American restaurants in USA
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A
Lafayette Coney Island
The 'coney' – a hot dog smothered with chili and onions – is a Detroit specialty. When the craving strikes (and it will), take care of business at Lafayette. The minimalist menu consists of burgers, fries and beer, in addition to the signature item. Cash only.
reviewed
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B
À Côté
Small plates are the specialty at this foodie-scenester restaurant, and they’re deliciously creative – our favorite is the knock-out lobster-corn fritters. Great cocktails. Women can sport high heels without standing out; men can wear jeans and blend in.
reviewed
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C
South Side
Local athletes, blue-collar electricians and everyone in between pile into this sleek Tremont establishment to drink at the winding granite bar. They come for the late-night food too, like the grouper sandwich, veggie Reuben and Kobe burger.
reviewed
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Farm 255
This stylish, light-filled bistro gets much of its meat and vegetables from its own 5-acre, organic/biodynamic Blue Moon Farms outside of Athens. The operative word here is fresh.
reviewed
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D
Chelsea's Kitchen
Kick up the wardrobe for this see-and-be-seen eatery (you will get a once-over); but then again, looking nice just feels right. Brick walls, lofty industrial ceiling, leather booths: this casual place wouldn't be out of place in New York's Chelsea. The cuisine, however, is distinctly Western-inspired. Burgers, salads and tacos make appearances, but we're partial to the organic meats tanned to juicy perfection in the hardwood rotisserie. There's a nice patio too.
reviewed
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E
Home
There's no place like it, especially if you enjoy comfort food - mac 'n' cheese, roast chicken, pot roast - served fireside, with a gaggle of gym-fresh men and $4 Homegirls (aka Cosmo plus Champagne) during the 4pm to 7pm happy hour.
reviewed
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F
Blue Heaven
Proof that location is nearly everything, this is one of the quirkiest venues on an island of oddities. Customers and a local chicken flock dine in the spacious courtyard where Hemingway once officiated boxing matches; restrooms are in the adjacent former brothel. This place gets packed with customers who wolf down Southern-fried takes on Keys cuisine – the barbecued shrimp, drunk in a spicy sauce, are gorgeous.
reviewed
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G
Hogg Brothers Café
The Hogg Brothers Café is a bizarre, pig-obsessed joint that serves all-day breakfasts, including 20 kinds of omelettes, strong coffee, and 30 different types of burgers and sandwiches.
reviewed
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Poco’s Bow Street Cantina
Southwestern dishes arrive with New England flair at this lively waterfront spot. Blackened red snapper, fish tacos and jerk chicken quesadillas are among the mouthwatering favorites.
reviewed
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Vintage Press
A cherished Visalia institution since 1966, Vintage Press is elegant, festive and upscale. Have a cocktail while you wait for excellent rack of lamb or filet mignon.
reviewed
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Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater
A 'drive-in' where you eat in abbreviated Cadillacs and watch classic sci-fi flicks. It's dark in here, and the sky twinkles with stars.
reviewed
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Village Cafe
Delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner platters.
reviewed
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Bob’s Big Boy
The red-checkered, pompadoured kid still woos hamburger-craving hordes at America’s oldest remaining Big Boy’s – his fiberglass form a refreshing reminder that some people in LA still eat. Inside, grab a burnt-orange booth for a double-decker combo, or, on weekend nights, enjoy carhop service in back.
reviewed
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Craft
When super chef Tom Colicchio opened this fine-food palace in a sweeping architectural space several years ago, the concept was completely new: create your own meal with à la carte items, and enjoy the feeling that not a plate on your table was cookie cutter. Copycats sprang up around town, but this spot still reigns – and still feels fresh – as ingredients change seasonally, and are always finely prepared. Menu Items can be found under their appropriate subject headings – fish, ‘farm egg, ’ meat, vegetables, salad – and it’s up to you to make the matches (or ask for some expert direction). You might wind up with a plate of Spanish mackerel with fennel, mizuna with…
reviewed
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L
Good Stuff Eatery
Good Stuff chef Spike Mendelsohn is one of the most buzzed-about young chefs in the District, and he’s cut out a controversial reputation for himself. Pros? He wants to bring good food at a good price to the masses, his sliders (mini-burgers) swept the South Beach Food & Wine Festival in 2009 and he works his kitchen – this is a celebrity chef who actually cooks your meal. Cons? He does reality shows like Top Chef, wears a dumb hat and his name is ‘Spike.’ Screw it; how about the food? Well, Good Stuff is good stuff: burgers, salads, shakes and fries, done with nice attention to detail and fresh ingredients. Plus, the salad comes with cornbread (nice). Still, if…
reviewed
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Agraria Farmers & Fishers
Location, location, location, mission. Huh? Well, you know the importance of the first three, and Agraria’s setting is as good as it gets: overlooking the Georgetown waterfront, a prime people-watching perch. But we love this place more for her mission: serving high-quality food sourced through sustainable partnerships with local small agricultural operators. Admittedly, sometimes this commitment to doing right induces eye rolls; having the soft tacos described as an ‘homage to the field workers who plant, tend and harvest our food’ is a bit tacky. But that’s a minor complaint. We’re not going to come down too hard on a restaurant that does its part for local communities,…
reviewed
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Restaurant Michael Mina
Involuntary shudders can be induced in most San Franciscan foodies by uttering the words ‘hotel restaurant, ’ but chef Michael Mina’s exception to the rule at the Hotel St Francis proved so successful, he’s expanded his empire to 15 other restaurants. Mina takes a three-dimensional approach to dining, where each dish is actually three variations on one key ingredient. Though the signature triple tuna tartare starter and lobster pot pie mains have inspired raves and legions of copycats, the seasonal menu showcases innovation and ripe flavors – butter-poached lobster with melon laced with red curry, or foie gras terrine with pickled strawberries. Consultations with your…
reviewed
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Oval Room
The Oval Room occupies some pretty prime real estate, sitting in the equidistant center of a Polygon of Power formed by the Hay-Adams Hotel, Army & Navy Club, Eisenhower Building and Decatur House. (We can imagine a Dan Brown character drawing marker lines between all of the above to the Oval, whispering, ‘It all fits !’ But we digress.) You could plop the Oval in bloody Bethesda and it’d still serve standout food, generally of the American-hint-of-Mediterranean genre. This author loves butter and cream, yet he’ll admit the Oval’s eschewing of the above in favor of allowing ingredients to hold their own intensity, such as foie gras with lemon and lavender, or bass laced…
reviewed
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The Heights
They don’t keep on reaching for such great heights at the Heights – they’ve seized them (sorry – Postal Service reference). The food is excellent Americana stuff – the fried chicken and mash potatoes is wonderful, and wasabi-crusted fish is gorgeous, but whatever you do, come on a weekend and order off the greatest Bloody Mary menu on Earth. Select from 10 different types of vodka, or tequila, or gin, then add from a glut of options, including beef broth, clam juice, Old Bay seasoning, lump crabmeat, bacon – well, we could go on. By the way, you can order all of the above together. Of course, then time would stop and the universe would implode upon itself, so…
reviewed
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Q
Zola
A subtle but playful theme of espionage runs through this hip restaurant, named for French author Emile Zola, who championed the case of Alfred Dreyfus when he was falsely accused of being a spy. Located inside the International Spy Museum, it’s only appropriate that guests should be able to monitor the kitchen through discreet one-way mirrors in the booths, or slip off to the restroom through a hidden door. Black-and-white photographs and projections of coded text further add to the mysterious air in the restaurant. In the midst of this secrecy, Zola’s cuisine is pretty straight up. Bleu cheese pasta on local veal is nicely over the top, and a pretty gazpacho is…
reviewed
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Salem Cross Inn
If you haven’t had your fill of colonial reenactment at OSV, head to this inn, built in 1705 and set on 600 lovely acres in West Brookfield. The calf’s liver with bacon and caramelized onions is a house specialty ($15). Besides offering traditional New England meals, the inn hosts special events like the ‘Fireplace Feast’ and ‘Herb Sampler.’ Its Hexmark Tavern (dinner Tuesday to Friday) has less fancy fare for less fancy prices and the lunch menu incongruously offers ‘Mediterranean wraps’ and other items the colonists never heard of. Follow US 20 (2 miles west of Old Sturbridge Village) to MA 148 north; 7 miles along, turn left onto MA 9 and go 5 miles.
reviewed
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City Zen
James Beard–award-winning chef Eric Zeibold heads the kitchen at one of DC’s most acclaimed restaurants. Zeibold is something of a legend in US culinary circles; he came up in California’s French Laundry (arguably the best restaurant in America, some say the world) and approaches food with what we’d call fierce innovation; this is the kind of guy who mixes red snapper skin with lentils and can make you think a monkfish liver was a slice of perfect foie gras. The tasting menu of most foodies’ sweatiest fantasies is served in a dining room that’s almost blinding in its ritzy opulence. To cut a very fine deal, treat yourself to the $50 bar tasting menu.
reviewed
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Restaurant Eve
While ‘fusion’ may be an overused adjective when it comes to describing restaurants, the best kitchens always fuse. Innovation and tradition, regional and international influences, comfort and class. Eve contains every-thing we have described, a combination of great American ingredients, precise French technique and some of the highest levels of service we’ve encountered in the area. Splurge here and opt for the tasting menus, which are simply on another level of gastronomic experience. This is one of the few vegan-friendly high-end restaurants in the DC metro area; just make sure to call a day ahead and chef-owner Cathal Armstrong’s team will be happy to accommodate…
reviewed
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Blue Ridge
We’ll give you a few guesses as to what part of the country the menu at Blue Ridge is sourced from. Give up? Ah, you’re not from around here. Makes sense; you bought the Lonely Planet after all. Well, the food here comes from the Blue Ridge Mountains, which form the western spine of Virginia. This is Americana stuff done up with superb attention to detail, served in a dining room that’s a little too spare to feel as rustic as it wants to be (the waitstaff wear plaid, which comes off as more hipster than the intended country-fried). The mains are lovely, but we especially love the charcuterie and cheese plates, filled with meat and fermented milk sourced from the…
reviewed
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Mendocino Grille & Wine Bar
The fusion here is done with just the right light touch, giving Mendocino’s menu the sort of refreshing kick you get out of a cool West Coast breeze. Fish comes floating on nutty jasmine rice, framed by meaty mushrooms, while a chard salad has twists of citric bite and chili heat. For all that, we especially love having wine and cheese nights here; whoever picks the stuff out really knows their fromage, which is as modern and refreshing as the interior decor. To sum Mendocino up: this is very fine contemporary California cuisine, which compliments all the contemporary California SUVs driven by all the nearby contemporary California Georgetown undergrads.
reviewed