The Best Places in the United States

A milkshake loaded with broken toffee, whipped cream, and a cherry is the move after a sandwich here, and the sandwich earns it. This Southern Highlands sandwich shop serves thick-cut heritage ham on country bread with hot honey, smash burgers with ghost sauce, and a croissant chicken salad, all casual-counter pricing. The shakes run a dozen options and trend toward maximalist. Good for a neighborhood lunch that doesn't make you feel like you're in a suburb.

Za'atar buns and feta-filled croissants are the draws at this Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired bakery on South Lamar, which started as a viral pop-up before finding a permanent home. The leap from online orders to a brick-and-mortar is a big one, and plenty of pop-ups don't make it, so the line out front tells you something. Pastries, breads, and cakes round out the case.

Six tables, one hanging cactus, and a mole that traces the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. Mesa Agricola is a counter-service taco and burrito spot in Escondido where the chef grows most of his corn about 12 miles away and mills it for the handmade tortillas. The menu looks spare until you read it carefully. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, which for a six-table lunch spot feels like a pleasant plot twist.

A fast-casual slice shop where the menu changes on a whim and a world pizza champion gets to stop being responsible. John Arena, who runs the more traditional Metro Pizza locations around town, opened this spot at the Bend to experiment: Sicilian slices piled with meatballs and ricotta, Grandma-style chicken pesto squares, even a macaroni and cheese slice if you're committed to the bit. Whole pies, calzones, and gelato round things out.

Modern Kabob is a casual counter-service spot in Linda Vista, run by an Iraqi-American mother and her four sons, which means nobody is getting away with a lazy hummus. You order at the counter and carry your own tray, so wear whatever you like. The menu covers falafel, shawarma, kabobs, small lahmacun pizzas, and a smoothie list long enough to need its own tab. The baklava comes from a family recipe.

Mr. Charlie's is a fast-casual vegan burger counter in Hillcrest, part-owned by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, which explains the name on the wall and possibly the volume of the playlist. The menu is burgers, cheeseburgers, fries, and Tindle plant-based chicken, with jalapeño-cilantro, chipotle, and barbecue sauces doing the heavy lifting. Order at the counter, expect a quick, cheap-ish meal, and bring zero interest in whether it's real beef.

Slushy machines churn Technicolor drinks behind the bar, which sets the tone for this Northern Thai restaurant occupying the storied space where Pok Pok once stood. Earl Ninsom runs the room and the kitchen turns out gai yang chicken with a chargrilled, fish-sauce funk and a khao soi that makes you keep reaching for the bowl. It landed on the New York Times Restaurant List in 2026.

One of Us is a sports gastropub in North Park where the screens default to women's games, with soccer, basketball, hockey, and softball running daily and the men's games allowed in for the big occasions. The kitchen leans on a coal-fired oven for pizza and smoked wings, and the cocktails are named for penalties and goals, so ordering a Yellow Card is a bit you'll commit to. Eater listed it among San Diego's best new restaurants in October 2026.

Pali Wine is a winery tasting room with a real kitchen attached, now in Hillcrest after a rent hike pushed it out of Little Italy. The pours come on tap or by the bottle, and the menu leans casual in a way that suits sipping: battered cornichons with ranch, a smoky fish dip, and a shaved roast beef sandwich with an au jus that apparently simmers for three days. Eater put it on its new restaurants roundup for October 2026.

Johnny Spero, who earned a Michelin star at his D.C. restaurant Reverie, traded the capital for Whidbey Island and opened this intimate seafood tasting menu spot on the water. The menu shifts constantly but keeps pulling from the cold Pacific just outside, and the New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List. After dinner, whales occasionally cruise through Saratoga Passage, which is either a coincidence or very good branding.

An avocado-green century-old house in Cloverdale with purple tablecloths and an empty birdcage or two sets the mood for this plant-forward Southern dinner spot run by a local nutrition professor. The menu leans hard on Alabama ingredients and zero-waste cooking, so your steak might be squash, and the chimichurri is made from carrot tops. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List. Go easy on the 124-proof Judge Roy Bean.

This is a Brazilian churrascaria in the Gaslamp Quarter, the all-you-can-eat kind where meat arrives on skewers and gets sliced at your table until you surrender. It's been a fixture here forever, and after a fire during Comic-Con shut it down for two years, it has reopened over mesquite charcoal. Pace yourself at the salad bar, wear pants with give, and bring someone who can keep up with the pork ribs.

A wood-fire grill is the kitchen's only heat source at this New American dinner spot on Church Ave, which means nearly everything carries a thread of smoke. The chef Vinnie Cimino draws loosely from the Istrian Peninsula, an ancestral touchstone for many Ohioans, and the seasonal menu shifts accordingly. Grab a communal table near the garage door, which swings open in warmer months. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List.

Sugarfish is the sushi spot where you stop making decisions, since the Trust Me omakase sends out a set procession and the kitchen does the thinking. It's a casual, mid-priced room in Little Italy, with a sushi counter in the back and tables filling the rest. The rice is loosely packed and still warm, and the Los Angeles original's following means a line is a plausible plan.

The two-story honeycomb dining cubes and a lantern-lit alleyway of themed rooms give this Chinatown ramen and izakaya spot the feel of a Tokyo side street you stumbled onto by accident. Ramen bowls anchor the menu, but the kitchen also sends out dumplings, takoyaki, bao buns, and yakitori alongside sake, Japanese beer, and a full bar. It's a lot of fun for a Tuesday.

Swells is a sourdough bakery on India Street in Little Italy, where a window into the dough room lets you watch strangers' future toast get kneaded. It's a takeout counter, so no seating and no dress code beyond shoes. The loaves ferment for a day and a half or longer, and the sourdough cookies exist for anyone who finds bread too responsible. They still work the farmers markets where this all began.

The al pastor here is sliced while partially frozen so every cut hits the trompo at the same thickness, the tips charring and crisping while the center stays fat-slicked and juicy. It's a strip-mall taquería from the team behind Elemi, and the tortillas never sit more than a few hours off the comal. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, which is a lot of attention for a place that opened quietly and just makes very good tacos.

This is a Spanish restaurant inside the Westfield UTC mall, which is a sentence that sounds like a dare until the paella arrives. It's a sit-down, mid-priced spot built around shareable rice, with a crisp socarrat bottom for those who fight over the burnt parts. Jamón gets sliced by hand at the table, the wine list leans heavily Catalan, and a family-run Barcelona operation is somehow doing this between a department store and a Cheesecake Factory.

A Southern California pastrami institution, been around forever, finally opened its first outpost outside the state on Rainbow Boulevard, drive-thru included. The move took six years from announcement to first sandwich, which is either very Vegas or very deli. Pastrami dips are the draw, though the pastrami chili cheese fries have their own following. A casual counter spot where nobody is pretending it's anything other than a great pastrami sandwich.

Throne Room is a medieval-themed cocktail bar in South Park, tucked behind a chain-mail curtain at the back of Kindred, which is the sort of sentence that used to require a very specific kind of birthday party. There's an indoor waterfall, a menu that arrives as a scroll, and Dungeons and Dragons-inspired drinks, plus tapas to keep the quest going. Reserve ahead, since dragons are apparently not required to wait.

A Cuban-French bistro tucked into Little Havana, Tin Tin landed on the New York Times Restaurant List for 2026. The team comes out of a family Cuban sandwich shop nearby, which makes the leap to ropa vieja tortellini and yellowtail crudo in coconut leche de tigre feel both surprising and somehow inevitable. The room sits well outside the Brickell velvet-rope circuit, and the food makes that feel like the whole point.

Named for the chef's great-grandfather and shaped by her Hungarian grandmother's kitchen, Titusz is a Central European restaurant in Lawrenceville that makes paprika and smoked sausage feel like spring. The room runs to gold letter-pressed menus and vases stuffed with wildflowers, which tells you something about the sensibility. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List. Come for the lángos, a deep-fried potato flatbread piled with tangy spreadable cheese and lemony herbs.

The mesquite grill and blue corn tortillas are the whole thesis here. This LA taco stand made a splashy Vegas debut after its owner shared a Super Bowl halftime stage with Bad Bunny, which is one way to announce yourself. Chicken thighs, skirt steak, marinated pork, and house chorizo are the proteins, with vegan options alongside. It's a counter spot inside a casino food hall, so dress accordingly and keep expectations pleasantly low on the ambiance front.

The glossy-skinned Peking duck arrives whole, gets carved tableside, and sets the tone for everything else at this Chinese restaurant tucked into Tivoli Village. Dim sum, wok-fired beef, chile-oil fish, and silky noodles follow in a dining room that leans unapologetically palatial. The kind of place where the weekend crowd shows up with a plan and still ends up ordering more than expected.

The poached chicken arrives slippery and silky, its fat shocked into a jelly under the skin, but the fragrant rice cooked in chicken broth is what keeps Singaporeans texting each other excitedly. This is a no-frills chicken rice shop on Ninth Avenue doing a very specific thing very carefully, rooted in a family recipe that traces back to a legendary Singapore original. The New York Times named it among the 100 best restaurants in the city.

The working winery came first, and everything else followed. An hour north of Atlanta in the North Georgia foothills, Chateau Elan is a full resort built around 3,500 acres of vineyard and pine forest, with rooms running from wood-and-leather Deluxe Kings up to a Presidential Suite with vineyard views. Five restaurants, a bourbon speakeasy, a spa, and championship golf round things out, which is lucky, since most guests never find a reason to leave.

Bookshelves line the walls of this University of Iowa-adjacent hotel, which makes sense once you remember that Iowa City is home to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the creative-writing program that launched half the authors on your nightstand. The Graduate leans into that literary identity hard, so expect campus-town energy, Hawkeye pride, and a lobby that feels more like a well-curated reading room than a chain hotel check-in.

A boutique hotel on the University of Tennessee's main drag, Graduate Knoxville leans hard into Volunteers territory: the rooms are done in orange and white, and a Peyton Manning partnership means the football nostalgia is baked in, not bolted on. The Graduate chain has made college-town hotels its whole thing, and the Michelin Guide has included this one in its Selected Hotels list. Pack accordingly if you're visiting on a game day.

Six studio rooms in a restored 19th-century house on the New Hampshire seacoast, each with a full kitchen and in-unit laundry, which is the boutique hotel quietly admitting that some guests prefer to live in a place rather than just sleep in it. The decor is traditional in its bones but contemporary in execution, and the team fields calls from guests who want a local's read on where to eat or where to go. New Castle is a short drive from Portsmouth.

Sewing machine motifs and geometric textiles cover the rooms of this downtown hotel, a nod to El Paso's old garment industry that doubles as a quiet history lesson. The building is a 1960s motor inn conversion, and the border-city identity runs through everything: Mamacitas handles locally rooted brunch with Mexican influences, while the fifth-floor cocktail bar sits above a rooftop pool with views across two countries.

The stained-glass ceiling in the Dome Bar has been stopping people mid-sentence for over a century, and it's still the best argument for booking a room in the building around it. Hotel Paso del Norte is a full-on luxury hotel, old-school grandeur in the public spaces, but the rooms go contemporary, with custom furniture and wall-sized murals of antique city maps that make ignoring your inbox feel almost cultured.

A Berkshires wellness resort where you can book a treetop ropes course in the morning and still order a cocktail before dinner, which puts it ahead of most places that use the word "wholesome" this often. The facilities are new, the design runs toward calm without tipping into cold, and the programming swings from spa treatments to beekeeping. It's an easy drive from New York, which the parking lot quietly confirms.

Geodesic domes and tree-platform villas, each with its own plunge pool or hot tub, tucked into the Hill Country outside Marble Falls. Missing Hotel is a glamping retreat where the name explains the concept: you go missing for a few days, which is the whole point. Eleven units, a quirky mix of modern and bohemian, close enough to Austin for a weekend escape but far enough that "off-grid" isn't just marketing copy.

A mid-century motor lodge that never forgot what it was, River Lodge sits visible from the 101 in Paso Robles wine country, its retro façade and postcard pool intact. Rooms were quietly overhauled with bespoke furnishings and private porches, some with hammocks or firepits. Complimentary Linus bikes and a poolside cocktail bar make it easy to stay longer than planned, which is the whole point of wine country anyway.

A lovingly restored 1950s motor inn where the retro bones have been given proper adult upgrades, including full kitchens with Smeg fridges that suggest someone has opinions. This is a self-catered, low-touch stay on the New Hampshire coast, so you're cooking, not calling room service. The beach is directly across Ocean Boulevard, the swim shop has your gear, and Portsmouth is ten minutes away when the tranquility starts to feel suspiciously peaceful.

A former furniture store in downtown El Paso, now a boutique hotel where the walls do most of the talking. Every room carries original work from Mexican, European, and local artists, so the effect lands somewhere between gallery and guestroom. The building itself has been around forever, and the renovation leans into that bones-and-history feel rather than papering over it. A good sign for a city center that has been quietly pulling itself together.

A Victorian tavern turned 20-room boutique hotel on the edge of Lenox, where the rooms split the difference between antique atmosphere and working Wi-Fi. Some have reading nooks, some have private porches, all have local art on the walls. There's a living room for a drink, but no proper bar or restaurant, which is fine since the town center is a short walk and Stockbridge is minutes south. The Michelin Guide includes it among its selected hotels.

Perched in Chattanooga's Bluff View Art District, the Edwin Hotel is a contemporary property where the art collection spills from the lobby straight into the loft-style rooms, so even unpacking feels vaguely cultured. Whitebird handles dinner with some seriousness, and the Whiskey Thief rooftop bar handles everything else. Chattanooga draws the outdoor crowd, but the Edwin doubles as a social destination for people who also want a good drink after the hike.

Twelve rooms above a Grand Ballroom in the one building that survived a 1940 fire, which tells you something about what you're getting into. The Piccolo is a small, historic inn on Paso Robles's main square, with fireplaces, soaking tubs, and private balconies in each room. The Michelin Guide has it in their Selected Hotels list. Celebrity chef Charlie Palmer runs the restaurants downstairs if you'd rather not wander far for dinner.

Pendleton blankets, wood paneling, and leather everything: Urban Cowboy Lodge commits to the rustic bit without apology, which is partly the point of escaping the city in the first place. This Catskills retreat spreads 28 rooms and suites across five buildings, from cabin-style quarters to a sprawling six-bedroom lodge floor. An Estonian Iglu sauna sits in a trailer on the property, apparently the only one in the country, because of course it does.

A 19th-century Italianate mansion on 22 acres of Olmsted-designed parkland, with 19 rooms and a French restaurant running eight tables. It is the kind of hotel that makes you wonder briefly if you've wandered into a novel. The Gilded Age bones are intact, the modern touches stay quiet, and Tanglewood is a short walk away for anyone who needs a reason to justify the room rate beyond sheer indulgence.

The flower-ringed patio on University Avenue is not accidental: this is Rose Pizzeria, and it commits to the bit. Thin, crispy pies here borrow from every regional tradition and answer to none of them, landing somewhere between Neapolitan char and California confidence. The Caesar with miso and Calabrian chiles is the kind of side dish that makes you forget you ordered pizza. A spot on 50 Top Pizza USA keeps the room lively most nights.