The Best Places in the United States

Guanatos is a tiny, unfussy Mexican grill in National City where lunch means a tostada piled with ceviche or octopus, then something heftier like a torta or a mound of fries buried under carne asada and marlin. The service is friendly in a way that suggests nobody here is in a hurry. On weekends there's fish soup, which the regulars treat as medicine, and the Eater lunch list has noticed.

Guilder is a roastery-run coffee shop tucked inside Powell's City of Books, which means your latte comes with a view of other people's reading lists. The drip gets proper respect here, though the seasonal drinks, like a cardamom rose cold brew under floral foam, are the ones to ask about. There's toast and even cocktails, and the clientele is mostly people holding one book and eyeing three more.

A smoothie shop and casual Ethiopian eatery sharing the same strip-mall storefront in Fremont, which sounds like a contradiction until you're sitting under the art with a flavored latte and a plate of lamb tibs on injera. Breakfast runs to spiced fava beans and jalapeño-flecked scrambles, and the apricot smoothie does real work against the heat. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best Ethiopian spots.

This pizzeria occupies an old movie theater in downtown Jackson, with the marquee and ticket booth still out front. The film is now the pizza makers feeding wood-fired ovens, which is better lit than most blockbusters. The menu runs to Star Wars puns and a thin-crusted margherita, and the two floors leave room for big family tables where kids get dough to play with. The Infatuation counts it among Jackson Hole's best.

The walls are covered in graffiti from happily drunken guests, and over a thousand bottles of Iberian, Italian, and French wine climb to the ceiling of this West Miami tapas bar. It channels the chaotic warmth of a Sevillian taverna: string lights, live music every night, cold cuts, garlic gambas, and a Saturday-only paella that regulars plan their weekends around. The New York Times named it one of Miami's 25 best restaurants right now.

Heart Roasters espresso anchors the coffee program at this compact Inman Park shop, which spent years as a cart before finally settling into a brick-and-mortar on Elizabeth Street. Colette Bread pastries show up on weekdays, while weekend pop-ups with local bakers keep the regulars guessing. The after-hours events have made it something of a neighborhood living room for people who like their coffee shop to do a little more than just open at seven.

The menu at this Israeli fine dining room lists a dish as "Horrible Hammer smashing herbs and flowers on meat," which tells you everything you need to know about the energy here. Chef Eyal Shani's Las Vegas outpost pulls from Tel Aviv by way of Japanese and French technique, but the real point is that dinner turns into a dance party, and the tile-and-warm-wood room is built to look lived in just enough to make table-dancing feel earned.

Nine seats at a counter in Saratoga, quiet enough that you'll learn exactly how someone accidentally ended up with too many cars. This is a kaiseki tasting menu, eleven courses, served to everyone simultaneously like a dinner party. The chef mists soup bowls to simulate dew and trims grapes so they stand upright instead of rolling. Between courses he silently practices piano on the countertop. Small details, unhurried pace, kimono-clad service guiding you through all of it.

Hayworth is a Jewish steakhouse in Henderson, which means challah knots where the dinner rolls would be and whipped chicken schmaltz where the butter usually goes. It's dressed-up date-night territory, with plush booths, icy martinis, and well-dressed neighbors airing grievances about their cooling bills over latkes crowned with roe. The pastrami is finished with bone marrow jus, and the babka comes home with you.

Nine feet of coffee shop is apparently all you need. Headquarters is a tiny, eclectic cafe on Charlotte Avenue pulling espresso drinks from local roaster Osa, with a sorghum and cinnamon latte that earns its place on the chalkboard. Baked goods rotate in from several Nashville bakeries. It sits directly across from the Richland Park Farmers Market, which makes Saturday mornings feel suspiciously well planned.

A weekend Turkish breakfast served in a Mission lifestyle café is a good thing to keep quiet about. Healthyish Republic pitches itself at the keto-and-paleo crowd, but on Fridays through Sundays it sets out a spread of cheeses, vegetables, and dips across a dozen small dishes, portioned for two. The kaymak, clotted cream pooled in honey and dusted with pistachio, sits somewhere between yogurt and cream cheese and goes on warm pita.

Heart is a Scandinavian-minimalist coffee shop on Burnside, and it's one of the places that helped put Portland on the third-wave map. The espresso leans light-roast, the pour-overs come with tasting notes like honeysuckle and cantaloupe, and there's no wifi, so nobody is camped out with a laptop and a single cortado. You drink the coffee, you look at the clean lines, and you leave. The Infatuation lists it among Portland's best coffee shops.

This Inman Park bakeshop is entirely gluten-free and enthusiastic enough about it to put the exclamation point right in the name. The case runs from Funfetti donuts to blueberry cheesecake pop tarts, plus savory empanadas that take well to a dab of hot sauce. It's a grab-and-go counter with nowhere to sit, so plan on eating in the car or on a nearby curb. The Infatuation lists it among Atlanta's best bakeries.

This is an old-school bakery and deli where the display cases do most of the talking, stocked with muffins, rugelach, shortbread, and gingerbread men that apparently never go out of season. It's also a sandwich counter, so a juicy french dip is on the table, with plenty of seating so the au jus stays out of your car. The petit fours, topped with tiny icing leaves, are the sort of thing you mean to share. The Infatuation lists it among the best bakeries in Atlanta.

The bar stools here are swings, which tells you everything about the mood. Heyday is a neighborhood restaurant and bar tucked into the courtyard of a midcentury hotel in Waikiki, leaning hard into the retro-tropical bit with mai tai variations and boozy slushies alongside cheesy toast and a fried mahi sandwich that reads as a Filet-o-Fish with ambitions. After dark, the Green Lady Cocktail Room in room eight opens as a dark lounge spilling into a palm-fringed courtyard.

A taco trailer parked at a Shell station in Rockville, where the chef mills his own masa on-site and builds the whole menu around it. Tacos, tostadas, and triangular tetelas stuffed with refried beans come out of an operation this small with a focus you'd expect from somewhere twice the size. The chef trained in Oaxaca, grew up in Montgomery County, and clearly has something to prove about corn.

Perched at the water's edge in Emeryville with a full view of the San Francisco skyline, this dim sum restaurant leans hard into old-school banquet hall grandeur, crystal chandeliers, guardian lion statues, and furniture that screams wedding reception. The classics anchor the menu, barbecue buns, siu mai, lotus leaf sticky rice, and the salt and pepper calamari that nobody expects but everyone orders twice. Dim sum runs into the evening, which is rarer than you'd think.

A takeout window on Hyde with over two dozen sauce options for chicken wings, which is either a gift or a crisis depending on your decisiveness. The Korean buldak runs genuinely hot, and the lemon pepper wet fans of "Atlanta" will recognize the reference. Cheeky aphorisms and house rules cover the windows, so there's something to read while you decide. Cash in hand, no seat required.

This is a La Jolla coffee shop that has dressed itself as an Italian villa, complete with trellised vines over a little alley and a table carved from a four-inch-thick door. The lattes arrive topped with a real flower bud, and prices run a few dollars above the usual, which is the cost of the scenery. Dog-walkers gossip outside while readers from the nearby bookstore claim the quieter nooks.

The tandoor oven is the move at this Indian restaurant on Cerrillos, where the chicken wings come out broiled over mesquite and finished with yogurt, garlic, and ginger. The dining room runs large and the service is unhurried and polished. If you like heat, say so; the kitchen will happily adjust. A weekday lunch buffet draws a steady crowd. The chef came up through Los Angeles, New York, and the Caribbean before landing in Santa Fe, and the cooking shows the mileage.

The lunch buffet has been a Tulsa institution for decades, with the owner still at the door to greet you himself, which sets a tone. This is a sit-down Indian restaurant where you pile your plate with naan, pakoras, and a rotating spread of curries, biryanis, and kormas. Most people overlook the dessert corner, but the kheer and mango custard are worth doubling back for before someone else clears the tray.

A sports bar in Buckhead's Terminus building where the pork totcho, a tater tot mountain buried under pulled pork, queso, and barbecue sauce, makes the pretense of watching the game completely optional. Multiple screens cover whatever's on, regardless of sport or allegiance, and the menu runs from lobster nachos to shrimp tacos, the kind of spread that commits fully to the bit.

Hanging ivies, bamboo lanterns, and a menu that opens with raw blue crab tucked into an Isaan papaya salad, which is either the dish that converts you or sends you to the safer side of the menu. This Thai restaurant in San Carlos leans hard into northeastern Thailand, where the food runs funky, sour, and intensely aromatic. The grilled pork jowl with its house fish sauce dip is the kind of thing regulars order before they sit down.

Isla Detroit is a fast-casual Filipino spot in Sterling Heights, with rice bowls, noodle bowls, and entrees drawn from the cooking of Iloilo. You order at the counter, so no one will ask how your evening is going. The pastry chef co-owns the place, which explains the ube cakes in that unapologetic purple, and the Buko Halo-Halo for dining in, a tower of crushed ice, milk, and jellies. Eater has listed it among metro Detroit's top restaurant desserts.

The menu calls itself "mukokuseki," a Japanese word for stateless, which is one way to describe a Scotch egg that riffs on Hawaiian loco moco with a side of mac salad. This International District izakaya keeps the menu rotating, but the throughline is confident genre collision: fried pork katsu sando tucked into garlic shokupan with spaghetti marinara and mozzarella. The New York Times named it among Seattle's best, and the shochu highball list gives you something to do while you figure out what just happened.

An izakaya tucked into a Concord strip mall, with the emphasis firmly on kobachi, the small bites meant to be eaten slowly alongside sake or shochu. The menu front-loads little plates that pair well with drinks, while heartier bento sets and grilled meats occupy the back half for anyone who came hungry. When you order a shochu sour, the proprietor walks over and squeezes the citrus at your table, which sets the tone immediately.

The handwritten daily specials sheet is the first thing to read at this intimate Honolulu izakaya, where the fish changes with the season and the kitchen takes both seriously. Foie gras over braised daikon and egg yolk rice with uni and truffle butter signal the general direction: indulgent, a little theatrical, no apologies. The baby sardine chips do the work of a bar snack, but with more personality than a bar snack has any right to expect.

Jackson Drug is a restored soda fountain, the kind with swivel stools, Art Deco ceiling tiles, and tilework underfoot that looks cleaner than most of the town's good intentions. It's a casual, cheap-ish diner dinner, with a burger from local beef, tater tots, and milkshakes sized for a small ranch. Families and sunburned hikers fill the stools, and The Infatuation lists it among Jackson Hole's best restaurants.

A rosemary-honey cortado tells you everything about what kind of coffee shop this is. Jadu is a Jamaica Plain cafe pulling Counter Culture espresso alongside masala chai sourced from Boston's own Madhrasi Chai, with seasonal drinks that lean into unexpected flavor combinations. Pastries come from a nearby nut-free bakery, and there's a breakfast and lunch menu to keep you longer than you planned.

Jaunt is a roast-to-order coffee shop tucked into an industrial park in Miramar, which is not where you'd expect to find an ube latte, but here we are. The drinks run from standard espresso to panela and lemon drop matcha experiments, and the empanadas make lunch a legitimate plan. A pay-it-forward board lets you buy a coffee or a meal for a stranger who's short on cash.

A coffee shop and pie counter in a genuine ghost town, Java Junction is the unofficial heartbeat of Madrid, the scrappy artist village strung along the Turquoise Trail twenty minutes from Santa Fe. The beans are roasted nearby and brewed in house, and the homemade pies rotate daily. An adjoining shop and a bed-and-breakfast mean you can arrive for an iced coffee and, through some series of small decisions, still be there tomorrow morning.

Jet Black is a vegan coffee shop in Gateway, named after a Jawbreaker song, which tells you roughly what's on the stereo. They roast their own beans, default to two shots of espresso, and stock enough plant milks that hemp gets a seat. The front deck is spacious, the breakfast sandwich is an English muffin with a sausage patty and Mama Lil's peppers, and nobody seems to be performing anything.

The Bowl Club membership tells you everything: this is a ramen shop with regulars who show up multiple times a week and never look at the menu. Jimoto does tonkotsu, soup dumplings, and poke in a town where most restaurants treat a reservation like a moral commitment. Low-key, no-fuss, and one of the few places in Aspen that does takeout well, which matters more than it sounds in a city with basically no food delivery.

This is a casual ramen shop in the Eddy Street Commons strip just south of Notre Dame, which explains why a former Cowboys linebacker co-owns it and why current players wander in between practices. Expect creamy tonkotsu in a bowl, a few spicier takes on it, and a bar program with a smoky old fashioned for the post-game crowd. Dessert is a layered crêpe cake, if you've got room after the noodles.

A bright red food cart parked in Napa, Joella's built its reputation on a fried chicken sandwich that audibly crunches when you bite it. The chicken is fiery and sweet at once, tucked into a sesame-topped potato sourdough bun with peppers and ranch slaw. The craggy nuggets with hot honey and cool ranch are the move if you're skipping bread. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the Bay Area's best fried chicken spots.

Velvet couches and Victorian flourishes make this cocktail bar inside the Venetian feel like a drawing room where someone definitely had an affair. The drinks lean inventive and precise, with one arriving in a Viking horn-shaped glass, which is either theatrical or inspired depending on your mood. One of three strong cocktail options in the same hotel, Juliet is the one that leans opulent and a little moody.

Justini's is a cocktail bar on Dauphine Street that nods to Seal's and Bertha's, two Black woman-owned New Orleans bars, with a courtyard mural to prove the lineage. It's dressier than those, with chandeliers and little alcoves built for being noticed in. The drinks are colorful, including a berry martini and a purple champagne cocktail, and the kitchen turns out hot sausage tacos and a jerk BBQ burger.

Karbach started as a scrappy local outfit before Anheuser-Busch bought it, and the sprawling indoor-outdoor brewery taproom it became is a pretty honest reflection of that trajectory. The full kitchen punches past standard pub grub, with a Texas Wagyu smashburger and truffle parmesan fries alongside the Crawford Bock and Love Street. Big enough for a party, casual enough for a Tuesday, and a sister pizza spot sits next door for when the group can't agree.

Tucked into a San Jose strip mall between a clothing store and a tattoo shop, Kategna is a spacious Ethiopian restaurant that leans into the communal spirit of the cuisine, with traditional Messob basket tables for eating together the way the food was meant to be eaten. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's finest Ethiopian spots. Cold Ethiopian beer or a pot of warm tea keeps the spice in check.