Best Restaurants in USA

We traveled widely and ate avidly as we built the annual list of our favorite restaurants in America. From Oklahoma City to Juncos, Puerto Rico, to Orcas Island off the coast of Washington State, our food reporters, editors and critics found revelatory Ethiopian barbecue, innovative Haitian cooking and possibly the most delicious fried pork sandwich in the United States.

While we love to see a dynamic new dining room open its doors, we’re equally impressed by kitchens that are doing their best work years in. So while some of our picks debuted just this summer, others have been around for decades. The one thing they do have in common: The food is amazing.

These are the 5 restaurants we love most in 2022.

Anajak Thai

Technically speaking, Anajak Thai is 41 years old, but when Justin Pichetrungsi took over the Sherman Oaks bistro from his parents a couple of years ago, he built on the Thai menu and natural wine list in thoughtful and utterly delicious ways. Go for the more experimental omakase-style menu on the weekend, the freewheeling spirit of Thai Taco Tuesdays, or anytime you manage to get a table and spend time with the whole grilled sea bream in a bright green pool of tangy nam jim or Southern Thai-style fried chicken. TEJAL RAO

Apteka

It is not shocking to find an excellent Eastern European restaurant in a city where pierogi listicles count as clickbait. The twist at Apteka is that the food is vegan; the thrill is that you won’t notice anything missing. The co-chefs, co-owners and life partners Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski build depth, texture and flavor with fermentation, ingenuity (don’t miss the celeriac schnitzel) and cultured nut milk as lush as crème fraîche. Their produce-driven food is shaped in part by Mr. Skowronski; a son of Polish immigrants, he grew up visiting relatives with abundant gardens in and around Warsaw.

Bacanora

At this corner restaurant lit up in neon, the caramelo stands apart. It’s a nontraditional take: a corn tortilla grilled until crisp and piled generously with salsa, queso fresco, plump pinto beans and shreds of carne asada. But this place is hardly a one-hit wonder. There are practically no misses on the short menu of Sonoran food, anchored by a large grill (there are no ovens or stoves) and the chef Rene Andrade’s uncanny ability to balance brightness, salt and acidity. He’s the kind of cook who puts as much care into a side of beans as he does into a special of grilled yellowtail collar glazed with tangy chamoy — and it shows.

The Inn At Little Washington

One of the best restaurants in Washington State is The Inn at Little Washington. The Inn at Little Washington is the only restaurant in the Washington DC metropolitan area that has rated as 5 star, making it a must-visit. Although its exterior seems typical of an American inn or private country house, the interior is far from ordinary. Richly carpeted and wallpapered with an intricate design that is illuminated by shimmery accents and lighting, the grandeur of the dining room is spectacularly romantic.

At the heart of this experience are the beautifully crafted dishes of chef Patrick O’Connell. Dishes like Hamachi crudo atop Golden beet “pasta with a Melange of Citrus and Beet Tartare” to a wonderful wobbly vanilla panna cotta with strawberry Consomme show the profundity of sweet, savory, and sour flavors all poised to perfection. This place has best food in Washington.

Jont

Jont restaurant will transport you to the finerise of Japanese cuisine without the hassle of long journey. Despite opening at the peak of the pandemic, as you enter through Jont’s sister restaurant Bresca, you will be met with a dimly lit staircase and sleek minimalism.

A 14-seat counter encircles the kitchen, which is pristine and unblemished, leaving the eye with nothing to focus on but the vibrant colors of the plates of culinary art.