The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the United States

Art deco modernism anchors this twelve-story luxury hotel at the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire, where Pierre-Yves Rochon's interiors move from a crystal chandelier in the lobby down to geometric gold tile on the bathroom floor. Jean-Georges Vongerichten runs the rooftop restaurant, the La Prairie Spa is the only one in Los Angeles, and a house Rolls Royce will take you wherever you need to go. It holds a Forbes Five Star.

The infinity pool on the 57th floor doesn't drain into the city below, though it looks like it might. This Four Seasons occupies the top twelve floors of Philadelphia's tallest tower, which means the views from your room stretch across the whole skyline. Norman Foster designed the building, and the hotel itself plays the warm-modernist card well, with light bouncing through mirrors and enormous arrangements of flowers softening all that glass. It holds a Michelin two-key designation and a Forbes Four Star rating.

Named for the Thai refugee camp where chef Yia Vang was born, Vinai is a Hmong restaurant that brings a cuisine most Minneapolis diners have never properly encountered. The menu runs from Hill Tribe chicken to grilled lamb heart, and the hot sauces come from family recipes. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and Bon Appétit named it among America's best new restaurants. Every dish has a story, and Vang is usually around to tell it.

The New York Public Library sits directly across the street, which sets the tone nicely for a hotel that takes its Midtown address seriously. Rooms run loft-style with modernist touches, the bar downstairs shifts from local-sourced comfort food into a low-lit speakeasy after dark, and Grand Central is a two-block walk. A Forbes Four Star property on Fifth Avenue, it handles the neighborhood's ambitions without making you feel like you wandered into a showroom.

The hand-washing station at the entrance stocks Loewe soap, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Korean fried chicken restaurant. Club music bounces off vaulted ceilings while you work through a bucket of gluten-free fried chicken with consommé, banchan, and frozen yogurt soft serve to finish. Champagne is the obvious pairing, and caviar-topped nuggets are available for anyone who finds the baseline insufficiently absurd. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

The menu cites lumberjacks as inspiration, which sounds like a joke until the food arrives smelling of juniper and pickled elderberries. This is a French American neighborhood restaurant on Nicollet, where the chef works a distinctly Upper Midwestern palate, finding fall vegetables worthy of a special occasion without making the room feel like one. It won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant and landed on the New York Times Restaurant List. The pommes dauphine are, regulars will tell you, really just very good Tater Tots.

The original 1930s clubhouse, all Jazz Age plasterwork and old-glamour bones, still stands at the center of this Forbes Five Star, Michelin two-key Four Seasons in Surfside. Beachside cabanas, a lavish spa, and the kind of hush that suggests everyone around you is very deliberately not checking email. Thomas Keller's Surf Club Restaurant is on-site, which means dinner requires zero commute. More hideaway than scene, which is precisely the point.

A Forbes Five Star hotel on the waterfront where guests arrive by water taxi from Logan, bypassing the city entirely and stepping straight into a marble rotunda under an American flag. Rooms face the harbor or the skyline, and the staff have thought of things you forgot to pack. It sits at the edge of the Financial District, so the crowd trends toward people who expense things, but everyone gets the same treatment.

Bottles line every wall and stack to the ceiling on Doyers Street, which tells you what you're in for at this tiny Chinatown wine bar before you've even sat down. The team pairs a well-chosen, offbeat list with smart modern Chinese food, and the room fills fast enough that tables spill into the alley. It won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2026, which the elbow-to-elbow crowd seems to have already known for a while.

A neighborhood restaurant on SE Belmont where French technique quietly does the heavy lifting behind food that reads as pure Pacific Northwest. The chef has cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens, and you can feel it in the restraint, the seasoning is always doing something interesting without announcing itself. A 2025 James Beard nominee for Outstanding Restaurant, and a semifinalist for its wine and beverages program. Bring time; this is a sit-and-linger kind of room.

Hand-painted murals from the hotel's early days line the walls, even in the fitness center, now sharing space with Indian artwork brought over from Taj's Mumbai flagship. The Pierre is a grand, old-school luxury hotel on Fifth Avenue at Central Park, Georgian Revival bones dressed in a mix of eras. Bathrooms have separate tubs and showers, the Grand Ballroom seats 750 under silver and gold ceilings, and brides have been dreaming of it forever. Forbes Four Star.

The adults-only serenity pool, where you float with a spicy hibiscus margarita while staring at Lanai, is the one that matters most. This Forbes Five Star resort on Maui's sunny Wailea coast is where the first season of White Lotus was filmed, so yes, you will recognize the lobby. Multiple pools, oceanview restaurants, and an outdoor gym that at least lets you feel the trade winds while you suffer. A Michelin Key holder.

Wood-burning fireplaces in a Manhattan hotel room are rare enough to feel like a rumor, but many suites here have one. The Lowell is an intimate Upper East Side hotel decorated like an English country house that somehow pulled it off, with floral fabrics, chinoiserie, and individually furnished rooms that never match a chain template. It holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star. The Pembroke Room does afternoon tea; the Post House does steakhouse duty downstairs.

The circular Coliseum pool, reportedly one of the largest of its kind anywhere, overlooks the Pacific and sets the tone for this sprawling Italian-inspired coastal resort in Newport Beach. Bungalows and villas lean into the Tuscan-village fantasy without tipping into theme-park territory, and Tom Fazio designed the two golf courses. A Forbes Five Star resort, through and through.

Burnt orange banquettes and handsome tile floors set the tone at this West University Texan-Mexican restaurant, where tortillas are nixtamalized and pressed in-house and the masa program is taken seriously. The menu runs from roasted oysters with green garlic butter to a smoked pork chop buried under spicy peanut macha. The chef holds a James Beard Emerging Chef award and a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which feels about right for a neighborhood spot this quietly confident.

St. Mark's Square, the famous clock tower, canals with singing gondoliers: it's all here, in the desert, at full scale. The Venetian is a vast all-suite resort on the Strip where the bathrooms alone run nearly a third of the room's footprint, complete with Roman tubs and marble everything. Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck, and Emeril Lagasse are all on the dining roster. Whether it reads as tribute or absurdist fever dream probably depends on your relationship with Venice.

A mirror-glass tower rising above SoHo's cast-iron rooflines, the Dominick earns its height with Hudson River views that most of the neighborhood can't touch. It's a full-service luxury hotel with Fendi Casa furnishings, a Rockwell Group interior, a rooftop pool lined in Italian blue mosaic, and a spa with separate hammams. The lobby's bronze, leather, and Venetian plaster set a tone that the rooms, with their soaking tubs and Turkish stone walls, are happy to maintain.

Thai Taco Tuesdays draw lines around the block at this family-run Sherman Oaks restaurant, where a second-generation chef holds a James Beard Award and runs a monthly omakase that books out before most people know it's open. The rest of the week it's classic Thai with a wine list that gets written about on its own terms. Warm, buzzy, and very Los Angeles in the best sense, which is to say it's completely unpretentious about being excellent.

A neighborhood restaurant in Logan Square that won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality, which tells you something before you've even sat down. The menu rotates with the seasons, so regulars show up trusting the kitchen rather than ordering from memory. The room fills fast from morning through dinner, and the bar in the adjacent space is a solid solo option. The Michelin Guide lists it as a Bib Gourmand.

A hillside olive grove in Rutherford that started as a Provençal restaurant and kept going until it became a Forbes Five Star resort. The 33 acres feel genuinely removed from the valley floor, and the rooms lean into the California light without apology. There's a spa, a pool, and the kind of staff-to-guest ratio that makes hot-air ballooning seem like a reasonable thing to schedule before breakfast.

Shingled cottages scattered across 250 acres of St. Helena woodland, reached by golf cart, set the tone at this secluded wine-country resort. Meadowood holds a Forbes Five Star and three Michelin Keys, and it earns them quietly, through handwritten welcome notes and staff who seem to have memorized your preferences before you arrived. Three pool areas, a spa, and the kind of wine immersion that makes Napa feel like homework you're thrilled to do.

Fifty-five rooms on the C&O Canal in Georgetown, where the smallest luxury hotel in D.C. somehow includes townhouses with private courtyards. The library's double-height ceilings and velvet armchairs do their best impression of a private club, and the rooftop lounge adds skyline views for good measure. Wolfgang Puck handles the food. It holds a Michelin two-key distinction and a Forbes Four Star rating.

Vegetables get top billing here, not as an afterthought but as the whole argument, with meat from the wood-fired grill playing a supporting role. This is fine dining from a team with Blue Hill at Stone Barns roots, and it shows in the precision without the stiffness. The airy, linen-white room suits the cooking's restraint. A James Beard Outstanding Restaurant nominee, Vicia has been a reason to fly into St. Louis for years.

The unmarked door on Green Street gives nothing away, which is sort of the point. Inside, a converted warehouse with wood-beamed ceilings holds a tasting menu restaurant built around a single organizing idea: every dish is either fired or chilled, and you watch the open kitchen run both with near-monastic focus. Chefs serve their own food here, no front-of-house divide. The Nordic New American cooking is ingredient-first, the room is genuinely dramatic, and the clamshell amuse-bouche is as ridiculous as it sounds.

Pink walls, carved bar panels, and Vikas Khanna working the room while guests line up down First Avenue for a walk-in spot set the tone at this buzzy East Village contemporary Indian restaurant. The kitchen pulls from all of India's regional traditions, and the yogurt kebab earned its own mention in the New York Times. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and no one seems to leave before they're ready.

A podcast guide to the hotel's own art collection, with Matisse and Klee on the walls, sets the tone for a stay here. The tower sits steps from SFMOMA, and the rooms lean cool blue and steel with brass accents that keep things from feeling corporate. MKT Restaurant does surf-and-turf with a wine list heavy on Sonoma and Napa. A Forbes Four Star property in a city where the weather never gives you a dramatic reason to stay inside.

Vaulted ceilings, pink Tennessee marble floors, and Botticino marble walls set the tone the moment you walk into this Lower East Side hotel, housed in a beautifully restored Edwardian bank building. The Neo-Renaissance bones are dramatic without trying too hard, which is fitting for a neighborhood that has always preferred cool to obvious. Tastemakers and the occasional celebrity fill the lobby. Michelin awarded it 2 Keys.

The fitness brand that colonized every upscale neighborhood in Manhattan eventually had to sleep somewhere, and Hudson Yards is where it landed. This luxury hotel pairs ultra-modern rooms with a 60,000-square-foot gym, a rooftop pool over the Hudson, and a spa that runs from cryotherapy to specialized facials. The architecture is by SOM, the interiors by Rockwell Group, and the vibe is less "hotel with a gym" than "wellness resort that happens to have beds." Forbes Four Star.

The 1927 building on the corner of Newbury Street spent its early years as one of the country's first Ritz-Carlton outposts, and the bones still show: wainscoting, herringbone floors, the whole patrician package. This Forbes Four Star, Michelin two-key hotel layers local art and Byredo bath products over the classical shell without fussing too much about the contrast. The rooftop restaurant, Contessa, draws its own crowd well beyond the guest list.

A converted church sanctuary in East Nashville, which at least explains the soaring ceilings and the sense that something meaningful is happening here. The wine list runs over a hundred bottles, and the bar anchoring the room doubles as a social hub for groups settling in for the night. The kitchen plays it loose, moving between bar snacks and more serious plates. Chef Colby Rasavong picked up a Food and Wine Best New Chefs nod in 2025, and the Times put it on their restaurant list that same year.

The naturally leavened crust at this cozy Mississippi Avenue pizza shop is made with Oregon-grown organic wheat, and the toppings lean seasonal and unexpected in ways that make you rethink what belongs on a pie. Chef Sarah Minnick, who got a full Netflix "Chef's Table: Pizza" episode to herself, decorates each one with edible flowers and whatever's at the market. Save room for the homemade ice cream, which regulars treat as the main event.

A glass tower above the Cumberland River in SoBro, this Four Seasons sits steps from the Country Music Hall of Fame, which makes for an interesting lobby crowd, rhinestone boots alongside tailored suits. Rooms run floor-to-ceiling windows and warm wood finishes with just enough musical nod to feel intentional. The rooftop pool, spa, and an in-house restaurant keep you on property longer than planned. It holds a Michelin two-key designation and a Forbes Four Star.

A 15,000-crystal chandelier greets you in the lobby, which sets the tone for this Forbes Four Star hotel tucked into a landmark tower where Canal Street meets the Mississippi. Rooms run white shiplap and river views; the rooftop pool gives you somewhere to be horizontal after a night of doing otherwise. Alon Shaya and Donald Link run the restaurants, and the spa is quietly serious about its job, which is no small thing this close to Bourbon Street.

There's a karaoke machine hidden somewhere in this Vietnamese restaurant near the county courthouse, and it tells you everything about the vibe. The team runs the place like a party they're throwing for you, with wings glazed in fish sauce caramel and tamarind ribs you can eat with your hands. No stilettos required, no DJ, no velvet rope. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on the New York Times' 25 best Miami restaurants list.

Oberlin is a downtown Providence restaurant where locals take their New York friends to prove the city can be chic and still feed you well. The seafood plates rotate, the staff will talk you through the vermouth list without making you feel like a tourist, and the salt cod brandade arrives with grilled country bread. It's a James Beard Outstanding Restaurant nominee, and the raw bar next door handles the wait.

The Art Deco facade on East 76th Street hasn't changed, but the inside was gutted and reimagined by Martin Brudnizki, which is why this Upper East Side hotel now reads more Corinthia than classic New York dowager. Casa Tua, the members' club with outposts in Miami and Aspen, runs the dining room, so the crowd skews accordingly. It holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star.

The bookshelves and well-worn wood make My Loup feel less like a supper club and more like someone's very good dinner party. The French-leaning menu reads casual but cooks with real intent, seasonal and confidently seasoned, the kind of food where the chef is clearly enjoying themselves. The bar is no afterthought either, named among Punch's best new bartenders. The New York Times and Bon Appétit both took notice, and it's easy to see why.

A pink cake frosted with prickly pear buttercream and scattered with sprinkles sets the tone at this bakery from Mariela Camacho, a Food & Wine Best New Chef and James Beard semifinalist. The conchas are airy under a crackly shell, and the coffee drinks lean into the same playful register as everything else. Nothing here is as sweet as it looks, which is the whole trick.

Roman pizza comes out of an open kitchen at this spacious trattoria in the West Loop, where Joe Flamm followed up Rose Mary with a full homage to the Eternal City. The pasta is made on-site, the wine list is all-Italian, and the amaro cocktails are worth staying for. Carciofo alla giudia, the deep-fried artichoke the place is named for, gives you a pretty clear sense of where the kitchen's priorities lie.

A Forbes Four Star hotel a few blocks from Union Square, with a footprint big enough to include an indoor heated pool, a proper health club, and steam rooms for both sides. The 500-plus rooms lean sleek and contemporary, and the building houses Anzu for California-meets-Japan cooking and Feinstein's, an old-school nightclub format that San Francisco refuses to let die. A solid downtown base when you want the city, not a scene.

Six named villas tucked inside Caesars Palace's Octavius Tower, each running around 10,000 square feet and each with its own aquarium, because a marble soaking tub and a private home theater are apparently just table stakes. This Forbes Four Star enclave is a suite hotel for people who find regular suites a little cramped, with a double-sided fireplace, a dining table for twelve, and Roman emperor branding taken completely seriously.

The gilded accents and cherry-red booths at this TriBeCa brasserie give it the feel of a Dionysian feast that's been running for decades, even though it hasn't. Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson run the kitchen, and the room they've built pulls a crowd that treats a Tuesday like a Saturday. The menu leans classic French, oysters and soupe de poisson and white asparagus, done with enough conviction to earn a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur.

Heated sidewalks run through the whole property, which tells you everything about the philosophy at this Forbes Five Star, Michelin Key lodge sitting mid-mountain at Deer Valley. Rooms come with jetted tubs; suites add stone fireplaces and gourmet kitchens. The ski valet handles your gear so you never have to think about it, and the Troll Hallen Lounge is exactly the kind of firelit room you want after a day on the slopes.

The name nods to a kissaten, the cozy Japanese tea shop, and this no-reservations Japanese comfort food spot fills up fast enough to make that context feel earned. The menu is short and built for sharing, moving through onigiri, grilled yellowtail collar, and a chilled ramen salad with the unhurried confidence of a team that knows exactly what it's doing. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant.

Candlelit tables inside an 18th-century building that, to be honest, should never have stopped being an inn. Clare de Boer of King in the West Village runs this Pine Plains tavern, and the kitchen treats apparent simplicity as a discipline rather than a shortcut. Food & Wine named it one of the top US restaurants in 2025, and it landed a James Beard semifinalist nod for Best New Restaurant. Probably worth the drive from anywhere you are.

House-made pasta and cured meats anchor the menu at this classic Italian restaurant in Bishop Arts, where the kitchen leans on seasonal Texas produce to do the talking. The menu rotates, so regulars rarely eat the same meal twice. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, and the chef earned a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Chef. Book ahead; the room fills fast and stays that way.

Walls plastered with Polaroids and faded Cantopop posters set the mood at this Chinatown restaurant, where the cooking is as high-energy as the room. The menu is compact Cantonese with a loose, playful hand: claypot rice with bacon and sausage, mapo tofu spaghetti that shouldn't work but clearly does. Reservations vanish fast, and the walk-in line forms before doors open. Bon Appétit and Esquire both named it among America's best new restaurants in 2024.

A chalkboard outside suggests a Champagne breakfast, and inside this little bungalow on the St. Mary's strip, that feels like the most sensible advice you'll get all week. Cullum's Attaboy is a walk-in, counter-service brunch spot doing affordable French luxury, think proper omelets, hollandaise, and caviar appearing with suspicious regularity. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and a James Beard nomination followed.

The menu at this lively Somerville small-plates spot runs Eastern Mediterranean at its core, then wanders wherever it pleases, poutine with fried halloumi curds one moment, jalapeño cornbread with feta the next. Chef Cassie Piuma treats the mashup as a method, not a gimmick, and it holds together more often than it has any right to. A James Beard Outstanding Chef nominee, she keeps the room packed and the menu long enough that regulars still find surprises.

Every room has a lanai big enough to actually live on, and guests frequently do. Halekulani is a classic Waikiki beachfront hotel that runs on the kind of unhurried, attentive service that feels almost anachronistic now. The spa draws from Hawaiian, Asian, and South Pacific traditions, and surfing lessons are steps from the lobby. Forbes Four Star and a Michelin two-key property, it wears its reputation quietly, which is part of the point.

Thai hip-hop overhead and papaya salad that bites back even on medium spice sets the tone fast at this street food restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter. The menu pulls from across Thailand rather than settling into one region, so the pad see ew and house curries share the table with Northern Thai dishes her grandmother used to make. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

The Rocky Mountain views from this downtown luxury hotel are so insistent, staring back at the Rockies from nearly every room, that forgetting you're in Denver takes real effort. Earth tones and a modern-residential feel keep the aesthetic grounded rather than fussy. The Four Seasons holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star, and the staff's habit of anticipating what you need before you ask is the thing guests tend to mention first.

The chef here built a following on a hand roll cart before graduating to this tight, buzzy sushi shop on Middle Street, where almost everything comes from Gulf of Maine fishermen. Named a Food & Wine Best New Chef and a James Beard semifinalist, Jordan Rubin treats local seafood as a point of pride rather than a compromise. The tuna de tigre, a New York Times-noted dish, makes a pretty strong case for staying close to home.

Garage doors, string lights, and colorful tablecloths in a former parking lot, which tells you exactly what kind of house party this counter-service spot wants to be. The Lao-American cooking lands hard: papaya salad that makes your eyes water, chiles and fish sauce everywhere, and a smashburger spiked with lemongrass pork sausage that shouldn't work as well as it does. A James Beard semifinalist and on the New York Times Restaurant List.

A lobby nicknamed "Houston's Living Room" anchors this Forbes Four Star downtown hotel, with a grand staircase rising through 30 floors of recently renovated rooms. Richard Sandoval runs the restaurant, a 1920s-style speakeasy keeps the bar tab going, the spa does a bourbon-and-brown-sugar scrub, and there's a Krigler perfume shop for anyone who wants to smell like old Hollywood between Astros games.

A wood-burning oven anchors the open kitchen at this contemporary Italian-American restaurant, where concrete floors and cream walls keep things industrial without feeling cold. The bread comes from the sister bakery next door, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes the details. Family-style sharing is the move here. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, and the room fills fast with people who already know the menu by heart.

The Palazzo tower is all suites, starting at 720 square feet, decorated in contemporary Italian style rather than the gondola-and-canal pageantry next door at The Venetian. Seven pools, Egyptian linens, remote-controlled shades against that relentless desert sun. Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck both have restaurants here, which gives the whole thing a certain critical mass. A Forbes Four Star resort that earns its quieter register amid the Strip's general enthusiasm for spectacle.

A bakery run by a former artist who, finding no local mills in Oklahoma's wheat belt, simply found a farmer and milled her own grain. The sourdough-heavy menu leans into specials like French onion soup Danishes and ube-blue corn coffee cake, which is either wildly creative or deeply unhinged, depending on your mood. Cat Cox won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker in 2025. Open Saturdays, with a line down the block before the doors even open.

Sleek glass doors open onto a room that feels like it's been broken in nicely, with Danish chairs, warm wood, and a bar you'd actually want to sit at. The Musket Room is a fine dining spot on Elizabeth Street where Mary Attea runs a seasonal menu that shifts often enough to keep regulars guessing. Tasting menus come in omnivore or vegan, or you can go à la carte, which is a small mercy. A James Beard nominee two years running.

Tucked into Mandarin Plaza on Broadway, this contemporary Chinese American restaurant and bar is the project of a first-generation chef cooking his own story onto the plate. The cocktail program is serious enough to earn national bartender recognition, so start there before the food arrives. Dishes are built for sharing, the kitchen is open to the room, and the whole setup feels more like a dinner party than a transaction.

Eighty-two floors above Lower Manhattan, this Forbes Five Star hotel puts you a block from the World Trade Center with views that sweep across the Oculus and the harbor beyond. The neighborhood has quietly become a proper destination, with Brookfield Place and the Westfield shops within easy reach and decent restaurants in every direction. It suits the finance crowd and the tourists who want the postcard skyline without midtown noise.

The Jacuzzi room here is styled like a mermaid's fever dream, with lily-pad walls, waterfall showers, and a central soaking bath that makes you forget Las Vegas exists outside. This Forbes Five Star spa at Wynn leans into Asian- and Middle Eastern-inspired treatments alongside a feng shui-based ritual that works through foot, massage, and scalp in one long, thorough session. Plush waiting rooms with fireplaces set the tone before a single robe goes on.

Art Deco bones, dim light, and a bar up front that moves at a convincing clip: Le Rock is a proper French brasserie tucked into the ground floor of Rockefeller Center. The team behind Frenchette runs it, and a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur followed. Seafood platters, duck confit, classic sauces, and profiteroles in buckwheat honey fudge cover the expected ground, with a little tableside theater to keep things lively.

Monogrammed pillows and a rooftop pool with cabanas that double as massage suites or impromptu offices set the tone at this Forbes Four Star, Michelin two-key hotel in Beverly Hills. The Living Room just off the lobby draws the kind of crowd that technically doesn't need to be seen yet always is. The spa, The Belvedere brasserie, and a level of service that feels almost antiquated in the best sense round out the package.

The Old Post Office building has been around forever, and the bones show it: 16-foot ceilings, original windows, hardwood floors, and a grand lobby skylight that turns the whole atrium gold on a clear afternoon. Now a Waldorf Astoria hotel, it sits squarely between the Capitol and the White House, which suits the guest list. Velvet, marble, and gilded finishes set the tone; a Forbes Four Star and a full spa seal it.

At this Korean wine bar on Division Street, banchan is the main event, not the preamble. The chef builds a daily set of small plates that sit somewhere between Seoul, Lyon, and Palermo, leeks vinaigrette with Chinese hot mustard, eggplant crushed into something caponata-adjacent. The kitchen is tiny, the room tinier, and the menu stubbornly its own thing. The New York Times placed it among the city's 100 best restaurants.

A wood-burning grill and a marble raw bar anchor this rustic-industrial seafood restaurant on Magazine Street, where everything worth eating came out of the Gulf not long ago. The smoked tuna dip is reason enough to sit down, but the real move for a group is a whole fish with a few sides. Food & Wine named the team among its Best New Chefs in 2024, and the New York Times put it on their New Orleans list. Loud, convivial, no bad seats.

A pocket-sized wine bar in South Miami where a short, rotating menu does more than most restaurants twice its size. The kitchen counter is the best seat in the house, which is saying something given how few seats there are. The team behind it landed on Bon Appétit's best new restaurants list and The New York Times' Miami roundup, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed. Small plates, natural pours, and a room that fills up fast.

The house-made bread arrives before you've settled in, and that sets the tone. Raf's is a modern French bistro on Elizabeth Street with enough Italian soul to keep things interesting, the kind of room that feels like it's been around forever even when it hasn't. Pastry Chef Camari Mick is a James Beard semifinalist, and the desserts make that plausible. Walk-ins can usually find a spot at the bar, which is honestly not a bad outcome.

The restaurant's unofficial motto translates roughly to "I don't give a damn," which is a curious thing to post when your birria arrives in hand-pressed squid ink tortillas with miso consommé. Chilte is a modern Mexican restaurant and bar in a revamped motor hotel on Grand Avenue, and Food & Wine named the chef one of its Best New Chefs. The seasonal menu shifts often, and the team pulls in guest chefs regularly, so the room rewards repeat visits.

Salted yeast rolls arrive hot with garden herb butter before you've even made a decision, which tells you something about how this rustic neighborhood restaurant in Decatur operates. Terry Koval won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, and the room earns it without trying to impress you. Cocktails lean playful, the vegetables get serious treatment, and the duck stays on the menu for good reason.

The four-slider pull-apart smash burger, cheese skirt and all, tells you something about what Cordelia is going for: a lively, shareable, anything-goes dinner-out kind of place on East Fourth. The open kitchen is the room's centerpiece, and chef Vinnie Cimino, a Food & Wine Best New Chef and a James Beard nominee, runs a menu that shifts constantly between dips, fresh fish, and daily steak cuts.

Leather window seats overlooking Lake Michigan come standard in many rooms here, which sets the tone for this luxury hotel perched above the Magnificent Mile. Rottet Studio gave the lobby and upper suites a refresh that reads crisp without trying too hard. The spa and indoor pool are genuinely calm, the staff is the kind that anticipates rather than reacts, and Bloomingdale's is literally one floor below, if that helps you decide.

Fifty clapboard cottages built in the Low Country style sit among rivers, marshes, and Spanish-moss-draped maritime forest midway between Hilton Head and Savannah. This sprawling resort holds a Forbes Five Star and two Michelin Keys, and the Southern hospitality is less a policy than a local condition. Screened porches, abundant waterways, and a 13,000-square-foot spa keep guests occupied long after they've run out of excuses to stay.

The butterfly motif is everywhere at this Forbes Four Star resort on the Strip, said to bring good luck, though the casino probably has its own opinions on that. Suites run to floor-to-ceiling Strip views, limestone and marble baths, and TVs that swivel to follow you around the room. The spa fills 37 treatment rooms, and XS, the nightclub on the property, has a wading pool and a chandelier over the dance floor, because of course it does.

A neoclassical pile atop Nob Hill, the kind of building that makes you straighten your posture just walking through the door. This hotel holds a Forbes Four Star and fits the Ritz-Carlton template well: renovated rooms with a modern-classic feel, that famously gracious service, and a cable car stop right outside for anyone who wants to arrive without a town car and a fleece vest.

Rooms here run from around 450 to 1,700 square feet, which tells you what kind of hotel this is before you've seen the mahogany or the views over Rittenhouse Square. It holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star, and it earns both through sheer scale and quiet confidence rather than flash. The square outside stays green and walkable, and the neighborhood around it is about as good a base as Philadelphia offers.

The line out front of this Doraville strip-mall spot does the advertising. Kamayan ATL is a Filipino neighborhood restaurant built around kamayan, the tradition of eating communally by hand, and the family-style menu leans into classics and regional dishes with equal confidence. A James Beard semifinalist, it started as a pop-up and never lost that devoted, word-of-mouth energy. Book ahead; the room is small and the fans are loyal.

The bagels here are kettle-boiled and hand-rolled, and the owner once won New York's Bagelfest twice, which is its own kind of declaration. This is a counter-order bagel shop with a line out the door and spreads that work for both the plain-schmear traditionalist and whoever orders the avocado toast-but-make-it-a-bagel sandwich. A James Beard nominee two years running, and on Eater's Dallas essentials list. Get there early, or just accept the wait.

The 130 rooms here are bungalows scattered among heritage oaks, stained the same quiet brown so they nearly disappear into the hillside. This Forbes Five Star resort sits deep in Sonoma wine country, with vineyard views from two pools, an archery range, a yoga lawn, and an 11-treatment-room spa that will absolutely derail your itinerary. The terrace at the bar, with Mount St. Helena on the horizon and a local pour in hand, makes a compelling case for doing nothing at all.