy, in second. However, the scrambled dog made by Southern Roots Country Store was absolutely delicious.
Though, I do typically only enjoy the Columbus delicacy from Dinglewood when I feel like having one.
At the time of the review, I was talking to a girl I knew from college who had never heard of the dish. She was flabbergasted by the list of ingredients I began to list when describing the dish. However, it just goes to show the most unlikely combinations can lead to some of the greatest inventions.
My favorite food review of the year
My favorite food review of the year was definitely the newest review I did on Clearview BBQ after it reopened this year under new management.
I wanted to make sure it was still as good as the Clearview I remembered.
It was — and then some more — so the review that started all my reviews had to be my top choice.
I still make a weekly Clearview trip to get a few sandwiches. However, I now get my sandwiches with slaw, and I’ve changed the sweet tea to Coke Zero since I cut out most sugar from my diet a few years ago.
The happy memories of family trips to Clearview seem to always come back to me whenever I eat there. As long as my health will allow it, I will definitely continue to get my weekly BBQ from this restaurant.
The other thing I enjoy now is being able to pay for my meal at Clearview with my credit card and not having to run to the ATM before I go there. Will I eventually try something other than the BBQ sandwich? Maybe. But why stray away from something that’s already perfect.