Here Are the 10 Best New U.S. Restaurants: Food and Wine

Whether you’re a foodie or just looking for a new restaurant to put on your bucket list, our friends at Food & Wine, the magazine for epicureans that is owned by our parent company Time Inc., has you covered with their new list of of the 10 most exciting new places to eat in America. The criteria for making the list? Originality as well as offering authentic and delicious fare.

“I love the ambition and out-of-the-box thinking behind these restaurants,” says F&W editor Nilou Motamed. “They exemplify so many of the trends we’re excited about at Food & Wine: Middle Eastern flavors, inventive breakfasts, and even talented chefs giving back to underserved communities. It’s an exciting time to be a lover of restaurants.”

Here’s their list, with a taste of why the restaurant made the cut. To read more, click here:

Brewer’s Table at Surly Brewing, Minneapolis

“Across the country, people are eating better food and drinking better beer every day. I can’t imagine a more satisfying place to do both than Brewer’s Table.”

Cala, San Francisco

“[Chef Gabriela Cámara is] doing unconventional things, making tamales with sea urchin and charred habanero-leek relish, trout tostadas with fried leeks, and abalone-and-oyster aguachile (ceviche) with sea beans.”

Death & Taxes, Raleigh, North Carolina

“Ashley Christensen has mastered the tricky art of live-fire cooking, using her grill to make everything from insanely good littleneck clams with embered butter to … an epic pork chop.”

High Street on Hudson, New York City

“If I were going to spend the entire day at a single restaurant, it would be High Street on Hudson … [which offers] an incredible around-the-clock array of dishes.”

Launderette, Austin

“Rene Ortiz is a guy who loves hyperbole (like a few other chefs I know). In this case, his food is so good, it usually deserves everything he says about it.”

Locol, Los Angeles

“Located in L.A.’s underserved Watts neighborhood … Locol employs and trains people from the community to run the operation. It also uses top-quality ingredients—like Straus Family Creamery milk for the soft-serve sundaes—but manages to keep prices superlow.”

Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio, Chicago

“At Monteverde, chef Sarah Grueneberg (above) goes beyond the boundaries of her kitchen: She has a pastificio, a table where she and her team make some of the most outstanding pasta in the country.”

Shaya, New Orleans

“The pita … is ultra-tender and pillowy, and the scent perfumes the room… That bread is terrific for scooping up the supercreamy hummus with toppings such as crispy fried cauliflower. “

The Dabney, Washington, D.C.

“Chef Jeremiah Langhorne [has] obsessed over historic cookbooks. The resulting dishes—aged ham toast with truffle Mornay sauce, peanut butter cake with celery ice cream—taste wonderfully modern but have roots that go back hundreds of years.”

Townsman, Boston

“If you want to experience the genius of chef Matt Jennings in one dish, order the Grande Plateau at his handsome brasserie. Standing three feet high, the tower is loaded with the local seafood that Jennings is so passionate about.”

Check out the complete list of Restaurants of the Year 2016, here.