The Best Restaurants in the United States

Driftwood sculptures, artisanal metalwork, and potted succulents give this California Avenue Mexican restaurant the feel of a funky antique shop that decided to serve food, which turns out to be a fine decision. The menu is cheerfully idiosyncratic: lasagna layered with roasted poblanos, empanadas wrapped in a pink chipotle-beet masa. On Sundays the farmers' market fills the street outside, and the kitchen leans into a Mexican-ish brunch that fits the whole slightly-offbeat vibe.

Super Thai is a casual Thai spot on South Lamar, announced by big colorful letters that save everyone a lot of reading. The front half is a takeout operation where the phones never stop and people come and go every few seconds. Past the host stand, a cozy dining room and a long bar take walk-ins, and the weekday lunch menu keeps portions small enough that you can still return to work upright.

Each basket of xiao long bao arrives with bamboo tongs and a card explaining exactly how to pinch and transfer without losing the broth, which tells you something about how seriously this soup dumpling shop takes its product. The room is neutral-toned and quietly polished. Six styles of xiao long bao, plus pan-fried buns and wontons that get the same careful treatment. Seattle Met named it one of Seattle's best lunch spots, and the expansion to multiple cities suggests agreement was widespread.

The chilaquiles burrito, stuffed with saucy corn chips, grilled panela, eggs, and pork en chile verde, is the reason to know this compact south San Jose taqueria. The walls are turquoise, the menu runs to genuinely oversized tortas and Flamin' Hot Cheetos tacos, and seating inside the narrow room fills fast. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the best restaurants in San Jose, which tracks with the line out front on any given morning.

Murals and Black-inspired art cover the walls of this cafeteria-style Southern spot on the Northside, where the steam trays are loaded with fried chicken, oxtails, and mac and cheese that earns its reputation. The desserts, peach cobbler and lemon meringue among them, come from the owner's mother, which explains why the room fills with the kind of regulars who already know what they're getting before they reach the counter.

Gazpacho arrives in a glass porrón, and the oysters come buried in a cloud of smoke, because a Barcelona group opening a tapas spot in a Palo Alto shopping center was never going to be subtle about it. The menu runs through pintxos, paella, and Catalonian standards, with a small shop stocking Spanish wines and tinned goods near the door for the ride home.

A bright pink Tex-Mex restaurant in the Heights, covered in murals, beer posters, and neon, with a parking lot that has been full for as long as anyone can remember. The queso arrives at the exact drippy consistency fajitas and flautas demand, and the margaritas work faster than the service, which is saying something. It handles birthday crowds, a two-person booth, and the odd pancake breakfast with equal calm.

The Boys' Deli is a sandwich counter tucked into the back of Polk Street Market in Russian Hill, and the rotisserie chicken turning near the entrance does most of the recruiting. It's an order-at-the-counter, wrapper-and-napkin lunch where the Spitfire pairs chicken with bacon, jalapeños, and sriracha mayo. The specials rotate, so the menu changes while the faint smell of chicken on your jacket does not.

The Rabbit Hole is a casual Taiwanese spot on the Mission-Bernal border, and its burger is the reason a lot of people show up. It arrives piled with pickled carrots, cucumbers, and peppers under a shimmering brioche bun, with a cheddar crust on the smashed patties that crunches against all that vinegar. The fries come dusted with nori and a side of gochujang ketchup, so the burger is doing a very specific kind of cultural crossover.

The walls here have been graffitied for so long that the graffiti is basically the décor. This old-school Boulder pizza and burger joint has been slinging pies with what regulars call "ugly crust" and grass-fed beef burgers since before anyone can remember, in a room that has hosted Robert Redford (as a server), Obama, and Bourdain. The Buff Mac, a burger topped with buffalo chicken tenders and blue cheese, has its own quiet mythology.

The Taco Stand is a counter-service taco spot on Spring Mountain Road, where the tortillas are pressed fresh as each order comes in, so nobody is rushing you but the line behind you. The menu stops at six kinds of taco, plus burritos, quesadillas, and carne asada fries. The real decision-making happens at the salsa bar, which runs from habanero to chipotle and invites you to build something nobody warned you about. Cheap, casual, no dress code.

Toca Madera is a Mexican restaurant on Allen Parkway that treats dinner as a floor show, with live entertainment, a Vegas-meets-Miami sensibility, and cocktails and dishes that arrive on fire. The menu runs from smoky ceviche to grilled wagyu to a branzino in chipotle mezcal butter. Expect dressed-up groups and a bill to match, plus a kitchen that stays open until 1 a.m. on weekends, which Eater counted among Houston's best late-night spots.

A bowl of red without a single bean in sight, served the way Frank X. Tolbert intended when he more or less rewrote the rulebook on Texas chili decades ago. This casual chili parlor in Grapevine keeps his recipe going, ladling out small and large bowls with cheese and crackers, or folded into a Frito pie if you're feeling committed. It's a reason to make the suburban drive, and Main Street has enough to browse while the chili lingers.

Tortello is a pastifico on Division with a storefront window that doubles as a live show, staff cutting and kneading dough for anyone who slows down on the sidewalk. The flour comes from Italy, and a master sfoglina was brought in to train the team, which tells you how seriously they take noodles. It's casual and moderately priced, with fresh pasta by the pound to go and a patio that fills up the minute the weather allows.

Toscana is the full-service, sit-down Italian restaurant tucked inside the sprawling Eataly food hall at Park MGM, which means you walk past pastry counters and pasta shelves to get there, which somehow works. The menu leans Tuscan and seasonal, the kind of regional Italian that changes with what's good rather than just what photographs well. It's a proper dinner-out option in a building most people wander through eating arancini.

This is a Sichuan restaurant in Sterling Heights where the peppercorns go to work on your lips and don't clock out until well after dessert. The fried squirrel-shaped fish is what regulars order before the menus finish landing, and the vegetarian options are better than the cuisine's usual afterthought. Big round tables suit a crowd, which is how most of the room arrives. Eater lists it among Metro Detroit's best Chinese restaurants.

This is a neighborhood red-sauce joint on Vernon Park Place, run by the same family for ages and arranged so that nothing has had to be fixed. The menu lives on chalkboards, the wine list is long and priced like it respects your wallet, and the eggplant Parm and lemon chicken arrive in portions that assume you have somewhere to nap. Regulars treat first-timers like cousins they've been meaning to feed.

Vaquero Taquero is a tiny taco counter on East 31st where nothing on the menu costs more than five dollars, which makes it a rare lunch that won't require explaining your finances to anyone. The al pastor comes with pineapple, and the spiciest salsa is there for people who like a little drama. The room is small enough that you should bring one friend, maybe two if you're feeling reckless.

The chicken tikka taco built this place's reputation, and it's still the reason the line forms. Velvet Taco is a fast-casual taco chain that leans global, folding Indian, Thai, and Southern flavors into flour tortillas without making too big a deal about it. The Deep Ellum flagship is the original, with a paid lot out back for anyone who's circled the block twice already. Finish with the red velvet cake, which is exactly what it sounds like.

The "trashcan" nacho, Dallas's contribution to stadium-snack culture, gets a serious upgrade at this Deep Ellum restaurant. The format is the same towering chip stack drowning in cheese, black beans, pico, guac, and pickled jalapeños, but the cheese here is worth caring about. The crowd skews young and loud in the best Deep Ellum tradition, which makes the nachos feel like exactly the right thing to order.

Void is a neighborhood Italian American spot on Milwaukee Avenue in Avondale that skips the "you're family now" routine and just cooks. The menu rotates, though the four-cheese lasagna and fried chicken Vesuvio tend to stick around like they have tenure. The house SpaghettiOs arrive in an actual can, a small gesture of nostalgia that lands without anyone needing to explain it. Eater lists it among Chicago's best Italian restaurants.