NEW YORK: Like a ’90s nightclub plopped into the middle of NYC’s Lincoln Center, Tatiana glows blue and chain-link gold, blasts Lauryn Hill and Biggie, and serves the most exciting food we’ve tasted at a fancy restaurant, ever. We’re especially fond of the absurdly tender short rib pastrami suya, served with caraway coco bread, inviting you to build sliders. Tatiana is one of the hardest reservations in town, but for a restaurant that feels like a paradigm shift in fine dining, it’s worth it.

PHILADELPHIA: There’s nothing else in Philly quite like Provenance, a restaurant that serves a procession of 20-plus modern French dishes. The $225 tasting menu wanders from caviar-topped or gold-dusted seafood snacks to more substantial—but no less intricate—helpings of scallop and seared pork belly in a kimchi beurre fondue. It’s the kind of place where a single dish has three duck preparations, somehow packaged in just two bites, and desserts are almost too stunning to eat.

LOS ANGELES: What makes a restaurant the highest-rated in LA? For starters, you could dine at this family-run Thai spot in Sherman Oaks a hundred times and have a completely different—and equally special—experience each time. Come on Tuesdays for dry-aged fish tacos and collaborations with guest chefs, farmers, and foragers. Show up on just about any other night to drink wine sourced from a Slovenian commune and eat Southern Thai fried chicken you will think about for the rest of your life.

MIAMI: It makes sense that Tâm Tâm started out as a sexy pop-up supper club, because dinner here is still a social event worth circling on your calendar. But you’re not coming to this Vietnamese restaurant in Downtown just to post a forehead selfie in one of the mirrors on the wall. You’re here to eat some of the most delicious food in Miami. Many of Tâm Tâm’s best dishes—like the sticky fish sauce caramel wings and the tamarind glazed pork ribs—are gloriously messy. Maybe don't wear white.

CHICAGO: Oriole in Chicago will give you one of the best meals of your life for a high price tag ($295). Despite the price, the environment (which you enter through a non-working freight elevator in an alley in the West Loop) isn’t stuffy at all. Attentive servers provide just the right amount of context while presenting you with dishes that will reframe your thoughts—like a truffle pasta with the power to finally convince you that truffles aren’t always a scam.

HOUSTON: Nancy’s Hustle in Houston is the cool restaurant that gets better with every visit. The music is effortlessly curated and the lighting is set to the perfect hue of date-night amber. It's one of the hardest reservations to book, but Nancy's is worth the effort. The menu rotates with the seasons, but count on the mainstays like the fluffy Nancy Cakes, double-patty topped with briny pickles, and the delicate lamb tartare to be on the menu (which means they should also be on your table).

SAN FRANCISCO: There’s no place in San Francisco like Noodle In A Haystack. This pop-up-turned-restaurant in the Richmond has just 12 seats. It’s run by a ridiculously charming husband and wife duo that’ll gladly swap Tokyo recs as you dig into chawanmushi from across the counter. Throughout the night, eight to 10 Japanese-inspired courses ($195) land in front of you like they were dropped into this mortal dimension from the pearly gates.

The food here is “New American” in the sense that it’s difficult to pin down the exact influences other than seasonality and stuff that simply tastes good, but that’s not really important anyway. What’s important is showing up with a date or a few friends, ordering as much of the constantly changing menu as possible, and trying to choose a favorite between dishes like refreshing carrot soup, perfectly al dente tortiglioni, and soft serve drizzled with jam and Sicilian olive oil.

NASHVILLE: If restaurants could have astrological signs, Bastion's would be Gemini. That’s because this Nashville spot has two very distinct sides: a rollicking, come-as-you-are bar with nachos and punch bowls, and a small dining room that’s serving one of the best and most well-thought-out tasting menus in the city. While the menu changes, you can count on a minimalist style of cooking that’s confident without being showy.

ATLANTA: New American restaurant Lazy Betty didn’t just kick off the tasting menu boom in Atlanta, it set the standard for what lavish multi-course experiences could be. The menu shifts frequently to incorporate a range of seasonal ingredients—and to keep repeat diners on their toes. Courses sway from straightforward (tender filets of cod or wagyu beef in a buttery wine sauce) to unexpected (a beef wellington play with a giant scallop coated in a herby truffle custard).