The Best Places to Eat in the United States

Sapphire-blue velvet booths, caramel leather, wood floors, and a chandelier situation that would make a Gilded Age banker feel underdressed: Andrew Carmellini's fine dining room inside the Fifth Avenue Hotel is maximalist and means it. The kitchen leans Mediterranean-Italian, with dishes that have a way of arriving as formal little compositions. A James Beard semifinalist and a New York Times pick for the year's best new restaurants.

This is a casual Italian spot inside the Grand Canal Shoppes, where windows face the Strip and the cooking leans more Hoboken than Bologna, courtesy of the Cake Boss. Portions are built for sharing, with a meatball roughly the size of a toddler's head and a lasagna that keeps its promises. Sunday turns it into an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet, and the chicken parm is the thing to defend at the carving station.

Northern Italian restaurant in Navy Yard that shapeshifts across the day: coffee and focaccia in the morning, aperitivo hour by four, and a full convivial dinner by night. The chef draws on her own northern Italian heritage, so the menu has the kind of specificity that comes from memory rather than research. The James Beard Awards named the chef a 2026 semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

Candles on every surface, amaro on a lengthy list, and pasta made in-house: Karen Akunowicz's Southern Italian wine bar and pastificio in South Boston earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand by sweating the small stuff. The menu leans hard into the flavors of southern Italy, with handmade pasta and a kitchen that clearly knows what it's doing. Two bars keep the energy up, and the crowd leans into it.

Thank you notes from loyal regulars cover the walls at this Vietnamese neighborhood restaurant in Plaza Shamrock, which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. The menu runs wide, from pho and spring rolls to hot pot and vermicelli, and the booths fill early with people who never really need to look at it. Pricing is the kind that makes a second order easy to justify.

Sunlit, laptop-scattered, and full of potted plants in all the ways you'd expect from a third-wave coffee shop, except this one roasts Vietnamese specialty beans and serves bánh mì stuffed with pork meatballs in tangy tomato sauce on Ba Le Bakery bread. The drink menu wanders into fizzy espresso tonics with housemade watermelon syrup. A James Beard semifinalist for its beverages, and on the New York Times list of Philadelphia's top restaurants.

The beef fat fries are the kind of thing that quietly reorganizes your priorities. John's Food and Wine is a laid-back neighborhood restaurant on North Halsted with exposed white brick, a long banquette, and a wine program worth lingering over. You order at the counter, then someone shows you to a table, which turns out to be no hardship at all. The menu runs from country ham to dry-aged steaks, and the room fills with people who seem to have stopped resisting.

El Bagel is a Biscayne Boulevard bagel shop where the line out the door is part of the architecture. The bagels come out blistered and bubbly on the crust, then get stuffed and wrapped tight in parchment, which is how a Miami bagel ends up with guava in it. Bon Appétit once declared these among the very best in the country, outside New York, a distinction New Yorkers will note and then ignore.

A photo of Obama eating a double hangs on the wall, which tells you almost everything about this small, pastel-colored Trinidadian street food spot on H Street. The menu is a love letter to Port of Spain, running through rich stews, channa, and pepperpot fragrant with cinnamon. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and landed on the New York Times Restaurant List, and the lines make sense.

The wraparound windows put both ends of the Strip in frame at once, the Eiffel Tower on one side and MGM's emerald glow on the other. This moody cocktail lounge inside the Waldorf Astoria runs Japanese-leaning bar snacks alongside drinks like a cherry cola old fashioned, and the vibe is firmly date-night. Go for the view, stay for the cocktails, and accept that you probably won't need dinner after.

An Ethiopian restaurant sitting quietly in the Little Ethiopia stretch of Fairfax, where injera-lined silver platters arrive on the table and a fork is beside the point. The family-run team keeps the room simple and lets the food argue for itself, which it does. The kitfo draws regulars back, and the Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand. Come with a group large enough to order widely, or you'll spend the meal regretting what you skipped.

Kira is a 15-seat hand roll bar in Upper Kirby built around a McIntosh stereo and a stack of vinyl, so the soundtrack gets a seat at the counter, too. You order everything up front and the rolls, crudo, and donburi just keep arriving, with a Suntory highball tower nearby and hand-cranked shaved ice to finish. Texas Monthly ranked it among the state's best new restaurants, and the lighting suggests you're probably cooler than you were at six.

Bobby Stuckey, the master sommelier behind Denver's Frasca, brought his Italian restaurant to the Four Seasons Vail, and the town's reservation lines have never been the same. This is elegant, unhurried Northern Italian dining: handmade pasta, bistecca, and an all-Italian wine list curated with the kind of seriousness you'd expect from someone who also co-owns a Friuli winery. The wine window built into the wall is either charming or absurd, possibly both.

Butter shows up in the cocktails here, which tells you most of what you need to know. Bon Délire is a French bistro on the Embarcadero with a horseshoe bar, a minimalist room, and a hip-hop soundtrack that would confuse your grandmother in the best possible way. The menu runs classic, croque madame and steak frites, with madeleines baked to order for dessert. Sunday brunch brings a DJ, which is either absurd or perfect depending on your mood.

The bocce court beside the patio gives away what kind of place this is before you even order. The Vig is a gastropub with a long tap list, a solid wine selection, and a food menu with enough vegetarian options to keep everyone at the table happy. The sprawling patio has its own outdoor bar, which cuts down on excuses to go back inside. Local acts and DJs show up on weekends, and the crowd skews toward people who planned to stay for one drink.

The British steakhouse import near Gramercy that made New York carnivores feel slightly underdressed. The room leans into a warm, vintage-century-club atmosphere, and the menu runs from serious cuts to the kind of British comfort food that sneaks up on you. The bar program is no afterthought, landing a regional Spirited Award and a James Beard semifinalist nod for beverages. A New York Times Critic's Pick, and reliably easier to love than the places that take themselves more seriously.

The wine list has a dedicated section for aged Madeira, which tells you something about the seriousness of the operation. This moody Poncey-Highland wine bar holds a Michelin selection and landed on Bon Appétit's best new bars list, but the kitchen pulls its own weight with snacks, shareable plates, and evening mains that feel seasonal without being precious. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the back label.

San Diego's first yakitori omakase counter fits twelve people total, eight at the bar and four at a table, so the chef's full attention on chicken and vegetable skewers over two hours feels less like dinner service and more like a private audience. The room is spare and elegant. Reservations open thirty days out and disappear fast, which is either an inconvenience or a good sign, depending on your disposition.

The zakusky cart rolling through the dining room is a good sign: Eastern European grandma cooking, done with real intention. Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark named this Avondale restaurant after one of their grandmothers, and the menu follows, from horseradish vodka at the bar to green borscht thick with dill and egg. Balkan wine, stuffed cabbage, challah-soft pampushky. It's the kind of meal that makes you wonder why this cuisine took so long to get here.

A French bistro in the Central West End from Gerard Craft, the team behind it has been drawing a loyal crowd since the place opened. The room buzzes reliably, and for good reason: gougères that arrive impossibly light, escargot loud with garlic, a slow-cooked cassoulet that lands like a wool blanket in the best sense. Skip dessert at your peril, especially the floating island drifting across its pool of crème anglaise.

The bread lineup at this Israeli bakery in Rice Village runs from sourdough to shakshuka pastries to burekitas, the small savory hand pies the team grew up eating in Israel. It's a bright, picturesque café with outdoor seating, connected to the same group behind Doris Metropolitan and Hamsa. A 2025 James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist, it draws the kind of Saturday morning crowd that treats a bakery run like a serious errand.

Mochi crullers coated in coconut caramel and purple ube brioche doughnuts tell you quickly what kind of bakery this is. Rosie Nguyen draws on Vietnamese heritage and a restless pastry imagination to fill the Woodley Park counter with things you won't find anywhere obvious nearby. The space is roomier than you might expect, and weekend slots go fast enough that advance ordering is the move.

The checkered tile floors and art-lined stone walls make it look like a Parisian bistro that wandered into the West Loop and decided to stay. Creepies is a neighborhood French restaurant from the team behind Elske next door, with a concise menu that leans classic and slides Midwestern where it can. The vesper martini landed on Esquire's list of the best in the country, which is not nothing for a place called Creepies.

The rum cake arrives tableside, which is either theater or efficiency depending on your mood. Marcus Samuelsson's hotel restaurant in NoMa runs New American with a wide lens, pulling in tamarind, obe, and uni-béarnaise alongside the kind of blue cornbread that people talk about unprompted. The room dazzles and the menu follows. A James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist runs the kitchen.

New York's only revolving restaurant sits on the 48th floor of the Times Square Marriott Marquis, spinning slowly enough that you don't notice until Midtown has quietly swapped sides. Danny Meyer's team gave it an Art Deco overhaul, and the chophouse menu punches well above the tourist-trap neighborhood. The New York Times gave it a star in 2025. Come for sunset and stay through a full rotation; the chocolate cake made the Times critic's year.

The Original Chopped Salad has its own Facebook page, which tells you something about the regulars here. Citizen Public House is a polished American restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale that manages to feel genuinely comfortable despite looking like it shouldn't. Classic dishes get quiet, confident upgrades, the room runs warm without trying too hard, and the kitchen keeps the kind of hours that make it useful for more than just dinner plans.

Babychan is a Japanese bakery on the ground floor of a Germantown condo building, done up in walnut and Japanese art, which is more design effort than most places put into the thing you eat standing up. The case runs to sesame swiss rolls, salmon onigiri, and milk bread stuffed with cream cheese. It was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur, and the pastries sell out early, so arrive at opening.

The Indian street food mini-chain that started as a spice-blend stand at the farmers market now runs several Salt Lake locations, each anchored by what the restaurant bills as the city's largest Indian buffet. The menu leans into the southern and western regional traditions the founder grew up with, and a James Beard semifinalist nod for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2025 suggests the city has noticed. Come hungry and ready to commit to multiple plates.

Bar Tutto is an all-day Italian cafe from Top Chef winner Joe Flamm, which means you can start with a pastry and an egg sandwich and, if the day cooperates, still be there when the handmade pasta shows up. The wood-fired grill handles razor clams and prawns with Calabrian chile, and the Fernet-leaning cocktail list suggests the staff has opinions about digestivi. It was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur.

Kaya toast on pillowy bread striped with coconut-pandan jam is the thing people cite first, but the menu at this Asian American bakery on Clement Street rotates enough to keep regulars guessing. Pan de sal buns cradle egg salad with panko-fried veg, and the Basque cheesecake is cut thick enough to feel like a statement. Outdoor seating only, but the line moves. The New York Times and the LA Times both put it on their San Francisco lists.

Wooden A-frames perch over Hood Canal tidal flats on a working fifth-generation oyster farm, which tells you most of what you need to know about the oysters. This is an outdoor seafood spot where bivalves are the reason anyone drives out to Lilliwaup, though the supporting cast of crab cakes and clam dishes holds its own. The Stump Bar pours beer and wine and sells buckets of you-shuck oysters for those who skip the reservation.

A large-scale mural by the restaurateur's wife anchors the moody dining room, which looks out onto a park while downtown Fort Worth closes in around it. This polished Italian osteria threads West Texas cooking through the menu, leaning on wild game and simple ingredients to blur the line between the Hill Country and the Apennines. The wine list skews Italian and smartly so.

Named for the Portuguese river and wine region, Douro is a relaxed, all-day seafood restaurant on Portland's Eastern Waterfront that filters Portugal through a Maine lens. The overlap is convenient: both places are serious about what comes out of the water. The kitchen leans into that with raw bar work, sardine toasts, and cataplana, the classic Portuguese seafood stew. The room is unhurried, the menu is coastal in the best bilingual sense.

A diner on Detroit's East Side that now runs Polish nights, the menu built around pierogi, kluski, and kielbasa alongside a long-loved burger on thick sourdough. The room feels like Grandma's sunroom, green walls and pink curtains intact, except for the wax-drowned candlesticks and bouquets cut from the parking lot garden. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List, which tracks.

The birria ramen, built on a dark consomé and a family recipe from the owner's father, tells you everything about this taco spot in Southwest Detroit's Mexicantown. It's a casual, counter-style Mexican restaurant where housemade salsa macha sits on every table the way chile crisp would at a Sichuan place, and the lard-fried chicken Milanese comes with spaghetti verde. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, which tracks.

Doris Metropolitan is a steakhouse that dry-ages its ribeye in-house and then slides Middle Eastern sides next to it, so the tahini salad and the harissa carrots get equal billing with the beef. There's a butchery on the premises if you'd like to take your steak home and cook it badly. It's an expense-account-adjacent night out, and the James Beard folks named the restaurateur a semifinalist.

The lamb neck korma pie, a lard-pastry shell hiding 16 hours of braised lamb and a korma gravy heavy with almonds and warm spice, landed on the New York Times list of the year's best dishes in the country. This Ballard restaurant earned a James Beard semifinalist nod for Best New Restaurant, and Eater Seattle handed it the same category outright. The room is in a neighborhood that rewards a walk after dinner, which you will want.

The dirty martini bucatini, made with vodka sauce, blue cheese, and charred pickled onions, tells you everything about this Sunnyside pasta shop. The team behind the sandwich counter next door brought the same no-rules energy here, with cocktails running on pasta water vodka and ricotta-washed rum. Eater named it one of Denver's best new restaurants, and Westword called it the top no-rules pasta shop in the city.

Pan-Latin cooking from Geoff Cox and Peruvian chef Diego Muñoz lands on the eighth-floor rooftop of the Source Hotel, with views of Denver spread out below like a consolation prize for anyone who couldn't get a table. The menu moves through octopus carpaccio, mushroom tacos, and crushed avocado loaded with pomegranate and quinoa, while the wine list leans South American. Westword named it a top rooftop restaurant in 2026.

A Mexican-American BBQ joint in the Overland neighborhood where pork ribs get the al pastor treatment and brisket ends up in tacos. The collaboration between a Mexican-born chef and a pitmaster sounds like a concept pitch, but the salsa macha coleslaw and dulce de leche key lime pie make the case on the plate. Cold beer, a cucumber margarita with some heat, and sweet tea round out a menu that knows exactly what it is.

Marble cafe tables inside a wine shop looking out at Melrose Market set the scene at Cafe Suliman, a Middle Eastern lunch spot where Pacific Northwest ingredients quietly take over the menu. The toast is famous enough to anchor a meal, and smaller bites like pickled gigante beans and carrot-lentil dip let you graze your way through without committing to a plan. The chef earned a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist nod in 2026.

Red lanterns wrap a concrete compound on Biscayne that runs a full-time DJ alongside its pho, because why not. This Vietnamese restaurant in the MiMo district leans into the party without letting it eat the kitchen, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand suggests the kitchen holds its own. The food is big-portioned and boldly seasoned, built to share across a loud table. Someone nearby will almost certainly start singing.

The red leather booths here supposedly inspired scenes in Casino, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. This is an old-school steakhouse off the Strip, the kind that served Sinatra and the Rat Pack and has never felt the need to apologize for it. Thick porterhouse, a baked potato the size of a small child, lobster tail drowning in butter. Time moves differently in wood-paneled rooms like this.

Olive-green velvet booths, a room that hums with the particular energy of people who might be somebody, and martinis that make a two-hour lunch feel like a reasonable life choice. Stephen Starr revived this old Washington institution near the White House into a full-service American restaurant with a menu that leans classic without apology: French dip, lobster bisque, oysters in beurre blanc. The champagne layer cake arrives frosted in pink, which somehow feels correct.

Bad Butter is a no-seating bakery on Cortland where the pastries lean savory and a little unruly, like a pretzel loaded with cream cheese and mustard or monkey bread with a salsa macha kick. The line has become its own local pastime, so pre-order if you can. Eat your haul on a bench along the 606, where you can hold the bag a bit higher than necessary for the joggers.

Platters of Ibérico pork and dry-aged txuleta arrive pre-sliced, Basque sidrería-style, which tells you everything about how Dolfy's wants you to eat. This Spanish pintxos and wood-fired grill spot on Freret Street was built for sharing, from passed gildas to charred leeks on romesco. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, and the room runs with the kind of easy energy that makes you order one more round.

A French-ish bakery in West Town where the bakers trained in patisserie but treat tradition as a suggestion. Expect baguettes, Brie sandwiches, and sugar-crusted kouign amann, plus a line out the door. Inside, there's room for booths facing the glass-walled baking room, which is a nice way to watch the people who make your four-pastry limit. Eater counted it among Chicago's best new restaurants, and the sandwiches and bread come with no cap.

A fish sauce martini is either the best idea you've heard all week or the reason you're leaving, which is a pretty good filter for this Vietnamese-French bistro on Eldridge. The menu swings between leeks vinaigrette with mussels and vol-au-vent loaded with chilis and seafood. Getting a table means arriving before doors open to join the waitlist, which the regulars already knew.

The name is a cocktail: soju dropped into beer, the classic Korean bar move. Downtown Crossing's Somaek is a minimalist Korean restaurant where the chef drew inspiration from his mother-in-law's cooking, and it shows in a menu that skips fusion theatrics for the real stuff. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, it landed on the New York Times Restaurant List too. Go for the stews, order the namesake drink, and don't rush out.

The steak tartare comes dressed with Thai papaya salad and malt-vinegar chips, which tells you everything about how the kitchen thinks. Ellie Bird is a casual New American restaurant in Falls Church where Yuan Tang, of Rooster & Owl, runs global mash-ups alongside rigatoni Bolognese and kimchi-rice brunch bowls. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list and Washingtonian ranked it among the DC area's favorites, so the room fills accordingly.

A converted house in Barrio Logan where you settle your bill at the deli counter and the most coveted seats are outside under the trees. This cozy Italian osteria earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand on a menu of handmade pastas, including a handful of gluten-free options, and the kitchen sends out complimentary focaccia with a mascarpone-ricotta dip before you've even made up your mind.

A horseshoe bar built for ordering another round and reconsidering your diet anchors this swanky Cherry Creek steakhouse. The open kitchen is positioned to do exactly what it sounds like, and watching seafood towers and massive chops roll past does tend to loosen the budget. Sushi rolls sit alongside the classic steakhouse trimmings, which is either ambitious or just honest about what people actually want. Save room for the chocolate ganache globe.

A modern Jewish deli operating out of an old firehouse in Ohio City, where the bread case alone causes problems for anyone trying to leave quickly. Babka, challah, rugelach, and knishes anchor one end of the menu; koji-cured pastrami sandwiches have become the thing people line up for. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025, as did the pastry program, which tells you something about how seriously both sides of the counter are taken.

Bungalow is the Logan Square brewpub where the beer runs on wild yeast and the wine is made with as little intervention as the law allows. Tavern-style thin-crust pizza shows up on Tuesdays, cut in squares, but the toppings come from regional farms and the sauces wander off script. Order a pepperoni pie here and you'll feel like you've missed the point. The Beard folks named the beverage program a semifinalist in 2024.

Order at the wood counter, catch a glimpse of the kitchen behind it, and try not to eat the pastries before your food arrives. Liu's Cafe is a small, low-key Chinese diner on 6th Street where the seats fill fast and the menu leans into comfort: wontons, braised pork belly rice, chili oil noodles, a pot of milk oolong on the side. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the sesame cold noodles won a LAist Best Bites nod.

A Peruvian ceviche shop tucked just under the elevated train tracks in Richmond Hill, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand without much fuss about its location. Tree stumps with cushions serve as patio seating, and Latin music hits you at the door. The leche de tigre arrives in a martini glass with octopus, scallops, and shrimp, and the pork tamal, steamed in bamboo, makes a quiet case for itself from the corner of the menu.

The line out the door in Sunset Park is a reliable fixture regardless of weather. This Sichuan restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and packs its two floors with backless stools and no-frills wooden tables, which keeps the focus on the food. The kitchen goes lighter on the chili oil than you'd expect, coaxing complex flavors rather than just heat. Staff with earpieces navigate the room efficiently and are happy to guide first-timers through the menu.

A small pierogi shop tucked into Greenpoint, the part of Brooklyn that still feels like it never left Warsaw. The menu does exactly what it promises, with stuffed dumplings running savory to sweet, plus borscht, golabki, and kielbasa that could carry a meal on its own. Bolesławiec pottery doubles as the serveware, which is either charming or showing off depending on your mood. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and a shot of Polish liquor is basically required.

No ocean in sight from this busy East Hollywood corner, but the seafood at Found Oyster doesn't seem to notice. It's a no-frills bar and seafood spot where the team applies a firm philosophy: impeccably sourced shellfish needs little beyond a squeeze of lemon to do its job. The oysters come from the general manager's family farm, which is either charming or unfair competition, depending on how you look at it. The New York Times and the LA Times have both taken notice.

The Cuban sandwich here starts with pork butt marinated for a full week before it ever meets the press. This old-school Little Havana sandwich shop holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and there's nearly always a line snaking through the narrow emerald-green room to prove the point. The lechon, shredded pork in garlic-cilantro aioli, is the heavier move if you can't decide. Come hungry and come ready to wait.

Red lights, pool tables, a game room, and flatbreads until 2 a.m.: The Little Woody refuses to be just one kind of place, and Arcadia has loved it for years because of that. It's a dive bar with cocktail lounge bones, where dart nights blur into dancing and the Gun Shy Sour keeps the bourbon crowd happy. Weekend nights draw a younger crowd who treat the arcade games as warmly as the drinks.

The pink building with green trim on Main Street signals something a little different, and the floral wallpaper and mismatched furniture inside confirm it. Cobi's is a lively, affordable Southeast Asian restaurant running Thai, Malaysian, and beyond on one broad menu. The Michelin Bib Gourmand crowd tends to look pleased about the curry puffs, the wood-grilled mains, and the fact that dinner here rarely requires a difficult conversation about the bill.

Nick Curtola's trattoria across from sibling bar The Four Horsemen handles regional Italian with the kind of restraint that makes everything taste more intentional. Braised beef tendon shaved thin over acidic onions is the opening move, and it tells you exactly what kind of kitchen this is. Handmade pasta and rustic mains follow that same logic. The tiramisu is feather-light and enormous. Reservations go fast, but the bar at opening is a fine consolation.

Floor-to-ceiling windows wrap a corner of Fishtown where chef Frankie Ramirez runs an ambitious, high-end Mexican restaurant closer in spirit to Mexico City than to anything else on the Philly dining scene. The cocktail list leans into sotol and other Mexican ingredients, and the menu is built for sharing, from tostadas to a whole wood-fired pulpo. A James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist in 2026.

The wood-fired brick oven at the back of this Miami Beach pizza shop is the whole point. It's a Brooklyn transplant with plank floors and chunky tables that feel nothing like South Beach, which is part of the appeal. The 18-inch pie comes out lusciously charred with a light crust, fresh tomato sauce, and basil, and you can dress half differently if your table can't agree. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, which means the prices won't ruin dinner.

The cocktail menu changes every time the gallery does, which tells you most of what you need to know about Papercut. It's a minimalist East Austin cocktail bar where the drinks are keyed to whatever paintings are currently on the walls, so ordering becomes a little like picking a favorite piece. A back bar called Konbini serves Mexican-Japanese sushi when you need something to eat. The team came up from San Francisco, and the room feels it.

Fried chicken and Chartreuse slushies share a menu here, which tells you everything about the spirit of this neighborhood bistro on Grand Avenue. The team behind the Morris in San Francisco brought their seafood-and-ferment instincts across the Bay, and the result is a wine bar with exposed brick, a vine-covered back patio, and wood-fired mussels that make the whole premise feel inevitable. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the top 100 restaurants in the Bay Area.

The hojicha canelé, flavored with roasted green tea and whiskey, tells you everything you need to know before you've found a seat. The Wayland Mill is an all-day café on the ground floor of a Wallingford office building, where the chef's Japanese heritage, Midwest upbringing, and years running Seattle restaurants converge on one menu. The Saint Paul Sando alone, a riff on St. Louis Chinese-American egg foo young pressed into precise tamago on shokupan, has made it a James Beard semifinalist.

1228 Main is a daytime bakery and cafe in the Arts District where the pastry case gets the best light in the building. The laminated stuff is the draw, from lemon cruffins to crème brûlée croissants, and most people could call it breakfast with just a cappuccino. There's also a croissant sandwich with gruyère, avocado, and jalapeño aioli. It's part of the Wolfgang Puck group, which explains the discipline.

A sun-drenched brunch and lunch spot where the dining room is essentially a greenhouse looking onto a gravel European garden, the patio alone drawing people who'd otherwise eat indoors without a second thought. Gerard Craft's team runs it, with a pastry chef background in the kitchen that shows up in the morning baking. The cacio e pepe eggs have their fans. Semifinalist for a James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur nod in 2025.