The Best Places to Eat and Do in the United States

The beef on weck here is the reason Buffalo has strong opinions about sandwiches: a massive rib roast, sliced to order, piled onto a kummelweck roll with enough jus to make you look confident or foolish, depending on your shirt choice. This is an old-school deli counter, the kind that locals treat as a civic institution. The corned beef and roast turkey are solid detours, and the snickerdoodles are comically oversized, as advertised.

There's no menu at this old-school New Orleans steakhouse, just a cut, a dressing, a starch, and the implicit social contract that you say yes to the onion rings. No leather booths, no cowboy kitsch, no performance of steakhouse-ness whatsoever. The room has been left mostly untouched by its current owners, which is the right call. The New York Times named it among the 25 best restaurants in New Orleans.

A former pop-up that found a permanent home inside Au Lounge in downtown Oakland, Chef Smelly's draws on Creole family recipes to put out Cajun-spiced seafood and soul food. Garlicky Dungeness crab and blackened shrimp anchor the menu, and the platters run large enough to qualify as a commitment. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top seafood spots. Dress accordingly: this is crab-cracking, garlic-breath, no-apologies territory.

Cherry Coffee Roasters started as a pop-up inside a deli and somehow ended up with a roastery across the river in Gretna. The Uptown cafe sits in a sunny old building on a quiet stretch of Laurel Street, and it's the sort of place where laptops outnumber conversations. Over in Gretna, the cafe is attached to the roasting floor, so your pastry comes with a free lesson in what you're drinking if you catch a cupping.

Chibanos is a casual sandwich shop in Washington Square West where Cuban and Chinese cooking share a single piece of toasted pan cubano. Char siu pork goes between the bread, and breakfast versions ride on soft bolo baos. The yuca fries and Chinese sausage croquetas are there if you want a side, and the jasmine flan closes things out. Order at the counter, then settle in at a table inside or out, where half the neighborhood seems to be doing the same. The Infatuation put it at number 25 on its list of Philadelphia's best restaurants.

The coffee ceremony here arrives in a jebena, the traditional Ethiopian clay flask, and it's not a performance for tourists but the way the place works. Chibo is an Ethiopian coffee shop tucked into a Lilburn strip mall, serving espresso and drip alongside house-roasted beans you can take home. Sambusa and kinche are made to order. The couple who run it treat every visitor like a regular they just haven't met yet.

Seafood restaurant, sushi bar, steakhouse, and pizza joint all share one menu here, which sounds like a dare but somehow holds together. Nick Saban used to bring recruits, so the room has seen its share of high-stakes small talk over gumbo. The sushi program is serious enough that the chef has a following of her own. A good place to bring someone you're trying to impress, whether or not you're offering a scholarship.

A former Darwin's location reborn as a worker-owned cooperative coffee shop, where the staff collectively run the place and share in the profits. The menu carries over some old favorites alongside new ones, and the coffee comes from Equal Exchange, another worker-owned co-op, because apparently the solidarity doesn't stop at the door. A neighborhood spot in Cambridge where your latte is, in a small way, a political act.

Fruit cobbler counts as a vegetable here, which tells you everything about City Cafe's approach to the food pyramid. This old-school lunch counter in Northport has been feeding working-class locals and college students forever, turning out cheap, hearty plates to roughly a thousand people a day. The menu rotates by day of the week, giving regulars a reason to come back Tuesday. Crimson Tide posters and a hand-painted mural hold down the walls.

Polished concrete floors and olive-green banquettes replaced the worn carpet when City View moved to its new spot overlooking Portsmouth Square, and the room now reads more gallery than dim sum hall. The classics still show up on the carts, though, and the baked pork buns arrive airy with a crackly top. A sleeker option than the old-school palaces nearby, and the San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best dim sum spots in the Bay Area.

This is a casual, order-at-the-counter cafe perched on a cliff above the Pacific, attached to a gliderport, so your sandwich comes with a floor show of hang gliders stepping off the edge. Wraps, sandwiches, and soup-and-half-sandwich combos run under $14, and you eat outside in whatever you wore to the beach. It closes early when the fog or rain shows up, which is also when the gliders call it a day.

Colette is a Poncey-Highland bakery where the order counter sits right in front of the open kitchen, so you can watch the bakers knead dough while you wait behind a weekend line of stroller-pushing locals. The case runs from brioche tarts to sour cream-iced cinnamon rolls the size of a toddler's head, plus savory scones made with shishito peppers. It's a counter-service pastry stop, so wear whatever you rolled out of bed in.

The lasagnette arrives sliced, crisped, and floated over a pool of green fondue, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Italian restaurant on Hyde. The team behind Seven Hills took over their original space and pivoted toward something warmer and a little more relaxed, all monochromatic blue walls and wines by the glass. Snacks, pasta, and surprisingly compelling sides fill out a menu that keeps the room full on a weeknight.

Cơm tấm is broken rice, the humble fragments left after milling, and this East San Jose spot has built its whole identity around it. A casual Vietnamese rice shop, it pairs that base with grilled meats and sides that do the real work, including steamed pork cake and fried tofu skin stuffed with shrimp. Fresh minced bird's eye chiles sit on every table instead of a bottle, which tells you something about the kitchen's standards.

Live jazz and fusion food in Pittsburgh's Penn Avenue corridor, where the kitchen is pulling off za'atar focaccia and kimchi fried rice with pork belly in the same breath. Con Alma is a restaurant that takes the music seriously enough that conversation sometimes has to wait. The lineup shifts, so showing up cold is half the fun, whether you land on a jam session or someone doing a slow, considered take on a standard.

Corsa is the upscale Italian restaurant inside the Caldera House hotel in Teton Village, steps from the ski slopes. The dining room is a modern take on a ski chalet, with a fireplace, delicate glassware, and booths along the back wall. Margherita pizzas get passed around as appetizers before the entrees arrive, which is a good way to keep a table of visiting relatives quiet. The Infatuation put it on its list of Jackson Hole's best restaurants.

The outdoor tables on Baker Street are as close to a Parisian sidewalk cafe as Cow Hollow gets, which is either charming or delusional depending on your mood. Côte Ouest is a French bistro where weekend brunch brings smoked salmon benedict on an open-faced croissant, and a Kir Royale seems less indulgent than it should at noon. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top French restaurants.

A hand-painted plywood sign out front announces a small, no-fuss coffee shop where a few tables, a pour-over, and a record player are the entire amenities package. The beans get roasted across the river and the pastries get baked in-house, so nobody's outsourcing the important parts. It shares its room with Soen, which means a coffee run can quietly turn into onigiri and shaved ice. It's on The Infatuation's list of Portland's best coffee shops.

Chicken and dumplings with celery-flecked, black-pepper dumplings gives you a sense of how Covey thinks about American classics: familiar enough to order without squinting at the menu, just a little more considered than you'd expect. It's a neighborhood restaurant that tips toward the elegant side, with a late bar menu of small bites that makes it equally useful for a quick glass of wine before heading home.

Craig's is a bright, airy coffee shop in Midtown where the espresso is the main event and the food shows up on a rotating schedule, like a very caffeinated food hall. Pop-up vendors come and go, and a weekly drop of Tacos Hernandez breakfast burritos is the closest thing to a fixed menu. Iced coffee comes in bottles, popsicles come from JB's Ice Pops, and Eater counts it among Detroit's best coffee shops.

Creekside Market is a casual sandwich counter on the road out of town toward Grand Teton National Park, which makes it the last stop before you commit to a day outdoors. A handwritten board lists the options, and the turkey club on a croissant is the move for anyone whose backpack lunch history involves a pancaked PB&J. Prices stay in sandwich territory, and nobody minds if you walk in wearing hiking boots.

Crooked Ewe is a craft brewery and ale house where the patio hangs over the St. Joseph River, so your cream ale comes with a view and a faint sense of smugness. The kitchen smokes brisket and pastrami with real conviction, then turns around and runs a full vegan menu that changes often, jackfruit tacos included. It's casual, order-at-your-own-pace stuff, and the carnivores and the plant people share a table without incident.

Frida Kahlo shares wall space with a pink-legged chameleon and a saguaro the size of a doorway, which tells you a lot about this cheerful Mexican brunch spot in downtown Glendale. Weekend mornings fill with families and kids while the drinks arrive dressed up: horchata in a jar with a peanut dulce de leche rim, cafe de olla in mismatched earthenware. The pambazo, a football-sized sandwich dunked in guajillo chile, is not a thing you order by accident.

The cupcakes here are moist enough to make you question every dry, forgettable one you've settled for before. A cupcake shop with locations across the Bay Area, Cupcakin' leans into citrus flavors, key lime and lemon cream pie among them, with tangy curd and a crumbled graham cracker base. Minis are available for the non-committal. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top bakeries.

The chef here trained in fine dining and then opened a Japanese curry shop in a Burlingame strip mall, which is either a pivot or a philosophy. The curry is built on three-hour caramelized onions and two dozen spices, and it eats like something that took considerably longer than it costs. Katsudon and a buttery corn soup round out the short menu. Casual, counter-service priced, and named among the Bay Area's best Japanese spots by the Chronicle.

The broccoli rabe sandwich with tomato jam and melted provolone on a griddled sesame torta is the kind of thing that makes you question every sandwich you've ever eaten. This Brookline sandwich shop runs on the conviction that bread choice is not a casual decision, and the team's fine-dining background shows in every layered, deliberately toasted result. The New York Times put it on their Boston list, which feels about right.

The move at this Japantown Korean soup shop is kalbijjim, braised beef short ribs served tableside while a torch melts a crown of cheese over the meat and chewy rice cakes. It's theatrical in a way that feels earned rather than forced. The New York Times named it among San Francisco's 25 best restaurants, which tracks with the line out front most evenings. Go hungry and order the beef soup alongside; it's not a one-dish situation.

Dainty Maid is a downtown South Bend food hall where one group can order a buttered chicken wrap, breakfast udon, a smash burger, and a challah pastry and still sit at the same table. Everything gets ordered on your phone, and a server carries it over, so nobody has to hover at a counter. There's also a coffee bar and a cocktail bar called Hall Pass, which keeps a long brunch from feeling like homework.

The menu at this SoBo District Italian trattoria has barely changed since Sonny Dalesandro inherited it from his dad, which is either the point or the proof. Family recipes anchor the kitchen, and regulars who've been ordering the same thing for years show no signs of reconsidering. Comfort is the operating philosophy here, stated plainly and delivered without ceremony.

A neighborhood café in Bellaire where brunch runs all day and the menu splits its time between bagel and lox and chicken and waffles without making either feel out of place. Mimosas come by the small, the large, or the pitcher, which tells you something about the crowd's intentions on a Sunday. The kind of low-key local spot Houstonians tend to volunteer without being asked.

The coffee roasting happens right on the premises, which means the Henderson strip-mall exterior is a bit misleading. Dark Moon is a coffee shop that takes its work seriously, roasting in-house, making its own syrups and cold brew, and supplying beans to retailers across Southern Nevada. The bar seats are good for a quick espresso or a long morning with a laptop. Order the pour-over if you want proof the sourcing isn't an afterthought.

Rows of smokers out front and a cooler stocked with Fanta set the tone at this Grant Park BBQ shop, which leans into Georgia's anything-goes approach to smoked meat. Pork shoulder gets a splash of vinegary Carolina sauce, brisket and turkey come naked or sauced, and the mac and cheese is made with shells and sharp Cheddar. Local beer pours from the taps, cornhole and bocce fill the yard, and Oakland Cemetery is a short walk away if you need to walk it all off.