The Best Places in the United States

A converted power plant on the Savannah waterfront that now houses 419 hotel rooms, several bars and restaurants, and enough natural history exhibits to make the lobby feel like a museum that got distracted. Rooms are contemporary and comfortable, the river is right outside, and the property has organized enough activities, tours, and a scavenger hunt to keep a family busy without anyone agreeing on a plan. AAA Four Diamonds.

Hydration stations on each floor dispense still, sparkling, or ambient water, which tells you something about the tone of this AAA Four Diamond hotel in Savannah's historic district. The 173 rooms run bright and airy, with big windows that catch the light, and upper floors can pull in river views. The rooftop bar with live music on weekends draws a crowd that has no intention of going to bed early.

The hojicha canelé, flavored with roasted green tea and whiskey, tells you everything you need to know before you've found a seat. The Wayland Mill is an all-day café on the ground floor of a Wallingford office building, where the chef's Japanese heritage, Midwest upbringing, and years running Seattle restaurants converge on one menu. The Saint Paul Sando alone, a riff on St. Louis Chinese-American egg foo young pressed into precise tamago on shokupan, has made it a James Beard semifinalist.

1228 Main is a daytime bakery and cafe in the Arts District where the pastry case gets the best light in the building. The laminated stuff is the draw, from lemon cruffins to crème brûlée croissants, and most people could call it breakfast with just a cappuccino. There's also a croissant sandwich with gruyère, avocado, and jalapeño aioli. It's part of the Wolfgang Puck group, which explains the discipline.

A sun-drenched brunch and lunch spot where the dining room is essentially a greenhouse looking onto a gravel European garden, the patio alone drawing people who'd otherwise eat indoors without a second thought. Gerard Craft's team runs it, with a pastry chef background in the kitchen that shows up in the morning baking. The cacio e pepe eggs have their fans. Semifinalist for a James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur nod in 2025.

Sunflower yellow walls and tall windows that pull in light from every direction set the tone at this French bistro inside Hotel Saint Augustine. Chef Aaron Bludorn's menu leans into Gulf Coast flavors alongside the classics, so foie gras arrives with biscuits and crawfish sausage gets a Creole sauce. Breakfast runs all week, the patio is spacious, and the servers seem to understand that ease is its own kind of luxury.

A Korean restaurant in Park Slope where tteokbokki arrives topped with Oaxacan cheese and chorizo, which tells you everything about the kitchen's mood. The menu moves between savory vegetable pancakes, cod braised in sweet soy with daikon, and chilled soba noodles, then lands on beignets. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the room fills with the kind of regulars who already know what they're ordering before they sit down.

Temaki, or hand rolls, are the whole point here, served open-style and passed directly from the crew to the counter while the nori is still crisp. The room is all blonde wood and gray-blue cushions, casual and unhurried in a way that West Village sushi rarely bothers to be. The plant-based options get the same care as the fish. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, for whatever that tells you about the price-to-pleasure math.

The self-check-in kiosk where a reception desk would normally be sets the tone: citizenM runs lean so the rooms can punch above their price point in Times Square, which is a minor miracle of real estate math. Compact king rooms come with wall-to-wall windows, Italian linens, and a touchpad that controls lighting, movies, and the mood. The lobby lounge and rooftop bar are genuinely meant to be used, not just photographed.

A post-renovation boutique hotel sitting almost exactly halfway between Times Square and Columbus Circle, which is either perfectly convenient or a studied act of evasion, depending on your night. Rooms are compact but finished in Carrara marble with a sunny palette, allergen-free beds, and accents in chartreuse and aubergine. PHD Terrace puts Midtown views under an open sky with DJs and serious cocktails above it all.

Rooms that look like a glamorous private residence someone actually lives in, not a set dressed to suggest one. The Manner is a boutique hotel on Thompson Street that trades the minimalist downtown look, and its beige "quiet luxury" cousin, for richly colored, heavily textured interiors. The ground-floor restaurant and cocktail bar pull in their own crowd, but the hotel itself stays on the discreet side of the equation.

Pastels and soft watercolors replace the old primary-color scheme after a Rockwell Group renovation, which is genuinely good news when you're sleeping a few floors above Midtown's noise machine. The Time New York is a boutique-ish hotel a short walk from Times Square, with rooms that are compact but quietly pulled together, Frette linens, Margiela bathrobes, and suites for when compact just won't do.

Birds of a Feather is a Sichuan restaurant in Williamsburg from the couple behind Café China, and the owner designed the dining room herself, which explains why it feels like someone's taste instead of a mood board. The menu runs from numbing heat to sweet-and-sour, so you'll want a few friends and a willingness to over-order. It's on the Chinese Restaurant Awards' Elite 12 list for 2026.

The lamb vindaloo here gets its punch from vinegar, not just chile heat, which is the tell that the chef trained in Goa. This is a Sunnyside neighborhood restaurant, the kind where the menu runs long and the curries arrive properly hot. The tandoor breads are made for dragging through the sauces, and the kitchen takes its time whether or not you're in a hurry. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

A pizza shop in Flagler Village that's serious enough about pies to make squash blossom and burrata toppings feel obvious rather than showy. The menu leans New York-style, with a few pastas and salads rounding things out, but the crust is the point. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and regulars tend to negotiate hard over whether to save room for the olive oil cake. They should.

The dining room at this steakhouse inside Park MGM keeps going longer than you expect, opening into smaller rooms hung with vintage art in a way that feels more Belle Époque supper club than casino corridor. Dry-aged bone-in ribeye is the main event, but the sides pull their weight and the mile-high carrot cake arrives looking like a dare. A proper old-school steakhouse, dark and comfortable, with prices to match.

Ferraro's is a white-tablecloth Italian restaurant just off the Strip, where the main attraction is somebody else's birthday. Private rooms fill up with families belting out the song, while the patio stays oddly peaceful for a city that never shuts up. It holds AAA Three Diamonds and has been the sort of place Las Vegas locals pick when the occasion needs a tablecloth, a bucatini, and a short drive from the neon.

Popovers instead of dinner rolls set the tone at this 70s New York-themed steakhouse inside the Venetian, where Spiegelworld (the circus people) have conjured a mythologized city-after-dark that lands closer to lived-in than costume party. Burnt orange booths, paisley-clad servers, and decade-specific memorabilia do the heavy lifting, while the kitchen goes au poivre on the burger and foie gras on the bread basket.

Local art lines the walls at this intimate American restaurant, and much of it is for sale, which sets the tone nicely: personal, a little unhurried, not trying to be a downtown event. The menu shifts with the seasons, leaning into house-made pasta and good sourced meat. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod, and the front of house is run with the kind of warmth that comes from having an actual stake in the room.

Wood fire and a blazing wok run through nearly everything at this Pan-Asian restaurant on Porter Road, from the shishitos to the Wagyu brisket to a smoky half-chicken in wasabi white sauce. The menu roams freely across Asia without apologizing for it. The chef landed a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025, and the New York Times put Noko on its Nashville list, which goes some way toward explaining why a reservation is the hardest thing to find in East Nashville right now.

Floor-to-ceiling windows in every suite frame Bahrain Bay without interruption, which is a strong opening argument for a hotel that needs no other. The Conrad Financial Harbour is an all-suite luxury property in the heart of the financial district, with Bahraini artwork threading through interiors that otherwise look ripped from a design magazine. A rooftop pool and a Sushisamba round out the package. It holds a Forbes Four Star.

A koi pond with an arched bridge over water lilies does a lot of heavy lifting for a hotel lobby, but Mirbeau leans into its French manor fantasy and the grounds more or less pull it off. The 34 rooms and four standalone cottages all come with fireplaces, and most guests seem to arrive with the 14,000-square-foot spa already on their itinerary. Forbes rates it Four Star. Skaneateles is quietly lovely, and Mirbeau knows it.

Mesquite fire anchors the kitchen here, and the Sonoran Mexican menu turns with the seasons around it. Tito & Pep is a full-service dinner spot with teal banquettes, polished concrete, and enough desert greenery to make the room feel intentional without trying too hard. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2022, and the New York Times put it on their restaurant list that same year, which is a lot of attention for East Speedway.

Michael Schwartz's waterfront Latin-inspired restaurant sits on Biscayne Bay, where the patio has the kind of views that make everyone at the table look better than they are. The menu pulls from across South America, farm-to-table in spirit, with dishes built for sharing under open sky. The drinks program is a James Beard Semifinalist, and the cocktails lean into the Florida-tropics overlap without apology. Go when the weather cooperates, which in Miami is most of the time.

Spanish Colonial buildings spread across 265 acres of gardens, hidden paths, and towering trees in San Diego's inland hills. This full-service resort runs to 286 rooms done in earthy neutrals, a spa tucked well away from the main action, a championship golf course, and three pools, which collectively make leaving feel like a logistical overcorrection. Craft breweries and hiking trails sit close by when the urge strikes.

Sitting on Gila River Indian Community land about twenty miles outside Phoenix, this resort takes its setting as a design brief rather than a backdrop. The Pima and Maricopa tribes shape everything from the spa treatments to the restaurant menus, two Troon-managed golf courses look out over the Sierra Estrella Mountains, and an equestrian center will put you on a horse if the pools and wildlife trails haven't already claimed your afternoon.

A championship golf course rolling out behind the lobby sets the tone at this resort hotel tucked into the leafy, upscale south side of Charlotte. Rooms run in chic gray and white, the two-story lobby pulls in natural light through a back wall of windows, and the terrace is where you want to be with a glass of Scotch watching the greens. Tennis, indoor and outdoor pools, and a spa round out the offering for guests who can't quite stop doing things.

Deer graze the golf course while guests roast s'mores at the fire pit, which tells you something about the vibe at this resort tucked into two canyons just across PCH from the beach. Eighty-seven acres of hills and ravines give it more of a nature retreat feeling than a seaside hotel. Laguna Beach has an old artist-colony identity beneath the resort gloss, and the Ranch, with its ranch-style rooms and coastal-chic sustainability angle, leans into that quieter story.

Handmade pasta is the whole argument at this Mission Italian restaurant, where an open kitchen and a roaring pizza oven set the mood before you've ordered. The menu shifts constantly, leaning into the California-Italian overlap the neighborhood has come to expect from it. Half-portions exist, which is the kitchen quietly admitting the pasta list makes choosing one impossible. It's been an old-school institution long enough to anchor the block around it.

A serious wine list paired with Chinese cooking in Chinatown, right across from Seward Park. Tolo is a compact wine bar where the chef brings real polish to familiar dishes, the kind of place where the small tables fill up fast and nobody seems to mind. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand. Zalto glasses and a long, considered pour list signal that the wine half of the equation is no afterthought.

Korean-style tabletop grills sit at the center of every table, and you cook your own pork bulgogi or galbi short rib over them while the kitchen handles everything else. The menu is part Korean family dinner, part Pacific Rim wandering, all shaped by chef Ben Alexander's own biography. A James Beard semifinalist, he also offers an omakase if you'd rather hand the decisions over entirely, which, given the range on offer, is not a bad idea.

The brisket comes sliced on butcher paper at this East Austin BBQ shop, where the pit crew turns out central Texas smoke across ribs, sausage, pulled pork, and lamb. The sides pull their own weight, especially a potato salad dressed with cider vinegar that has no business being this good. Save room for banana pudding, or don't, it's your afternoon. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the line outside tells you everything else.

Plastic stools, plastic tables, and a fermented shrimp paste so funky it has its own gravitational pull, this is a Vietnamese restaurant on the Lower East Side that draws a crowd large enough to colonize the sidewalk and occasionally a neighboring storefront. The menu runs through stuffed snails, grilled intestines, and frog sausage with the tiny bones crushed in. The New York Times placed it 26th on their 100 Best Restaurants in New York City list.

Chili pepper lights strung overhead and a line out the door set the tone for this Tex-Mex spot named for a Willie Nelson record. The flour tortillas are made in the open dining room, which is the kind of detail that keeps regulars honest about why they're there. Tacos, burritos, crunch wraps, a green chili cheeseburger, house hot sauces. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the frozen drinks have their own following.

The sisters behind the beloved Veracruz All Natural truck empire opened this taco shop and bar in Mueller, keeping the signature blue color on the walls and the blue corn tortillas coming fresh off the press. The menu stays in its lane, tacos and antojitos plus a few bigger plates, and the house cocktails lean agave. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, which tracks: the food is unfussy and the check won't sting.

Coca-Cola glazed pork belly and Doritos-dusted chilaquiles set the tone at this taco-forward Mexican restaurant in Cerritos, where the chef brings a fine-dining background to handmade tortillas and spicy salsas. The menu leans into LA's Mexican-American hybrid instincts, with truffle accents sitting comfortably beside beer-battered cod. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on the LA Times taco list.

Handmade flour tortillas and hand-pressed masa are the foundation at this Mexican gastropub in downtown Santa Ana, where a post-pandemic reset trimmed the menu down to tacos, quekas, and churros and made each one count. The Bib Gourmand reflects that focus. Grilled tomato and dried chili salsa ties the tacos together; habanero salsa does the same for the quekas. Happy hour makes running the whole short list an easy call.

The soup dumplings in the crab version are reason enough to find a table at this polished SoHo Chinese restaurant, where the room runs lanterns and a front bar and the kitchen turns out food that feels more Flushing than fashionable. The scallion pancake martini is exactly the kind of thing you order to prove you've read the menu. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, and the wine list is notably more considered than you'd expect.

A French brasserie on a corner of South Main, with big windows that let the street watch you demolish a crock of onion soup. The classics are all here, escargots and mussels and a boeuf bourguignon built on short rib, plus fries tossed in dry-aged beef fat that tend to vanish before the entrees arrive. It's a sit-down dinner, and a James Beard semifinalist chef is running it. Next door, the sibling bar handles the Bordeaux.

The bagels sell out most mornings, which tells you most of what you need to know. This East Thomas bagel shop turns out hand-rolled New York-style rounds with a crackly crust and a properly chewy pull, and the everything and jalapeño cheddar have built a quiet cult following across Phoenix. Bon Appétit named it among the top bagels in the country outside New York. Set your alarm, or find them at a handful of local cafes if you sleep in.

The complimentary chips arrive with a black bean and guajillo purée instead of the usual salsa, which is the first sign this wood-fired Mexican grill is doing something different. The room is sleek and loud, the patio fills fast, and the margaritas are everywhere you look. A New York Times Restaurant List pick and a James Beard semifinalist, it backs the festive vibe with an agave spirits collection that takes the bar seriously.

A Harlem cocktail bar run by artists, which explains why the drinks feel less like menu items and more like installation pieces. The house forager supplies wild edible plants that become bitters, liqueurs, and amari made in-house, so what ends up in your glass has a provenance most bars can't claim. The room is cozy and unhurried, and the crowd tends to treat the cocktail list the way other people treat gallery notes.

A fifteen-minute ferry ride from the French Quarter lands you in Algiers, where Melissa Martin's second restaurant occupies a century-old property that reads more Provençal farmhouse than Louisiana. The Cajun-French cooking leans into whatever the season offers, stone fruit and wild grapes drifting across duck confit and dark roux gumbo. A 2026 James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, it made both the Times's New Orleans and national restaurant lists in 2025.

A Caribbean restaurant named for the Port of Spain district that inspired it, St. James turns shared plates into a convivial argument for Trinidadian cooking. The space is modern and industrial with splashes of color, and the drinks lean hard on rum. The jerk brisket marinates for twelve hours before hitting the smoker, and the macaroni pie has developed a following of its own. The New York Times put it on their D.C. essential list, and Washingtonian ranked it nineteenth in the city.

The fish at this Greek fine dining room on the Strip is displayed on ice for you to choose before it's grilled, which is either refreshing transparency or mild pressure depending on your temperament. Servers know their regions and textures cold, so let them steer you. The lunch prix-fixe draws local regulars who know a quiet deal when they see one. Evenings bring a dressed-up crowd there for the seafood and the room.

A natural wine bar on East Seventh Street where the list leans hard into Eastern Europe and the sommeliers can talk about it all night. The food menu is short and rotates, which keeps the regulars genuinely curious. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the room, split between a communal high-top and a quieter dining area, fills up fast enough that a reservation is less optional than it sounds.

A large indoor tree grows through the middle of the dining room, which tells you most of what you need to know about this market-cafe's vibe. Exposed brick, globe pendants, and shelves of natural wine fill the rest. Started as a brunch anchor, it has since added a dinner menu that leans seasonal. The crowd arriving on weekend mornings tends to look like they slept well and brought a book.

A glass-walled kitchen kiosk tiled in blue and white anchors this casual Turkish café tucked inside a shopping enclave, with most of the action happening at outdoor tables under old oak trees. The menu runs breakfast and mezze all day, with house-baked börek, manti, and egg dishes that lean on Turkish pantry flavors rather than brunch clichés. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a spot this unfussy and this good at what it does.

The wood-fired oven is the room's center of gravity at this hip Echo Park pizzeria, where the thin, crispy sourdough crust is built on natural fermentation and topped with serious ingredients. Pickled vegetables and fermented drinks like tepache keep the kitchen's obsessions consistent. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the kind of spot where you'll feel bad for ignoring the salads, then order another slice anyway.

Polaroids of regulars tile every wall of this dimly lit East Village neighborhood restaurant, which has been doing Hawaiian comfort food long enough to feel like part of the block's furniture. The mochiko fried chicken comes with macaroni salad and King's Hawaiian rolls, the musubi platter runs from spicy spam to salmon tartare, and the German riesling list goes deeper than anyone sees coming. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and a genuinely easy room to spend a whole evening in.

The momos at this Tibetan restaurant in Jackson Heights are the opening argument: big, carefully pleated dumplings arriving in a cloud of steam, stuffed with beef and scallions. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the rest of the menu holds up, from chewy stir-fried noodles to chicken with caramelized onions and peppers. There's chili oil on every table and a hot sauce that means business. Portions are generous and prices are kind.

Matzoh ball ramen is the menu's thesis statement, and it holds up. This creative South Williamsburg restaurant earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand by stitching Ashkenazi Jewish and Japanese cooking together without the seams showing, toro tartare landing on sake kasu challah, Wagyu pastrami pressed into milk bread. The room is small and the vibe is neighborhood-casual, which makes it easier to order the chocolate challah bread pudding without feeling self-conscious about it.

The "Laundromat" sign from the old tenant is still up out front, which means half the neighborhood has walked past a very good French bistro without knowing it. Inside, brick walls and vintage furniture set a mood that feels broken-in rather than designed, and the menu leans on Northeast ingredients for a modern French run through small plates and proper mains. Greenpoint regulars who've found it tend not to share the address.

At five o'clock on the dot, a perfume shop inside a Victorian mansion in Midtown folds itself into an 18-seat cocktail bar. Castalia is built around the idea that smell and taste are basically the same argument, pairing its seasonal experimental cocktails with scents from its sister perfume house. The room holds fewer people than a dinner party, which tends to focus everyone's attention on what's in the glass.

The raw bar anchors the room at this polished seafood restaurant, oysters from both coasts and the Gulf stacked up in a city that has no business pulling this off. Julia Sullivan, who came up at Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, keeps the menu rooted in Southern instincts while the flavors drift pleasantly coastal. The onion dip topped with Tennessee paddlefish caviar is the kind of dish that makes you feel silly for ever ordering anything else.

Bookshelves, wine bottles, and houseplants do most of the decorating at this cozy West Asheville wine bar, which manages to feel like someone's living room without feeling precious about it. Coffee and breakfast sandwiches run through the morning; evenings pivot to oysters, crudo, and a glass of something natural. A James Beard Semifinalist for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, it draws the kind of regulars who never seem to be in a hurry to leave.

Nocturno is a low-lit Arts District cocktail bar with a menu of over 100 drinks, which is a lot of homework before your first sip. Sit at the bar instead and the bartender will quiz you on your favorite spirit, then turn it into something like mezcal with honey and chili. The kitchen sends out gnocchi and a fried potato tower, and the smash burger shows up only on Sundays. It was a James Beard Best New Bar semifinalist.

Burrata with rice cakes and gochujang-marinated chicken is either a terrible idea or a very good one, and this Lower East Side gastropub has decided it's the latter. The menu is rooted in Korean flavors and then takes a hard left into stranger, more interesting territory, with everything designed to be shared. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place this loose-limbed and fun.