The Best Places to Eat and Do in the United States

A former marine fueling station and lobster pound on the Mystic River, Haring's operates in two modes: feet on the wooden railing, smoked bluefish on Ritz crackers, cold drinks delivered from the package store next door, or retreat into the clapboard dining room for seared tuna and squash curry. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and Yankee named it Waterfront Restaurant of the Year. Both outcomes make complete sense once you're sitting there.

This is a downtown all-day diner that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the menu has a sense of humor about itself. A full Irish breakfast shares space with Korean-style chicken and waffles, as if the kitchen refused to pick a side. Exposed brick and diner furniture keep things unfussy, and two patios handle the overflow. Prices stay casual, so jeans are fine and nobody will check your shoes.

Carson Kitchen is a downtown Las Vegas restaurant with one of the few rooftop patios in the neighborhood, a string-lit second-story perch for people who want a view that isn't a slot machine. Inside, communal tables seat you elbow to elbow with strangers, which suits comfort food that keeps showing up in fancier clothes, like deviled eggs wearing caviar. There's a non-alcoholic list too, and a happy hour worth the bar stool.

ReBAR is a dive bar on South Main dressed as an antique shop, and everything in it, from the mismatched furniture to the art on the walls, is for sale, so you could drink your way into a new sofa. The food runs to a Cuban sandwich, spicy chicken nachos, and pizzas with a dill pickle sauce. Beers start at $3 and top out at $7, with Yahtzee and Jenga standing by.

The salmon here gets cured and smoked in-house, which tells you most of what you need to know about how seriously this bagel shop takes itself. Schlok's sits just off the Panhandle, turning out traditional malty bagels with a thin, crisp crust and a caper schmear that leans hard into brine. Co-founded by a chef with Michelin-starred kitchen time, it punches well above the cream-cheese-from-a-tub competition.

A colorful bar anchors the pale, airy room on Geary, where Mourad Lahlou's Moroccan-California restaurant has been back and quietly owning the Richmond for a few years now. The menu folds California ingredients into North African tradition, and the basteeya, golden phyllo packed with chicken and spiced almonds, has made the trip back too. Service runs warm and knowing. The New York Times named it among the top restaurants in San Francisco.

The chef behind Lola's spent years doing refined seasonal cooking at a museum restaurant before deciding she'd rather cook food people want on a Tuesday. The result is a Southern-inflected neighborhood dinner spot on 28th Street where the cooking is casual without being simple, and local produce keeps showing up in places you didn't expect. The New York Times named it one of New York's best new restaurants in 2024.

Sichuan restaurant in a Pittsburgh strip mall where the dan dan noodles arrive loaded with minced pork and the cucumbers come in a garlicky dressing you will spend a week trying to reverse-engineer at home. The kitchen leans hard into Chengdu, and the family-style format makes it easy to cover the table. It's BYOB, which the regulars clearly know, since they tend to arrive with wine already in hand.

A converted meatpacking warehouse in the Westside gives Miller Union its bones, and the kitchen fills them out with seasonal Southern cooking that changes with whatever Georgia is growing. The room is casually upscale, the kind of place you'd take someone you're trying to impress without making it obvious that's what you're doing. The New York Times named it among Atlanta's 25 best, and the pastry program drew a James Beard nomination.

Seng Luangrath more or less put Laotian food on the DC map, and her Columbia Heights dining room is where it started. The menu swings wide, from crispy coconut rice salad to warming soups and curries, and the "jungle menu" keeps things interesting with grilled chicken hearts and rice-fermented pork belly. Sticky rice is non-negotiable. Dinner only, casual, and built for sharing, meaning the more people you bring, the better your night goes.

The rice alone explains why the New York Times put this upscale Persian restaurant on its 2024 restaurant list: the tadig comes out with a shattering crust, and the fluffy sour-cherry version beside it is its own argument. Classic stews anchor the menu, with duck fessenjoon and beef with dried lime doing the heavy lifting. The room is relaxed enough for families, polished enough for a proper date.

Korean fried chicken available in three glazes is the kind of menu decision that tells you exactly where a chef's head is at. Miss Kim is a cozy, modern Korean restaurant from Ji Hye Kim, a James Beard semifinalist whose cooking draws a faithful Ann Arbor crowd and the occasional pilgrim from further afield. Reservations go through Resy, and there's a to-go option for nights when you'd rather eat this at home in peace.

The khao soi here arrives in a shade of marigold so vivid it looks like a color swatch, topped with a tangle of fried noodles over chicken that's been cooked into submission. This Northern Thai restaurant in Mount Vernon Square skips the pad see ew and the crowd-pleasing standards entirely, leaning into the regional cooking the chef built her reputation on. The New York Times put it on their D.C. list, and the room fills up accordingly.

Tetsuya Wakuda made Las Vegas his US debut, reportedly because the Strip's energy reminded him of Shinjuku, which is either a compliment or a warning depending on your tolerance for spectacle. This fine dining room inside The Venetian pulls Japanese seafood, Canadian lobster, and Tasmanian oysters into a menu that moves between traditional and contemporary Japanese cooking. A hidden omakase room exists for those who know to ask, with rare whisky alongside the meal.

Latha means "flavor" in Swahili, which the kitchen takes as a brief. Housed in the bungalow-style Silva House in Heritage Square, this downtown Phoenix restaurant traces the food of the African diaspora through Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the American South, on both prix fixe and à la carte menus. The cooking has range, from piri piri chicken over jollof rice to Southern pound cake finished with tropical marmalade. A Michelin Selected restaurant.

Marvin is a pizzeria on Wickenden Street that dresses like the slice joint of your childhood, checkered paper and bar stools included, then quietly gets weird with the menu. There's a pepperoni negroni, a house pizza wine, and frozen custard waiting by the door for anyone with room left. The chef was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast, which the high tops do a good job of hiding.

Pink roses painted floor to ceiling and a Turkish coffee set mounted overhead set the tone before the food arrives. Beit Rima is a casual Middle Eastern small-plates spot where the Lebanese, Palestinian, and Jordanian menu is designed for sharing a little of everything: baked halloumi spiked with jalapeño, flatbread scented with nigella, crispy spiced potatoes. The New York Times named it one of San Francisco's 25 best restaurants right now, and the room makes a convincing case on its own.

Specials scrawled on brown paper rolls and a pastry case worth a long look set the tone at this low-key bakery and brunch cafe on McDowell Road. The kitchen leans on local ingredients, and the menu changes with what's good, so regulars learn to check the case before committing. Patio seating in the Phoenix sunshine makes the wait easier. Easy to miss from the street, which keeps it mercifully manageable on a weekend morning.

The forest-meets-island room on Greenville Avenue hints at the chef's New Zealand upbringing before a single plate arrives. Quarter Acre is an intimate fine dining spot offering both à la carte and a multicourse tasting menu that moves from delicate raw and seafood preparations toward bolder, fire-driven dishes. Classical European technique runs underneath cooking that roams pretty freely across the globe. A Michelin Selected Restaurant, and the kind of room that makes a Tuesday feel like an occasion.

Halal Texas-style barbecue and Indonesian cooking share a menu here, which sounds like a provocation until you taste it. The team built a following through pandemic-era pop-ups before settling into a brick storefront in Alameda, where brisket and smoked ribs coexist with Sumatran noodle soup and smoked fried chicken in balado sauce. The New York Times and Eater both took notice in 2024, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed. The wait can stretch to two hours, so plan accordingly.

The hollow bread comes with honey butter, and if that sounds simple for a Capitol Hill restaurant pulling Vietnamese flavors through a global filter, the rest of the menu will readjust your expectations fast. This is a contemporary dinner spot where risotto gets a Southeast Asian pesto and carpaccio arrives bright with nuoc cham. The chef is a James Beard semifinalist, and the cocktails have their own following.

The steam table at lunch, loaded with curries and fried rice, is a direct line to the original spot Patti Myint opened decades ago. Her children relaunched this Belmont Thai restaurant with two of the original cooks still behind the stove, so the continuity is not a marketing pitch. Evenings shift to full-service with cocktails and a more creative menu. The New York Times named it among Nashville's 25 best, and it landed a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2024.

A wood-fired pizza and pasta spot a couple of blocks from the Sullivan's Island beach, up on a second floor where the pale blue seating and bleached wood manage to feel coastal without a single pelican painting in sight. The kitchen pulls from Italian, French, and Spanish influences alongside Lowcountry ones, and the vegetables from local farms make the salads genuinely competitive with the pizza. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2024.

One communal table, four kitchen seats, and a tasting menu that runs three hours minimum, because the team is not in a hurry and neither should you be. Ambra is high-end Italian tasting, with house-made pasta, warm focaccia, and a beverage pairing that isn't optional. The New York Times named it among Philly's 25 best, and Philadelphia Magazine put it at number four on their annual list.

A Church Hill dining room in a building old enough to have opinions, the Roosevelt runs Modern Southern cooking through a genuinely soulful lens. The chef, a 2026 James Beard semifinalist, draws on food-anthropologist sources and old family recipes, so the menu feels more inherited than invented. Virginia bottles anchor the drinks list, with regional beers and inventive cocktails filling out what's become a quietly serious beverage program.

A cow-shaped cast iron skillet arrives sizzling, and it has horns. This food court stall in east San Jose's Lion Plaza does one thing above all else: bo ne, the Franco-Vietnamese steak and eggs that bears little resemblance to any diner plate. Filet mignon, sunny-side up eggs, pork meatball, and pate come with a crusty roll built for dragging through yolk and beef drippings. Grab a seat the moment you order; the room moves fast.

The ceiling is covered in thousands of clay churchwarden pipes, each one claimed by a regular who never came back to collect it. Keens is an old-school Manhattan steakhouse in Midtown, all dark wood and white tablecloths, and the mutton chop alone has landed on the New York Times list of the city's defining dishes. The porterhouse is USDA Prime, dry-aged in-house, and broiled without apology. It sits at number 68 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

Thomas Keller's most laid-back Yountville spot is a family-style American restaurant in a wood-paneled room with a blue awning that looks like it belongs to someone's very well-fed aunt. The menu reads straightforward, fried chicken and onion dip with kettle chips, but the execution is anything but casual. Make a reservation, or the engaging staff will be charming you from a long wait.

Olive trees planted between the tables are doing a lot of heavy lifting, but this roomy Greek restaurant on N Street sells the Aegean fantasy well enough that you forget you're in Dupont Circle. The menu runs through the classics, spanakopita, souvlaki, avgolemono, fish grilled with capers flown in from Greece, and the fries have a devoted following. Baklava with iced Greek yogurt closes things out the only sensible way.

Low ceilings with thick wood beams, amber light, and banquettes that make every table feel like a booth in the back of someone's private club. Bartolo is a Spanish restaurant in the West Village, the kind where you order oxtail braised in red wine and suckling pig and let the table fill up. The martini list has its own following, and the servers are sharp enough to keep a long night moving without making it feel rushed.

The wood-burning oven at the center of the open kitchen is roughly the size of a studio apartment, and it sets the agenda here. Blue Duck Tavern is an upscale American restaurant inside the Park Hyatt, with soaring windows, walnut seating, and glass-enclosed booths that regulars treat as personal property. The menu leans into farms and purveyors, and the dessert station and near-30-tea list reward anyone who lingers.

Named for a fish stew from the Adriatic coast, this Italian-Croatian restaurant sets up in Raleigh Iron Works alongside a cluster of eateries and offices. The menu moves from crudo and pasta through wood-fired fish to peka, a slow-cooked Croatian dish of octopus and potatoes over fire. The wine list takes Italy region by region, with particular growers called out. A James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist in 2025, and in the Michelin Guide.

A wood-paneled room on the Upper East Side, white tablecloths, a dozen tables if you're lucky, and a menu that treats classic French cooking as a non-negotiable. This is fine dining with a strong point of view: escargot, lamb, and a baba au rhum finished tableside with a generous pour. The kind of place where getting the reservation feels like the first course.

Wood tables, hand-painted tile, and just enough greenery to feel like a room that's been lived in: this contemporary Mexican small-plates spot on the Lower East Side earns a long, slow evening. The chef's menu is tight and seasonal, with careful attention to char and smoke, and the smoked half-chicken alone justifies a second visit. The Michelin Guide has taken notice, which tracks.

Flynn McGarry's two-Michelin-star restaurant in Hudson Square runs its own Long Island farm, and the à la carte menu and tasting menu both show it. The dining room is tall-ceilinged and wood-lined in a way that reads warm rather than cold, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. Californian instincts meet New York ambition, and the cooking has a playful quality that never tips into precious.

Getting to this moody Cantonese fine dining room means running the gauntlet of the Fontainebleau lobby, a spectacle of beach bodies and night owls that does nothing to prepare you for the dark, clubby calm inside. Ornate wooden slat dividers and sleek marble tables set the scene, the music keeps the bass low and steady, and the kitchen leans hard into high-quality seafood alongside Cantonese classics like Peking duck with all its crêpes and hoisin.

A New Orleans-style tavern in Wicker Park named for the chef's great-grandmother, which tells you the food comes with some actual stakes. The bar up front runs three-deep, the dining room behind it hums with the kind of staff that keeps things loose without losing the thread. Gumbo, po'boys, and beignets anchor the menu, and the Nashville fried chicken has quietly become the thing regulars steer everyone toward.

The cocktail menu is organized by spirit, which sounds obvious until you're deep into the amaro section wondering how you got there. Jane Jane is a cozy cocktail bar on 14th Street with a living-room feel, home-style snacks, and drinks that range from gin classics to Basque whiskey creations nobody else would think to make. Small, warm, and genuinely hard to leave once you've settled in.

Vaulted beamed ceilings and herringbone floors set the tone for this farm-to-table dining room at Southall Farm, a sprawling estate just outside Franklin. The kitchen runs a seed-to-fork program, pulling ingredients from the property and nearby farms for a menu that looks like comfort food until you taste how much is happening underneath. Dress nicely but not formally; the farmhouse chic room forgives a blazer or a flannel with equal grace.

A champagne window cut into the front wall sets the tone at this French bistro in Historic Oakwood. The wine list runs strictly French, and the menu follows the same logic, classic technique with enough edge to keep it interesting. French onion soup and steak tartare anchor the savory side; the rum-soaked baba closes things out properly. A Michelin Selected restaurant, and the semi-covered terrace is a fine place to spend a bottle.

The flour tortillas are made with lard and cooked to order, which tells you everything about what kind of place this is. Los Burritos Juárez is a compact burrito shop in Fort Greene doing the El Paso and Ciudad Juárez border style, a regional tradition that barely exists in New York. Slow-cooked guisados go inside, pinto beans tie it together, and breakfast burritos are available until they run out, which they do.