The Best Places to Eat and Drink in the United States

Commune is a listening room and wine bar in Avondale Estates where the DJ booth and the sommelier carry equal weight. Steven Grubbs, formerly of Empire State South, steers an evolving list that includes Georgia wine from Crane Creek Vineyards, a rarity in Atlanta. Food runs from oysters and caviar to roasted chicken, enough to anchor a full evening. Deep-house and indie keep things moving long after the dessert wine arrives.

Mazor is a casual River West spot named for the ear of corn, and the menu behaves accordingly: tetelas, tacos, and tostadas, all built on masa, with a short list that suggests nobody here is hiding behind options. The chef pulls from both Mexico and Guatemala, where he grew up, and the food stays unfussy while still feeling like an occasion. Come in whatever you wore to work, and expect Eater to have already told your friends.

Star Rover is a casual, checkered-tablecloth steakhouse that moved into the old Superica space, and it has the brick walls and vintage portraits to look like it's been there since the Eisenhower years. Pick a cut, and the salad, milk rolls, fries, and onion rings arrive without negotiation. The 76-ounce challenge gets you a free meal and a photo on the wall, which is a lot of beef to trade for a photo.

A freestanding fireplace anchors the dining room at this steakhouse on a former mill site, and the front door alone stops people mid-stride. Counter service keeps the mood loose despite the chic surroundings, which is a combination Springfield seems happy to have. The setting does real work without taking itself too seriously, and the kitchen is focused on steak.

This is the West Coast outpost of a London izakaya chain, a pricey, dressed-up dinner spot inside the Guild Hotel with a boulder wall that does not mind being photographed. There's a sushi counter, a robata grill, a palm-ringed courtyard, and two bars stocked with more than 40 sakes. Expect expense-account energy and a dessert display that makes sharing feel like a negotiation.

Carl's is a two-sided counter with sixteen stools, a griddle, and staff who treat small talk as a clerical error. The burgers are lacy, paper-thin things, so you order a double the way you'd order a second coffee, and the housemade root beer comes along without discussion. The tamales under chili are a pleasant surprise. Bring cash, and if anyone asks about the Shake Shack rumor, you didn't hear it from me.

The neon chef flipping pancakes above the door has been a landmark on East Colfax long enough to outlast everything around it. Pete's Kitchen is a classic diner, the kind that keeps the grill going through the night on weekends for whoever needs a gyros omelet or a green chile smothered burrito at 3 a.m. The crowd that fills the stools tends to tell a story. Westword named it Denver's best late-night diner.

Atomic Museum photos and artwork line the walls of this sprawling brewery taproom and restaurant in Centennial Hills, where the theme commits fully to the bit. Twenty-six taps run from stouts and barleywine to pineapple cider, and the food holds its own: pastrami sandwiches, pork belly street tacos, and a roster of pizzas. Two patios with ping pong and cornhole make it clear nobody here is in a hurry to leave.

Beaumont's American Tavern is a 200-seat Lincoln Park restaurant that took over an old Halsted Street space and filled it with the kind of menu your grandfather would call "proper food." Downstairs runs on pub burgers, shrimp and grits, and fresh pasta, while a steakhouse called the Bull Moose sits upstairs, which is a lot of square footage for a tavern. Expect mid-range prices and a sticky toffee pudding built for sharing.

Cat kitsch lines the shelves at this neighborhood restaurant and bodega in Raleigh, where a team of five local culinary figures pooled their talent and built something that feels both familiar and hard to place. The menu reads Southern but veers into duck-fat fried wings with harissa and honey, cornbread with curry leaf butter, and charred cabbage over tofu pesto. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, which tracks.

By the Sea is a big Mediterranean-leaning restaurant on Orange Avenue in Coronado, done up in white oak, rattan, and cobblestones shipped over from Italy, which is a lot of luggage for a seaside lunch. The menu runs to seafood platters, a meze spread built around house-fermented pita, and a dry-aged rib-eye for anyone who wandered in from the golf course. Expect resort-town casual with a reservation habit, and cocktails that arrive smoking.

Carne and Hueso is a sit-down Mexican restaurant in North Park, run by two sisters cooking Indigenous dishes from Puebla, Jalisco, and Oaxaca. The moles come in blanco, negro, and rojo, and the birria follows a recipe from their grandfather's place in Guadalajara. Weekend brunch hands the first dozen tables free pan de muerto, which is a real incentive to be the person who arrives early. The bar leans on Mexican spirits and house syrups.

Fried catfish on white bread with hush puppies or collard greens on the side, served out of a former fast-food shell on East Colfax, is the whole pitch here, and it lands. This is a counter-service soul food spot where the staff are warm and the portions are not modest. Barbecue, chicken gizzards, and Sunday-only chitlins round out a menu rooted in Oklahoma tradition that the team is clearly not shy about.

Warm broth arrives first at this seven-table multicourse speakeasy on the Cumberland River, and whatever's in it will probably confuse you before it convinces you. Scallops, paprika, and strawberries, say, or horseradish oil wrapped around aged tuna belly with local melon. The chef's palate is the whole point: combinations that read like a dare on paper land as inevitable on the plate. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List.

Taiwanese bubble tea chain Chatime lets you build your drink from the ground up, dialing in sweetness level, swapping to dairy-free, and piling on popping pearls or lychee jelly until it's exactly your problem. The UNLV-adjacent shop pours milk teas, fruit teas, and brown sugar pearl drinks to a crowd that has strong opinions about boba. A second location in the Arts District is already in the works.

Chef Fei is a casual stir-fry restaurant inside the Westfield UTC mall, which is not where you'd expect a wok to be doing its best work. It's the first U.S. outpost of a China-based chain with more than 200 locations back home, where pork gets top billing. Here the menu leans toward beef, including a wagyu stir-fry with broccoli and bell peppers. Eater put it on its list of the best new restaurants in and around San Diego.

Twelve seats, a polycultural farm and vineyard outside the city, and ceramic dishes thrown from clay dug on the property: the scene is set before the food even arrives. Chef Tae Strain runs a tasting menu where the farm supplies much of what lands on the counter, with Korean-inflected technique quietly threading through each course. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, and the Burnt Hill wines poured between courses are made right outside the window.

A 24-seat Japanese listening den in the Arts District where the only soundtrack is vinyl and the TVs run anime on loop. Ring the buzzer, join the wait list, and eventually find yourself inside walls plastered with Japanese posters while the cocktail program works through whisky, sake, tequila, and shochu. From the team behind Nocturno, it drinks like a speakeasy that got very specific taste very fast.

Concrete Rose is a cocktail bar in the old Purse Building, right across from the ballpark, built around agave spirits. The menu leans on tequila and mezcal, with drinks involving mole and tomatillo that sound like a dare. There are no dress codes or bottle service, but there are vinyl nights, and the bar bites run from beet tacos to fish crudo, so dinner is covered if you commit.

The dining room alone causes arguments: depending on your table, you're sitting in sun-drenched whimsy, blood-red velvet, or the amber spill of an open Basque grill. Dalia is a Spanish restaurant that treats Spain as a starting point rather than a period piece, so calamari stand in for noodles in a riff on dan dan, and patatas bravas arrive as lacquered, shatteringly crisp pavé cubes. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List.

A full-service butcher shop and deli in the southwest valley, built around the Bronx meat-market upbringing of the chef behind it. Pasture-raised, grass-fed beef comes directly from ranches in Arizona, Missouri, and South Dakota, ground in-house for the burger or sliced for a chicken Parm sandwich. Rotisserie chicken and steak frites round out the deli menu. It's the kind of neighborhood place Las Vegas isn't supposed to have.

A movable wall conceals this cocktail bar and small-plates spot behind a family portrait inside Buddy Valastro's Italian restaurant at the Venetian. Green banquettes, cafe tables, and walls thick with photographs give it the feel of a room that's been there forever, even if the secret door suggests otherwise. The menu runs to charcuterie, little panini, and lobster fritto misto, with desserts closing things out on a sweet, unhurried note.

Don Maguro is a casual Japanese spot in a Mira Mesa shopping center, where the kaisen don comes with nori sheets, an egg yolk, and a clear fish bone broth, so lunch turns into a small DIY project. The soup can be sipped alone, poured over the last of the rice, or mixed with the yolk first, a choice that feels weightier than it should. Eater named it one of San Diego's best new restaurants.

Dubu Tofu is a casual Korean soft tofu stew spot in Rancho Bernardo, from the team behind Sot BBQ. The rice arrives in a metal pot on a wooden stand, scooped out so the bottom can crisp and blacken, then barley tea goes in at the end for a soup course nobody asked for but everyone finishes. The kimchi pancake is roughly frisbee-sized. It made Eater's list of the best new restaurants in San Diego.

Eastbound is a casual EaDo barbecue joint from a crew of Killen's alumni, with picnic tables, lounge seating, and a backyard roomy enough to absorb a birthday party and its sequel. The $32 Works platter puts brisket, ribs, pulled pork, sausage, and sides on one tray and comfortably feeds two. The Old Fashioned is washed in beef tallow, in case your cocktail needed to be a little more on theme. Eater named it a best new Houston restaurant.

Thirty craft beers on tap and a menu long enough to settle any argument about what to order on game day: Finney's Crafthouse is a sports tavern with brick walls, reclaimed wood, and a dog-friendly patio. Pub staples share the menu with wagyu and bison burgers and ahi poke bowls, while the cocktails lean on fresh-squeezed juice. It's the California chain's Las Vegas debut, and the crowd has treated it accordingly.

The old Andre's space in downtown Las Vegas is now a French bakery and cafe where the smell of fresh bread hits before you open the door. Pastries, danishes, and tarts fill the case, and a bistro lunch menu runs to things like lobster tucked into a homemade baguette. The coffee list is long and leans playful, with a Dubai mocha trailing chocolate and pistachio syrup down a glass of espresso.

A five-foot resin Pomeranian sets the tone for this dark, moody cocktail lounge inside the Vanderpump Hotel on the Strip. Lisa Vanderpump's Las Vegas footprint runs to black-and-red decor, a martini for two arriving on a skewer of a dozen-odd olives, and a cocktail that comes with caviar. The house gimmick of sealing a secret into a tiny envelope and locking it in a vault is either charming or deeply on-brand, depending on your relationship with reality television.

Gilda is a Basque-style pintxos bar in West Town, named for the skewer of anchovy, pickled pepper, and olive that arrives early and sets the tone for a lot of small, salty things on toothpicks. Cod croquettes and a cheesecake round out the food, and the cocktails get weird in a good way, like mezcal washed in jamón fat. Reservations are the rule most days, with Mondays left for walk-ins.

Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Kitchen is a casual, order-at-your-leisure daytime restaurant where the dishes are named after affluent zip codes, so the Brentwood Chinese chicken salad and the Montecito turkey wrap come with a built-in sense of real estate. It's the brand's first sit-down outpost, set in a marble-and-glass former salad chain with striped banquettes, a patio, and yuzu ginger tonics that can become spritzes. Eater named it one of the best new restaurants in San Diego in October 2026.

Grandson Steaks is a casual all-day Sonoran steakhouse and butcher shop in the Liberty Station arts district, built around the northern Mexican grilling its owners grew up eating. Expect shareable steak feasts that don't require a second mortgage, plus tostadas, tacos, and a bar with wine, beer, and cocktails. It's the kind of place where you arrive in shorts and leave planning a cookout you will not execute as well.

A 3,400-square-foot shrine to Sanrio characters in the Forum Shops, where illuminated pink facades and neon signage set the tone before you've ordered anything. The cafe runs taiyaki filled with ube, strawberry-mochi soft serve, and character-coded pastries, plus an afternoon tea service the Vegas location holds as an exclusive. The crowd skews enthusiastic in ways that are hard to overstate.

Honor Bar is a Hillstone-run American restaurant on the Del Mar stretch of the coast highway, where the old Bully's North held court for decades. It took nine years to open, so the underground parking garage feels earned. Expect booths, a long bar, a patio, a burger, a pressed-sushi counter, and a gin-and-Sauvignon Blanc martini. The smart casual dress code is enforced, so leave the board shorts in the car.

House of Mandi is a Yemeni restaurant in the Gaslamp where you eat on red-and-black floor sofas at low tables, under murals of Sana's brick towers. It's the San Diego branch of an Anaheim original from Little Arabia, and the halal menu runs on slow-cooked lamb, including a haneeth that's traditionally cooked underground. Wear socks you're proud of, and bring people who'll share a platter.

The Strip's most surreal fast-food experience: an In-N-Out Burger on a rooftop terrace three stories above Las Vegas Boulevard, with no drive-thru in sight. Same Double-Doubles, same divisive fries, same prices as every other location, just with a view that most chains can't manage. The company store inside sells branded gear for anyone who needs a hat to remember the occasion.

A twelve-course tasting menu on Melrose where each course somehow feels like a different restaurant made it, in the best possible, wait, a genuinely different key. Daniel Patterson, who built his name at Coi in San Francisco, is back in fine dining here alongside a former music producer and a pastry chef whose desserts read as slightly unhinged in the most compelling way. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, and the room earns the attention quietly.

A juice-and-smoothie cafe on Coast Highway 101 that borrows its name from the Appalachian word for a valley where neighbors gather, which is a lot of heritage for something that also serves bee pollen. Bright murals of butterflies, mountains, and waves cover the walls, and there's seating inside and out. Expect bone broth, matcha lattes, and smoothie bowls, plus Eater's October 2026 list of new San Diego-area restaurants.

Kirkwood is a steakhouse on the Katy Freeway that doubles as a love letter to a former Oilers receiver turned car dealership king, complete with a replica of the Astrodome's ceiling overhead. Expect leather and velvet booths, prime rib, a tenderloin carved tableside, and a gin cocktail that arrives by bar cart. Eater put it on its September 2026 list of Houston's best new restaurants.

The flaming saganaki arrives tableside, and in Niles, Illinois, that feels correct and necessary. Kouklas is a big, boisterous Greek eatery in Chicago's inner-ring suburbs, with a menu to match: wood-fire grilled octopus, spicy tirokafteri, souvlaki, and a Greek salad that makes you wonder about the lamb's provenance. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, which tracks for a place this mission-driven about making suburban Greek food something people drive for.

La Rosa is a tiny East End sandwich counter with a menu short enough to memorize on the walk in: two fixed panini and a rotating special. It exists because the team behind Mimo missed their own lunch sandwiches after the restaurant went dinner-only, which is a relatable reason to open a shop. The bread comes from El Bolillo, gelato is on hand for dessert, and Eater named it a Best New Restaurant in Houston.

A French-Cajun bistro built around a sub-basement that nobody knew existed until construction crews found it, two levels below the street with old stonework still intact. The team leaned in rather than filling it with concrete, so you can eat your way through a Cajun-and-French-inspired menu deep underground like some kind of delicious urban spelunking. Ground level is technically the third floor, which is a good conversation starter if the food leaves you speechless.

Eagle Harbor sits at the doorstep, Lake Michigan looming in the mist beyond. This 22-seat tasting menu restaurant in a town of roughly 400 is where Carlos Salgado, who ran the celebrated Taco María in Orange County, relocated with his wife to reorient that kitchen's ethos around Wisconsin's seasonal harvest. Sweet corn, sour cherries, and morels meet heirloom corn from Salgado's native Mexico. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List.

The menu is written in Tagalog, and the owner will happily talk you through it. Lasang Pinoy is a Filipino family restaurant in Rogers where the chef in the kitchen learned to cook from his mother, who still stops by. Lumpia, lechon kawali, chicken adobo, and whole fried snapper on the specials board all land on lazy susans for big groups. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List. Karaoke is available, if you need the full evening.

A dark-roux gumbo the color of old leather opens the case for this coastal Southern restaurant in a light-filled two-story house in artsy Fairhope. The kitchen leans into Louisiana Cajun tradition rather than the tomato-stewed Mobile Bay norm, and the crowd that fills it knows the difference. The New York Times put Little Bird on its 2026 Restaurant List, which tracks with the technically minded cooking on offer.

Little Kiki is a new katsu restaurant in a Carlsbad strip-mall suite, from the group behind Harumama and Blue Ocean Sushi Bar. The pork, chicken, salmon, and cod are all dry-aged on the premises, which is a lot of patience to invest in something you then bread and fry. Hot stone steaks get cooked at the table, so dinner doubles as supervised cooking. Right now it's dinner only, with lunch and takeout promised. Eater named it a Best New Restaurant for October 2026.

Long Weekend is a Western-themed restaurant in Lazybrook/Timbergrove with a big backyard playground, so the kids run themselves ragged while adults hold fire-pit custody with a cocktail. Steaks come off an oak-fired grill, buttery rolls and beer-battered onion rings fill the gaps, and the pizza list swings from braised rabbit to pepperoni with hot honey. Evenings get crowded, so the daytime cafe is the calmer play.

The roof collapsed, the years passed, and Lotus of Siam finally came back to its original Commercial Center address. This is the Thai restaurant that Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, once called the finest Thai meal he had ever eaten, citing its sweep across regional dishes rather than the usual Americanized playbook. The room has been modernized and the menu refreshed, but the classics that built the reputation are still on it.

Make Cafe is a daytime café in Normal Heights run by a nonprofit that trains refugee and immigrant women for hospitality jobs, which means the person pouring your coffee is also, on paper, a graduate. The space is big, with a patio and a garden out back that supplies a lot of the kitchen, so the salads come with an unusually short commute. Order at the counter, take a seat outside, and consider the mandazis.

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.