The Best Places in the United States

Gourmet Island is a weekday-only lunch counter in a Ruffin Road business park, where the salad menu runs long enough to need its own filing system. Eater put it on its list of the best salads in San Diego. The family behind it has been at this for ages, and the daily specials that catch on get promoted to the permanent menu. Order at the counter, then take your arugula and beets out to the open-air patio, ideally before the cubicle rush.

The Gothic Revival cathedral atop Nob Hill has two labyrinths, a 7,466-pipe organ, and behind-the-scenes tours that venture into spaces most visitors never see (the fine print notes heights and tight passages, which is either a warning or a selling point). Soaring arches and enormous stained glass windows do the heavy lifting architecturally, while a packed calendar of music and community events keeps the place feeling lived-in rather than merely visited.

Greenberg's is a counter-service deli tucked under the fake apartment facade inside New York-New York, which is about as close as Las Vegas gets to a bodega with a sense of humor. The morning special runs under ten dollars and includes coffee, and the croissant sandwiches arrive roughly the size of a hubcap. A pastrami and corned beef breakfast burrito also exists here, and nobody in the building seems alarmed.

A small French sandwich shop on Cedar Street where the main event is a buttermilk-fried chicken cutlet on a Semifreddi's roll, craggy-coated and topped with a creamy, spicy slaw. The potato puffs are the other reason people come, little pillowy spheres that have built a loyal following on their own. A few sidewalk tables exist, but most orders leave in a bag headed for Live Oak Park.

Guard and Grace is a downtown Houston steakhouse where a dramatic installation of bronze rods does the decorating, and the corporate lunch crowd gives way to date-night lighting after dark. There's a seafood bar for the shellfish-first set. The filet flight pairs prime wagyu with angus, for diners who can't commit. Expect expense-account prices and a dress code of "just came from a meeting."

Guerrilla Pizza Company is a casual Detroit-style pizza counter in the Soho Lofts space on the Strip's southern edge, where the pies come in small rectangles with caramelized, crispy edges. One of them is topped like a cheeseburger, pickles and burger sauce included, which tells you how seriously everyone is taking themselves. Order the garlic tots, wear whatever you flew in wearing, and Eater has called it the best pizza in town.

The guiso sauce, a peppery family recipe passed down from the chef's grandmother, shows up across the menu at this Salvadoran and Caribbean restaurant in downtown Healdsburg. It's casual but serious, the kind of upscale Latin spot where the staff hug regulars and explain the story behind every dish. Restaurant workers from around the county fill the tables, which is usually a reliable sign of something.

Checkerboard tablecloths and divey walls set the scene at this beloved fried chicken shop, where the bird arrives hand-battered and properly spicy. Memphis is barbecue country, and Gus's seems fine with the argument. Sides run to okra, beans, and mac and cheese, and a half-dozen pies baked daily close things out. The Front Street location is the one for anyone staying downtown.

The focaccia at this Italian sandwich shop and pizzeria is springy enough to qualify as a mattress topping, then loaded with stracciatella, 'nduja, pistachio butter, or artichoke cream. A deli counter runs along one side, stocked with mortadella, salami, and prosciutto that get hand-sliced to order. Roman-style pizza sits out in thick, dimpled slabs. Bring cash for lunch and a plan for a slow afternoon.

This is a Guy Fieri sports bar at Caesars Palace, which means flame-adorned everything and a name that commits fully to the bit. The bottomless brunch is the sleeper move on the Strip, with banana custard French toast, brisket mac and cheese, and biscuits and gravy refilled on request. It costs less than most Vegas cocktails, and The Infatuation put it on its list of the best cheap eats in town.

The corner of Haight and Ashbury still draws people who want to feel the ghost of 1967, but the neighborhood has long since grown into its own thing. Painted Victorians sit alongside vintage shops, record stores, and cafés where nobody is in a hurry. The proximity to Golden Gate Park means an afternoon here tends to drift pleasantly sideways. Come for the browse, stay for the walk.

The homemade pita, puffy and fresh, is the detail that keeps ASU students coming back across generations at this no-frills Tempe restaurant and grocery. Shawarma, falafel, kebabs, and baba ghanoush fill the menu at prices that don't require a financial aid disbursement. Baklava in pistachio and Arizona pecan closes things out. The strip-mall setting is deeply unromantic, which seems to be the point.

Half Shell is a Tom Douglas seafood restaurant in the old Etta's space on Western Ave, back to oysters after a short barbecue phase nobody asked for. Local oyster farms rotate through, and the menu runs from king salmon to a caviar service for people who've had a good quarter. The happy hour shrimp nugget slider on a pull-apart roll is the move for everyone else.

Diners at this casual Millbrae Korean spot can be spotted holding oxtails up to the light like jewelers, hunting for every last scrap of meat. Han Sang runs on bone broth soups and sliced beef, the kind of cooking that earns regulars fast. The sul long tang, a cloudy white stock loaded with brisket, tongue, and tendon, arrives unseasoned so you can salt it yourself, which somehow makes it feel more personal.

Hando is a hand roll counter in the Heights where you perch on a stool and eat with your fingers, which is the correct way to eat a hand roll anyway. The sets come in three, four, or five rolls, the spicy tuna one carries real heat, and robata and small plates fill the gaps. Happy hour runs daily with $7 cocktails, and the speakeasy next door handles the nightcap, because Houston apparently needs a hidden bar for everything.

The password comes from their social media, which is either charmingly old-fashioned or exactly what a speakeasy is now. Either way, the third-floor of one of Orlando's oldest buildings is a genuinely dim, close-quarters cocktail bar where the drinks are stiff and the couples are very comfortable with each other. A small outdoor ledge offers escape when the room gets cozy. Dress the part and look like you belong.

Happy Camper is a covered patio pizza spot at the Fashion Show Mall, which is a sentence nobody would have predicted about a mall. There are disco balls, lawn games, and fire pits, plus both cracker-thin tavern pies and chewier classic ones. The morning shift runs on bottomless mimosas and a bacon, cheddar, and egg breakfast pizza, a very Vegas answer to the question of what to do about last night. Casual, shorts-friendly, and priced like pizza.

Mojitos are the organizing principle at this Cuban restaurant and bar in Walnut Creek, and the menu runs a dozen or so of them, spiked with guava or prickly pear depending on your mood. Floral-print booths line the walls, a long communal table anchors the middle, and the patio fills fast on weekends. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best restaurants in Walnut Creek. Come thirsty and order the ropa vieja empanadas while you figure out the rest.

Haven Farm and Table is a daytime restaurant planted on a three-acre working farm in Encinitas, with a glass ceiling that lets the sun in and a menu that mostly walks over from the rows outside. Salads are the main event here, which is a sentence that usually ends in disappointment elsewhere. Eater has put it on its list of San Diego's best salads. Expect farm-adjacent casual, not a tasting menu.

Hearthstone Kitchen and Cellar is a casual, wood-fired-pizza-and-wings restaurant at Red Rock Resort that closed and then reopened in the exact same space, which is either bold or just good real estate. It's built for easy weekends in Summerlin, with chicken lollipop wings, $1 oyster Wednesdays, and a brunch where $25 bottomless mimosas and bloody marys keep the tab honest. Eater lists it among its best Las Vegas brunches.

Heavenly Pies is a pizzeria out in the Southern Highlands suburbs, run by a chef who spent years in a Venetian fine-dining kitchen and now makes pies with brie, speck, and black truffle tomato. There's also a green one loaded with asparagus and rapini, for people who want their vegetables and a crust in one motion. Eater has put it on a list of the city's top pizza, and you can order ahead on the website.

The Hound Dog cocktail is built around local bourbon, amaro, and a nod to Elvis that, yes, does go without saying. Hen House is a wine and cocktail bar in East Memphis that reads more like someone's well-appointed living room than a proper bar, which is either the owner's California sensibility or just good instincts. The food menu runs to duck and shrimp and grits, and the whole thing manages unpretentious and sophisticated without trying too hard at either.

The general store shelves stocked with local goods are the first thing you notice, and then the smell hits you. Henderson & Kane is a barbecue joint embedded inside a working grocery, slinging peppery brisket, smoked boudin, pulled pork, and ribs alongside Frito pie and loaded potatoes. The Pitmaster Plate exists for the indecisive, which in a lineup this long describes most people. Cash-and-tray Texas barbecue, done in a room full of surprises.

Getting in means walking through a brightly lit sundry shop that sells newspapers and cherry blossom Kit Kats, then pushing a bookcase that leans inward to reveal a dim cocktail bar. Red lanterns glow overhead, neon tigers face off above leather booths, and the Japanese whiskey list rewards lingering. It sits in the Resorts World food hall, so expect conventioneers feeling very clever.

High Steaks looks like every other Vegas steakhouse until you reach the "hunt" section of the menu, where elk, boar, and bison sit beside a "lion" entree that turns out to be a mushroom. That's a gentle joke on the carnivores. The rest stays in familiar territory with porterhouses, lobster chowder, and baked potatoes, then closes on Key lime doughnuts or a seasonal souffle. Eater lists it among the city's best steakhouses.

A sushi restaurant just outside the Heights where the bar seats fill up with people who already know what they're ordering. The menu moves from cold sashimi plates through specialty maki and into nigiri and tempura, so there's room to graze or commit to a full spread. The patio exists for the handful of Houston evenings cool enough to justify it, which locals treat as a minor holiday.

Hold Fast is a Springfield craft brewery with a patio strung with lights and a rotating cast of food trucks pulling up to feed whoever's around. The house golden ale, the Patio Pleaser, is the kind of thing you order without overthinking it. Hammons Field is a short walk away, so the crowd skews toward Cardinals fans doing some productive pre-game research. Live music most nights keeps things lively without tipping into loud.

Home Slice is a casual Austin pizzeria where the pies come the size of a hubcap and the debates run to which Mario Kart character you'd room with. Order it by the slice if you're solo, or split an Italian sub, wings, and a Greek salad that somehow feels like a plot twist. It's counter-service beer-and-negroni territory, and shorts are the dress code.

Hong Hua is a white-tablecloth Chinese restaurant in Farmington Hills where the main event is Beijing duck, carved tableside by a server whose knife work gets a small audience. You can have it crispy with honey-glazed skin and crepes, or boneless and stir-fried with vegetables. The dining room is all dark woods and warm tones, a good setting for a family dinner, and the honey-glazed barbecue pork keeps the table busy while you wait.

Hongdae 33 is an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue spot in a Bellaire Boulevard strip center, where $36 buys a tabletop gas grill and a 90-minute clock. You cook the brisket, pork jowl, and baby octopus yourself, so the work is shared and the smoke follows you home. Kimchi and pancakes arrive free, while soju costs extra. It stays busy late, with groups racing the timer between flips.

A San Francisco fish market that planted a second flag inside Proof Lab Beer Garden in Mill Valley, where the obvious move after a Marin hike is a fish taco. The fried rockfish comes out of the oil crackling, buried under a carrot habanero salsa that uses sweetness and acid to dial back the heat rather than just announce it. Order at the counter, find a sunny spot, and let the endorphins from the trail and the chile sort themselves out.

The menu here is basically a suggestion, since the family running this Chinatown restaurant has been known to steer you away from it entirely and just decide what you're eating. That's not arrogance so much as confidence, and the Shanghainese cooking that lands on the table tends to justify the approach. Pork confit egg rolls with basil and chile sauce are a signature. Cash in on the experience; just don't expect to be in charge.

How Ya Dough'n is a casual pizza counter on the third floor of BLVD Las Vegas, which is the sort of address that requires an escalator and a little faith. The hand-tossed sourdough pies run from classic pepperoni to a pistachio number with honey and truffle oil. Dough boys, wings, and meatballs round it out, and Eater lists it among the best pizza in Las Vegas, so the mall detour has company.

The chopped steak comes with peppercorn sauce, peas, and onion rings for $25, which tells you most of what you need to know. This dinner-only diner on Warren Street is the project of the Meat Hook's Brent Young and a partner from Mel the Bakery, and the menu reads like a greatest-hits of unfussy classics: shrimp cocktail, steak tartare, burgers, half a Greek chicken. Affordable on purpose, not by accident.

The delivery vehicle is called an Emergency Donut Vehicle, which tells you everything about the vibe here. This 24-hour doughnut shop leans hard into nostalgia and spectacle, piling its yeast and cake rings with candy bar crumbles, cereal, roasted marshmallows, and glazes in colors not found in nature. The flavors skew s'mores and Little Debbie rather than artisan restraint, so come hungry for dessert energy at any hour you please.

Hypsi is the Italian restaurant tucked inside Hotel Daphne in the Heights, which means you can start with breakfast and keep going until a roaming mozzarella cart rolls up to your table at dinner. The room is relaxed neighborhood stuff, with a fireplace worth angling for and a negroni on the list. Dress however you'd dress to eat pasta near your own house, only slightly nicer.

Ike's is a counter-service sandwich shop that came out of San Francisco, where the menu runs past 700 combinations and a good number are named after celebrities, so you end up ordering a Paul Reubens or a Steph Curry like you're calling in a favor. You pick the bread, from sourdough to gluten-free, and everything gets a swipe of the secret Dirty Sauce. Expect a line, plastic-wrapped napkins, and no dress code beyond pants.

Immm Rice & Beyond is a casual Thai street food counter on Broadway, where the hot bar up front does the talking and the staff will hand you samples if nothing looks familiar. At lunch you can build a plate of rice or noodles with up to three curries, stews, or wok-tossed things, and a chalkboard behind the counter tracks the day's specials. It's Eater's pick for Chicago's best Thai food, and you order at the counter.

This is a drive-thru burger chain, not a destination restaurant, though the line of cars wrapped around the Dean Martin Drive lot would suggest otherwise. The Double-Double is two patties, two slices of American cheese, and a spread, ordered by people who have never once looked at the rest of the menu. It's cheap, quick, and a ritual for Californians and tourists alike. Eater counts it among the best burgers in Las Vegas.

In-On Thai is a casual Uptown Thai spot with a short menu built around Central Thai cooking, the sort of place where the salad section gets more thought than most restaurants give their entrees. The green bean salad arrives with hard-boiled eggs and tender shrimp in a sharp, sour sauce. The fried chicken is the easy first order, and it's wise to say you can handle the heat and mean it. Online ordering is available.