526 Best Restaurants in USA

This award-winning teahouse, named Yelp’s “Most Loved Business in D.C.” in 2019, features more than 80 teas, tonics, and body products based on founder Dr. Sunyatta Amen’s Jamaican Maroon and Native American great-grandmothers’ time-tested formulas. After you're greeted at the counter, one of Calabash’s skilled staff will craft a concoction based on your needs or desires. Every interaction is personal. Calabash also offers healing via direct-trade, pour-over coffees and vegan vittles, including Jamaican patties, pies, and soups. At Calabash, you enter as a customer and then become a part of the community.

The coffee at this cozy little house on Main Street is amazing because they roast their own small-batch specialty beans. It's a popular breakfast stop with great pastries, muesli, parfait, and breakfast burritos. The small all-day menu is also a big draw. Try the avocado toast, green chili chicken and grits, or breakfast burrito. They also offer a nice selection of organic teas for non-coffee drinkers.

This beloved local joint—it opened as Scoopy's in the 1990s and longtime fans still call it that—offers all kinds of mix-ins (such as regional faves, salted and unsalted pecans) and toppings to embellish the luscious custard-style ice cream. Chili dogs are among the savory treats. There are three locations in Las Cruces.

A local favorite, this storefront bakery, with branches nearby in Anacortes and Mount Vernon, turns out heavenly pastries, plus big portions of breakfast and lunch fare. Lunches focus on fresh and creative salads, soups, and burgers; huge and hearty breakfasts may leave you with little need for lunch—the roasted-butternut-squash hash and migas are a couple of favorites. Buy goodies at the take-out counter for a picnic adventure.

Nestled on the ground floor of an inconspicuous apartment building between Ballard Ave. and the National Nordic Museum, this little café is a one-of-a-kind hybrid. The co-owners are German and Chinese, and the menu mixes those two cultures in unique, surprising ways. Along with familiar espresso drinks and five varieties of Chinese tea, there are specialty drinks that border on the surreal: seaweed latte (with soy sauce caramel) and yuzu vanilla espresso tonic are prime examples. The food choices—mainly pastries and breakfast bites—are equally daring.

A first-rate independent café on a heavily trafficked Downtown corner by MAX and streetcar stops, Case Study serves small-batch, house-roasted coffee in a variety of formats, from Chemex to Aeropress to crowds of regulars. There are additional locations in Nob Hill, Hollywood, and Alberta.

After several years as a full-service restaurant in the Outer Richmond and then North Beach, husband-and-wife team chef Kris Toliao and Yuka Ioroi's Japanese-Californian-inspired concept decided to downsize dramatically and switch to a daytime-only café model. However, this new home happens to be a lush palm tree and plant-filled courtyard oasis in the heart of charming Jackson Square. Since its opening in early 2025, Cassava swiftly has become the rare place that is a lunchtime go-to for both the food travel cognoscenti and nearby office workers.

Next to the shuttle stop at Zion Lodge, this small, convenient, fast-food restaurant has a lovely shaded patio but no indoor seating. You can grab a banana, burger, smoothie, or salad to go, order local brews from the beer garden cart, or enjoy a dish of ice cream while soaking up the views of the surrounding geological formations.

The knowledgeable staff at this small storefront pours a perfect latte, Turkish coffee, or French roast. It's the best place in the neighborhood to grab a pound of beans or a cup of quality coffee to go.

This cute Latina- and LGBTQ-owned café in downtown Sunnyside has an inviting, hip vibe with artfully arranged plants and a beautiful floral mural. Stop in for an espresso pick-me-up between wineries or a craft cocktail. 

More than just a coffee shop, Chaparral is truly a community hub. Owners Taylor and Austin Burge have developed the breakfast and lunch menu of the tiny space to fit the town's growing needs, and they throw DJ-fueled dance parties and other events here, too. But yes, the coffee is also stellar—in fact, it's worlds better than most of the coffee you can find anywhere else in small-town Texas.

A surprisingly hip spot for quaint Chestnut Hill, Char and Stave serves excellent coffee and coffee drinks, while doubling as a spirits bar that's open late. Some of their drinks feature both coffee and alcohol, and they sell the coffee beans and their own spirits to go as well.

With a handful of locations throughout Seattle, this local roaster gets coffee just right: smooth, bold, and full of flavor. Breakfast items at the laid-back café include same-day-fresh Seattle Bagels with schmear and bagel (or pita) egg sandwiches, while the lunch menu features gyro and falafel sandwiches as well as a signature Persian rice bowl with house-made yogurt, pickled vegetables, and a choice of beef or eggplant.

This large year-round café features coffee from a local coffee roaster, but you can get much more than a cup of joe—for breakfast, grab a breakfast sandwich or avocado toast; for lunch or dinner, a salad, wrap, or taco. In a town without a lot of quick-bite spots, it's a good choice for picking up lunch to enjoy in the park, at your lodging, or at a table inside or, come summer, out front.

Undeniably French, this bustling café serves authentic, delicious food. Walk through the door of this bright, open space and you'll almost certainly be greeted with a cheery "bonjour" from Anne-Laure, who owns it with her husband, Philippe. Start your day with a crepe, a fluffy omelet, or le gauffre (large waffle). Lunch offers quiches with perfectly flaky crusts, an enticing selection of large salads (the salade de la maison has pears, pine nuts, blue cheese, Spanish chorizo, tomatoes, and cucumbers atop mixed greens), and savory sandwiches like the classic croque madame (grilled ham, egg, and cheese) on homemade bread. The classic onion soup is comforting on a cold day. Save room for the café's namesake dessert, clafoutis. The baguettes and pastries are perfectly prepared—no small feat at 7,000 feet elevation.

Coffee and hot chocolate made with love, community, and the best intentions just tastes better. Cocoa Cinnamon and their in-house roasters Little Waves source coffee beans and ingredients from small and sustainable producers all over the world, and tell stories through their beverages. The rotating Wonder Menu features seasonal special drinks like I'll Be Your Mirror (latte with Nutella and black pepper) and Two After Midnight's Children, a drinking chocolate with hot peppers, honey, and sea salt. Three locations include the more laptop-friendly Old West Durham, the coffee roastery and fresh churros at Lakewood, and the original Old North Durham, each with distinct thoughtful design and local art.

Musician and chocolate maker Aaron Lindstrom combines his passions at this multi-functional cafe. During the day, visitors can peer into the chocolate factory (and, occasionally, take tours) as they chow down on baked goods with punny music-related names (Sconie Mitchell, the Sam Cook-ie) or one of the few larger items, like chocolate grilled cheese. Alongside the chocolate made on-site, it sells a small selection of vinyl, and each chocolate bar is paired with its own song.

For seriously good local roast in Chinatown, head to this tiny storefront at the entrance to St. Mary's Square.

One of the area's most popular gathering spots, the Coffee Exchange is the place to come for pastries, a coffee (hot or cold), and a chat. Family-run, the coffee shop has been an East Side landmark for more than 40 years, adopting socially conscious sourcing long before that was common or trendy. If you don't have time to sit a spell, stop by the to-go window on the deck. 

This cozy café inside a 19th-century cannery building on historic Pier 39 has big windows overlooking the river—you can always take your well-crafted espresso or latte with you for a stroll around this fascinating pier with its free Hanthorn Cannery Museum. Open until midafternoon each day, Coffee Girl also serves tasty quiches, pastries, soups, bagels with lox, and grilled panini sandwiches.

Now located in the Perry Mill building after years on Bannister's Wharf, this tiny espresso bar has views of Newport's vibrant harbor and downtown. Pair a flavored latte and a pastry on a fog-bound early morning, and you'll feel the essence of the city as it awakens around you. Stop back for in-between-meal snacks or a pick-me-up after a night out.

This coffeehouse is in a literal house, built in 1904 in Downtown Franklin, and during a good mid-morning lull, you can curl up with a cinnamon toast crepe in one of the sitting rooms and listen to a record or read a book. The library room is an especially good spot to pass a rainy afternoon with hot soup and a grown-up grilled cheese sandwich.

Nob Hill's design and architecture tend to be resolutely old-school, except with this impossibly hip coffee shop. Coffee and espresso drinks are excellent, plus there's a tasting flight of the day's offerings for the most avid coffee nerd. It's the perfect caffeine fuel stop before a Nob Hill climb. There is no kitchen here—just pastries—and the only seating are two benches outside.

With hardwood floors, Jacobethan brick walls, and rotating work from local artists, Coffeehouse Northwest is the quintessential Portland café—and one of the city’s pioneering specialty shops, the first to serve single-origin beans. Expect first-rate drinks made with shots of espresso from Dovetail Coffee Roasters.

Craving a jolt of flavorful java? Take a coffee break from the usual and perk up with a cup at this local chain, housed in a historic water pumping station (you can still see the old pump). Amid lofty ceilings, exposed brick and hardwood floors, sip your lovingly crafted and poured brews, made-from-scratch pastries and simple and fresh sandwiches like pesto mozzarella, Wisconsin grilled cheese and avocado BLT. There are 11 Alterra locations throughout the Milwaukee area.

The exterior of Communal Coffee reads "Coffee + Flowers," and though that's not the name of the café, it's also not inaccurate—you actually can pick up a bouquet while you're there. But while there's plenty to keep patrons occupied—including a curated selection of housewares, books, and chocolates—the main attraction is still the fresh-brewed coffee and flaky, buttery pastries.