What's Your Best Restaurant-Inspired Recipe For Dining In?

Share your best restaurant-inspired recipe, and let's discover our communities' most beloved eateries.

What's a restaurant dish that's been keeping your palate afloat during lockdown measures, when it feels like you've been around your own repertoire 30 times and just can't figure out what to make next? Which chefs' recipes inspire your dining-out fantasies—the meals you can't wait to savor again?

Although widespread vaccine programs will help us all eventually return to restaurants, the industry is still suffering. As 2020 continued along, so did the restaurant casualties. Now, as the winter weather in many places restricts outdoor dining, establishments large and small have been hit hard again by another sharp reduction in business.

We've all been trying to support our communities during the COVID-19 crisis, and we are asking for your help to spread the word and lift up these restaurants. For our latest recipe contest, shine a spotlight on your favorite restaurant by sharing a recipe inspired by a dish that you've enjoyed there (or taken home).

Submissions are open from now until March 1 at 8 p.m. ET. Here are a few guiding points:

• We welcome sweet or savory recipes.
• Cafés are fair game.
• No fast-food-inspired recipes, please.
• Your headnote should clearly state the name and location of the restaurant that inspired your dish.

If the restaurants that inspired our finalists' recipes are open, we'll feature each one along with the dish.

The contest winner will receive a gift from the Food52 shop.

If you already have a recipe on the site, go to that recipe page, hit "Edit Recipe" (under the photo), scroll down, hit "Submit my recipe to a contest," select the latest contest ("Your Best Restaurant-Inspired Recipe"), and save.

If you want to add a new recipe, head to your profile page, select "Recipes," click "Add a Recipe," upload it, hit "Submit my recipe to a contest," select the latest contest, and save.

We read every submission, and test as many as possible. But that’s a lot of reading and a lot of testing, so we’re counting on your help, too. Scroll through the submission pages and make (and favorite) any recipe that catches your eye. Then, share feedback on the recipe page. We'll take all this feedback into account as we narrow down the top five, which will be announced March 20.

Here's a full refresher on how the whole contest process works.

How have lockdown measures impacted your local restaurant community? Let us know in the comments.