The Best Places in the United States

The crudos come dressed with things like dill yogurt and salsa verde, which tells you this isn't a standard Italian-American red-sauce room. Costiera is a Mediterranean-leaning dinner spot in Baltimore drawing from mid-Atlantic seafood and pasta in about equal measure. The menu moves between bright and heavy depending on your mood, and the kitchen seems genuinely interested in the combinations rather than just the credentials.

A converted factory with a French potager garden out back sets the stage for a tasting-menu restaurant where the kitchen ferments, pickles, and ages its way through the seasons. The team runs both a traditional and a vegetarian multi-course menu, with bread serious enough to anchor its own wholesale bakery. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025, which tracks for a place this quietly self-sufficient.

The line wrapping around the Fort Greene corner is not a glitch; it's just how things work at April Bloomfield's neighborhood seafood bistro, where eggs with celery salt and a roast chicken somehow outshine the obvious Instagram moment. The skylit room is bright and unhurried, the menu turns with the seasons, and lunch earns its own following with a burger that regulars treat as a state secret.

The oysters on the menu come from the owner's family farm down in St. Mary's County, which gives this Whitehall Mill seafood restaurant a kind of built-in honesty you can taste. The kitchen leans Chesapeake, running roasted oysters, crab dip mac and cheese, and miso-glazed snakehead alongside the classics. Happy hour draws a crowd for good reason, with roasted oysters finished in butter, Parm, and Old Bay going for next to nothing.

The stone hearth oven sits open to the dining room, so you can watch the pies come together while you wait. This is a casual pizza and pasta spot with a very Tucson idea of Italian-American cooking, blending Sonoran flavors into the repertoire with a straight face. Birria on a pizza, red chile folded into an Alfredo, a cannoli served as a taco. The room runs warm and woody, the vibe is neighborhood, and nothing on the menu takes itself too seriously.

The bookstore on the corner of Tejon is not a bookstore. Push the right shelf and you're inside one of Denver's favorite cocktail bars, a speakeasy that takes both halves of the conceit seriously: a library of over 500 spirits backs a menu of originals alongside some 60 classics. No standing room means the wait is part of the deal, so arrive with patience and someone to talk to while you queue.

The Brooklyn Bridge is a short walk east, and the cobblestone streets outside look much as they did two centuries ago. This boutique hotel occupies a landmarked red-brick building that fits the Seaport District's Federal streetscape so naturally it's easy to assume it's always been there. Sixty-six rooms are spacious and calm, with marble bathrooms; upper-floor terraces face Peck Slip. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

A boutique hotel in River North that takes its Silver LEED certification, Chicago's first, as seriously as its décor. The classic brick shell was preserved during renovation partly for sustainability reasons, which makes the contemporary interior feel like a quiet statement. Rooms lean understated with a nod to Chicago's modernist tradition. A French bistro, a coffee shop, and borrowed access to the Godfrey's spa next door round things out.

The deskless check-in is a small thing that signals a larger intention: this is a full-service hotel in the Financial District that isn't trying to cosplay a Midtown business tower. Bold lobby colors and dark bathrooms in the rooms lean into a design sensibility the neighborhood itself has gradually adopted, leaving the old Gotham gravitas uptown where it belongs. A fitness center, spa, and two in-house restaurants round out the stay.

The Kimpton Hotel Fontenot sits at the edge of the Central Business District, which in New Orleans means you're a short walk from everything and nothing ever fully closes. It's a boutique hotel that took a forgettable chain property and dressed it in something the city would actually recognize as its own, from the moody interiors down to the bar. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels, and the location alone does a lot of work.

Sitting on the cobblestone end of Fore Street in Portland's Old Port, this boutique hotel leans into a nautical theme without going full lighthouse gift shop. Rooms run contemporary-classic, with large soaking tubs in many bathrooms and fireplaces in some suites. BlueFin handles fresh North Atlantic seafood on-site, though the Old Port's bar and restaurant scene starts essentially at the front door.

The bar inside looks like a private library someone forgot to lock, and that's before happy hour. This boutique hotel sits in the Central Business District, between the Warehouse District and the French Quarter, in a former railroad headquarters whose exposed brick walls the designers wisely left alone. The rooms split between a 12-story tower and a smaller neighboring building, and historical photographs of New Orleans keep things grounded in the city rather than the algorithm.

The Packard Building has been around forever, and Morris Adjmi Architects, the firm behind the Wythe in Williamsburg, converted two of its floors into an apartment hotel steps from City Hall. Rooms feel like a borrowed pied-à-terre rather than a standard hotel stay, with residential-grade kitchens and enough design detail to make you forget you're paying by the night. The Michelin Guide has it on their selected hotels list.

High ceilings, detailed molding, and hardwood floors survived a careful restoration at this grand old Center City hotel, where 184 rooms split between two moods: deep charcoal walls with four-poster beds for the dramatic, white paneling for the sensible. Brass sconces and velvet bolster pillows in olive or rust appear throughout. City Hall sits right outside on Broad Street, and the six-story Conservatory lounge gives everyone somewhere to land after a long day of feeling historic.

A converted Romanesque church in Adams Morgan, The LINE DC is a boutique hotel where the vaulted ceilings and stained glass have been kept largely intact while everything around them skews deliberately bohemian. The restaurants and bars draw a neighborhood crowd that isn't staying the night, which means the lobby rarely feels like a hotel lobby. Adams Morgan's dining and nightlife scene runs partly through this building, which is either convenient or a little loud, depending on your room.

A converted warehouse in the Warehouse Arts District, back when that name still had something to prove. The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery sits on Tchoupitoulas Street a comfortable distance from the French Quarter chaos, which is either the point or the bonus depending on your tolerance for Bourbon Street. The building's bones are industrial; the sensibility is not. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

The quiche arrives as though it's never heard of the stodgy version you've had before, light and trembling where quiche has no business being either. MÅURICE is a French-leaning pastry luncheonette from chef Kristen Murray, drawing from French and Norwegian traditions for a small menu of smørbrød, soups, and sweets. The black pepper cheesecake has its own local mythology. A cold bottle of white at midday in downtown Portland, and nowhere else quite like it.

The French cheeseburger blanketed in raclette has its own reputation in this city, which tells you something about the mood at this Heights neighborhood restaurant. European-inspired comfort food anchors the menu, which shifts with the seasons, running from chicken liver pate and crudo through to roast chicken and pasta. The chef landed a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2024, and the Houston Chronicle put Squable at number two on its top 100 list.

Hakkasan is a five-story Cantonese restaurant and nightclub in the MGM Grand, so dinner and the dance floor share a building and a dress code. A set menu keeps the bill friendlier than most Strip showpieces, and the dim sum arrives in colors that photograph better than they have any right to. The peking duck comes with caviar, which tells you how the evening is meant to end: upstairs, with a DJ and a bottle.

The honey onyx bar is the same one New York regulars know, transplanted to Beverly Hills and looking very much at home on Camden Drive. This is fine dining, coastal Italian, and the room is styled like a billionaire's yacht without any apparent irony. Homemade pasta is the reason to linger, particularly the fusilli with the red wine-braised octopus that made the Manhattan original famous. The crowd skips dessert at their own peril.

Mirrored walls and moody recessed lighting give this Chelsea restaurant a stage-set quality, and the kitchen leans into it. The menu is short and personal, pulling Caribbean roots through a European frame: salt cod fritters with habanero aioli, braised oxtail under cheddar polenta. A strawberry cheesecake arrives as a Swiss roll, which is either surprising or obvious once you've had it. The cocktail bar runs all night.

Black walls, scarlet booths, polished chrome, and a limestone fireplace that anchors the whole room: the Lambs Club is a Midtown steakhouse that knows exactly what it is and leans into it without apology. Dry-aged steaks with a full spread of sauces are the main event, and the pre-theater prix-fixe keeps the curtain-time crowd moving. Inside the Chatwal Hotel, steps from Broadway, it draws the kind of clientele that orders a second cocktail on purpose.

A worker-owned cooperative in Mt. Vernon where refugees cook from their own culinary traditions, Mera Kitchen Collective serves Middle Eastern, African, and Latin food in a bright, casual room with plenty of vegan and vegetarian options. It started as pop-ups before finding a permanent home, and the menu still has that improvisational spirit. A local mural covers the outdoor dining wall, which is either charming or on the nose, depending on your tolerance for intentional cheerfulness.

A neighborhood house on the Eastside that seats you like a dinner guest, not a diner. Bintü Atelier serves West African cooking with a Gullah Geechee thread running through it, okra and local fish sharing the menu with shito crab rice and groundnut stew. The menu is short enough that tables tend to order most of it and share. It's BYOB for anything alcoholic, but fresh soursop and passionfruit juice soften the blow. Named a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast.

This is a Strip steakhouse run by the Food Network's "bam" guy, and the wine list tops 2,700 bottles, which is a lot of reading before a baked potato. The Caesar is tossed tableside, as the form requires, and the lobster bisque comes loaded with actual chunks of lobster. The banana cream pie is a wall, and a glazed pork chop makes a case against the beef. Expect expense accounts and a jacket or two.

A chicken rice shop on Airport Boulevard where the whole birds go through a poaching-to-ice-bath-to-hang-dry process that makes the skin pull taut and the meat collapse at the knife. The cooking traces back to Chinese immigrants who brought their techniques to Thailand and rewired them with bolder flavors. The chef landed on the 2025 New York Times Restaurant List and is a 2026 James Beard semifinalist. Seven house sauces come with; order all of them.

The wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas come out gently charred, topped with whatever the Pacific Northwest is doing well that week. Cafe Olli is a pizza and brunch spot on MLK that also runs a serious bread and pastry program out of the adjoining bakery. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list and the chef landed a James Beard semifinalist nod, which tracks for a neighborhood place that treats zucchini and peaches like they have something to prove.

A lobby full of playful, colorful sculpture and paintings keeps the black marble and dark wood from taking themselves too seriously at this luxury boutique hotel in Birmingham, the upscale suburb just outside Detroit. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Key. It's the kind of boldly designed, art-forward property that once belonged only to bigger cities, now quietly doing its thing in a leafy Michigan suburb.

Handmade tajarin, dressed with nothing but butter and sage, has made this Capitol Hill trattoria a quiet institution. The kitchen pulls from Italy's Piedmont region, so the menu runs rich and restrained in equal measure. The room is candlelit and close, the kind of place where a weeknight dinner somehow turns into a long one. The sibling bar next door, Artusi, handles digestifs and desserts if you're not ready to leave, which you won't be.

The squid ink spaghetti is black enough to make you self-conscious about your teeth, which tells you something about the vibe here. BoccaLupo is a casual, bustling neighborhood Italian-American spot in Edgewood where the chef takes the food seriously but the room doesn't take itself seriously at all. Southern fried chicken parm, focaccia brushed with honey, quirky cocktails: the menu reads like someone cooked exactly what they wanted and it all happened to work.

Carversteak is a Strip steakhouse where a martini cart makes laps during dinner service, which tells you how seriously the room takes the word "steakhouse." Expect a dressy, expense-account sort of evening, with investment bankers at the next table who may adopt you for drinks. The chilled seafood platters, stacked with shrimp, lobster tails, and oysters, are as much the draw as the beef.

Holsteins is a casual burger-and-milkshake joint in the Arts District, relocated from its long run inside a Strip casino to a spot where nobody has to walk through a slot floor for a patty. The burgers are stacked high enough to require a strategy, and the boozy shakes arrive buried in doughnuts and marshmallows. Come hungry, wear something you can afford to get sauce on, and plan on being full for a while.

A Davis Love III golf course, a hot-air balloon that lifts off from the property, and a bedside touchscreen that orders dinner to your room: Boar's Head sets a high bar for the Virginia resort weekend. Six hundred acres outside Charlottesville back up to the Blue Ridge, with two pools (one adults-only), an adventure tour company, and a spa leaning on local ingredients. The kind of place that makes weekday life feel like a personal failing.

The pita here gets rolled and hearth-baked to order, and it arrives so pillowy and toasty that whatever else you planned to eat almost feels beside the point. This is a lively Mediterranean restaurant in the Presidio, drawing from the Istanbul playbook, with a menu built for sharing, from flaky borek to short rib kebabs. The room fills with people who came for a quiet neighborhood dinner and stayed for another round of spreads.

The pink stucco facade has been Palm Beach's most recognizable silhouette for generations, and the current owners kept it that way, restoring the scalloped headboards, patterned wallpapers, and retro-tropical palette rather than neutralizing them into something safer. Swifty's restaurant and the pool bar draw a lively local crowd year-round, so it never feels like a museum. Worth Avenue is minutes away, and the beach is closer still.

This is a second-story steakhouse under a glass dome inside the Plaza, where the Casino dinner scene was filmed, so expect at least one table of suits murmuring "they filmed Casino here." The room was named for a former mayor who also worked as a mob attorney, which explains the menu. A zipline now blocks the Fremont views, but the burger with its pile of fried onions still outpaces the steaks.

Tightly packed tables and a menu that shifts with the seasons set the tone at this creative American restaurant in Park City. The mood runs loud and convivial, the kind of place that works equally well for a group après-ski and a date night, which probably explains why it's almost always full. Comfort food gets a thoughtful rework here, and the chef landed a James Beard semifinalist nod. The Michelin Guide has it listed too.

Nite Yun's counter-service spot in the Ferry Building pulls Cambodian cooking toward its quieter, more restorative registers, a different pitch than the bold flavors she built her reputation on in Oakland. The menu moves between soothing and electric without announcing which is which. A James Beard semifinalist and named to the New York Times' 25 best in the city, it's a small room doing serious work on a short menu.

The salt-baked celery root arrives looking like a small geological event, which sets the tone for this French-influenced New American restaurant where technique is the point but the vibe stays loose. Chef Shawn Gawle, a James Beard semifinalist, built the menu around sharing, with tarte flambée, heirloom tomato pie, and carrot cavatelli doing the heavy lifting. Dressy enough to feel like an occasion, relaxed enough that nobody's whispering.

A long counter, an open kitchen, and a pizzaiolo working the back of the room like the whole thing is a performance: this Chinatown strip-mall pizza shop has no interest in blending into its surroundings. The neo-Neapolitan dough is light with a properly blistered edge, and the menu stays tight enough that everything on it seems to mean something. Named among 50 Top Pizza USA's excellent pizzerias.

The wine list leans natural, the cocktails are craft, and the menu changes often enough that regulars rarely order the same thing twice. Copper Common is a wine bar and restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City, from the team behind the Copper Onion next door, and the kitchen ranges widely, pairing sharply drawn flavors without making a fuss about it. Salt Lake Magazine named it one of the city's top restaurants.

Bagels hang in metal racks draped with white sheets, a nod to the coin-operated laundry this place used to be. Now it's an all-day pizza and bagel shop on Balboa, mornings given over to coffee from Grand Coffee and a solid bagel lineup that runs from egg to rye, with schmears folded through green onion or spiked with Calabrian chiles. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the top bagels in the Bay Area, and a Top 100 restaurant pick followed.

A low-lit cottage in the old Clarksville neighborhood, Jeffrey's is a fine-dining steakhouse where the beef is USDA Prime or American Wagyu, dry-aged and finished over an oak-fired grill. The room is close and quietly elegant, the wine list ranges from Napa to Burgundy with confidence, and the service moves like it has nowhere more important to be. The Michelin Guide has selected it, and it appears on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

This is the Caesars Palace Nobu, the biggest of the three on the Strip, a dim, stylish Nikkei dining room where lychee martinis and miso black cod are the opening move. Sequins and big watches fill the tables before a show at the Colosseum across the casino floor. Walk-ins sometimes score a bar seat, but plan on reserving a couple of weeks ahead.

Bird's-eye chiles, not hatch, set the tone at this Southeast Asian restaurant inside a former furniture workshop. Zak Pelaccio, who made his name with Malaysian cooking at Fatty Crab in New York, opened the place with a young chef running the kitchen who handles spice with confidence. The pork belly steak draped in prik phao paste and Thai basil keeps people coming back, and the crab steamed custard sells out most nights. On the New York Times Restaurant List for 2026.

The Chinoiserie wallpaper alone could anchor a design magazine spread, but this is a Chinese American restaurant where the food keeps pace with the room. The chef started with pop-ups exploring identity and landed somewhere more interesting than a thesis: Korean corn cheese egg rolls, dan dan noodles with wagyu guisada. A James Beard semifinalist, and the Victorian veranda fills up fast on sunny afternoons.

By day, a bagel shop where the hand-rolled, kettle-boiled rings get topped with things like hamachi, fresh wasabi, and shiso. By night, the Counter flips to a hyperseasonal kaiseki tasting menu, the kind of multicourse journey that shifts entirely with what's good that week. The chef trained in Japan under serious mentors, and it shows. A James Beard semifinalist in 2026, it's also landed on Eater's best Denver restaurants list.

Two brothers run this Texas BBQ shop near the stadium, open only Thursday through Saturday, which keeps the line long and the brisket moving fast. The setup is classic smoke-and-queue, but house-made flour tortillas stand in for white bread, and the sides swing toward poblano mac and cheese and okra-laced beans. Texas Monthly named it one of the state's 50 best BBQ joints, which the regulars already knew.

Pink and orange neon casts a moody glow over the Camelback Road location of this coffee shop, which leans into creative, photogenic drinks alongside the usual caffeine agenda. The menu runs from lattes built around burnt cream or cookie flavors to matcha, ube, and Lotus energy drinks for the non-coffee contingent. A second, sunlit outpost sits inside the Melrose District's Royale collective, better suited to a quick grab-and-go.

Izakaya Go is a small Japanese izakaya in a Spring Mountain Road plaza, and its late-night happy hour from 10pm to 2am is the real draw. Sushi, tuna belly steak, and yaki udon all get marked down, which suits anyone who spent the day losing money and wants to feel like they won something. It's tight on space, so expect a wait when the deals kick in, and get your oyster order in before 1:45.