The best new restaurants to open on the Mississippi Coast so far in 2025
Three months down, nine to go in 2025.
To put that in football terms, we’ve reached the end of the first quarter in the latest installment of time’s incessant and unrelenting march forward. If you’re like me, you deal with this perpetual existential crisis by distracting yourself with food.
Thankfully for us, we live in South Mississippi. The food is plentiful and flavorful and new restaurants open up along the Coast on a regular basis. Numerous new restaurants are in rotation this year and we’ve personally tried several of them.
Three new establishments have garnered a perfect five stars from us on the food end and another has been massively popular among the people. Here are the four best new restaurants of the year so far.
El Fornino Pizzeria
The wood-fired behemoth of an oven is practically its own tourist attraction, but you should come for the pizza that’s pulled out of it, too.
Of course, I had pasta and chocolate covered churros at the authentic Italian pizza restaurant. But that only showcases the range our first five-star restaurant of the year truly has. Since my review, they’ve even added a Nutella and strawberry-topped dessert pizza.
El Fornino is a must-try simply for its unique tastes and quality kitchen work.
Address: 2650 Beach Boulevard, Biloxi
Luckies Diner
Vancleave has a new kid-friendly, family-focused restaurant that goes back to the basics and does it well.
Luckies Diner is a 50s-themed burger joint that prepares your meal as you would for a backyard cookout. It completes the experience with classic milkshakes for a true taste of old. There’s plenty more, such as nachos and wontons and even crawfish on certain days.
The student-staffed restaurant received our second five-star grade thanks to its fantastic burger.
Address: 12316 MS-57, Vancleave
The Butcher Baker
If you’re on the hunt for friendly and quality service and high-end ingredients, the Butcher Baker is a prime spot for you.
The menu is small, but with a supreme focus on quality and bringing you dishes you’ve either never had before or you’ve never had prepared in that way before. It also helps they have the ultimate candy bar. I cannot stress enough how important it is to come just for the ultimate candy bar.
The menu is always shifting and changing, bringing new reasons to return and experience something new. Maybe it’s the smoked halibut melt, the beef & chard wraps or, I don’t know, the ultimate candy bar.
Address: 1062 Thorn St, Ocean Springs
Field’s Italian
Field’s has not received a review from the Sun Herald, yet. Please direct all angry emails for this lapse to senior editor Tim Thorsen at tthorsen@sunherald.com.
But ahead of us and at the forefront of my journalism is the people I serve. And they say this place rocks. Field’s Italian has 4.5 stars out of five on OpenTable.com thanks to the genuine service and authentic Italian.
The restaurant had customers “blown away” during its soft open and has not slowed down since. Reservations are required. Also, please do not eat all the carpaccio before I get there.
Address: 1106 Government St, Ocean Springs
This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
