The Best Places in the United States

Hellenika is a small gelato counter tucked into the Pike Place Market area, where the cultured gelato gets churned right in front of you. It leans toward Greek yogurt, so expect a sour tang and restrained sweetness rather than a sugar rush, in flavors like lemon curd and coconut ube. Downtown Seattle once offered only mystery soft serve, so the bar was low. The Infatuation named it The Best Ice Cream In America.

This is a scoop shop on Cape Cod with dozens of flavors, avocado and brownie batter sharing a case with vegan, non-dairy, sugar-free, and gluten-free options. The line often spills out the door and onto the deck in the late afternoon, but it moves fast. Black raspberry, peppermint stick, and maple walnut are all in play, and you can add salt-water taffy for a dessert after your dessert. The Infatuation put it on its Best Ice Cream In America list.

Isaac's Cafe is a no-frills Mexican breakfast counter in Wilmington, across the street from the longshoreman dispatch hall, which explains why its signature burrito is named after the place and sized for people who move freight for a living. It's stuffed with rice, beans, eggs, bacon, and enough avocado to raise questions at customs. The Infatuation put it on its list of America's best breakfast burritos.

Izola is a downtown bakery and cafe where the croissants run oversized and the bibimbap version arrives on a wooden slab, stuffed with bulgogi and gingery sauce, closer to lunch than pastry. The plain croissants hold up fine too. The owner also reverse-engineered the well water from his Kansas hometown so it could come out of a tap here, which is a lot of effort for something most people would just filter. It made The Infatuation's list of croissants across America.

A snug downtown Fargo burger-and-beer joint where the quarter-pound patties get grilled in plain view, in a state that has opinions about beef. It made The Infatuation's list of the best burgers in America, which the menu handles with a shrug. The fried-egg-and-american-cheese situation is the move, and the peanut butter schmear is there for anyone who hears "fancy" and wants to pull the other way. Cheap, loud, and unbothered.

Kanomwaan is a Thai gelato shop on Hollywood Boulevard where the flavors do the traveling, like pandan and a smoked salted egg that somehow tastes like a blown-out birthday candle. The gelato is dense and custardy, there's a two-scoop minimum, and the giant shaved ice sundaes are built for splitting among friends. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best ice cream in America, and a cup runs about what you'd expect.

Kenny's Upstairs is a queer-owned cocktail bar you reach by climbing a red neon-lit staircase, which sets expectations for the '80s movie set waiting at the top, complete with a phone booth and old mall food court posters. The drinks get serious attention, down to shots chased with house khao soi broth, though a Hamm's and a corndog are also on the table. St. Louis bartenders send you here if they like your face.

Kono's is a beachside breakfast counter on Garnet Avenue where the line forms by 7am and the kitchen doesn't close until 3. It's mostly surfers who've been up for hours and tourists who've read the same lists you have. The burritos come in five sizes, and The Infatuation ranked the #1 the top breakfast burrito in America, which is also the smallest, so ordering up is a choice, not a necessity.

This is a frozen custard stand where the staff wear white paper hats and the burgers hold their own against the dessert. The custard gets its golden richness from egg yolks, and the flavors rotate daily, so you can get a swirl of Bailey's Irish Cream Coffee or apple streusel and call it dinner. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best ice cream in America, and the line proves nobody here is eating salad.

La Victoria is a casual Dallas Mexican spot on Haskell Avenue where the main event is a griddled 10-inch breakfast burrito, wrapped in a chewy tortilla and sturdy enough to survive the walk back to your car. People order the Don's Delight with eggs, bacon, and avocado, and add peanuts, a move that sounds like a typo until the first bite. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best breakfast burritos in America.

Las Rosas is a dive bar on NW 7th Ave that closed for a few years, then reopened looking like nobody had touched it, which is the correct amount of renovation. It's all cheap shots, a back alley where cigarettes change hands between strangers, and a Saturday-night guitar solo at a volume your ears will file a complaint about. It's the opposite of South Beach, with no velvet rope and no one's cousin running the list. Closing time is roughly 5am.

Concrete floors and dark leather in a South Austin building that could pass for a tech lobby, except the menu is French and the martinis have made a small national name for themselves. Le Calamar is a neighborhood bistro where the food leans sharing plates, the wine list sneaks in some Texas pours, and the baked Alaska arrives with honey pecan dacquoise and torched meringue like it has something to prove.

A Flatiron bar tricked out like a 1970s Bangkok shophouse, with vintage televisions and family photos on the walls and Thai cocktails on the menu. The jasmine martini landed on Esquire's list of the best martinis in America, which gives you a sense of how seriously the drinks program is taken. The kitchen keeps pace with late-night Thai food that pairs naturally with the cocktails. Open late, which the neighborhood needed.

Liberty House is a casual daytime cafe wedged between a juice shop and a yoga studio, which is Asheville's version of a perfectly balanced breakfast. The sourdough blueberry pancake is the draw, proofed overnight, seared in cast iron, and finished in the oven until the outside crackles like a croissant. It comes as a single cake with butter and flaky salt, and The Infatuation named it the best pancakes in America.

Ludi's is a Filipino diner a few steps from Pike Place Market, which means a line of people who skipped the fish-throwing and went straight for breakfast. The headliner is the ube pancakes, rice flour flapjacks under a coconut glaze the color of a highlighter, with a sweetness that stays on the right side of dessert. It's a casual, counter-and-booth morning spot, so wear whatever you had on.

Maestro is a downtown Tulsa cocktail bar that skips the crowds and pours a smooth, stiff drink for the end of a long day. Settle in with a caipirinha and pretend the room is a sexy villa while young film-industry types wade through a conversation about tequila terroir. The Infatuation put it on its list of the "It" bars across America, which is a lot of pressure for a place with no patience for pressure.

This is a soft-serve stand just outside Lake George, parked across the street from a Six Flags, which means the line is part sunburned families and part people who've had enough of roller coasters for one day. The menu runs long, from birthday cake to an orange creme twist that tastes like a creamsicle. The cremewich is the move if you're racing the drip. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best ice cream in America.

The green salad here became a Philadelphia talking point, which tells you everything about what kind of tavern this is. Meetinghouse is an American bar and kitchen in Fishtown where the menu looks almost suspiciously plain, right up until the food arrives. The hot roast beef sandwich and pork-and-beans both suggest a kitchen treating simple things as the whole point, not the backup plan. Named to The New York Times Restaurant List for 2025.

Nhu Lan is a Vietnamese bakery on Lawrence Avenue where the baguettes are made in-house and the sandwiches get built straight into them. The house special stacks ham and head cheese with pâté, pickled vegetables, cucumber, and jalapeño. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best bánh mì in America. Ordering both sandwiches is the usual move, since choosing one apparently can't be done.

The pool table shares the room with people in stilettos, which tells you most of what you need to know about Parley. It's a neighborhood bar on East Cesar Chavez run by two Irishmen who seem unbothered by the idea that a bar can be dim and comfortable and also genuinely cool. Screens handle both the big game and arthouse film. The drinks run strong, the food leans comfort with a global detour, and the dress code is apparently optional.

A wall of windows faces the Atlantic, which does a lot of the heavy lifting at this fine-dining room inside the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island. The contemporary tasting menu threads European and Asian influences, and the service team remembers returning guests by name, a small touch that lands bigger than it sounds. Book an early table if you want the sunset doing its thing behind your wine glass. AAA Five Diamonds.

A 22-seat Korean fine dining room where the staff never once mentions that the kitchen runs as a nonprofit focused on zero waste, letting the tasting menu speak for itself instead. Edward Lee's cooking gives traditional Korean ingredients a modern setting, moving through courses that land somewhere between precise and quietly surprising. The Korean spirits list leans into the esoteric, including a crimson makgeolli made with red yeast rice.

Smash Jibarito is a counter-service burger spot on Division Street where the bun is a flattened, fried plantain, which turns lunch into a mild argument about whether this counts as a sandwich. It's the Puerto Rican jibarito run through a smashburger press, with thin, crisp-edged patties and a tangy house sauce that nods toward In-N-Out. It's a casual, order-and-grab operation, so wear whatever you were already wearing.

The French onion soup has been on the menu since day one, which tells you something about how Oxford feels about this place. Snackbar is a warm, wood-paneled Southern restaurant with an oyster bar, cocktail bar, and booths deep enough to disappear into. The kitchen weaves Indian flavors through the menu without making it a theme, so masala pot pie sits comfortably next to whatever's seasonal. Esquire named its martini among the finest in the country.

Coffee arrives at Specs spiked with Cynar, corrected with maple cream liqueur, or topped with Angostura whipped cream, all from 8am. It's a coffee shop and daytime cocktail bar in Winooski, the former mill town next door to Burlington, where the crafty set debates linocut workshops in the sunny windows while big dreamers at the bar puzzle over how to dome the town rotary. When talks stall, the attached bev mart stocks 24-ounce Busch Ice and cigarettes.

St. Coffee is a neighborhood coffee shop on St. Claude Avenue, a mile or so downriver from the Quarter, where the breakfast burrito comes stuffed with boudin, because this is New Orleans and the tortilla has to pay local taxes. It's counter service, pastries and espresso, the sort of place where you order in a hoodie and nobody asks questions. The Infatuation put the burrito on its national breakfast burrito list.

A hotel lobby bar in a Gothic downtown landmark, where a smash-style burger with a cream cheese and white cheddar blend and house-pickled onions is the draw. It's a dim, vaulted room with bar-food prices, and the crowd runs from packed to tumbleweed depending on the night. Service can wander. The Infatuation put the burger on its list of the best in America, which is a lot of pressure for something that tastes a little like a drive-thru.

The Oaks Pub is a neighborhood pub in Sellwood, the kind of place where you order at a bar and nobody dresses up for it. It's credited with inventing totchos, which is nachos built on tater tots, a swap so obvious that you wonder who was in charge of nachos before. The Infatuation put the dish on its list of the best potato dishes in America, which is a list that exists and is taken seriously by someone.

This is a breakfast diner in a chalet-style building with a candy cane-striped awning, which gives off strong "ski lodge that only serves syrup" energy. It's the parent of 150-plus locations, so the name is a claim, not a joke. The Dutch baby is the order, a puffed golden thing with crisp edges and a custardy middle. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best pancakes in America.

The Pickled Pig is a casual deli in a city that once called itself Porkopolis and still has the fiberglass pigs to prove it. The kitchen breaks down whole local hogs, then grinds the trimmings into a loose-packed pork burger on a potato bun, topped with nearby gouda and house kimchi. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best burgers in America. Order at the counter, and don't ask where the beef is.

Tsujita is a ramen shop on Sawtelle, known for tsukemen, where thick noodles arrive separately from a concentrated pork and seafood dipping broth. It has a sister spot, Tsujita Annex, directly across the street, so the neighborhood runs a quiet civil war over thick noodles versus thin. Expect a line, a counter-service pace, and a casual, slurp-forward room. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best ramen spots in America.

Two Goose is a counter-service barbecue market on North Lamar that understands Austin's two great loves, brisket and breakfast tacos, and quietly introduces them in burrito form. The Big Honkin' Burrito packs soft eggs, potatoes, cheese, and falling-apart brisket into a tortilla roughly the size of a throw pillow, with a cup of spicy Sunrise sauce on the side. Come hungry, and plan on a nap.

The views of Mission Bay and the Giants' ballpark hit you before the menu does, which is saying something at this fine dining Italian in Mission Rock. The room leans into sun-faded Tuscan coastal tones, warm wood, and low light that flatters everyone. Pasta is the kitchen's clearest argument: hand-rolled pici in slow-cooked garlic and tomato, Dungeness crab orzo cooked risotto-style. Esquire named the martini one of the country's finest, which gives you somewhere to start.

Yeh Yeh's is a casual bánh mì counter in Lynnwood, a few miles north of Seattle proper, where your order arrives as a baguette held together by a rubber band. The grilled pork gets charred edges and a salty marinade, the tofu version is flash-fried and strangely persuasive, and a Vietnamese iced coffee comes strong enough to rearrange your afternoon. The Infatuation put it on a national bánh mì list. Bring cash-register patience and a few napkins.

Yume Wo Katare is a tiny ramen shop near Porter Square where the menu is one enormous bowl of thick, chewy noodles in heavy pork broth, and your only real choice is two slices of chashu or five. Expect a line out the door and a counter packed shoulder to shoulder. When you finish, the staff invites you to stand and announce your dreams to the room, which is less awkward than it sounds, mostly.

A taxidermy mountain goat watches over the dining room, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. Avize is an Alpine French wine bar and restaurant where the menu pulls from France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, all filtered through Southern ingredients. Frog legs nod to an Atlanta wing institution. The drinks program is serious enough to earn a James Beard semifinalist nod, and North America's 50 Best ranks it at number 29.

The unmarked door on the second floor of a Japanese restaurant looks exactly like where a broom lives, which is precisely the point. Angel's Share is a speakeasy-style cocktail bar with booth banquettes, bare brick, velvet curtains, and lighting set to confession-booth low. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list, and the room feels like it has always known that. Come early, come two, and find the door before someone else needs the mop.

The kitchen closes for a month every year so the team can travel and recharge, which sounds like a reasonable excuse until the vegetable-forward menu comes out and you understand why. Harbinger is a creative dinner spot on Ingersoll where the cooking leans seasonal and a little unexpected, pulling from Japanese and Korean influences without making a fuss about it. USA Today named it one of its Restaurants of the Year in 2024.

The historic two-story Queen Street house has its own garden out front, which tells you something about how seriously this Southern restaurant takes its sourcing. Seafood arrives in seasoned broths, the cornbread has inspired genuine reverence, and the pimento cheese with country ham is the kind of opener that makes the rest of the menu feel like bonus rounds. Reservations are scarce, and a sidewalk queue forms before the doors open most evenings.

The menu at this natural wine bar is whatever your bartender decides to tell you about, because nothing is written down. That's a feature, not an oversight. Light Years occupies a converted bungalow on Alabama, pouring organic, biodynamic, and low-intervention bottles that Esquire flagged for its Best Bars in America list. Sit at the bar and let whoever's pouring lead; the conversation is kind of the point.

A 15-foot wood-fire hearth anchors the kitchen at this modern steakhouse and seafood spot in West Des Moines, and the chef runs nearly everything past the flames, including the salads. Roasted bone marrow with brisket jam sits alongside reserve cuts that venture into A5 Kobe territory, so the range is real. Iowa takes beef seriously, and this place takes that seriously back, without feeling like a monument to red meat.

A porch plopped in the driveway and a wall of giant palms make the front door a small scavenger hunt. Inside it's a coffeehouse by day and a cocktail bar by night, all worn midcentury furniture, with laptop people nursing cortados and a short wine list that includes an orange. The food is croissants from elsewhere, and the espresso martini is on the menu, as it legally must be.

A renovated gas station surrounded by cornfields is not where most people expect to find a Texas-style barbecue joint worth a half-hour drive, but here we are. The pit runs daily, turning out brisket, pulled pork, double-smoked sausage, and ribs, with sides like campground beans and pimento cheese pasta salad filling the gaps. USA Today named it a Restaurant of the Year.

The wafer-thin crust crackles and snaps under toppings loaded on with no apologies, and the fennel sausage quietly reminds you this used to be Milwaukee's Italian quarter. Zaffiro's is a tavern-style pizza bar that has been doing this for what feels like forever, red-checkered tablecloths and Blatz on tap and all. Circle pie, square cut, built to be eaten beside strangers under neon light.

The wide black awning stretches almost the full width of Park Avenue, which tells you everything about the register this hotel is playing in. It's a luxury Upper East Side property with an old-money residential feel, rooms styled like Manhattan apartments, and the kind of quietly confident lobby that makes newcomers stand up a little straighter. Central Park is a short walk, Madison Avenue boutiques are closer still.

The patio seating is made from repurposed toilets and road signs, which tells you everything about the vibe before you've ordered a drink. Double Wide is a Deep Ellum dive bar with a trailer park aesthetic, cheap and stiff pours, and a music venue across the patio hosting bands and DJs on most nights. Wildsam named it one of the 50 most essential bars in America, which somehow feels both surprising and completely correct.