The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the United States

Ski-in/ski-out inside the gated Deer Crest community, this St. Regis resort sits on 12 slopeside acres above Park City with stone fireplaces and Juliette balconoes in every room. The split-level infinity pool appears to float over the snow-covered Wasatch Range, and the Yurt Village's heated stargazing domes handle private dining with a certain theatrical flair. Nightly champagne sabrage by the Fire Garden keeps things from getting too wholesome. A Forbes Four Star property.

Lanai has no traffic lights, most of its roads are unpaved, and the Four Seasons sits on a bluff above one of the few beaches in Hawaii inside a marine reserve. It's a full-scale luxury resort, Forbes Five Star and Michelin Key, with a Jack Nicklaus golf course, a spa, koi ponds, and enough pool area to get genuinely lost. Spinner dolphins pass offshore while guests book Jeep excursions or do nothing whatsoever, which is also a perfectly defensible plan.

Kelly Wearstler designed every inch of this hotel inside a century-old flatiron building on Market Street, and the result looks like a well-traveled great-aunt's apartment if that aunt had very strong opinions about pattern. Florals, mirrors, graphic prints, and art clustered floor to ceiling fill the 131 rooms, none identical. Charmaine's rooftop draws a line down the block on weekends, so the lobby's moody bar tends to be the smarter move.

Twenty-seven wooded acres tucked just inside the 610 Loop make this full-service hotel feel less like Houston and more like a very comfortable escape from it. Guest rooms look out over the trees through floor-to-ceiling windows, and the sprawling health club, three pools, and a Forbes Four Star spa fill the hours between. The decor leans into its Texas address without going full steakhouse. Families fill the place on weekends, and nobody seems to be in a hurry.

A brick-and-glass facade on West 38th Street opens into a lobby that looks more like a gastropub than a hotel check-in, which is either disorienting or a relief depending on how your day went. The 180 rooms lean into garment-district history with subway-tiled bathrooms and chesterfield sofas, and the service carries a studied, almost theatrical attentiveness. A Michelin Selected Hotel a short walk from Bryant Park.

That Gothic minaret rising over Fifth Avenue is how you spot The Sherry-Netherland from two blocks away, which is a very old-money way to announce a hotel. It's been around forever, a proper residential-style property with just 50 rooms, each one decorated differently, many of them looking straight onto Central Park. The smallest rooms run 340 square feet, and the marble lobby with its vaulted ceiling sets the tone for something quietly grand.

Rooms done entirely in white, with two greenery-filled terraces, sit about as far as you can get from the neon circus outside without actually leaving Times Square. Ian Schrager, the man who gave the world Studio 54, brought his boutique instincts to one of the least boutique corners on earth, and the hotel is quieter and more serene than it has any right to be. A nightclub downstairs keeps the old faith.

Its own private entrance on 50th Street bypasses the main hotel entirely, which tells you most of what you need to know about The Towers at Lotte New York Palace. A hotel-within-a-hotel occupying the top floors of the Palace, it comes with a dedicated concierge and rooms that look out over Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building. Gossip Girl fans will recognize the Corner Suites. Everyone else is just happy the crowds stayed downstairs.

A stone fireplace anchors the multi-story lobby here, with leather armchairs and oriental rugs doing their best to convince you that roughing it and a Forbes Four Star rating can coexist. This lodge-style ski resort sits slope-side in the Wasatch Mountains, gondola-connected to the runs in winter and surrounded by hiking and mountain biking trails come summer. Every guest room has its own working fireplace, so the apres-ski atmosphere follows you upstairs.

A Federal-style Relais & Châteaux inn on Chatham's Main Street, with wide-plank floors, original art on every wall, and a wine bar pouring around two dozen wines by the glass. The 18 rooms run from airy and bright to seriously cozy, with wood-burning fireplaces and two-person tubs in some. A Forbes Five Star property. The porch has rocking chairs, the patio has a fire pit, and the whole thing is just walkable enough to skip the car entirely.

The brick facade on Main Street has been hosting Aspen's overflow of ambition since the silver boom, and the lobby still feels like a place where someone famous might be waiting in a chair. Hotel Jerome is a Michelin Key hotel in the Auberge Collection, equal parts mountain lodge and grand European inheritance, with rooms that lean into the altitude and outdoor Jacuzzis that make the cold feel like a feature rather than a problem.

Perched on a bluff above the Pacific, this Forbes Five Star resort does the full coastal California thing without apology: ocean-view rooms, two golf courses threading along the cliffs, and service warm enough to make the fog feel like a design choice. The chandeliers are set with rock crystals, the carpet was inspired by a walk on wet sand, and the ballroom is large enough to host a small nation's worth of wedding guests.

Every room at this Williamsburg hotel comes with its own city-view balcony, which tells you roughly what you're dealing with. The rooftop holds a 15,000-square-foot public park with rolling hills and picnic blankets, so it doubles as a neighborhood hangout rather than a private amenity. The interior leans into the borough's art-forward instincts without overdoing it, and the skyline views from up top are the kind that make Manhattan feel like a reasonable commute.

The comeback sauce and stuffed shrimp survived the ownership change, which is what regulars needed to know. This old-school downtown seafood house has been a Jackson institution forever, and the new chef preserved the classics, the longtime staff, and the general soul of the place while quietly upgrading the wines and adding a feta-brined fried chicken special that nods to the Greek immigrant roots. It landed on the New York Times Restaurant List in 2025.

The mole negro clocks more than thirty ingredients and still manages to taste like a single coherent thing. That kind of cooking is what draws people to this Oaxacan restaurant on South Lamar, where the menu shifts daily and the mezcal cocktails are cold enough to make you forget it's Austin in summer. The chef behind it won a James Beard Award in 2022, and the food makes the case quietly, without any help from the décor.

Loui's is a Hazel Park pizza parlor with wood paneling, a dining room that hasn't been redecorated since sometime before most of its customers were born, and a ceiling hung with chianti bottles signed by diners, like a very boozy guest book. The Detroit-style squares come out thick and airy under a crown of caramelized cheese. Order a pitcher, settle into the dim, and don't plan on being productive afterward.

The ghost that allegedly climbed into a guest's bed sets the tone for this storied Sunset Strip hotel, where the dress code has always been "eccentric wealthy" and the history involves Howard Hughes training binoculars on the pool from his penthouse. Clark Gable apparently conducted himself here with considerable scandal. William Holden was advised to bring his bad behavior specifically to the Marmont. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

The front desk is a slab of 3,000-year-old sequoia, which sets the tone for a downtown luxury hotel that takes its design seriously. Philippe Starck did the rooms in mid-century modern, a 1908 beaux arts building anchors the facade, and the glass tower behind it runs 44 stories with views over Elliott Bay. A fine-dining restaurant and a spa are both on-site when you surface. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

The hotel lives inside a grand old pier building in Fell's Point, Baltimore's densest stretch of bars and restaurants, with the harbor right outside and a rooftop pool that feels improbably right. Guest rooms lean design-forward, there's a steakhouse on site, and the whole place hums with the neighborhood's energy rather than hiding from it. One Michelin Key for those keeping score.

Herzog & de Meuron designed the building, which tells you immediately this isn't the usual DC hotel playing dress-up in neoclassical marble. The Conrad is a luxury hotel sitting above CityCenterDC, with interiors by Rottet Studio that feel genuinely considered rather than generically plush. Estuary does Chesapeake Bay flavors downstairs, and the rooftop bar Summit has the kind of panoramic view that makes visitors feel briefly important.

A cowhide rug and leather couches give the lobby of this 126-room Financial District hotel the feel of a well-appointed men's club, which is either exactly your thing or quietly amusing depending on your disposition. Gold Street is a cab-hailing hike from most of the action, but the tradeoff is genuine quiet after dark. Frette bathrobes and C.O. Bigelow toiletries round out the rooms.

The lobby doesn't show up until the third floor, which sets the tone nicely: glass art flowers, mosaic marble, bronze sculptures, and chandeliers doing a lot of work all at once. This Union Square hotel puts BART and Muni a short walk away on Powell Street, so getting anywhere from the airport to the East Bay stays easy. The porte cochere has woven deck chairs that read as aspirationally poolside, which in San Francisco fog is its own kind of comedy.

The marble lobby hits differently than the apartment-block facade suggests, with crimson and gold antique furnishings that lean firmly Old World rather than midtown generic. This boutique hotel on East 50th sits within walking distance of Rockefeller Center, Grand Central, and Central Park, which makes it genuinely useful for both the suit-and-briefcase crowd and tourists who want classic New York hospitality without the chain-hotel shuffle.

Most of the rooms have private balconies looking out over Forest Park and the Clayton skyline, which softens the blow of checking in somewhere this polished. This is a full-service luxury hotel in the quiet, gallery-and-garden suburb of Clayton, a short ride from the city proper. A spa, a fitness center with panoramic views, and two restaurants round things out. It holds a Forbes Four Star.

The floating pagoda table on a koi pond is exactly as over-the-top as it sounds, which is probably why it's the hardest reservation in the building. Mizumi is a fine-dining Japanese restaurant inside Wynn, recently stripped of its red lacquer drama in favor of teak beams, indigo, and lantern light. The kitchen leans innovative, with sushi and sashimi that feel almost too precise to eat.

The Diplomac, a chef-ified riff on a Big Mac, says more about this East Side restaurant than any press clipping could. Dane Baldwin, who holds a James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest, runs a room that somehow keeps duck breast and deviled eggs on equal footing, classy enough for a date night but relaxed enough that nobody feels like they wandered in by mistake. Brady Street is lucky to have it back.

The lobby fireplace, stacked stone to the ceiling and ringed with deep armchairs, sets the tone for what the rest of this Forbes Four Star hotel delivers: a full Gilded Age fantasy on 8,000 Vanderbilt acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Wood-paneled corridors, manicured grounds, and working farms surround you, with the actual Biltmore House just up the drive. Asheville is a short ride away for anyone who needs to touch the present.

This is a Wolfgang Puck steakhouse inside the Shoppes at Palazzo, the sort of place where the wagyu comes from Hokkaido and Australia and the check comes from a much higher power. Expect jackets, expense accounts, and a dining room built for closing deals or pretending to. The Japanese beef burger gets you the same pedigree without the second mortgage, and the man himself occasionally works the room.

The nightly Disney fireworks are visible from the rooms, but the rooms themselves look like they could be in Singapore or Milan, which is either the point or the whole joke. This is a full-scale Four Seasons resort sitting on the edge of Walt Disney World, with a spa, an 18-hole golf course, and a kids' club so thoroughly Disneyfied it reads as a diplomatic gesture toward the neighbors. Guests get early park admission, half an hour before the gates open to everyone else.

Allday is a minimalist neighborhood pizzeria on Speedway, turning out New York-style pies with a lightly charred, still-chewy crust and a tangy sauce. The Pep & Pepp stacks tiny pepperonis under diced pepperoncini, which is about as much suspense as a pizza needs. A six-slice sampler arrives on one tray for the undecided. It has turned up on The Infatuation's best pizza in America list.

Uni custard with brown butter, red curry hollandaise, and a torch of cinnamon tells you immediately where you stand: somewhere north of Boston that plays by its own rules. Nightshade Noodle Bar in Lynn is a tasting-format noodle restaurant with a kitchen that treats cuisine borders as suggestions. The room is a black box, the playlist is loud, and the team is warm. Rachel Miller was a James Beard semifinalist in 2025, and the Times put it on their Boston list.

A nose-to-tail British bistro in the Village where the duck-stuffed cabbage arrives large enough to feed a small party. The team behind Dame brought the same easy warmth here: cozy banquettes, unhurried service, and bar stools held for walk-ins even on a packed night. The menu leans into hearty English classics with just enough creative wobble to stay interesting. Food & Wine named the chef a Best New Chef in 2023, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed.

The servers at this Italian-American red-sauce institution work the room in tuxedos, and they know it. Plush banquettes, glittering chandeliers, and mid-century classics on the menu make Carbone feel like a fever dream of 1960s New York that never cooled down. The rigatoni alla vodka is famous for a reason, the prices are serious, and getting a reservation requires planning well in advance.

The sister property to a London hotel and private club, The Twenty Two New York occupies the restored Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt house near Union Square. It holds a Michelin Key. The vibe is international modern luxury with enough Gilded Age bones in the building to keep things grounded, which is a neat trick for a place that could easily have leaned into its British pedigree and called it a day.

A.K. is a counter-service pizza shop on Martin Luther King Jr Way, where a sign above the register promises a dough show and the crust follows through, with a charred, dry crunch outside and a pillowy rip within. The plain pie tastes like a Manhattan street corner, minus the humidity and the trash bags. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best pizza places in America, so expect a line of people with strong opinions about crust.

Midnight-blue walls, gold accents, and a Persian rug that has no business being this plush set the mood at Apéro, a French restaurant on P Street where champagne and caviar are essentially the whole thesis. The back garden is the kind of spot people pretend to stumble upon. The menu fills out with French classics for anyone who needs an excuse beyond caviar, which, to be fair, is most of us.

Part restaurant, part charcuterie counter, Augustine's Salumeria is a relaxed modern Italian spot in Mamaroneck where the menu leans hard on Westchester farms and local fishermen. The kitchen turns out Italian-leaning dishes alongside nightly specials that change the calculation every time. The room feels like a neighborhood place that happens to cook with serious intention, which is a comfortable combination.

This is the Wooster Street pizzeria that made New Haven argue about whether "apizza" is a word, and the pies still come out of a coal-fired oven with a charred, smoky bottom and a crust that stays rigid when you lift a slice. The white clam pie is the famous one, briny and heavy on garlic. Plan on a line down the block, eaten at plain tables, with no one in sight fussing over a wine list.

Brick floors, creeping vines, and a crowd that seems to have been cast by a Venice Beach location scout. This Abbot Kinney institution is a Mediterranean restaurant built around wood-fired pizzas and shared plates, with vegetables doing serious heavy lifting on the menu. It's spawned a bakery, a to-go counter, and a cookbook, which is a lot of offspring for one room. A Michelin Selected spot that's also on the all-time Eater 38.

Kinchley's is a New Jersey tavern that treats the bar pie as a birthright, with a thin, crackery crust, sauce that runs right to the edge, and cheese that blisters into little craters. Friday night belongs to families who've been showing up for generations and greet the servers like cousins. It's casual and cash-register cheap, and the toppings get weird in a way purists will mutter about, like creamed spinach.

This is a Basque restaurant in an old three-story hotel building, where dinner arrives as a parade: soup, salad, beans, fries, bread, and a glass of house wine, with a main course somewhere in the middle. Strangers share long tables, so you'll make friends whether or not you were planning to. Most people order the Picon Punch, a brandy-and-grenadine thing in a bell-shaped glass, and nobody tries to talk them out of it.

Fine dining in downtown Wilmington that skips the hush and the tweezers, with a menu that changes often and leans on North Carolina farms for its crab, duck, and Carolina Gold rice. The wine program is serious enough to justify the city's only underground cellar, which is a fun thing to say about Wilmington. Service is warm and unstiff, so you can dress up without rehearsing. It's in the Michelin Guide as a Selected Restaurant.

Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem soul food restaurant has had a standing reservation from the neighborhood since it opened, and the fried chicken alone explains why. The room runs loud and lively, with live music most nights pushing the vibe closer to a party than a dinner. Seasonal Southern cooking shares the menu with apple pie that manages to taste like someone's grandmother made it, which in a restaurant this size is no small thing.