The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the United States

Hotel rooms here come with a catch: booking one makes you a temporary member of the private club downstairs, which is otherwise invite-only. The Battery is a boutique hotel tucked inside that members' club, with 14 suites done in a dark, bohemian register that owes more to a Victorian drawing room than a startup off-site. Michelin awarded it 2 Keys.

This is an upscale Mexican restaurant in the Gulch that started life as a food truck and now has a wall of heritage corn kernels behind the bar, which tells you where its loyalties lie. They make their own tortillas from imported and domestic corn, and the portions run generous. Ask about the mole negro, then settle in at the chef's counter. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

This is the downtown branch of a Houston steakhouse dynasty, all dark wood, low lights, and the hush of people who have expense accounts. The wine list is built like a library, with a sommelier who can talk you through it without making you feel graded. Expect crab cakes, a dry-aged rib-eye under bearnaise, and a slab of New York-style cheesecake that locals treat as a civic duty. Dress like you're closing a deal.

The line outside this Austin BBQ shop starts forming before most people have had breakfast, which tells you something. Inside, corrugated metal and cement floors keep things honest while the board above the counter does all the talking: brisket, ribs, sausage, pulled pork, turkey. The brisket comes sliced to order, weighed, wrapped in butcher paper, and set on a blue tray. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which is a polite way of saying the wait isn't the punishment it sounds like.

The tiramisu gets a Miami rewrite here, dulce de leche cream under a cap of espresso granita, and that instinct runs through everything at this snug Italian restaurant on Alton Road. Tufted banquettes and a covered patio set the mood, the wine list runs almost entirely Italian, and the bar pours house-infused grappa in flavors like chai and chamomile. The pasta is made in-house, and regulars fill the room nightly like they never considered going anywhere else.

A modern tower right on the edge of Boston Common, which means the park views from the upper floors are the kind that make you forget you're in a business hotel. The Rockwell Group interiors lean into contemporary luxury rather than Old Boston stuffiness, and the rooms are plush without being fussy. The theater district is essentially at the front door, though the Avery Bar gives you a convincing reason to stay put. A Forbes Four Star property.

The housemade sauces, a tomato-ginger-carrot blend built on West African spices, are so compulsively dippable that chef Fatou Ouattara now bottles and sells them at local groceries. This lively Division Street restaurant draws from across the region: suya-spiced wings, tangy lamb dibi, okra goat stew, and several vegan stews with the same depth. The New York Times put it on their Portland list, and USA Today named it a Restaurant of the Year.

Chef Jose Salazar's tapas bar runs on small plates and a staff that functions more as a personal concierge than a waitstaff, pacing courses, pairing wines, and gently talking you into things you didn't know you wanted. The Spanish and Latin American menu moves through blistered peppers and embutidos before landing on a paella that's the exception to the small-plates rule. A James Beard nominee, and the kind of room that feels like the party started without you but will absolutely let you in.

Caffè Panna is a tiny Italian ice cream shop near Union Square where the menu is rewritten daily around whatever's in season, so lavender rhubarb might not see tomorrow. Sundaes come crowned with imported Italian whipped cream and rubble like chocolate-covered potato chips, a pairing that sounds like a dare. The line is long and moves briskly, and it has landed on Eater's and The Infatuation's lists of top ice cream shops.

Maass is a fine dining room across from Fort Lauderdale beach, cooking Modern European over open fire, the kind of place where foie gras shows up in portions you could lose in a pocket. Dress like you meant it. The weekend brunch is where the plot thickens, because the Japanese soufflé pancake arrives jiggling and tall, then gets buried in cultured butter, maple, and crème fraîche glaze until finishing it becomes a project.

Red-brick facade, wrought-iron balconies, mosaic tilework, and the Pacific about twenty feet away: Casa del Mar is a grand beachfront hotel in Santa Monica that has been drawing California's well-heeled to the sand since the Roaring Twenties. The eight-story property holds restaurants, a spa, and an outdoor pool overlooking the waves, plus a beach concierge who can sort you a surfboard. It holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star, in case the ocean view left any doubt.

Shutters on the Beach is a luxury hotel sitting right on the Santa Monica sand, designed by Obama White House decorator Michael S. Smith in a style that mixes California ease with a little Northeast polish. Hockney and Oldenburg hang on the walls, fireplaces anchor the cozy corners, and the sea air follows you through the lobby. It holds a Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key, and the crowd that books it tends to already know that.

Bonfire Burritos is a counter-service burrito shop in Golden, the kind of place where you order at the register and eat it out of foil, probably in your car. It has a reputation for generous, meat-forward breakfast burritos, with a house specialty that stacks eggs, hash browns, and three different pork products. It has also made a few Denver and national breakfast burrito lists, which is how the pineapple arguments started.

By six on a weekend morning, the lamb is already being hacked apart at this barbacoa shop in the Italian Market, and a line has formed before most of the city is awake. Chef Christina Martinez won a James Beard Award for what comes next: slow-cooked lamb folded into fresh tortillas, quesadillas stuffed with housemade Oaxacan cheese, salsas in every color. The crowd runs from construction workers to food journalists, which tells you something.

The dining room is a century-old Montgomery Ward kit house, the kind of mail-order home that feels like a wry setup for what comes next: four to eight courses of seasonal New American cooking that takes real risks. The chef's tasting menus have landed on the New York Times Restaurant List and earned a James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist nod. There's a small inn next door if you'd rather not drive home contemplating dry-aged toro.

The lamb rogan josh arrives layered with enough depth to make you wonder what the kitchen is actually doing back there. Rasika is a modern Indian restaurant near the Mall, loud and well-lit in the way that says everyone is welcome and no one is being precious about it. The naan alone justifies the bread basket order, and the menu moves comfortably from kebabs to curries without a single piece of decorative kitsch in sight.

The line out the door on South 2nd is the most honest review you'll find. This Williamsburg slice shop has a counter, a few standing ledges, and pizza makers working in plain sight from dough to oven. The crust is thin, crisp, and taken seriously. 50 Top Pizza ranked it the top slice shop in the country, and the New York Times put it on their short list too. Order, pay, wait for your name, eat standing up. That's the whole deal.

This is an ice cream shop on Bellaire Boulevard, an outpost of the Austin-born chain that buys its milk and cream from Texas dairies and rotates flavors with the seasons. The scoop menu runs from honey vanilla bean and horchata to roasted beets and fish mint, which is the one a certain kind of person orders just to tell the table about it. Houstonia put it on its list of the city's ice cream shops, and the sundae-in-a-cup crowd seems content.

The smell hits you before you reach the counter, which is exactly how a bakery should announce itself. Love Croissants is a tiny counter shop in Midtown turning out butter croissants, layered pastries with sweet and savory fillings, and tarts, plus a rotating monthly croissant flavor that keeps regulars checking back. The chef started baking as a personal reset, which is an origin story that makes the whole operation feel a little more human.

White tablecloths, glossy wood paneling, and a wine list that earned a spot in Wine Enthusiast's Restaurant Hall of Fame: Pappas Bros. is the kind of old-school steakhouse that doesn't need to update anything. The menu keeps appetizers brief on purpose, saving the appetite for prime, in-house dry-aged cuts seared the right way. Veteran waiters and sommeliers treat everyone the same whether you're ordering a Shiner or a 1947 Petrus.

Spice Waala started as a pop-up and has since grown to three locations, which tells you something about how fast the kathi rolls travel by word of mouth. It's a casual counter-service spot doing Indian street food, and the chutneys alone justify the trip. Paneer, lamb, or chicken tikka in a roll, aloo tikki with dipping sauces, and a rotating soft serve with flavors drawn from Indian cuisine round out a menu that's both short and hard to edit.

A banana leaf-wrapped branzino arrives at the table and you unwrap it yourself, releasing a cloud of curry-leaf steam. Indibar is a fine dining modern Indian restaurant, all desert neutrals and Art Deco curves, with the white-glove service of a high-end resort. The kitchen applies globe-spanning fine dining technique to tandoori and regional traditions. A James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist in 2026, and named by USA Today among its Restaurants of the Year.

The name means "far from home," which tells you something about what the chef is doing here. This central Phoenix Thai restaurant draws on Bangkok street food and the cooking of the Isan region, with a tight menu of small plates, noodles, and skewers that reads like a personal dispatch rather than a crowd-pleasing survey. The cocktail program is serious enough to make parking on this stretch of Osborn Road feel like a design choice. A James Beard semifinalist, 2024.

Sedalia's shares a property with the Walters family's playground equipment business, which tells you something about Oklahoma City's appetite for surprise. It's a seafood and conservas restaurant where the menu shifts weekly but almost always circles back to anticuchos, a nod to co-owner Silvana's Bolivian roots. Chef Zack Walters earned a James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Southwest, and Bon Appétit named it one of America's Best New Restaurants.

Maillards is a counter-service smashburger operation tucked inside the Two Pitchers taproom in the Outer Sunset, with pop-ups on the side. The patties come out lacy at the edges and arrive on a squishy potato bun with caramelized shallots and a tangy house sauce. Double is the move. Expect a line, which at least gives you time to pick a beer from the taproom and rehearse your order.

Tell anyone in Philadelphia you're heading to Zahav and they'll nod like you've said something smart. This Israeli restaurant in Society Hill runs on a format where everyone starts with the same salatim and mezze, then the table splits into skewers or slow-smoked lamb shoulder territory. That lamb has become the thing people talk about on the train home. Reservations drop weeks out, so set a reminder.

The name is short for "saint," not "street," which tells you something about how seriously they take the bit. A tile-lined slice shop up front gives way, through an actual curtain, to a dim room with dark wood and funk on the speakers. East Coast-style pies, a tight cocktail list, and chicken Parm that earns its place on the menu. Ranked seventh on 50 Top Pizza's Slice USA list, this Magazine Street spot has done real work putting New Orleans on the pizza map.

Carlton, Oregon has about 2,000 people and one extraordinary dinner reservation to chase. Hayward is a farm-to-table restaurant whose room, all blond wood and warm earth tones, reads more Lower Manhattan than Willamette Valley wine country. The menu is short and seasonal, built around whatever's thriving nearby, which means every visit lands differently. Named a New York Times Restaurant List pick and a James Beard Best New Restaurant nominee.

Each cocktail on the menu is credited to the specific bartender who created it, which is either a charming act of transparency or a very public performance review. This neighborhood cocktail bar and casual kitchen in the Heights has a wraparound patio that fills with locals who treat it like a living room. The team behind Anvil runs the place, so the drinks are taken seriously even when the vibe stays loose.

Wood-firing and smoking do most of the heavy lifting at this fine dining spot on Milwaukee's east side, where the chef draws on Southern roots, time on the line at Gramercy Tavern, and a stretch in New Orleans to shape a menu that reads rustic but cooks with real precision. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and the James Beard Foundation named the chef a semifinalist. The garlic focaccia and the charred beef tartare each make a convincing case on their own.

A small-plates restaurant in Walker's Point where the chile crisp deviled eggs tend to set the tone for the rest of the meal. The menu wanders from massaman curry to duck confit agnolotti without apology, and the cocktails are craft without being a whole thing about it. A portion of each featured drink goes to a rotating charity, which covers a lot of ground between Doctors Without Borders and the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. A James Beard semifinalist, twice over.

Iron four-poster beds and colonial furnishings fill a building that was, not so long ago, a saddlery. The Mokara is a boutique hotel on the River Walk with a Forbes Four Star rating, a rooftop pool overlooking the water, and a spa serious enough to count as a destination on its own. Ostra, the in-house restaurant, leans into international seafood. A compact, well-appointed stay for people who find the big chain hotels depressing.

A Beaux Arts landmark on Broadway that has been putting San Diego on notice since long before San Diego had a scene. The US Grant is a grand downtown hotel with high ceilings, burnished wood, and the quiet authority of a building that has never felt the need to explain itself. Forbes Four Star. Convention crowds and weekend arrivals fill the lobby, but the place absorbs them without breaking a sweat.

A 5,000-bottle wine cellar sits beneath a modern American dining room in a residential Des Moines neighborhood, and the kitchen leans hard on an on-site garden for its produce. The chef couple behind it trained at Michelin-starred restaurants abroad before landing here, which may explain the tables booked out for months. The dessert menu runs from a $4 chocolate-fig bar to a $100 banana split, which tells you most of what you need to know about the range.

A handwritten sign on the door warns that the fried chicken takes at least 15 minutes because it comes out of the fryer to order. This West Philly Ethiopian chicken shop coats its birds in a teff-flour buttermilk batter, then finishes them in either a fiery berbere or a lemon-turmeric version the co-owner invented for her kids. Injera and doro wot round things out for the traditionalists, but the chicken is what the line is about.

The pastrami gets brined, pepper-and-coriander rubbed, and smoked before it lands on house-made rye sourdough at this Mueller BBQ shop and deli. Texas Monthly and the New York Times have both taken notice, and the James Beard committee named the team a semifinalist. Concrete floors, wooden-slat booths, and a menu that wanders happily between brisket by the pound and matzoh ball soup. No fuss about it.

A painting of Mos Def watches over the counter at this white-walled thin-crust slice shop on Larkin, where skate photos and a boombox fill out the vibe. The pizza is the main event, but the sandwiches, including a mortadella melt with cheese and pesto, have earned their own press. They bake the bread in-house now, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes the side project.

The bottle list skews Greek, which in practice means you'll be asked whether you'd like to explore natural wines from the Peloponnese before you've even taken your coat off. Krasi is a mezze and wine bar in Back Bay where the food is built for sharing and the room runs loud and convivial. The chef earned a James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Northeast, and Wine Enthusiast named it among their Forward 50. There's a cocktail bar downstairs for a nightcap.

The tandoori octopus with masala potato mash is a reasonable preview of where this modern Indian restaurant is headed. Chef Jassi Bindra, a Chopped champion, treats the menu as a place to be playful, moving from A5 wagyu skewers to quail biryani to a cocktail menu called "Drink My Dessert." The room sits in The Woodlands, polished and date-night ready, and the kitchen keeps pace with both the ambition and the occasion.

A cash-only bánh mì counter on Larkin Street that's been feeding the Tenderloin forever. The line spills out the door at lunch, and the sandwiches cost about what a latte does elsewhere in the city. The rolls shatter when you bite them, and the filling is generous enough to ask for a second napkin. Nobody lingers, so grab one and eat it on the sidewalk like everyone else. Bring small bills.

The handwritten menu changes so often it might be different by the time you finish reading it, which is either thrilling or exhausting depending on your disposition. This cozy New American restaurant in Hazel Park, helmed by chef James Rigato, runs on mismatched vintage plates, eclectic decor, a gothic wine cave, and produce largely grown by Rigato's partner. Named to USA Today's Restaurants of the Year list in 2025.

Half a mile of private Gold Coast beach sets the terms here before you've even checked in. The Beach Club is a Forbes Five Star resort where cabana-style rooms face the Atlantic, three pools compete for your afternoon, and the main restaurant pours ocean views with every meal. When the sand loses its hold, there's championship golf, pickleball, tennis, a marina, and a spa that regulars treat as a destination on its own.

On 340 acres in the Blue Ridge foothills, this full-service luxury resort was modeled after founder Sheila C. Johnson's own nearby home, and it does look suspiciously settled-in for a modern build. Horse trails and working stables share billing with a sprawling spa and several restaurants, putting equestrian country at the center rather than the background. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key, and one of too few Black-owned hotels at this level.

This Neapolitan pizzeria in Cleveland Park has the kind of certification from Naples that sounds like it should come with a notarized stamp, and it takes the paperwork seriously. The pies come out blistered and soft, with buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, and anchovies applied without apology. It's casual and loud with families, and the chef was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef.

Pizz'amici is a tavern-style pizza shop in West Town, where the thin, cracker-crisp crust gets charred on the bottom and cut into squares. It's a nostalgic room with a pepperoni Negroni on the menu, plus tall focaccia and sausage and peppers for the old-school completists. Tables go quickly, so plan ahead or order carryout, which is easier than winning the lottery and only slightly less crowded.

Curried goat over sweet potato gnocchi is the dish that quietly explains Nina Compton's whole project here. This Caribbean-inflected restaurant sits inside a converted coffee warehouse in the Warehouse Arts District, all exposed brick and mosaic tile, and the menu pulls together her St. Lucia roots, New Orleans flavors, and stints in Florida kitchens. The bar holds its own, and the service runs warm enough that a James Beard Outstanding Hospitality semifinalist nod makes a certain sense.

The bread comes from Amelia's next door, and at this neighborhood restaurant it earns its place at every table, not just in the basket. The menu rotates daily around Indiana farms and whatever the season demands, so regulars never quite order the same meal twice. Chef Alan Sternberg has been a James Beard semifinalist multiple times over, and the 2025 nod for Outstanding Hospitality explains the room as much as the food does.

The skylight in the lobby dates to the 1920s, hidden until a renovation uncovered it. The Jefferson is a luxury hotel two blocks from the White House, decorated throughout as a quiet monument to its namesake: custom furniture based on Monticello originals, framed maps of places the third president loved, rooms with his words on the walls. The staff can hold a proper conversation about all of it. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

Grass-roofed hillside suites, creekside cabins, and cliffside rooms with views over Alexander Canyon give this Auberge resort on 4,000 acres outside Park City three genuinely different ways to sleep in the same landscape. Stone, glass, and wood are arranged to keep the mountains and canyon doing the decorating. Horseback riding, fly fishing, and heliskiing fill the days. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

Momo Cafe is the Japanese bakery counter tucked inside Momonoki, and it takes croissants seriously enough to offer them filled with cream, coiled into circles, or just classically layered. The menu rotates, so a savory one with onion, gruyere, and rosemary might be there or might be a memory. Matcha lattes and mochi donuts round things out. A small alcove upstairs lets you eat while watching the ramen crowd below.

The lobby, pools, and restaurants all live on the eighth floor, which means no street traffic filters up and no one is cutting through to anywhere. This Waikiki high-rise hotel holds a Forbes Four Star, and every room is a privately owned residence with a kitchenette, laundry, and enough square footage to feel like you actually live here. The upper floors shift color palettes by level to mirror the island's landscape, which is either lovely or a lot, depending on your floor.

A small neighborhood dinner spot in Botanical Heights where the menu pivots with the seasons, pulling from French, Spanish, and Italian influences without making a fuss about it. The patio draws a crowd, the bar turns out a martini people talk about, and regulars fill seats before the specials are even recited. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and the chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod.

Braised celery hearts with smoked beef tongue are a menu mainstay here, and they tell you everything: this is a French brasserie that means it. The chef owes more to Paris than to the French Quarter, though Gulf fish and red beans find their way in. His business partner runs one of the sharpest wine programs in town. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list in 2023, the same year Bon Appétit named it one of America's Best New Restaurants.

Crispy Gài is a casual Thai street food counter on Exchange Street, in a downtown where the air otherwise smells like lobster rolls and gift-shop candles. The fried chicken here comes in a handful of styles, including a Sichuan-spiced one that numbs your lips and a Hat Yai version buried under fried shallots. Get the dipping sauce flight, since it runs from sweet and tart to funky fish sauce, and The Infatuation has ranked the wings among the country's best.

The wine list runs from cult Champagnes to obscure Loire Valley producers, which tells you a lot about what you're walking into. Davenport is a cozy neighborhood restaurant on East Burnside where the cooking is technique-forward without being theatrical, rotating through whatever ingredients are at their peak. The room is sophisticated without making anyone feel underdressed, which in Portland is harder to pull off than it sounds.

Red Wagon is a casual neighborhood pizzeria in south Minneapolis that treats flour like a perishable, using local grain milled within about three days of becoming dough. The crust comes out chewy and a little nutty. The toppings travel further than the flour, from a fig balsamic spiral to a pie dressed like a bánh mì. Order at a counter, wear whatever, and expect the carrots to be pickled with more care than your last haircut.

San Tung is a Chinese spot on Irving Street where the fried chicken wings, sticky and sweet and shatteringly crisp, show up on nearly every table in a dining room that's always full. The noise level forgives toddlers and tired grown-ups alike. Order a few plates of wings up front, since one round never survives a family-sized table, and expect to wait for a seat.

The Sicilian square here comes sauce-on-top, which is either the detail that makes you understand everything about Brooklyn pizza or the one you'll spend a whole slice arguing about. L&B Spumoni Gardens is an old-school Gravesend pizzeria where the outdoor tables fill up on summer nights with people who clearly know to finish with the almond spumoni. The crunchy, charred corners have been the point since forever.

Old Salt Outpost is a casual burger counter on Last Chance Gulch with a menu so short it barely counts as one. The smash patties come with pickles and onions and nothing else, browned nearly to blackened and soaked in tallow, from beef raised on Montana ranches. The Infatuation has put it on its lists of the best burgers and the best potato dishes in America, the latter for the hand broken potatoes.

The pyramidal glass skylight hovering over eight tiers of cast iron railings is the kind of thing you look up at and forget what you were doing. This Financial District boutique hotel, a Michelin Key holder, occupies an 1881 building whose atrium alone draws people who aren't even staying. Rooms have the soaring ceilings the Victorian bones promise, and the neighborhood keeps things quieter than Midtown without feeling remote.

A glass of manzanilla arrives before you've quite settled in, which tells you everything about the pace here. Toro is a Spanish tapas bar that's been a South End fixture forever, and the room earns its noise, with bone marrow, croquetas, and paella rotating through tables of people who clearly planned this weeks out. The all-Spanish wine list and good cocktails keep things moving, and the music is loud enough that nobody's whispering.

Mesquite and pecan wood smoke drifts out of the open kitchen at this Chihuahuan-rooted restaurant inside Tempe's Culdesac neighborhood, where the grill does serious work on meats, peppers, and open-faced quesadillas. The team behind Tacos Chiwas built something more personal here, moving from taqueria to family table. Moles, micheladas, and brunch dishes like concha French toast fill out a menu that runs morning to night. A James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist in 2024.

The open kitchen anchors a room where wood floors and exposed ductwork split the difference between industrial loft and neighborhood restaurant. J.C. Holdway is a Southern-leaning American dinner spot in downtown Knoxville, the kind where buttermilk biscuits arrive topped with braised pork belly and the pasta is house-made. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and the chef is a James Beard semifinalist. Tennessee ingredients run through nearly everything.

A Knoxville pizzeria that bets everything on sourdough, with 12-inch Neapolitan-style pies split into red, white, and build-your-own. It's casual, jeans-and-sneakers territory, though it takes reservations, which a slice joint would find hilarious. Starters run to a pickle plate and mushroom pâté, and the gelato board changes often. The Michelin Guide lists it as a Bib Gourmand.

The L-shaped marble bar and brass fixtures in the Flatiron Hotel's ground-floor Italian restaurant set a tone that's polished without being stiff. The kitchen butchers whole animals in-house and sources from local farmers' markets, running the results through wood-fired pizzas, handmade pastas, and solid main plates. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, which here means you eat very well and still recognize your credit card statement afterward.

The sunny yellow exterior and orange canopy on the corner of Melrose are hard to miss, which is fitting because neither is the pizza inside. Nancy Silverton's pizzeria has been an LA institution forever, with bare wood tables, skylights, and a Bib Gourmand to its name. The pies come out of the oven with puffy, golden edges, and the seasonal dessert selection runs deep enough to cause genuine indecision.

A 23-foot sculpted head named Laura greets you out front, which sets the tone for this Century City luxury hotel. The curved midcentury tower got a full Fairmont makeover, and the rooms now run to floor-to-ceiling windows, marble bathrooms, and balconies angled toward the LA sunset. The spa mixes deep-tissue massage with red light therapy and power naps on an anti-gravity bed, and the rooftop pool earns its views. A Forbes Four Star property.

The Flatirons fill the windows of this polished downtown Boulder hotel, which sits close enough to Pearl Street that you can walk to dinner and back without a car. Rooms lean toward the understated side of luxury, and the Forbes Four Star spa handles the heavy lifting with a eucalyptus steam room, sauna, and a full treatment menu. Jill's Restaurant pulls from the Boulder Farmers' Market, which is either charming or expected, depending on your tolerance for Colorado.

The bread is the whole philosophy here: Union Loafers is a bakery-turned-full-service restaurant in Botanical Heights where naturally leavened loaves set the tone for everything else on the menu. The pizzas split the difference between New York chew and Neapolitan char, and the sandwiches built on house bread give you a very good reason to show up before dinner. St. Louis-style pizza is conspicuously absent, which some locals treat as a provocation.

Dolly's is a bakery-cafe on Rockaway Avenue that also runs a soft serve window, and the soft serve is where the strangeness lives. The blueberry pancake one comes with an actual pancake on top, so you can eat the dessert and its inspiration side by side like a tiny experiment. Flavors rotate through cereal and banana pudding, and it's all cheap, casual, and eaten standing up. The Infatuation has listed it among the best bakeries in NYC.

Vindicktive is a Belltown beer bar built the opposite way from most sports bars: you come for the wings and the game is background noise. The skin shatters like a potato chip over juicy meat, and the flavors run from buffalo to salt and vinegar. It's a blue-cheese-only house, so ranch requests will be received with a long, quiet look. The Infatuation put the wings on its national list, which tracks.

Nong's is a casual counter-service Thai spot that grew out of a one-dish food cart and still mostly sticks to the plan: poached chicken over rice cooked in the schmaltz, with a cup of clear broth on the side. The ginger sauce has the kind of following that has Portlanders keeping a bottle in the fridge door like a family heirloom. It's cheap, easy, and the city's default answer to a cold.

Lost Larson is a Scandinavian-leaning bakery and cafe in Andersonville that mills its own flour, which sounds like a bit until you see the loaves. The pastry case looks like a Great British Baking Show finale, all tarts, cardamom buns, and savory croissants. Order at the counter, grab a sandwich or an afternoon bun with Earl Grey sugar, and expect to linger over coffee longer than you planned.

Sugar Moon is a takeout-only bakery in Logan Square, so there's no table to claim, just a sidewalk line that starts forming a good half hour before the 9am opening and doesn't care about the weather. The reward is a curried cauliflower croissant or a Nutella-pear brioche bun, plus scones that crumble the way scones should. Pastry runs cheap, the wait costs you a Saturday morning, and it's been named among the country's favorite bakeries by The Infatuation.

Marble-top bar, globe pendants, and coffee-brown tables give this Basque restaurant on the Lower East Side a midcentury feel that somehow never reads as costume. The room runs loud and convivial, the way a good tapas night should, and everything is built for sharing. The wine list leans deep into small Spanish organic and biodynamic producers, which is either very convenient or a very pleasant trap, depending on your evening.

Il Canto is a takeout counter in the Financial District, a Mediterranean spot best known for a breakfast burrito that has a lot of cheese going on. Scrambled eggs and creamy chipotle aioli come wrapped around it, and for a couple extra dollars you can add sausage, bacon, shrimp, potatoes, or beans. It's served all day, so the suits in line at noon don't have to pretend they're there for the Mediterranean part.

Mama's Luncheonette is a daytime takeout window in Cow Hollow that has built a following on things wrapped in foil. The breakfast burrito comes stuffed with smashed tater tots, soft scrambled eggs, avocado, and cheddar, and the thick-sliced house brisket is an add-on you'll want to say yes to. The salsa arrives in a small cup, so ask for extra. There's also a chicken caesar wrap, because lettuce deserves a tortilla too.

Red leather banquettes, white tablecloths, a snappy U-shaped bar, and a shiny open kitchen pack into fifty seats on Dickerson Pike. This is a French-leaning dinner spot where smoke drifts in from a Basque-style wood-fire hearth and the wine list has Brooklyn credentials. Philip Krajeck's third Nashville restaurant has landed on the New York Times' list of Nashville's 25 best, which for a room this quietly romantic feels about right.

White-brick walls and wrought-iron accents give this luxury hotel a European resort feel that sits a little incongruously at the foot of Camelback Mountain, which is sort of the whole point. The ownership group includes an NBA star and a country legend, and the crowd has taken note. Art Deco rooms come stocked with hand-selected books, five restaurants range from poolside to rooftop, and the spa is serious about it. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.