Even the bathroom of this Vietnamese restaurant in Downtown Miami is fun. We don’t want to spoil why, so we’ll just tell you it involves karaoke. But you’re not coming here just to drink enough wine to justify three trips to the bathroom. Tam Tam’s menu has creative takes on Vietnamese dishes that are tragically rare in Miami. It’s a tiny spot, so come with a small group or a date and order the sticky fish sauce caramel wings.

Dinner at Muukata6395 in San Francisco is a rowdy Thai barbecue event. Each table has a domed charcoal grill where pork belly, shrimp, and bacon sizzle, as well as a broth moat loaded with vegetables and noodles. Come with friends who are willing to yell across the table, since birthday parties and large groups shriek as they take shots of soju (that’s part of the appeal). And for the pièce de résistance, finish the meal by slurping up the broth flavored with all the barbecue drippings.

Casablanca in Philly looks like it was designed by someone who went to interior design school in North Africa. Color explodes on every available surface—including the wall drapings, stained glass ceiling lamps, woven banquette cushions, and velvet ottomans. The tasting menu clocks in at $30 a person, so it’s easy to throw in extras like creamy hummus and chicken shawarma over rice.

The neon cocktail marquee outside OKO in Austin is a beacon, guiding you toward a great night. This is the type of place where you can dress cute and feel like you’re on vacation somewhere with a sandy beach. Coconut vinegar and tangy fish-sauce glazes add a punch to course after course of slow-roasted pork, chicken, and oxtail. In a city where Filipino restaurants are rarer than a parking spot on South Congress, OKO is one of the best restaurants in Austin.

If schmaltz, chopped liver, and chocolate egg creams occupy key positions in your personal food pyramid, then this Jewish steakhouse-slash-bar mitzvah afterparty in NYC is the place for you. The meal is a communal affair—the $75 family-style set menu ensures everyone gets a bit of veal cutlet and stuffed cabbages, and you’ll likely join hands with the grandparents sitting next to you and dance the hora around the dining room.

Mariscos San Pedro is a casual Mexican spot in Chicago with outstanding seafood and a beach party atmosphere. Cartoon fish mascots greet you from the windows, lobsters dance across the bathroom wallpaper, and the scallop aguachile tastes like it was freshly plucked from the ocean before taking a dip in a bright pink beet and hibiscus cure. Almost every dish at this restaurant is shareable, from the ceviches to the tostadas to the DIY taco situation highlighting a perfectly cooked whole fish.

Rimini has something that all other Italian restaurants in Seattle don’t. Specifically, a Sicilian fellow named Tony who serenades the dining room with Sinatra standards and asks each table, “Va bene?” approximately six times per course. We’d love Rimini for its unrelentingly warm service even if the food was just OK, but thankfully every plate of tender pasta is executed perfectly, and the vodka chicken parm is both blanketed in velvety mozzarella and topped with a dollop of fresh burrata.

It’s rare to find a legitimately fun party restaurant in LA, let alone one with great food. Budonoki pulls off both. A glowing Orion beer sign casts a pink sheen over dates ordering shochu cocktails at the walk-in-only bar, and friends in booths pass around plates of fermented Thai sausage while Lauryn Hill blasts over the speakers. We love that drinks arrive in adorable penguin mugs, and servers will pull up a chair to discuss the restaurant’s Spotify playlist like it’s a family heirloom.

If neon lights and K-Pop jams are your speed, then dinner at One Shot Pocha will hit all of the right marks. You can doodle notes on the chalkboard walls, crunch deep-fried chicken wings that create reverb just as loud as the speaker system, and drink soju out of a watermelon (the proper way to consume the beverage). Hit the karaoke rooms after dinner to sing your heart out and play a little tambourine, too.

Georgia Boy’s 13-course tasting menu is a meal you’ll vividly remember without any help from your camera roll. The rotating dishes at this Atlanta restaurant are inspired by all things local (think: hot dog ice cream and a Georgia pollen salad). There are always a couple of tasty signatures though, like the housemade cereal and poached lobster served with a warm banana milk. All the best speakeasy tricks are employed here: there’s no signage and there’s a hidden back door.