The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the United States

A horseshoe bar anchors the ground floor of Andrew Carmellini's Italian steakhouse at the South Street Seaport, with Tuscan leather banquettes, Venetian mirrors, and East River views upstairs. The menu signals more ambition than the genre usually delivers, from tableside salads to a gorgonzola-cured Wagyu strip loin that earns the detour onto the menu. Sharply dressed servers, the whole production.

Casa Juani is a Spanish restaurant in downtown Boulder, with stone tile floors, light wood tables, and glazed tile accents doing the Iberian heavy lifting. The kitchen leans on Colorado produce, so the duck gets cherries and dessert gets Palisade peaches. The bar is the sort of spot where sherry cocktails and sangria are the correct order. It's table-service dinner at a Michelin Guide-selected place, so dress like you've read the menu.

A tapas spot in Los Feliz where the Iberian flatbreads come topped with caramelized onion, aged cheese, and a drizzle of passionfruit, which sounds like a dare but lands. The menu is built for sharing, moving through small plates and ceviche shots before reaching a wine-braised oxtail stew that finishes with house-made potato chips for crunch. The chef draws on Spanish pantry staples without being precious about it.

The plates here are handmade by a Venezuelan artisan, which tells you something about how seriously this Brooklyn restaurant takes the full picture. Chef Isbelis Diaz and her son run a warm, colorful room built around Venezuelan cooking, the kind where the staff steers you through the menu like they mean it. The short rib braised for two days in burnt sugarcane is the dish people talk about on the way home.

A bike with lavender spilling from the basket marks the entrance to this snug, old-school French cottage a block off Carmel's main street. The family modeled the interior on a Belgian farmhouse and dug an actual wine cellar beneath it, which sets the mood before the food even arrives. Rustic French cooking runs from hearty cannelloni to a grilled peach with pickled onion and toasted almonds. The private dining room comes with Van Gogh's table, which is either very romantic or a lot of pressure.

Casimiro is a Bywater daytime spot for breakfast and lunch, modeled on the neighborhood joints of Mexico City and named for the chef's father, which is a nice way to make everyone else's dad feel underachieving. The tortillas and masa are made in-house, the menu stays short, and the torta de milanesa is the move. There's coffee and a small cocktail list, so a late breakfast can drift pleasantly into lunch without anyone checking a watch.

Ceramic tiles, Mediterranean colors, and a terrace with a panoramic sweep of the La Jolla coastline set the mood at this modern Italian restaurant perched on the third floor of the Plaza Center. The kitchen leans into wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and pasta alongside composed starters that change with the market. Showing up early for aperitivo, with cocktails and snacks while the sun drops over the water, is not a bad plan at all.

The name is Provençal for "dining room," which sets the tone pretty neatly for this modern French bistro tucked into the North Salem countryside. White walls, dark wood, royal blue chairs, and big windows full of trees give it the feel of somewhere you'd actually want to linger. The kitchen takes Provence-leaning classics and nudges them gently forward, finishing the baba au rhum tableside with a rum pour and Earl Grey whipped cream.

A courtyard anchored by a large tree strung with twinkling lights sets the mood at this West Adams pasta-forward Italian restaurant. Chef Avner Levi started as a pop-up, and the laidback ease of that origin stuck. Pasta is the point, housemade and taken seriously, though the lamb ossobuco braised with mole earns its place on the menu too. The crowd tends toward neighborhood date-night, which the setting handles without trying too hard.

Peter Chang's Dupont Circle restaurant is a sleek, minimalist Chinese dining room that takes its visual cues seriously. The kitchen follows suit with careful, polished takes on classic dishes, from soup dumplings with genuinely superb broth to Beijing duck available in half portions, a small mercy for tables of two who still want the whole experience. Pastry chef Pichet Ong handles dessert, which is reason enough to save room.

Chaplin's is a ramen and dumpling spot in Shaw that also takes its cocktails seriously, which is either a coincidence or the whole point. The broth here runs deep, and the cold noodles with ginger and cucumber hold up as their own argument. The menu moves between gyoza, shumai, and chocolate lava cake with Cognac, a range that would be chaotic anywhere else but somehow reads as confident.

Nearly everything on the menu at this upscale-casual steakhouse passes over live fire, from ribeyes and Berkshire pork chops to roasted carrots and tagliatelle. Josiah Citrin keeps the room feeling more Venice backyard than white-tablecloth, with concrete walls and beige booths absorbing the noise of a crowd that tends to linger at the bar well past happy hour. The Michelin Guide has it on their list.

A large window into the kitchen lets you watch steam rise off the bamboo stackers all day long, which sets the mood nicely for this casual dim sum shop in an Arcadia strip mall. Everything is ordered from a menu rather than plucked from carts, so bring a plan. The team behind Sea Harbour in Rosemead runs this one, and regulars who know that pedigree tend to fill the tables early on weekends.

The velvet-curtained windows and chandelier glow of this French bistro on Taylor Street have been drawing nostalgic expats and neighborhood regulars for what feels like forever. A cozy back bar invites lingering, but the real draw is the dining room, where frogs' legs Provençale and a properly Gruyère-blanketed French onion soup anchor a menu of classic French cooking with the odd global detour. The courtyard opens when Chicago allows it.

The facade is aggressively nondescript, which means most people walk right past a Northern Thai restaurant that the Michelin Guide has quietly noted. Inside, the room goes full color and quirk. The menu is long, but the Chiang Rai Local Food section is where to spend your attention. The kitchen defaults to gentle heat, so speak up if you want the real thing. The khao soi here swaps the usual chicken for thin-sliced raw ribeye, finished tableside by the hot broth.

A steakhouse on the Chicago River where the windows actually earn their keep. The beef is butchered and dry-aged in-house, cooked over high heat until the crust is doing real work. Sides run the classic route, creamed spinach and potatoes, and the wine list is long enough to keep a table of deal-closers busy. The room is warm wood and leather, loud in a good way, and nobody here is lingering over a solo lunch.

Gleaming metal bowls arrive at the table like a small procession, which sets the tone at this elegant Southern Indian restaurant on a stretch of 58th Street lined with design shops and upscale neighbors. The room is calm and polished, cream walls and grey upholstery, with servers who seem to genuinely enjoy the job. The kitchen pulls toward the southern coastal tradition, Goan fish curry and Chettinad chicken among the reasons to return.

Servers in traditional garments, each one quietly wired with an earpiece, set the tone at this upscale Korean barbecue institution on Olympic. The menu leans into the classics, short ribs and galbi done with evident kitchen seriousness, and the banchan spread alone warrants the trip across town. Tables fill with large groups feeding the grill, and the waits run long, so treat the room as the whole evening rather than a stop along the way.

Sleek, polished dining room in Winter Park where the Sichuan menu runs long and the family-style format rewards indecision. The kitchen leans into layered heat rather than straight-up fire, coaxing complexity out of chili oil, fermented cabbage, and bold broths. Service keeps things warm rather than formal, which the room's clean lines might otherwise suggest. A Michelin Selected pick for the Orlando area.

A wall of bottles greets you before the menu does at this Sichuan restaurant on the second floor of Pacific Renaissance Plaza, where the room runs plain white booths on one side, black tables down the middle. The classics are all here, portions run large, and the kind of heat that leaves your lips tingling is reliably on offer. Service can drift, but the mapo tofu tends to restore goodwill fast. Bring someone to share with.

Subtle Mary Poppins nods in the décor are either charming or the most Disney thing imaginable, depending on your mood. This coastal American dining room on the second floor of the Grand Floridian runs a seasonal menu that leans into seafood, citrus, and tropical fruit, with a kitchen that takes technique seriously. The guava-braised short ribs with cheddar grits suggest nobody here is phoning it in. Save room for the orange blossom flan.

Red brick walls, local art, and wood worn down by decades of good evenings set the tone at John Currence's Southern restaurant and bar on Oxford's courthouse square. The menu turns with the seasons but stays close to the region, running from fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade to the shrimp and grits that regulars treat as non-negotiable. Portions are built for sharing, and the bar earns its own reputation, landing on Wildsam's list of essential American bars.

Two faux cherry trees in bloom flank the bar, old-school rap plays overhead, and graffiti covers the walls: Little Italy's Japanese fine dining scene is apparently not interested in your expectations. Cloak & Petal runs shareable plates, sashimi, and tableside Wagyu alongside creative maki rolls for the kind of crowd that books a month out and still acts surprised when the bill arrives.

Empty tomato sauce cans double as pizza stands here, which tells you most of what you need to know about Coalfire's personality. It's a coal-fired pizza spot on West Grand where the 800-degree oven does the heavy lifting, producing thin, blistered crusts with those charred edges that take years of patience to fake. The open kitchen keeps pie production visible from anywhere in the snug dining room, and the Michelin Guide has taken notice.

Perched on the tip of Harbor Island, this modern Mexican restaurant frames a panorama of downtown San Diego across the water that earns its own place in the evening's plans. The sprawling patio with a fire pit is where you want to be at sunset, though the glassed-in dining room holds its own after dark. Deborah Scott's menu moves between tableside guacamole and smoked beet tostadas without feeling conflicted about either end of the spectrum.

The courtyard seats fill first when the weather cooperates, which tells you something about how this modern Mexican restaurant in the Central Business District reads a room. Industrial materials, polished wood, and leather keep things cool without trying too hard. The menu moves between bone marrow tacos and more traditional aguachile without apology, and the tamal de chocolate at the end earns its place on the bill.

Two restaurants got merged into one, and somehow it worked. This neighborhood spot in Palm Beach Gardens runs a kitchen-sink menu that swings from lamb croquetas and deviled eggs to smashburgers and pork ramen without apology. The seasonal focus keeps things moving, so the menu shifts often. Casual enough for a weeknight, but the cooking has enough range to hold your attention longer than the strip-mall address might suggest.

An Italian flag out front and a line out the door is the whole story before you even walk in. This NoHo sandwich shop keeps things unapologetically New York Italian-American, built around house-made schiacciata, a thinner, crispier cousin to focaccia. The Tony Piccante, a crispy chicken cutlet with vodka sauce and roasted red peppers, has developed its own following. Seats are scarce, the menu is short, and nobody seems bothered by either.

Tucked into a courtyard off the main drag, this Oaxacan-inspired restaurant trades in deep red booths, coffered ceilings, and wrought-iron accents, with fire pits outside for fair-weather nights. The menu takes Oaxaca as its muse rather than its mandate, so the mole with smoked pork arrives as a build-your-own taco spread, tortillas fresh, slaw lightly pickled. The chocolate brownie, dark and dense with chili and cinnamon, closes things out properly.

The ceilings in this cavernous warehouse dining room are tall enough to humble most airport terminals. It's a full-service Asian grill restaurant where the kitchen runs hot and the menu pulls freely from Thai, Korean, and Chinese traditions, with charcoal doing most of the persuasion. Portions land large, so come with backup or accept your fate before dessert. The cocktails follow the same pan-Asian logic, which is a nice touch.

A West Village dinner spot named after the owner's aunt, which tells you something about the register: personal, unhurried, the kind of small room where the staff actually knows what's on the plate. The contemporary menu rotates with the seasons and pulls from French, Asian, and Latin cooking without committing to any one flag. Vegetable scraps become sauces and pastas, so the zero-waste philosophy shows up in the food rather than just on the website.

A BBQ trailer parked on a working farm outside Cary, open only Thursday through Saturday, which is either an inconvenience or a reason to plan your whole week around it. Brothers run the pit, selling smoked brisket and ribs by the weight at picnic tables. The house-made sausages quietly compete with the brisket for your attention. Come with patience for the queue and a backup plan if it rains.

Concrete floors, hanging plants, and a long bar anchoring the room set the tone at this sleek Korean restaurant in Koreatown. The menu is built around shareable plates, with wagyu cooked over charcoal and a crispy scallion pancake with mentaiko sauce doing most of the heavy lifting. Save room for the pastry course, which lands closer to art project than afterthought.

A Georgetown townhouse makes an unlikely but perfectly comfortable setting for an Ethiopian restaurant, with warm fabrics and earthy tones softening the colonial bones of the place. The menu moves between traditional preparations and combinations that can catch an experienced eater off guard, and vegetarians are not an afterthought. Order the combination sampler and let the injera do the work; the range of heat and texture across one plate is quietly impressive.

Tiki without the plastic puffer fish: Daytrader threads that needle by keeping the vibe tropical and the design genuinely contemporary, with outdoor seating that includes little beach-shack nooks along the 30A corridor. The menu runs Polynesian and Hawaiian, leaning into sharable snacks, handhelds, rice bowls, and seafood mains alongside the kind of tiki cocktails that don't apologize for having an umbrella in them. Save room for the coconut custard cream pie with its mile-high meringue.

A glass wall full of marina boats sets the scene at this upscale Marina del Rey seafood restaurant, where the spirit is old-school Continental with a heavy hand on the flourishes. Caviar shows up regularly, the tableside shrimp Louie is sized for the table, and nobody seems to mind. The room leans into the celebration, and the cocktail menu asks you to pick your Jane, Jetson, Goodall, or Austen.

Colorful wicker seats ring a communal table at the center of this bright Uptown Ethiopian restaurant, where injera arrives in the traditional way and doubles as your only utensil. The menu runs vegetarian and omnivore-friendly, with a small glossary tucked in for first-timers, which is a thoughtful touch in a neighborhood that attracts plenty of them. Picture windows face the street for anyone more interested in Broadway than their dining companions.

Exposed brick and tile floors mark the bones of what was once a Ford dealership, and Di Vino Rosso has been filling it with Italian food for what feels like forever. This sit-down Italian restaurant lists its local farmers on the back of the menu, which is either charming or a gentle flex depending on your mood. The Michelin Guide has selected it, and the pappardelle Bolognese made with wild boar gives you a pretty clear reason why.

Din Ho is a Cantonese barbecue restaurant in a North Austin strip center, where glistening ducks and slabs of pork hang in a window by the front door like a very appetizing welcome committee. The menu runs long into noodle soups, clay pots, and seafood, portions are big, and prices stay easy. It's loud and family-style, with big round tables, and it's listed in the Michelin Guide as a Selected Restaurant.

The Scotch egg here has a jammy yolk and a proper panko crust, which is more than most British pubs stateside can say. Dingles is tucked into the back of a Hayes Valley hotel and pulls off the thing that sounds easy but usually isn't: a genuine pub with draught beer, simple cocktails, and kitchen food worth eating. Fish and chips, Welsh rarebit, sticky toffee pudding. The room is handsome; the menu is short and unsurprising, in the right way.

A roaring fireplace anchors the stylish dining room, and the vine-covered patio fills with Los Gatos's well-dressed set on warm evenings. This is upscale Greek fine dining, not a whitewashed taverna, and the kitchen earns the distinction by staying Greek: stuffed grape leaves with braised beef cheek, a list of Greek wines worth exploring, and a burnt-honey mousse that makes skipping dessert feel unwise.

Masa is the through-line at this cheerful neighborhood Oaxacan spot in the Mission, where the chef built a following selling tamales at farmers markets before opening a brick-and-mortar. The tamales are still the draw, but sopes, taquitos, and mole negro enchiladas on handmade tortillas hold their own. House-made agua fresca rounds out plates that lean earthy and savory. The Michelin Guide has it listed among its selected restaurants.

A top-notch venting system might sound like a strange selling point, but in Korean BBQ it's a legitimate flex: no smoke-soaked clothes at the end of the night. Dons Bogam is a proper Korean BBQ restaurant on 32nd Street, with tableside grills, a festive bar up front, and every seat reliably full, so book ahead. The crowd skews Midtown lunch crowd and dinner regulars who know a good pork belly when they see one.

The custom woodwork lining Dubrovnik's dining room was built next door, in the owner's cabinetry shop, and it shows. This Mediterranean wine bar on a commercial stretch of New Rochelle draws a loyal crowd for dishes off the wood-burning oven and grill, and on certain nights, live Croatian music fills the room. The Michelin Guide has taken notice. Bring someone who enjoys lingering.

Oyster hour starts the evening early at this relaxed American bistro in downtown Chattanooga, and regulars who know the drill show up accordingly. The menu moves with the seasons through small plates, pasta, and mains, all leaning comfortable rather than ambitious. Erik and Amanda Niel have kept the place going long enough to feel like a neighborhood institution without ever getting smug about it. The Michelin Guide has taken notice.

A breakfast sandwich counter in Atlantic Beach with a bodega looseness and zero apology for going big. The move is egg-focused sandwiches on brioche French toast or fat flaky biscuits, loaded until structural integrity becomes a distant concern. Cinnamon rolls and loaded spuds round out a menu that treats restraint as someone else's problem. The kind of place where the line moves fast and everyone's wearing the same sandy flip-flops.

A raw bar lines the front of this chic seafood Mexican spot on the Upper West Side, signaling that walk-ins and solo diners are part of the plan. The menu leans marisquería, meaning the starters section deserves your full attention before anything else. The lively bar does cocktails and zero-proof drinks equally well, and the crowd tends to be locals who already know to book ahead, or didn't bother and headed straight for a stool.

A snug Peruvian restaurant on U Street where smoky mirrors and plush seats set the mood before the food does. The menu ranges across Peru's coasts and highlands, pulling in Japanese and European notes along the way, so the kitchen can move from delicate ahi tiradito to a bowl of arroz chaufa without breaking stride. The kind of place where the servers slow you down just enough that you order the flan.

Peacock motif artwork runs through the dining room, where velvet seating in green and mustard yellow sets a warmer tone than you'd expect from a strip-mall address. This is a sit-down Indian restaurant with a cocktail program, leaning into regional flavors rather than the usual greatest-hits menu. The Kerala curried beef short rib and lamb samosas with cilantro mint chutney give you a sense of where the kitchen's attention actually goes.

A coffee ceremony arrives tableside with stories attached, which sets the tone for this two-Michelin-starred Colombian tasting menu tucked inside the Virgin Hotel. Chef Juan Manuel Barrientos draws from across Latin America, landing on flavors that lean tropical and ornate. Floor-to-ceiling glass, white tablecloths, and a team that explains every course make it feel like an occasion that knows it's an occasion and is fine with that.

Whitewashed brick, weathered wood beams, and soft lighting give this Upper West Side Greek restaurant the kind of room that makes a Tuesday feel like a reasonable night out. The cooking leans rustic, with spreads and pita giving way to whole grilled fish in lemon and caper sauce. The menu reads like someone's Greek grandmother got hold of a very good pantry, which is more or less the point.

A California-meets-French bistro in Mar Vista where the open kitchen puts every plate in plain sight and the room fills fast enough that weekend reservations are less a suggestion than a survival strategy. The menu moves between sautéed foraged chanterelles and duck with dates and saffron, with a prix fixe if you'd rather hand over the decisions. The wine list leans French and the lime tart has its own following.

A rooftop restaurant on Second Street where a cactus garden gives way to a sunset room lined with wood and stone, and the Pacific sits just beyond the windows. The kitchen works the Southern Mediterranean register in shareable small plates, the kind where flavors land a little sideways in the best sense. Santa Monica's see-and-be-seen crowd fills the room, but the cooking holds its own without leaning on the view for cover.

Injera arrives as both utensil and canvas in this Adams Morgan Ethiopian restaurant, where tearing off a piece to scoop up a lamb stew feels like the right way to eat. The room is bright and unhurried, with booths along one wall and artwork that earns its place. A full bar runs alongside the dining room, which keeps things convivial well past dinner. The kind of neighborhood spot that quietly outperforms its surroundings.

An antique-wood overhang adds a warm rustic note to what is otherwise a quietly polished fine dining room in downtown Sacramento. Floor-to-ceiling curtains, thick linens, and a thoughtful wine list signal the intention clearly. The menu runs globally influenced New American, and the bar earns its own visit. Regulars who know the staff by name fill seats alongside people who've clearly just discovered the place and are already making plans to return.

High ceilings and chandeliers set the tone inside this Italian-leaning steakhouse at the Vinoy Resort, where the menu pivots between wood-fired cuts and house-made pasta without apologizing for either direction. The focaccia pull-apart rolls arrive glistening, and the radiatore alla vodka clings to every ridge the way a good vodka sauce is supposed to. The caramel coffee budino lands in a sundae glass, which feels right.

The chicken pot pie comes in a cast iron skillet, which tells you everything about what Elsie's is going for. It's a casual American lunch and dinner spot on Government Street, named for the chef's grandmother and decorated with that same warmth. Pies anchor the menu, sweet and savory both, and if you can't choose a dessert, they'll send out a flight of four. Expect a wait; the room fills fast and stays full.

A dozen warm wood chairs at a blonde counter in Coral Gables is where the chef's Japanese and Filipino heritage quietly collide. This intimate omakase pulls you through a procession of snacks, sushi, and small surprises, including a Kumamoto oyster served in a dashi "shell" and madai sliced to resemble a rose. The meal closes on miso ice cream, which sounds like a twist but feels inevitable by the time it arrives.

The 50-layer lasagna is as committed a statement of intent as you'll find on the Central Coast. Ember is a wood-fired kitchen in a town most people pass through, with an industrial-rustic room that smells exactly like it should. The menu runs from bruschetta to grilled-under-a-brick chicken, all of it shaped by live fire. The Michelin Guide has had its eye on the place, and the regulars act like they already knew.

The menu changes nightly because the cook changes nightly, a rotating cast of nonnas from around the world who each bring their own country's food to this tiny, always-packed Staten Island restaurant. One evening it's Paraguayan chicken soup with cornmeal dumplings; the next, a Japanese seaweed salad with yuzu. The phone rings constantly, the tables fill fast, and Joe Scaravella's little place near St. George Terminal runs entirely on grandmotherly authority.

A sleek omakase counter in Williamsburg where the chef runs an edomae-style sushi progression that moves from composed small bites through a focused nigiri course. The fish comes from specific Japanese sources, cured and aged with enough care that the sourcing actually shows on the palate. À la carte is available at the bar and garden if you're not committing to the full ride, which is at least a refreshingly honest policy.

The copper bar wrapped in cherry wood is what catches you first, then the wall of bottles behind it. Entre Nous is a French wine bar in Clinton Hill doing apéro culture without the affectation: natural wine, small plates cooked with more care than the relaxed room suggests, and an atmosphere that works equally well for one glass alone or a long night with friends.

The smoke hits you before the parking lot does. This Miramar Beach counter-service barbecue joint runs Texas-style, meaning you queue, order, and wait for your name while the pit does the talking. The green chili cheese sausage is the thing to get, a fat link studded with peppers and molten cheese pockets. Smoked turkey with black pepper rub and a baked potato casserole round out a tray that makes the drive from anywhere on the Emerald Coast feel like a reasonable idea.

Yellow metal chairs and walls packed with art set the mood at this sibling-run Ethiopian restaurant on Ninth Street, where the kitchen is staffed almost entirely by women cooking from memory and intent. The family platter is the move: a spread of vegetarian and meat dishes across a wide sheet of injera, sour and spongy enough to handle the berbere-laced stews that follow.

The smoker sits in the front yard, doing its advertising before you've even parked. This Long Meadow Ranch farmhouse is a barbecue and wine country restaurant with a cathedral ceiling, old-school country music, and the kind of boisterous locals who make Napa feel briefly un-precious. The ranch supplies much of what lands on the table, and on weekends the produce stands outside mean you can take some of it home.

A neighborhood wine bar on Worth Street that shares a cellar with the fine-dining temple next door, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes the bottle list. The food goes well past bar snacks: salmon tartare with potato chips for crunch, pasta shaped like a crown and stuffed with lobster in dashi broth. Tribeca locals have clearly noticed, and the room fills accordingly.

The São Paulo-based Fasano group has been running elegant hotels and restaurants across two continents, and their Midtown fine dining room fits the pattern: high ceilings, soothing proportions, and a menu that moves through northern Italy without apology. The pasta is genuinely the thing to follow here, and the vitello Milanese reminds you why classics became classics. Sophisticated without being stiff, which in Midtown is no small trick.

What started as a farm outside Tampa grew into a daytime kitchen and bakery where the all-day menu runs from biscuits with honey and whipped butter to turkey Reubens and rotating soups. The mac and cheese, particularly the green hog version with pulled pork and green chilis, has its following. A community calendar on the wall keeps track of on-site events, which gives the place the feeling of a neighborhood hub that also happens to bake its own bread.

An open hearth warms the dimly lit room at this upscale Italian restaurant on Flatbush, where the sommelier-restaurateur's wine instincts shape the whole experience as much as the kitchen does. The pasta earns its reputation, and the menu leans into Southern Italian regional cooking without making a fuss about it. Bring a date or a small group; the room was built for exactly that kind of unhurried evening.

Fawn is a sit-down restaurant in Cooper-Young with mustard-yellow banquettes, tile floors, and big street-facing windows that make the dining room look like it's been professionally lit. The short menu takes familiar dishes and gives them a passport, so a French onion tartine might show up with oyster mushrooms. Expect a neighborhood crowd dressed one notch above casual. It's a Michelin Guide selected restaurant.

Fawn builds its identity around amaro, with a selection deep enough to suggest the staff has opinions about bitterness profiles. It's a seafood wine bar in downtown Decatur where you can drop in for crudos and a glass or commit to a tasting menu that leans into dry-aged fish, fermented everything, and combinations that sound strange until they don't. The Michelin Guide has it listed as a Selected Restaurant.

Scarlet banquettes, a long marble bar, and checkered tile set a confident tone in downtown Memphis before you've even opened the menu. This is a Southern restaurant with a clear point of view, where the kitchen leans into Gulf shrimp, tasso ham, jalapeño cornbread, and fried quail with spiced honey, all without apology. Chef Felicia Suzanne has been at this long enough that the regulars probably know the menu cold, and the room still fills anyway.

Feliciana is a French bistro in Covington, in a former theater, so the drama now comes mostly from the dessert menu. Sunlight pours into the corner dining room, which has a big curved bar, globe lights, and tile floors. It's white-tablecloth-adjacent without the stiffness, and the Michelin Guide lists it. Dinner can continue upstairs on the rooftop bar and patio, for people who like their night with a staircase.

Massive pine trees ring the courtyard and string lights do the rest, which goes a long way toward explaining why this Italian-leaning restaurant on Wilshire has been an Angeleno date-night staple forever. The menu reads familiar until it doesn't, local organic produce turning up in directions that surprise. The Amalfi lemon mousse cake with limoncello granita is the kind of dessert you order before you've finished your entree.

The courtyard is the reason to come: massive pines overhead, string lights threaded through the branches, and enough Santa Monica evening air to make you forget the drive on Wilshire. Fia is an Italian steakhouse that leans into the setting with a menu built around local organic produce and the kind of clever touches that sneak up on you. The crowd tends toward people who've been doing this longer than the valet has been alive.

A terrace right on the Potomac makes the room hard to argue with, and regulars who know this book outside before anyone else gets the idea. This is an upscale Italian seafood restaurant where the kitchen takes raw ingredient quality seriously and the service runs like a tight ship. Lunch keeps the bill from getting too philosophical. Chef Matteo Limoli turns out dishes like a liquid cacio e pepe that has no business working as well as it does.

A raw bar seafood spot a short walk from the actual ocean, which feels right. Inside it's sunny, a little loud, and decorated like someone who actually likes the beach rather than someone staging it. Half the menu is oysters, clams, and lobster, and the staff will talk you through it without making you feel slow. The cooking keeps things clean and confident, letting good fish be good fish.

The strip mall setting hides nothing, which is sort of the point: a Sichuan Chinese restaurant in Tampa that saves its drama for the plate. The menu pulls from classic Sichuan technique and the northeastern Chinese heritage of the team, so the range runs wider than you might expect. Portions are serious, and the dry-fried chicken buried in chilies and peppercorns is not subtle. Come hungry and possibly with a cold drink already in hand.

The rooms here were a house before they were a restaurant, and the vibe hasn't drifted far from that. Small spaces, eclectic art on every wall, a cozy front bar, and a seasonal menu that follows what's coming off nearby farms and the coast. The kitchen keeps things simple and ingredient-forward, the kind of cooking that doesn't need explaining. An old-school Menlo Park institution, and a Michelin Selected Restaurant.

The team is up before dawn baking trays of fat, fluffy focaccia, and everything else follows from that. This is a sandwich counter, a focaccia-forward one, where the bread lands somewhere between pillow and slab and carries fillings like prime rib with smoked horseradish cream. Half portions exist for those who haven't cleared their schedule. A few outdoor tables and some counter seats round out what is a charmingly low-frills operation. The Michelin Guide has it listed.

Exposed ducts, charcoal-gray walls, and metal chairs set the tone at this Malaysian street food restaurant on Buford Highway, designed to feel like a night market and largely succeeding. The menu is enormous, the portions match it, and everything is built for sharing. The Michelin Guide has it listed, which tracks for a place this comfortable feeding a table of eight without breaking a sweat.

Pasta is the whole point at this cozy Lower East Side fine dining spot, and the set menu makes no apologies for it. Fried cacio e pepe risotto supplì show up early and disappear fast, but the real argument is the agnolotti packed with short rib and tossed in butter. Focaccia arrives warm, the room stays small, and weeknight cooking classes mean the regulars are occasionally trying to take the place home with them.

Pan-Asian dining room at the base of the Ponce de Leon Hotel, with arched mirrors, warm wood, and the kind of sleek lighting that makes everyone look like they made a reservation months ago. The kitchen leans hard into contrast: spicy pork wontons with crispy garlic, carrots in kimchi butter, and Japanese A5 wagyu that quietly upstages every steakhouse nearby. The Michelin Guide has it on their radar.

The name is the first thing to deal with: the chef goes by Brother Luck, and the "four" is the number of courses on the prix fixe menu. This is a sit-down dinner of modern Southwestern cooking on Tejon Street, with rabbit, duck, and Colorado lamb in the mix. The service is folksy and the cocktails are inventive, so dress like you're going somewhere but not somewhere stiff. It's a Michelin Guide selected restaurant.

Melissa Perello's neighborhood restaurant on 17th Street is the kind of place that makes you resent everyone who lives within walking distance. The menu is hyper-seasonal and leans Californian-Mediterranean, served family style, with house-made pastas and roasted vegetables doing the heavy lifting instead of anything that comes out of a squeeze bottle. Reservations are genuinely hard to get, but the room is warm and the staff acts like they mean it.

The okonomiyaki griddle in the center of the room is the whole point, and it makes conversation difficult in the best way. This is Paul Virant's Japanese comfort food spot on Lake Street, small and izakaya-ish, with brass fittings and exposed brick keeping things warm. Guests build their own path through Osaka and Hiroshima styles, with a custom Moody Tongue brew on hand to accompany whatever direction that takes.

Friday lunch at this old-school Bourbon Street institution is a full-contact sport: pearls, suits, balloons, Champagne, and party hats arrive with the first seating and don't slow down. The mirrored, gold-accented dining room has been running French-Creole classics for generations, with tuxedoed servers and a menu that treats butter and cream as load-bearing ingredients. Come hungry and clear your afternoon.

The dining room sits above a showroom of luxury cars, which tells you something about the clientele before you've even looked at the menu. This sleek modern Korean restaurant on the Hudson has sweeping skyline views through floor-to-ceiling glass and serves food that moves between bold and delicate, a long-simmered bone broth here, a bright kimchi brine there. Premium Korean teas round out a serious wine list.

A rotisserie chicken counter named for the chef's mom, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. Order at the counter, pick your portion size, add the smashed potatoes cooked in chicken drippings, and try not to feel smug about your choices. The dirt cup with gummy worms is there for adults who prefer their nostalgia unironic. The staff are warmer and more composed than the format requires.

Stephanie Izard's Arts District restaurant sits among podcast studios and gallery spaces, which somehow suits its freewheeling, globe-hopping menu perfectly. The room runs airy and linen-toned with enough potted greenery to feel almost illicit. Drinks arrive decorated with marigold blossoms, the menu roams from roasted oysters to goat curry with no particular apology, and Sunday brunch draws a crowd that clearly planned their weekend around it.

Rattan furniture and a quietly tropical room a short walk from Fort Greene Park set the mood at this neighborhood Thai restaurant. The menu pulls from both northern and southern Thailand, which keeps things more interesting than the usual single-region rundown. The chive pancakes arrive crispy and golden, the fried rice gets a chili-lime jolt, and the 24-hour braised short ribs have a caramelized crust that does most of the convincing.

The open kitchen runs on wood fire, which you can smell before you sit down. Golden Hour is a stylish hotel restaurant in Asheville's River Arts District, inside a former cereal factory with dark brick walls, river-view windows, and ceilings tall enough to feel genuinely industrial. The menu leans into small plates, smoked things, and slow-roasted large formats. The kind of room that makes a hotel stay feel like a real night out.

Ordering here happens on a tablet, which suits the no-frills dining room just fine because the Chinese noodle shop menu is the whole point. The rou jia mo, a flatbread sandwich stuffed with slow-cooked Kurobuta pork, is the kind of street food that makes you forget every other errand you had planned. Braised beef noodles and soup dumplings round out the things you'll feel obligated to order. Rosemead strip mall, easy parking, zero pretension.

The name says it all: this is red-sauce nostalgia with decent sourcing behind it, an Italian-American restaurant where the menu reads like a Sunday supper at someone's grandmother's house, if grandma had a full bar and a buzzy crowd to match. Clams casino, chicken Vesuvio, and macaroni in garlic cream all show up. The pizza selection wanders usefully off-script too. Relaxed, loud, and unapologetically carb-forward.

A 1950s diner with a leather jacket on, Great Maple is a full-service American restaurant in Hillcrest that does brunch, dinner, and late-night with equal conviction. The Fruity Pebbles pancakes and maple-bacon donuts pull a crowd on weekends, while brisket popovers with poached eggs and béarnaise handle the late-night shift. Counter seats fill fast, parking is a project, and the Michelin Guide has taken notice.

Soft leather booths and eye-catching wallpaper give this Kentfield neighborhood restaurant the feel of a barn someone converted into a very tasteful vacation home, which is fitting for Marin. The contemporary American menu leans into crowd-pleasing without apology, and the tiled central bar turns out hand-crafted cocktails with a tropical lean. The zip code skews wealthy, and the room matches accordingly.

The chalkboard changes daily, which is your first clue that this family-run taco and braises shop on a busy Boyle Heights corner takes its cooking seriously. The room is spare and airy, and the tacos are not, built around long-braised meats like cochinita pibil and steak picado that drip sauce the moment you pick one up. Bring napkins, or several.

The house-made mozzarella, pulled fresh and served as an antipasto before it meets a thin-crust pizza, is a reasonable place to start at this family-run Italian-American restaurant near the Monterey airport. The pastas are handmade and land al dente, which shouldn't need saying but does. Generous portions and a sizable menu make it a go-to for large groups, and the cannoli close things out without any fuss.

A food stall inside East End Market from the team behind Domu, Gyukatsu Rose has one real question on the menu: one portion of breaded beef cutlet or two? The beef arrives lightly fried and sliced, and you finish it yourself on a tabletop grill with soy and onion sauces. The frozen matcha pudding with Oreo crumble and brûléed sugar is the closing argument. It books up fast, so reservations are not optional.