26 Best Restaurants in USA

Top-notch craft beer and plenty of food options makes 49th State Brewing Company a must when passing through Healy. Committed to using local ingredients whenever possible, they offer plenty of Alaska-grown dishes, the keystone being the Alaskan-raised, all-you-can-eat pig roast on Friday nights. More than ten in-house beers are on tap to go along with the outdoor beer garden. Gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options are also available.

Chef James Boyce started his career at New York's famed Le Cirque, where he worked under Daniel Boulud, one of the world's best-known chefs. Boyce has been featured on the Today show and other national programs. Upscale comfort food describes the menu—catfish arrives grilled rather than the usual fried and the buttermilk-fried chicken comes with Dijon-seasoned collards. Southern Street Tacos feature fried okra, green tomato chimichurri, and pickled jalapenos. Sunny windows brighten the minimalist but cozy setting.

You're going to think you're lost, but resist the urge to turn around because the tiny speck of sand that is Flamingo Heights really is that far out there, and this gastronomical goldmine—a roadside diner elevated by a lesbian couple who came to the desert for their honeymoon and never left—will likely be the best meal you'll eat this side of the Little San Bernardinos. Expect seasonally inspired brunch and lunch plates served without pretense and made using farm-to-fork ingredients and bits of culinary wisdom cribbed from the South (fried chicken), France (buckwheat ham galette), the Middle East (citrus and beets, a labneh-doused burger), and Philly's top kitchens (where the chef once toiled).

Gaze at Yosemite Falls through this dining room's wall of windows—almost every table has a view—as you nosh on steaks, seafood, and classic California salads and desserts. The Mountain Room Lounge, a few steps away in the Yosemite Valley Lodge complex, has about 10 beers on tap.

A couple of blocks from Arcata's festive plaza, this hip seafood restaurant inside a beautifully converted old machine shop offers seating in an airy dining room and on a large side patio. Specialties include classic panko-crusted cod and chips and seared-rare steelhead, but you could also make a meal of small plates from the raw bar—shrimp cocktail, ceviche tostadas, and raw or grilled Pacific oysters among them.

The name, decor, and menu at this lively brewpub pay homage to California's Gold Rush era and the year the state and county were officially established. Many of the craft beers on tap come from the owners' 1850 Brewing Company, and dishes include everything from traditional Bavarian pretzels and hearty baked mac and cheese to ahi nachos and salmon cakes.

Calabrian-born SF resident Francesco Covucci is determined to continue the Italian legacy of North Beach with trendy, casual, quality-driven regional Italian eateries (he also owns Il Casaro Pizzeria at 348 Columbus Ave.). Here you can slam Roman-style pinsa, which is a modern style of ciabatta-shaped pizza made of a multigrain flour mix and gourmet toppings like burrata and pesto or pear, walnut, and Gorgonzola.

If it's martinis and jazz you're after, come to this casually elegant space (larger and snazzier after a move to the historic Baur's Building), which features comfort foods with a twist and small plates. Live music most nights makes this a laid-back spot. The cocktail roster, printed inside old jazz albums, is one of the most intricate around, and the Sunday jazz brunch swings.

Gulf seafood, grilled steaks, and seasonal specials are served in this massive, camplike tin-roofed shack complex overlooking Mobile Bay, including views of downtown lights at night. The huge selection offers everything from traditional regional dishes such as turtle soup and fried oysters to surprises like crayfish-smothered pork chops and grits. Service is precise but friendly. Reserve ahead for tables by windows.

A nice change from seafood restaurants that dominate the area, this comfortable, casual Italian spot specializes in pizza, pasta, hand-cut steaks, and endless salad bowls. The Franco Platter is a mini buffet featuring lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo, and chicken Parmesan.

An upscale restaurant in Visalia's downtown hub, Fugazzi's serves up Italian-American and international-fusion dishes in a slick, contemporary space with leather booths and shiny metal tables. The extensive lunch and dinner menus feature everything from quinoa-and-kale salad and Thai chicken wraps to traditional Italian dishes and grilled lamb chops.

A thriving oyster farm north of San Francisco in Tomales Bay serves up its harvest at this raw bar and restaurant in the Ferry Building, where devotees come for impeccably fresh oysters and clams on the half shell, even though it closes early (by 7 pm most nights). Other mollusk-centered options include a first-rate seafood stew, grilled oysters, clam chowder, and “steamer” dishes, but the bar also turns out one of the city’s best grilled cheese sandwiches,made with three artisanal cheeses on artisanal bread.

Southern food prepared fresh daily is the standard at this little, homey restaurant that dates to 1928 and was the inspiration for Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. Owners have changed over the years, but the famous fried green tomatoes and Southern cooking endure. Daily specials might bring green tomato Parmesan or okra and green tomato fritters. Plain fried green tomatoes, fried chicken (livers too), fried catfish, country-fried steak, sweet-potato soufflé, and various pies and cobblers are always on the menu.

Swing through wooden doors and into a spacious dining room that re-creates an authentic Old West saloon, decked out with a wooden bar and furniture, mounted animal heads, fugitive wanted fliers, film posters, and other memorabilia. The traditional steak-house menu includes ribs, filet mignon, flat iron steak, along with crab cakes, salmon, pizzas, and pasta.

Established in 1928 and owned by four generations of the same family until 2020, the legacy lives on at this award-winning barbecue joint. McClard's is still the place to use up a wad of napkins while eating a plate of ribs dripping in the family's famous barbecue sauce. The restaurant is on the west side of town, in a squat, white-washed, stucco building with neon signs outside and interior walls plastered with accolades.

Dining at this nautically themed restaurant on the bayou is a local tradition. Fried, steamed, broiled, and grilled seafood is served, but oysters are the house specialty, including Firecracker Oysters on the half shell baked with sliced jalapenos, garlic cream sauce, and topped with cheese. Don't miss the homemade gumbo, brimming with crab claws, shrimp, okra, and a secret combination of spices.

From the complimentary basket of skinny, brittle breadsticks to the pappardelle with short rib ragù, chef Staffan Terje’s entire menu is a delectable
paean to northern Italy. With a long marble bar and open kitchen, this brick-lined two-story space oozes big-city charm, attracting business types and Italian food aficionados alike to the FiDi well after evening rush hour ends.

Pandemic opening and hardly Italian, this colorful small plates Spanish-style tapas/pinxos bar deserves a spot especially if you need a quick bite before heading off to dinner with an appetite stimulating vermouth-based aperitif. The food is delicious, with delightful ambiance and a not-to-miss for anyone who could use a night off from Italian.

Cool as the other side of the pillow, South on Main serves sophisticated Southern cuisine at an accessible price, wrapped in a comfortable architectural design of French bistro with a drawl. What's more, it's kissing cousins with Oxford American magazine, a literary buffet of Southern culture. When the two families get together, which is often, they dish up an eclectic entertainment menu of musical performances, literary readings, and anything else that brings the magazine "from page to stage."

A short way down the waterfront boardwalk from the cruise port is the Cookhouse, a casual restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. Heat lamps on the deck make the outdoor seating attractive even on cooler days, and with views like this, it makes sense to head outside. Menu items include burgers, reindeer slider sloppy joes, and (highly recommended) halibut-and-chips.

There are wheels in the yard and Old West artifacts on the interior walls at this restaurant in the Stovepipe Wells Village hotel. A full dinner menu with steaks and pasta is served year-round, as are box lunches and a breakfast buffet. Quench your thirst and fuel up on lunch and snacks in the full-service saloon specializing in burgers and sandwiches. 

In a central dining tent beside the Tuolumne River, this restaurant serves a menu of hearty American fare at breakfast and dinner. The red-and-white-checkered tablecloths and a handful of communal tables give it the feeling of an old-fashioned summer camp.

Watch deer graze in the meadow while you dine in the romantic, candlelit dining room of the whitewashed Wawona Hotel, which dates from the late 1800s. The American-style cuisine favors fresh ingredients and flavors; trout and flatiron steaks are menu staples.

An unassuming roadhouse along Route 66 in Seligman, Westside Lilo's is a must for exceptionally well-prepared, hearty short-order cooking. The prodigious breakfast burritos, green-chile stew, hefty cheeseburgers, and famously massive cinnamon buns are a hit with regulars and tourists. One "slice" of the famous carrot cake is equal to three or four slices at most restaurants.

Those fueling up for a day on the trail or famished after a high-country hike will appreciate the all-you-can-eat, family-style breakfasts and dinners in this tiny dining room. Mashed potatoes, big pots of curried vegetables, and heaps of pasta often grace the tables in this cozy out-of-the-way place.

Although it's now a regional chain, this local favorite for seafood has been in business since 1938, serving a menu of mostly seafood (especially fresh and fried Gulf oysters) from its original location on Dauphin Street. A local favorite, the original location has a lot more home-spun charm than the newer branches, with bare wood tables and walls decorated with hand-printed signs and slogans. If you want to try one of the signatures, go for the fried crab claws or fried oyster dinner. The menu even includes a couple of steaks for those who don't eat seafood. For dessert, there's "loaded bread pudding" (for two).