The Best Places in the United States

The restored neon sign out front has been pulling people off Broadway since this building has been a bar, which is basically forever. Bar 404 is an old-school neighborhood watering hole on North Broadway, the kind where the vibe is loose and the programming punches above its weight: free jazz nights, live music, and a food program that Westword keeps recognizing alongside the concerts.

The vaulted ceiling, Victorian-era paintings, and sculpted details make the Bluebird feel more like a recovered ballroom than a live music venue, which somehow makes the indie rock louder. It holds around 550 people, putting touring acts close enough to feel like a secret and giving local bands a room that announces they've arrived. Westword has named it Denver's top stepping-stone venue, and Colfax gets a little better every time the marquee goes up.

Carl's is a two-sided counter with sixteen stools, a griddle, and staff who treat small talk as a clerical error. The burgers are lacy, paper-thin things, so you order a double the way you'd order a second coffee, and the housemade root beer comes along without discussion. The tamales under chili are a pleasant surprise. Bring cash, and if anyone asks about the Shake Shack rumor, you didn't hear it from me.

The neon chef flipping pancakes above the door has been a landmark on East Colfax long enough to outlast everything around it. Pete's Kitchen is a classic diner, the kind that keeps the grill going through the night on weekends for whoever needs a gyros omelet or a green chile smothered burrito at 3 a.m. The crowd that fills the stools tends to tell a story. Westword named it Denver's best late-night diner.

Atomic Museum photos and artwork line the walls of this sprawling brewery taproom and restaurant in Centennial Hills, where the theme commits fully to the bit. Twenty-six taps run from stouts and barleywine to pineapple cider, and the food holds its own: pastrami sandwiches, pork belly street tacos, and a roster of pizzas. Two patios with ping pong and cornhole make it clear nobody here is in a hurry to leave.

A possum framed in cherry blossoms marks the door to this Japanese pop-culture shop tucked under City Hall in the Toy Joy family of stores. Shelves run deep with anime figures, VTuber statuettes, blind boxes, Smiskis, and gachapon machines for anyone who knows exactly what those words mean and is already reaching for their wallet.

Beaumont's American Tavern is a 200-seat Lincoln Park restaurant that took over an old Halsted Street space and filled it with the kind of menu your grandfather would call "proper food." Downstairs runs on pub burgers, shrimp and grits, and fresh pasta, while a steakhouse called the Bull Moose sits upstairs, which is a lot of square footage for a tavern. Expect mid-range prices and a sticky toffee pudding built for sharing.

Cat kitsch lines the shelves at this neighborhood restaurant and bodega in Raleigh, where a team of five local culinary figures pooled their talent and built something that feels both familiar and hard to place. The menu reads Southern but veers into duck-fat fried wings with harissa and honey, cornbread with curry leaf butter, and charred cabbage over tofu pesto. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, which tracks.

By the Sea is a big Mediterranean-leaning restaurant on Orange Avenue in Coronado, done up in white oak, rattan, and cobblestones shipped over from Italy, which is a lot of luggage for a seaside lunch. The menu runs to seafood platters, a meze spread built around house-fermented pita, and a dry-aged rib-eye for anyone who wandered in from the golf course. Expect resort-town casual with a reservation habit, and cocktails that arrive smoking.

Carne and Hueso is a sit-down Mexican restaurant in North Park, run by two sisters cooking Indigenous dishes from Puebla, Jalisco, and Oaxaca. The moles come in blanco, negro, and rojo, and the birria follows a recipe from their grandfather's place in Guadalajara. Weekend brunch hands the first dozen tables free pan de muerto, which is a real incentive to be the person who arrives early. The bar leans on Mexican spirits and house syrups.

Fried catfish on white bread with hush puppies or collard greens on the side, served out of a former fast-food shell on East Colfax, is the whole pitch here, and it lands. This is a counter-service soul food spot where the staff are warm and the portions are not modest. Barbecue, chicken gizzards, and Sunday-only chitlins round out a menu rooted in Oklahoma tradition that the team is clearly not shy about.

Warm broth arrives first at this seven-table multicourse speakeasy on the Cumberland River, and whatever's in it will probably confuse you before it convinces you. Scallops, paprika, and strawberries, say, or horseradish oil wrapped around aged tuna belly with local melon. The chef's palate is the whole point: combinations that read like a dare on paper land as inevitable on the plate. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List.

Taiwanese bubble tea chain Chatime lets you build your drink from the ground up, dialing in sweetness level, swapping to dairy-free, and piling on popping pearls or lychee jelly until it's exactly your problem. The UNLV-adjacent shop pours milk teas, fruit teas, and brown sugar pearl drinks to a crowd that has strong opinions about boba. A second location in the Arts District is already in the works.

Chef Fei is a casual stir-fry restaurant inside the Westfield UTC mall, which is not where you'd expect a wok to be doing its best work. It's the first U.S. outpost of a China-based chain with more than 200 locations back home, where pork gets top billing. Here the menu leans toward beef, including a wagyu stir-fry with broccoli and bell peppers. Eater put it on its list of the best new restaurants in and around San Diego.

Twelve seats, a polycultural farm and vineyard outside the city, and ceramic dishes thrown from clay dug on the property: the scene is set before the food even arrives. Chef Tae Strain runs a tasting menu where the farm supplies much of what lands on the counter, with Korean-inflected technique quietly threading through each course. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, and the Burnt Hill wines poured between courses are made right outside the window.

A 24-seat Japanese listening den in the Arts District where the only soundtrack is vinyl and the TVs run anime on loop. Ring the buzzer, join the wait list, and eventually find yourself inside walls plastered with Japanese posters while the cocktail program works through whisky, sake, tequila, and shochu. From the team behind Nocturno, it drinks like a speakeasy that got very specific taste very fast.

Concrete Rose is a cocktail bar in the old Purse Building, right across from the ballpark, built around agave spirits. The menu leans on tequila and mezcal, with drinks involving mole and tomatillo that sound like a dare. There are no dress codes or bottle service, but there are vinyl nights, and the bar bites run from beet tacos to fish crudo, so dinner is covered if you commit.

The dining room alone causes arguments: depending on your table, you're sitting in sun-drenched whimsy, blood-red velvet, or the amber spill of an open Basque grill. Dalia is a Spanish restaurant that treats Spain as a starting point rather than a period piece, so calamari stand in for noodles in a riff on dan dan, and patatas bravas arrive as lacquered, shatteringly crisp pavé cubes. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List.

A full-service butcher shop and deli in the southwest valley, built around the Bronx meat-market upbringing of the chef behind it. Pasture-raised, grass-fed beef comes directly from ranches in Arizona, Missouri, and South Dakota, ground in-house for the burger or sliced for a chicken Parm sandwich. Rotisserie chicken and steak frites round out the deli menu. It's the kind of neighborhood place Las Vegas isn't supposed to have.

A movable wall conceals this cocktail bar and small-plates spot behind a family portrait inside Buddy Valastro's Italian restaurant at the Venetian. Green banquettes, cafe tables, and walls thick with photographs give it the feel of a room that's been there forever, even if the secret door suggests otherwise. The menu runs to charcuterie, little panini, and lobster fritto misto, with desserts closing things out on a sweet, unhurried note.

Don Maguro is a casual Japanese spot in a Mira Mesa shopping center, where the kaisen don comes with nori sheets, an egg yolk, and a clear fish bone broth, so lunch turns into a small DIY project. The soup can be sipped alone, poured over the last of the rice, or mixed with the yolk first, a choice that feels weightier than it should. Eater named it one of San Diego's best new restaurants.

Dubu Tofu is a casual Korean soft tofu stew spot in Rancho Bernardo, from the team behind Sot BBQ. The rice arrives in a metal pot on a wooden stand, scooped out so the bottom can crisp and blacken, then barley tea goes in at the end for a soup course nobody asked for but everyone finishes. The kimchi pancake is roughly frisbee-sized. It made Eater's list of the best new restaurants in San Diego.

Eastbound is a casual EaDo barbecue joint from a crew of Killen's alumni, with picnic tables, lounge seating, and a backyard roomy enough to absorb a birthday party and its sequel. The $32 Works platter puts brisket, ribs, pulled pork, sausage, and sides on one tray and comfortably feeds two. The Old Fashioned is washed in beef tallow, in case your cocktail needed to be a little more on theme. Eater named it a best new Houston restaurant.

Thirty craft beers on tap and a menu long enough to settle any argument about what to order on game day: Finney's Crafthouse is a sports tavern with brick walls, reclaimed wood, and a dog-friendly patio. Pub staples share the menu with wagyu and bison burgers and ahi poke bowls, while the cocktails lean on fresh-squeezed juice. It's the California chain's Las Vegas debut, and the crowd has treated it accordingly.

The old Andre's space in downtown Las Vegas is now a French bakery and cafe where the smell of fresh bread hits before you open the door. Pastries, danishes, and tarts fill the case, and a bistro lunch menu runs to things like lobster tucked into a homemade baguette. The coffee list is long and leans playful, with a Dubai mocha trailing chocolate and pistachio syrup down a glass of espresso.

A five-foot resin Pomeranian sets the tone for this dark, moody cocktail lounge inside the Vanderpump Hotel on the Strip. Lisa Vanderpump's Las Vegas footprint runs to black-and-red decor, a martini for two arriving on a skewer of a dozen-odd olives, and a cocktail that comes with caviar. The house gimmick of sealing a secret into a tiny envelope and locking it in a vault is either charming or deeply on-brand, depending on your relationship with reality television.

Gilda is a Basque-style pintxos bar in West Town, named for the skewer of anchovy, pickled pepper, and olive that arrives early and sets the tone for a lot of small, salty things on toothpicks. Cod croquettes and a cheesecake round out the food, and the cocktails get weird in a good way, like mezcal washed in jamón fat. Reservations are the rule most days, with Mondays left for walk-ins.

Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Kitchen is a casual, order-at-your-leisure daytime restaurant where the dishes are named after affluent zip codes, so the Brentwood Chinese chicken salad and the Montecito turkey wrap come with a built-in sense of real estate. It's the brand's first sit-down outpost, set in a marble-and-glass former salad chain with striped banquettes, a patio, and yuzu ginger tonics that can become spritzes. Eater named it one of the best new restaurants in San Diego in October 2026.

Grandson Steaks is a casual all-day Sonoran steakhouse and butcher shop in the Liberty Station arts district, built around the northern Mexican grilling its owners grew up eating. Expect shareable steak feasts that don't require a second mortgage, plus tostadas, tacos, and a bar with wine, beer, and cocktails. It's the kind of place where you arrive in shorts and leave planning a cookout you will not execute as well.

A 3,400-square-foot shrine to Sanrio characters in the Forum Shops, where illuminated pink facades and neon signage set the tone before you've ordered anything. The cafe runs taiyaki filled with ube, strawberry-mochi soft serve, and character-coded pastries, plus an afternoon tea service the Vegas location holds as an exclusive. The crowd skews enthusiastic in ways that are hard to overstate.