Fancy Restaurants in Bethlehem, PA: 7 Upscale Picks, Hours and Reservations Compared

Quick Answer: Our directory lists seven fancy restaurants in Bethlehem, PA, meaning Bethlehem-area restaurants we price at $$ or $$: Apollo Grill, Bolete Restaurant, Blue Grillhouse, Edge Restaurant, KingFish American Bistro & Wine Bar, The Orchid Steakhouse, and Top Cut Steak House. All seven accept reservations, and all seven rate between 4.2 and 4.7 in our directory data, so the rating will not make the choice for you. The calendar will. Five of the seven are closed Monday, three are closed Sunday, and only two, Blue Grillhouse and The Orchid Steakhouse, serve dinner on a Sunday evening.

Key Takeaways:

Highest rated: Apollo Grill and Bolete Restaurant both hold 4.7 in our directory data, Apollo across 1,900 reviews and Bolete across 938.
Deepest record: Blue Grillhouse has 2,468 reviews at 4.5, the most of any upscale Bethlehem restaurant we track.
Monday is the hard night: Only Blue Grillhouse and Edge Restaurant are open Monday. The other five are closed.
Sunday dinner is a two-way choice: Blue Grillhouse (to 8:30pm) and The Orchid Steakhouse (4pm-8:30pm). Bolete and Edge open Sunday but close by mid-afternoon.
Three are dinner-only: Bolete, Top Cut, and The Orchid do not serve lunch. Apollo, Blue Grillhouse, KingFish, and Edge do.
Shortcut: For a Friday or Saturday splurge, any of the seven works, so book early. For a Sunday or Monday celebration dinner, start with Blue Grillhouse, the one upscale room on our list open seven days a week.

Which fancy restaurants in Bethlehem are in our directory?

Here are all seven, sorted by rating and then by review count. Ratings, review counts, and price tiers are from our directory data. Hours and service details come from each restaurant's Google listing.

Apollo Grill (85 W Broad St, downtown Bethlehem): 4.7 rating, 1,900 reviews, $$. Tuesday to Saturday 11am-10pm, closed Sunday and Monday.
Bolete Restaurant (1740 Seidersville Rd): 4.7 rating, 938 reviews, $$. Wednesday and Thursday 5pm-9:30pm, Friday and Saturday 5pm-10pm, Sunday 10am-2pm, closed Monday and Tuesday.
Blue Grillhouse (4431 Easton Ave): 4.5 rating, 2,468 reviews, $$. Monday to Thursday 11:30am-9pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30am-10pm, Sunday 10:30am-8:30pm.
KingFish American Bistro & Wine Bar (3833 Freemansburg Ave): 4.5 rating, 633 reviews, $$. Tuesday to Thursday 11:30am-8pm, Friday 11:30am-9pm, Saturday 3pm-9pm, closed Sunday and Monday.
Top Cut Steak House (2880 Center Valley Parkway, Center Valley): 4.5 rating, 616 reviews, $$. Tuesday to Thursday 4:30pm-9:30pm, Friday and Saturday 4:30pm-10pm, closed Sunday and Monday.
Edge Restaurant (74 W Broad St, downtown Bethlehem): 4.4 rating, 1,000 reviews, $$. Monday 10am-9pm, Tuesday to Thursday 3:30pm-9pm, Friday 3:30pm-10pm, Saturday 10am-10pm, Sunday 10am-3pm.
The Orchid Steakhouse (322 E 3rd St, SouthSide Bethlehem): 4.2 rating, 684 reviews, $$. Tuesday to Thursday 4:30pm-9:30pm, Friday and Saturday 4:30pm-10pm, Sunday 4pm-8:30pm, closed Monday.

Together the seven account for 8,239 reviews. One honest note on geography: Top Cut is filed under Bethlehem in our directory, but its address is in Center Valley, a drive south of the city. We include it because Bethlehem diners treat it as part of the same special-occasion shortlist, but if you want to walk from dinner to the historic district, it is not the one.

On Google's own listings, three are categorized as steakhouses (Blue Grillhouse, Top Cut, and The Orchid), two as American restaurants (Bolete and Edge), one as a seafood restaurant (KingFish), and one as a bar and grill (Apollo). So "fancy" in Bethlehem covers a real range, from a steakhouse splurge to a lively downtown dining room.

Which upscale Bethlehem restaurants are open on Sunday or Monday?

This is the question that narrows the list fastest, because most upscale kitchens take the start of the week off.

Monday: Five of the seven are closed. The two that are open are Blue Grillhouse (11:30am-9pm) and Edge Restaurant (10am-9pm). If an anniversary or birthday lands on a Monday, those are your options on this list.

Sunday: Four of the seven open, but only two serve dinner. Blue Grillhouse runs 10:30am-8:30pm and The Orchid Steakhouse runs 4pm-8:30pm. Bolete is open 10am-2pm and Edge is open 10am-3pm, so both are daytime-only on Sunday. One Bolete reviewer mentions dining there for both brunch and dinner, which fits that Sunday morning slot. Apollo Grill, KingFish, and Top Cut are closed Sunday.

Tuesday: Bolete is closed Tuesday as well as Monday. Everyone else on the list is open.

Put together, Blue Grillhouse is the only upscale restaurant on our list open all seven days. Edge is also open every day, but its Sunday hours end at 3pm. That matters if you are planning around a Sunday night or a Monday, which are the two nights the list shrinks from seven to two.

Local rule of thumb: In Bethlehem, a nice dinner on Sunday night or Monday means Blue Grillhouse, The Orchid (Sunday only), or Edge (Monday only). Everywhere else, plan your celebration for Tuesday through Saturday.

Which ones serve lunch, and which are dinner-only?

Three of the seven do not serve lunch at all. Bolete opens at 5pm, and Top Cut and The Orchid open at 4:30pm. If you want a nice lunch, look at the other four:

Apollo Grill opens at 11am Tuesday through Saturday, the earliest Tuesday-to-Friday lunch start on our list.
Blue Grillhouse opens at 11:30am every day except Sunday, when it opens at 10:30am.
KingFish opens at 11:30am Tuesday through Friday, but not until 3pm on Saturday. One reviewer who went for a Tuesday lunch reported $15 lunch specials, which is the clearest price signal any reviewer gives on this list.
Edge Restaurant serves lunch on Monday and Saturday, when it opens at 10am. Tuesday through Friday it does not open until 3:30pm.

A midday business lunch on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday points to Apollo, Blue Grillhouse, or KingFish. A Saturday lunch points to Apollo, Blue Grillhouse, or Edge.

How late can you get a table?

Friday and Saturday are straightforward: six of the seven serve until 10pm. KingFish is the early one, closing at 9pm on Friday and Saturday and 8pm Tuesday through Thursday. If you want a 7:30pm or later reservation at KingFish on a weeknight, check the time carefully.

On weeknights, Apollo Grill is the latest. It holds its 10pm close Tuesday through Thursday, while Bolete, Top Cut, and The Orchid close at 9:30pm and Blue Grillhouse and Edge at 9pm. A post-show dinner on a Wednesday downtown is most comfortable at Apollo.

Late tables fill up. A Bolete reviewer who had a 9pm Saturday reservation noted the lot was almost full at 8:45pm, and another described arriving at opening on a busy Saturday and watching every table fill before they left.

Do you need a reservation?

All seven list "Accepts reservations" on their Google listings, so you can book every restaurant on this list ahead. Whether you need to depends on the night.

Reviewers are direct about Apollo Grill. One wrote "Definitely make reservations and make them early." At the other end, a KingFish reviewer who came with a party of eight described the room as "clean and very quiet", and an Edge reviewer noted that no reservation was needed on a Tuesday evening. Weeknights at the larger rooms are the easiest walk-in bets. Friday and Saturday at Apollo and Bolete are the ones to plan.

Several of these restaurants come up in reviews for how they handled a celebration. Blue Grillhouse reviewers describe mentioning an anniversary when booking and arriving to a handwritten card and dessert. At The Orchid, one couple wrote that staff wished them a happy anniversary on arrival and put a candle on dessert, and another reviewer said the restaurant accommodated a son still in his baseball uniform after they called ahead. If the occasion matters, say so when you book.

What about parking, patios, and accessibility?

These details split the list along geography. The two downtown restaurants on W Broad St, Apollo Grill and Edge, and The Orchid on E 3rd St in SouthSide list only paid parking: lots, street parking, and in Apollo's case a garage. Bolete, Top Cut, KingFish, and Blue Grillhouse all list a free parking lot. Bolete reviewers do warn that its lot fills on busy nights.

Five of the seven list outdoor seating: Apollo Grill, Bolete, Blue Grillhouse, Edge, and The Orchid. Top Cut and KingFish do not. Edge is also the only one of the seven whose Google listing includes live music.

Six of the seven list a wheelchair-accessible entrance, restroom, seating, and parking. The Orchid's listing has no accessibility information either way, so call ahead if that matters for your group.

If you are bringing kids, three list a children's menu: Blue Grillhouse, KingFish, and Edge. Top Cut and The Orchid, both $$ steakhouses, are the most adult-oriented on the list. One small practical difference: Top Cut and The Orchid list credit and debit cards but not contactless payments. The other five accept all three.

Which one should you pick?

Highest rating with a deep record: Apollo Grill, 4.7 across 1,900 reviews, downtown, open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
Special-occasion splurge: Bolete Restaurant, 4.7 across 938 reviews and $$ in our directory. Dinner Wednesday through Saturday. One reviewer noted tables are close together, so ask for a quieter time if privacy matters.
Open any day of the week: Blue Grillhouse, 4.5 across 2,468 reviews, the only upscale room on our list open for dinner Sunday and Monday.
Quieter seafood dinner, earlier night: KingFish American Bistro & Wine Bar, 4.5 across 633 reviews, free parking, closes by 9pm.
Steakhouse outside the city: Top Cut Steak House in Center Valley, 4.5 across 616 reviews. Reviewers praise the service heavily, though one recent review describes long waits, so the experience is not uniform.
Downtown with a patio and Monday hours: Edge Restaurant, 4.4 across 1,000 reviews, with outdoor seating and live music listed.
SouthSide steakhouse with Sunday dinner: The Orchid Steakhouse, 4.2 across 684 reviews, open Sunday 4pm-8:30pm.

For steakhouse-specific comparisons, see our Bethlehem steakhouse guide and the valley-wide Lehigh Valley steakhouse comparison. For the romantic-evening angle, our date night restaurants in Bethlehem post is the companion read, and best fine dining in the Lehigh Valley widens the search to Allentown and Easton.

Bottom Line: where should you book a fancy dinner in Bethlehem?

Bethlehem has seven restaurants in our directory at the $$ or $$ tier, and they are close enough in rating, 4.2 to 4.7, that the day of the week matters more than the score. Tuesday through Saturday, you can choose freely: Apollo Grill and Bolete lead on rating, Blue Grillhouse leads on review volume, and KingFish is the quieter, earlier option. Sunday night and Monday are a different story. Only Blue Grillhouse is open for dinner on both, with The Orchid adding Sunday and Edge adding Monday. All seven take reservations, and for a Friday or Saturday at Apollo or Bolete, you should use them.

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