The Best Places in the United States

Spark Social is a food truck park in Mission Bay, bigger than a football field, with picnic tables and enough grass for small people to run themselves into a nap. The trucks rotate daily, so the lineup is a surprise, though pizza and noodles tend to turn up. Strollers outnumber everything else, which means nobody will notice your toddler. It splits into two areas, so scout both before you commit to a truck.

Spicy Girl is a casual Sichuan restaurant in Upper Kirby that stays open until 3:30 a.m. After 9 p.m. the menu shrinks to Chinese American staples like General Tso's chicken, Mongolian beef, and fried rice, all priced for people who just want dinner. You scan a QR code, seat yourself, and nobody asks how your night went. Wear whatever you wore to wherever you were.

A brewpub that's been an old-school downtown Springfield institution long enough that the regulars have strong opinions about which house beer to order first. The setup is classic pub: fresh-brewed drafts, pretzels with beer-cheese fondue, burgers, root beer floats made with house-brewed soda. The east end of the patio offers a decent perch for watching whoever's wandering through downtown on a Friday night.

A gastropub on Dauphin Street where the cocktail list is doing as much heavy lifting as the kitchen. Seafood-forward plates and bao buns lean into Gulf Coast ingredients with some international detours, but the drinks, ranging from a classic sidecar to a tequila-rosemary-squid-ink creation called Eight Arms: No Legs, are what people talk about after. Grab a swinging seat on the patio if you can; the French Quarter-ish street architecture makes for good company.

Ssyal is a Korean restaurant on Lawrence Avenue, and the move here is the samgye-tang: a whole Cornish hen stuffed with sticky rice, jujubes, garlic, and ginseng, then simmered until the broth could talk you out of a cold. The hen arrives in its own tiny bird-sized sleeping bag of rice. Dolsot bibimbap, bulgogi, and ox bone soup fill out the menu, and takeout and delivery are an easy call when you're sniffling.

The hapa ramen gets its smoky broth from pigs roasted whole in an underground oven at the luau next door, which is either the most Hawaiian supply chain imaginable or proof that good neighbors make good soup. This oceanfront Asian family-style restaurant in Lahaina fills up fast, so book ahead. Pohole fern salad and raw ahi with avocado share the menu with inventive cocktails built around calamansi lime and Asian pear.

Star Pizza is a casual Houston pizza joint that gets credit for bringing delivery to town, so a lot of locals have been eating it since before they could drive. The menu runs New York style to Chicago deep-dish, with a loyal following for the wheat crust and a ranch dressing people talk about like a family recipe. Tuesdays and Thursdays bring an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, no dress code required.

STK is a Strip steakhouse built for people who plan to be in a nightclub forty minutes later, which explains the white leather booths, the faux cherry blossom tree, and music loud enough to make you order by pointing. The lighting is kind to everyone, and the porterhouse gets finished tableside with a torch, so keep your phone out. Dress like you have somewhere better to be, and expect the bill to know it.

Tucked inside an old market building in downtown Petaluma, Street Social is a neighborhood restaurant where the menu changes weekly and lands in genuinely surprising places. Think prawn cocktail with absinthe granita, or pan-seared gnocchi topped with potato chips. The cooking reads like comfort food filtered through a restless imagination, and the San Francisco Chronicle named it one of Sonoma County's standout restaurants.

Sucré is a pastry-and-gelato shop in Rice Village that looks like it was ordered from a Hallmark Channel set catalog. Macarons sit in neat rows, French pastries get their own displays, and the gelato and sorbetto cases are where the colors really let go. The strawberry gelato carries actual chunks of fruit, and the blood orange sorbetto, when it's around, brings some bitter rind along. Dress for a stroll, not a sit-down.

The lighting in this tiki cocktail bar inside Tuffy's Bottle Shop lands somewhere between "jungle shrine" and the Colonel Kurtz scene in Apocalypse Now, which tells you everything about the mood before you've ordered anything. The tiki program goes well past Mai Tais, and the vessels the drinks arrive in are half the show. Two-hour sittings keep things moving; pace yourself on the namesake Suffering Bastards, or your morning will know about it.

Handmade shu mai with its own devoted following is a reasonable thing to build a dim sum restaurant around. Sum Bar pulls it off with char siu pork, egg custard tarts, and Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce filling out the cart. Monday mahjong nights give regulars a reason to linger, and seasonal events like a Lunar New Year blowout keep the calendar lively. The proprietor co-produced a James Beard Award-winning documentary about opening this very spot.

Driftwood sculptures, artisanal metalwork, and potted succulents give this California Avenue Mexican restaurant the feel of a funky antique shop that decided to serve food, which turns out to be a fine decision. The menu is cheerfully idiosyncratic: lasagna layered with roasted poblanos, empanadas wrapped in a pink chipotle-beet masa. On Sundays the farmers' market fills the street outside, and the kitchen leans into a Mexican-ish brunch that fits the whole slightly-offbeat vibe.

Terrazzo floors and a name that promises sunshine it has no intention of delivering, since this cocktail bar on Mills Avenue doesn't open until evening. The vibe skews beachy and unhurried, with tropical, creatively built drinks that have made it a quiet favorite among people who take their rum seriously. It's a sister bar to the Guesthouse, and the two share a sensibility: thoughtful without being fussy.

Super Thai is a casual Thai spot on South Lamar, announced by big colorful letters that save everyone a lot of reading. The front half is a takeout operation where the phones never stop and people come and go every few seconds. Past the host stand, a cozy dining room and a long bar take walk-ins, and the weekday lunch menu keeps portions small enough that you can still return to work upright.

Each basket of xiao long bao arrives with bamboo tongs and a card explaining exactly how to pinch and transfer without losing the broth, which tells you something about how seriously this soup dumpling shop takes its product. The room is neutral-toned and quietly polished. Six styles of xiao long bao, plus pan-fried buns and wontons that get the same careful treatment. Seattle Met named it one of Seattle's best lunch spots, and the expansion to multiple cities suggests agreement was widespread.

Rabbits patrol the back patio garden while you eat pizza and drink draft craft beer, which is about as good a setup as Cannon Beach offers. Surfcrest is a convenience store first, with a few aisles of snacks and souvenirs, but walk past the refrigerators and there's a small counter turning out hand-tossed 16-inch pies. Get a table outside if you can, and let the rabbits judge your slice choices.

Sushi Ota is a sushi bar tucked into a Mission Bay strip mall, the kind of setting that suggests tacos or taxes, not omakase. It's been around forever and trained half the sushi chefs in town, and the founder has since handed the knives to a longtime chef. Lunch leans teriyaki and karaage, while dinner at the bar means nigiri combinations. Come casual and unwind, like everyone else hiding in plain sight.

A family-owned donut shop in the West Valley that keeps things classically in their lane: yeast, cake, apple fritters, bear claws, and a roster of filled options generous enough to cause real indecision. The vanilla cream version rolled in toasted coconut is a regular argument-settler. Smoothies and ice cream round out the menu for anyone who wandered in looking for something else and stayed for the donuts anyway.

Sweet Magnolia is a counter-service barbecue spot in an Ahwatukee strip mall, and the smoke announces it from the parking lot before you've found the door. It cooks Mississippi-style, so the sauce runs sweet and pork gets its due in a Valley otherwise devoted to Texas brisket. It started as a food truck, which explains the order-at-the-counter, grab-a-tray ease, and the mac and cheese is a side that behaves like a main.

Ordering here means choosing a station based on what you want, which feels like a small logistics exam before you've had a single taco. It's a casual counter spot on South Eastern, so come hungry and dressed for salsa. Fillings run from carne asada to buche, cabeza, and tripe, with soyrizo for vegetarians, all on soft corn tortillas with up to eight salsas to sort out. Eater lists it among the best tacos in Las Vegas.

The chilaquiles burrito, stuffed with saucy corn chips, grilled panela, eggs, and pork en chile verde, is the reason to know this compact south San Jose taqueria. The walls are turquoise, the menu runs to genuinely oversized tortas and Flamin' Hot Cheetos tacos, and seating inside the narrow room fills fast. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the best restaurants in San Jose, which tracks with the line out front on any given morning.

A sharkskin grater, some earthen ceramics, and knives that could plausibly start a conflict: the counter at this sushi shop tells you everything before a piece of fish appears. The chef trained at Morimoto's before opening this intimate spot in the Fairway Shops, where you can order a la carte most days. Weekends, the omakase seats about a dozen people for a long, unhurried dinner with fish flown in from Toyosu Market.

Murals and Black-inspired art cover the walls of this cafeteria-style Southern spot on the Northside, where the steam trays are loaded with fried chicken, oxtails, and mac and cheese that earns its reputation. The desserts, peach cobbler and lemon meringue among them, come from the owner's mother, which explains why the room fills with the kind of regulars who already know what they're getting before they reach the counter.

Fifty wines on self-service taps is the organizing idea here, a wine bar inside Chattahoochee Food Works where you load a card and pour your own 1.5-ounce samples until something clicks. A sommelier runs the place, so the selection is serious without being precious. Bottles on tap are available to take home, and a small food menu of charcuterie boards and paninis gives you enough to keep going without turning it into dinner.

Mismatched tablecloths and cloth napkins set the tone at this cozy Mediterranean-leaning tea room and cafe, where the menu runs to sandwiches, salads, and sampler plates with a light Greek accent. The house iced tea is steeped with clove, and the patio, tucked behind a fountain, manages to feel like someone's backyard despite sitting right off the street. A good spot for a slow Saturday lunch with no particular agenda.

Tekka is a walkup hand-roll counter inside The Cosmopolitan, built for people with somewhere louder to be. Each temaki arrives one at a time, so the nori stays crisp, with warm rice and the friendly basics like salmon, yellowtail, and spicy tuna. A set of three runs under $30. There's a nitro matcha on tap for a gentle buzz, and the seating line moves fast, which is the right speed for a Strip pit stop.

Gazpacho arrives in a glass porrón, and the oysters come buried in a cloud of smoke, because a Barcelona group opening a tapas spot in a Palo Alto shopping center was never going to be subtle about it. The menu runs through pintxos, paella, and Catalonian standards, with a small shop stocking Spanish wines and tinned goods near the door for the ride home.

A bright pink Tex-Mex restaurant in the Heights, covered in murals, beer posters, and neon, with a parking lot that has been full for as long as anyone can remember. The queso arrives at the exact drippy consistency fajitas and flautas demand, and the margaritas work faster than the service, which is saying something. It handles birthday crowds, a two-person booth, and the odd pancake breakfast with equal calm.

The wood-fired oven runs hot enough that the Neapolitan crusts come out blistered and light, with char spots that mean someone is paying attention. Terún is a pizza shop on California Ave that has been a gathering spot for the Italian expat crowd on the Peninsula for a while now. The black and white dining room is spare, which makes the olive oil and the colors on the plates look even more vivid by contrast.

The Birria Queen is a taco truck in Third Ward, and the name spares you any guesswork about the menu. The tacos come crisp and stuffed with cheese, with carne asada, chicken, or a vegan filling inside, and most people grab theirs to go. Park at the picnic table instead, dunk each one in the consomé while it's still hot, and order the jalapeño crema on the side if you're feeling brave.