The Best Places in the United States

Pinball machines and white walls set the scene at this Potrero Hill sandwich shop, where the menu runs on East Coast bodega logic: Kaiser rolls, poppy seeds, and a bacon-egg-and-cheese that doesn't apologize for itself. Pastrami swaps in for the pork if that's your move. Ask for the lacto-fermented hot sauces, which bring enough acid and heat to make everything sharper. Casual, low-key, and named among the Bay Area's better sandwich spots by the Chronicle.

Every sandwich at this sandwich shop contains pork, which tells you almost everything you need to know. The signature is porkstrami, a brined and smoked pork butt that earns its place alongside coppa, salami, and mortadella in the loaded Salvatore, served hot on a Dutch crunch roll. Turkey and roast beef exist if you insist. Old-timey novelty sodas handle cleanup duty. Bring your appetite and leave your dietary restrictions at the door.

Pan Artesanal is a Mexican bakery on Fullerton where the cinnamon rolls come in tiramisú, arroz con leche, and chocoflan, which is a lot of dessert to ask of a roll. Past the conchas you'll find egg sandwiches in red sauce, chilaquiles, and tacos on handmade tortillas. It tends to sell out early and a line forms, so arrive before the pastry case starts looking picked over. Eater has it on its Best Mexican Restaurants list.

A Hong Kong-style cafe in Quincy where the French toast oozes with creamy egg yolk and the ji cheung fun comes loaded with beef brisket or curry fish balls. The menu pulls from classic cha chaan teng tradition and gives it a modern, careful reworking. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod and a Bon Appétit best new restaurant mention, which explains the regulars making the trip from the city.

A moody Old Town Scottsdale cocktail bar where the olive oil-washed dirty martini is only the beginning. The menu swings between arancini for two and a full table spread of ceviche, burrata, and pasta, and it changes often enough to reward regulars. The duck bolognese tossed with mafaldine and garlic crumble has become something of a signature. It reads equally well as a date bar or a group dinner, which is a harder trick than it sounds.

The chef's pastry background explains why the flan de erizo and the croissant sobrasada roll have each turned heads at Seattle Met. This tapas bar on 12th Avenue riffs on Galician cooking, leaning into the Pacific Northwest's seafood to find where Spain's northwest and Washington's coastline overlap. The menu takes liberties, in a good way, and the sherry list is longer than you'd expect. A James Beard semifinalist in 2024.

A chrome-and-neon diner aesthetic gets quietly serious treatment at Clyde's, where the kitchen leans on local ingredients and the menu runs from double smash burgers to seared salmon without apologizing for either. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod for Best Chef: Midwest in 2024, which feels about right for a place still bothering to finish you off with soft serve. A fine diner, in every sense the name implies.

The upstairs Bullock Room, named for Tom Bullock, the first African American to publish a cocktail recipe book, tells you everything about how seriously this Lafayette Square bar and restaurant takes its history. Seasonal cocktail menus have drawn inspiration from roller derby and Dolly Parton, which is either chaotic or inspired depending on your mood. The burger, loaded with chorizo jam and pub cheese on a challah bun, holds its own alongside the drinks.

Arched doorways, white tablecloths, and filigree pendant lights give this Loyal Heights Middle Eastern restaurant the feel of a neighborhood place that knew exactly what it wanted to be and never wavered. Hummus plates, mezze spreads, kebabs, and family-style platters fill tables that tend to fill early. The hummus topped with lamb and pine nuts has its own cult following, which is saying something in a city that eats a lot of hummus.

The mugs lining the walls are collector pieces rescued from legendary tropical bars that have since closed, which sets the tone for what Porco is: a tiki cocktail bar that takes the genre seriously without taking itself too seriously. Bartenders in Hawaiian shirts build mai tais and zombies from proper spirits and house syrups, and the dry-ice garnishes are genuinely theatrical. A patio out back handles the overflow when the enchanting interior fills up.

The menu changes constantly, so on any given night dinner at this neighborhood restaurant might land on Filipino braised pork, lamb biryani, or smoked chicken pappardelle. Beyond the dining room, the team runs cooking classes, farm dinners, and a grocery program, which gives the place a slightly utopian community-hub energy. The focaccia with whipped garlic butter has a reputation that precedes it, which tells you something about the level of care going into everything else.

The menu at this Mexican restaurant changes constantly, which is either the chef's restlessness or a sign that he has a lot to say. Emanuel Corona draws on Puebla, Mexico City, and Oaxaca for cooking that moves between tlayudas and chiles rellenos, beef cheek barbacoa and lamb birria. The room on South Second Street carries the quiet weight of a place that has meant something to this neighborhood for a long time, under more than one name.

Angel Share is a Downtown whiskey and cocktail bar that hands its profits to a rotating list of charities, chosen by patrons voting each month, so your third Old Fashioned counts as civic engagement. The whiskey and scotch list runs long, and the espresso martini has a following. The Filthy Angel, a very cold martini with a blue cheese olive, comes with a two-per-person limit, which tells you everything.

Steamed momos are the anchor here, plump Nepalese dumplings served with a tomato-cilantro sauce that splits the difference between salsa and chutney. Bini's Kitchen is a casual counter spot, the brick-and-mortar home of a catering operation that built its reputation on those dumplings alone. Combo meals let you mix in vegetarian stews and grilled meats, and the whole thing stays firmly in lunch-money territory. The Howard Street location is the one with actual seats.

The Baja-style fish taco is the reason people show up at this casual order-at-the-counter seafood spot in the Outer Sunset. Rockfish comes out of the fryer in a shattering crust, and the carrot habanero salsa is bright and sharp enough to keep things interesting without just torching your tongue. San Francisco Chronicle named them among the best tacos in the Bay Area, and the regulars here behave accordingly.

Luce is a small Italian trattoria on East Burnside, with a checkerboard floor, floor-to-ceiling windows, and shelves of jarred things that make it feel like a mini-mart from a more graceful era. Antipasti run a few dollars, pastas come in half portions, and the house wine arrives in little tumblers. They don't take reservations, so the plan is to show up and look relaxed about waiting. It has made both the Eater and Portland Monthly best-of lists.

San Dong is a Taiwanese noodle house on Bellaire Blvd where the forks, spoons, and bowls are all the to-go kind, and you grab your own containers off a shelf like it's a very small hardware store. The menu is beef noodle soup and pan-fried or steamed dumplings, and a full meal for two comes in under $20. Bring cash, tip the cashier, and don't expect much elbow room.

The dinner-party vibe is not an accident: Scout's grew out of an apartment pop-up, and the casual energy, upbeat music, and focused menu still read that way. Both chefs came up through fine dining around St. Louis, and the cooking shows it without announcing it. Vegetables get the same attention as the pasta, and the menu stays short enough that everything on it clearly earned its spot.

This is a Filipino supermarket with a food court attached, so dress for a cart and bring a stomach with a plan. Grill City turns out whole squid, skewers, and chicharones fried to order, while a steam-table station carves slices off a roast pig. Do a lap of the aisles before committing, then stop at the bakery by the exit, where the ube is so thorough it borders on a personality.

A neighborhood restaurant where the owners greet you like they've been expecting you, African Grill and Bar serves a broad sweep of regional African cooking, not just one country's repertoire. Jollof rice, oxtail stew, black-eyed pea dishes, fish stew, and several kinds of porridge all share the menu. Regulars tend to work through it methodically, which is a reasonable life goal.

An all-outdoor pizza shop spread across terraced levels in Dana Point, with citrus trees close enough to brush your shoulder and a window cut into the kitchen so you can watch the wood-fired ovens do their thing. Two styles of pizza, round and square, both with serious crust credentials, plus salads and sandwiches for anyone dragged here involuntarily. It landed at number four on 50 Top Pizza USA, which is a fairly loud argument made quietly.

The burritos here come open at both ends, more like fat rolled tacos than anything you'd expect, and ordering one is a mistake because you'll immediately want another. Testal is a casual counter-service taco shop on Grand Avenue doing Chihuahuan cooking, a regional tradition that gets less attention than it deserves in Phoenix. The rajas, spicy and cheesy with roasted poblano, are a reason to make the trip on their own.

The pink storefront on the Avenue of Fashion signals the tone before you're even inside. This bakery and cafe is the kind of place that does cinnamon rolls, banana pudding cupcakes, and celebration cakes alongside a solid vegan lineup, with a family caramel recipe that's been around forever anchoring the whole operation. Chef April Anderson was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery. Baking classes run separately at Eastern Market for those who want to take notes.

Cheesesteaks and pizza from a shop that takes both more seriously than most fine-dining kitchens take their tasting menus. Little Arthur's started as a pop-up and landed in a sunny little beer bar on Seventh Avenue, where the sourcing is meticulous and the portions are generous enough to make the prices feel fair. Mozzarella sticks and loaded fries round out a menu that reads casual but cooks deliberate.

A taqueria in a former hot dog stand, which tracks once you taste the Sonoran dogs still on the menu, now loaded with bacon, green chiles, and roasted chile sauce alongside the braised meats that are the real draw. Chef Amado Lopez, a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist, runs a compact, casual spot where the focus shifts between slow-cooked pork and solid vegan options. Order online, eat inside, then cross the street to Bombshell Treat Bar for dessert.

A bright red neon sign marks this Sichuan restaurant tucked into a Tempe strip mall, where turquoise booths and mural-covered walls set the scene for lazy Susans loaded with mapo tofu, braised eggplant, and the Chongqing-style spicy chicken that Phoenix Magazine named one of Arizona's top dishes. The batter is thin and shatters, the peppercorns do their characteristic lip-numbing work, and the portions are large enough to make you reconsider your afternoon plans.

The menu changes every week, which is either liberating or a scheduling problem depending on how you feel about commitment. This 35-seat Noblesville bistro is the project of a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who makes his own cured meats, cheeses, and desserts and reworks American classics with international ingredients. A James Beard Award semifinalist in 2023, he's built a genuine neighborhood following in a room small enough that the regulars all seem to know each other.

By day, the butcher counter at Curtis Stone's Hollywood steakhouse moves heritage cuts from partner farms; by night, crystal chandeliers and a fireplace turn the same room into an Art Deco dining room with a Michelin star. The wood-fired grill is the organizing principle, and the dry-aged beef arrives with the confidence of a kitchen that was also selecting the animal earlier that afternoon.

The house-made tortillas holding together the tacos here tell you what kind of place this is: a casual, all-day Mexican eatery in NoHo where the cooking is straightforward and the room stays bright and airy from morning through dinner. Larger plates are built for sharing, and the churros at the end feel less optional than the menu lets on. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which tracks with the crowd that fills it without making a fuss about it.

The dining room at Stanly Ranch, Bear is where Napa's farm-to-table seriousness meets a chef with a genuine sense of play. The cowboy ribeye arrives with huitlacoche, corn's funky fungal alter ego, which tells you the kitchen isn't just sourcing beautifully but thinking sideways. California produce anchors everything, but the culinary references roam freely. A named Discovery on The 50 list.

Cindy's is a rooftop cocktail bar on top of the Chicago Athletic Association, with a terrace looking over Millennium Park and Lake Michigan. It's a hotel bar, so expect dressed-up visitors, bachelorette sashes, and relatives in town, plus plates meant for three or four people to share. Regional Top 10 for hotel bars at the Spirited Awards, which is one more reason the terrace fills up first.

Two brothers who grew up dreaming of vines in Provence eventually landed on a mountaintop in Paso Robles and planted Cabernet Sauvignon. The estate sits high enough that the elevation feels like part of the wine itself, and the tasting experience leans into that drama. Reserve ahead, because showing up unannounced is not the move here.

The freezer martinis section of the menu says a lot about Eastern Standard's priorities. This Fenway cocktail bar has been around forever and carries itself accordingly, all dark wood and low hum, the kind of room that makes a dirty martini feel like the only logical choice. The classics-heavy list also wanders into margarita territory, with a Tajin-dusted mezcal version alongside fruitier options, and the white negroni is never far from someone's hand.

Freshly baked pita lands on the table almost before you've settled in, which is either a warning or a promise at this upmarket Lebanese restaurant in the Flatiron. The name means "tell me" in colloquial Arabic, and the format backs that up: sharing plates built around hot and cold meze, hummus in several moods, baba ghanoush, fattoush, falafel. Mains like seared lamb chops reward anyone who holds back.

The Coppola family's Napa estate is the kind of place that makes wine tasting feel like a film set, which is more or less what it is. Guests sip through a Bordeaux-influenced collection inside the redesigned Athenaeum or at courtyard pergolas overlooking vineyards and a fountain pool. The clever bit: model boats for kids in the water while the adults handle the serious business. A 50 Discovery from The 50.

Inside Passage will tell you, with some urgency, that it is not a tiki bar. It's a cocktail bar that takes the mid-century beachcomber concept as a starting point rather than a costume, pairing tropical classics like the Jet Pilot and the Saturn with original drinks and alcohol-free options. The immersive decor still commits fully, so the distinction is philosophical, but the cocktail menu makes the argument.

José Andrés brought his Spanish tapas restaurant to the third floor of the Cosmopolitan, and the room has the kind of energy that makes you order more than you planned. The menu leans modern, built around small plates, and the kitchen flies ingredients in from Spain to back up the claim. Jamón Ibérico, gambas al ajillo, croquetas, pan de cristal con tomate: the classics are all here, done without apology.