The Best Places in the United States

An Echo Park izakaya with exposed red brick and a sake list the servers are eager to walk you through. The menu is built for sharing, running from chawanmushi with dungeness crab to grilled skewers and delicate tempura, all of it casual in presentation and careful in execution. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and ranked among the Los Angeles Times' top restaurants in the state. Book well clear of a Dodgers home game unless you enjoy circling the block.

The Beaux Arts bones of this Peachtree Street tower have been around forever, and the restoration leans into that, pairing grand marble public spaces with rooms that nod to the South without going full plantation-house about it. It's a full-service hotel in the Curio Collection, so the comforts are reliable without being anonymous. By George, the in-house restaurant, handles the split well too: modernist furniture, imposing columns, nobody seems confused.

A Jittery Joe's outpost in a Ritz-Carlton lobby says something about Atlanta's particular relationship with this hotel: formal enough for marble bathrooms and rain showers, loose enough for live music and contemporary art on the walls. The rooms run lavish and quietly high-tech, the fitness center stocks Peloton bikes with personalized programs, and the steakhouse and cocktail bar draw locals who aren't staying the night.

Rooms decorated like a maximalist's mood board sit at the center of Midtown Atlanta's arts district, which is either a coincidence or very good planning. The Starling is a boutique hotel with graphic prints and bold color accents throughout, toned-down rooms included. A rooftop pool, spa, and a sprawling indoor-outdoor bar with a wraparound counter round things out for guests who'd rather not leave the building.

The round glass tower still dominates the Atlanta skyline, and rooms start on the 15th floor, so the city views aren't incidental. This is a large downtown convention hotel with a AAA Four Diamond rating, an 11th-floor pool under a retractable glass roof, and a fine-dining restaurant at the top. Conference crowds keep the lobby in motion, but sports venues and a serious stretch of restaurants are all a short walk out the door.

A BBQ truck parked on the Radio Coffee lot that builds its whole identity around biscuits, with Michelin's Bib Gourmand and a Texas Monthly top-50 BBQ spot to back it up. The menu runs from brisket on a flaky biscuit with smoked strawberry jam to pork belly with spiced apple pear preserves, plus fried chicken, wings, and pimento cheese grits. A QR code and call-ahead option keep the line honest, which you'll appreciate.

Tile floors, wine bottles lining the cabinets, quaint little tables: La Fête is a French bistro that commits to the bit without making you feel underdressed for it. A partnership with sister bakery Bandit means anything involving pastry earns its place on the table. The menu runs from boudin blanc to a dry-aged cheeseburger, which is either a betrayal of the theme or the whole point. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

A Texas pitmaster who traded the Lone Star State for North Carolina opened this barbecue spot just east of Raleigh, and the brisket draws a line before the doors open. Order by weight or go the meat-and-two route with sides. Saturday's chopped whole hog lechon is the day's main event. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard semifinalist nod. When they're out, they're done, so sleeping in is not the move.

José Andrés's colorful Mexican restaurant near the Mall earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand on the strength of regionally inflected cooking: black bean soup with avocado leaves and crema, chilaquiles with real crunch, quesadillas on housemade tortillas. The ceviche bar is the move if you want a seat with a show. Mezcal and tequila cocktails are taken seriously, and guacamole arrives unfinished, mixed tableside to your specification.

A mint-green Thai brunch cafe in Berkeley where the food leans toward Chiang Mai, not the usual pad thai circuit. The kitchen draws from northern Thailand and neighboring Laos, so flavors run sour and spicy rather than sweet. The New York Times called out the khanom krok specifically, and the Chronicle put it among the Bay Area's top 100 restaurants. The room is small and greenhouse-warm, the kind of place where nobody's trying to impress you.

Half fish market, half seafood counter, Fishmonger seats guests at a communal table or window stools and takes orders from the back. The menu stays compact: oysters, crudos, sandwiches, soups, and whatever the boat brought in that day. The blackened grouper sandwich on a buttered seeded bun with pickled peppers and Florida sauce has become the house staple for good reason. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Bon Appétit best new restaurant pick.

Resident Taqueria is a casual counter-service taco spot in a Northeast Dallas strip center, where the house-made flour tortillas carry fillings that wander from Mexican tradition into Texas barbecue, like pork belly burnt ends with salsa macha. Breakfast tacos run all day, portions lean generous, and the Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand. The vibe is easygoing neighborhood regular, which suits the parking lot.

The biscuits come in jalapeño-cheddar if you want them to, which tells you most of what you need to know. This Southern breakfast and brunch shop in Grant Park earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand turning out the kind of food that started as a pop-up and never got pretentious about it. Baked goods run deep, cinnamon rolls included, but the biscuit sandwiches stacked with hot honey chicken and pickles are the reason the line forms before you've had coffee.

Country-style curtains, a front porch, and the kind of wood-framed bones that look like a grocery from another century make Ciccio feel like the Napa Valley everyone was promised before the tasting menus arrived. It's a busy Italian restaurant, and tables are hard to come by. Wood-fired pizzas come with blistered, puffy crusts, handmade pasta covers the bases, and the pork chop Milanese runs large enough to cause regret. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand.

Across from UNM and open from 5 a.m. to midnight, this sprawling New Mexican diner has been feeding students and everyone else for what feels like several generations. The house-made tortillas are the reason to go, wrapped around breakfast burritos stuffed with hash browns, eggs, and carne adovada or green chile stew. The cinnamon rolls, heated to order and frosted generously, have their own devoted following. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the coffee is bottomless.

The pleather booths and wood paneling in this Petworth neighborhood spot haven't moved in decades, which is fine because neither has the fried chicken. It's a Southern comfort restaurant where the menu reads short and the kitchen makes everything to order, including that chicken, which arrives crisp, juicy, and worth whatever wait the buzzy bar requires. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the homemade fries have something to do with that.

A Mexico City taqueria that started as a food truck and graduated to a brightly painted dining room hung with Aztec-inspired figures. The two brothers run the kind of place where quesadillas are made on house-pressed tortillas and huitlacoche shows up on the menu without fanfare. Tacos run two dollars, the pambazo has its bread dipped in guajillo sauce before hitting the griddle, and the agua frescas rotate with the season. A Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Hand-pressed tortillas cooked on a comal over live fire are the opening act at this casual Mexican counter inside Maydan Market. The tlayuda is the main event: a hearty, meal-worthy situation loaded with beans, cheese, cabbage, and salsa, built to share if you add one of the proteins. The moronga is the one to get. Order at the counter, find a seat, and arrive with an appetite.

Fresh tortillas pressed in-house from corn nixtamalized the same morning set the tone at this lively Mexican cantina on The Alameda. The kitchen sources Rancho Gordo beans and makes its chorizo and salsas from scratch, so the menu earns the acronym on the sign. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, it draws a mixed crowd of vegans and carnivores alike, the latter occasionally ordering the smoky, extravagant mixed grill tower. A full bar and open-air patio round it out.

The paper dosa itself, thin and audibly crispy, served with masala on the side, is the whole argument for this south Indian restaurant in Santa Fe. The menu leans into dosas, those fermented rice-and-lentil crepes, with enough filling variations that a table of four will eat better than a table of two. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room where the food is the point and the prices don't require a long exhale.

A Bridgeport pub that takes the British meat pie seriously enough to earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand, without a single tea cozy in sight. The room runs marble tables and handmade pottery, and the crowd arrives for flaky, butter-crusted pies filled with things like steak and ale alongside minty peas and mash. The menu wanders into rarebit mac and cheese and a pub burger that pulls its weight. Fish and chips land on Fridays.

The puffy pita comes out of a wood-burning oven with a char on it that makes the bread-and-hummus combination feel like a genuine argument. Saba is a roomy Middle Eastern restaurant on Magazine Street where Alon Shaya's menu reads casual, pickles, dips, salads, then lands on the table tasting brighter than the list suggests. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, and the falafel, crackly outside and vivid green within, makes the case.

The lush courtyard patio in a quiet San Leandro neighborhood is reason enough to seek this place out, but the kitchen delivers the follow-through. A Vietnamese-Californian restaurant born from a former hat shop, with cocktail names still nodding to millinery, it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. The chef and co-owner built her reputation slinging Italian zeppoles from a food truck, and that playful instinct runs through every dish on the menu.

Lines form before the doors open at this casual onigiri counter inside Mills Market, which tells you most of what you need to know. The menu shifts daily and sells out fast, so showing up early is strategy, not enthusiasm. Fillings run from crispy fried chicken to tuna with mustard, and the rice is consistently well-seasoned throughout. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

Vaulted ceilings, white tablecloths, and tall windows looking out over Healdsburg's downtown square set the tone at Charlie Palmer's prix-fixe dining room attached to Hotel Healdsburg. The menu leans contemporary New American with a farm-forward sensibility, moving through a few courses with enough range to keep things interesting. The crowd tends toward wine-country celebratory, which fits the room perfectly.

The oak fire roaring in the open kitchen sets the tone: this is a steakhouse that means business. Anchored at the base of one of downtown Denver's tallest towers, Guard and Grace pairs floor-to-ceiling wine storage and a full seafood bar with the cuts you came for. The room is vast and dramatic, the kind of place where the architecture does half the talking. A Michelin Selected restaurant with AAA Four Diamonds.

The counter seats twelve, and the chef shaped the room after the traditional townhouses of Kyoto, which tells you something about the attention at work here. Hiroki is an omakase spot in Fishtown where around twenty courses move from delicate snacks through grilled fish and wagyu to a nigiri sequence that builds in intensity as it goes. Book the counter, not a table, and consider the sake pairing if you want a tour through several styles.

An oversized inflatable chef's hat hangs above the entrance, which is either a warning or a promise, depending on how seriously you take dinner. Inside the Westin Verasa, this is a white-tablecloth tasting menu restaurant with a fireplace, leather-topped tables, and an open kitchen where the brigade never seems to stop moving. The crowd tends to arrive with something to celebrate. Ken Frank has been cooking in Napa Valley forever.

Seven counter seats overlooking the kitchen is the whole arrangement at this intimate Vallejo tasting spot, so reservations fill fast. The chef came up through Napa's Auberge du Soleil, and the technique shows in a seasonal menu that moves carefully through pristine ingredients without making a fuss about it. The room is low-key enough that the cooking does all the talking, which it seems content to do.