Restaurants to try before you die
Restaurants to try before you die - These culinary destinations around the world include Michelin-star splurges and street food. To come up with our food-obsessive bucket list, we picked each other's brains and combed our most trusted resources for countries and cities where food is not only a cause for national pride, but is also particularly lauded and loved by the world's top critics, and is simultaneously accessible and enticing.

From internationally known chefs to hole-in-the-wall eateries (that locals try to keep secret), and from comforting, familiar dishes to flavors that force you from your comfort zone, traveling for food is nourishing in every sense of the word. Beyond just being sustained, you'll learn something (even if it's just that you actually do like sushi), you'll feel connected to a new place (even if you go once and never need to go again), and you may come back a few pounds heavier (but happier).

Whether you go through our list to check off the places you've been or use it as the jumping off point for your journey to discover a world of flavors, here it is - the ultimate food lover's bucket list.

Just reading those words summon Frank Sinatra's smoky voice and images of yellow cabs whisking fashionable denizens to the newest, chicest spots. New York's high-low cuisine is virtually unmatched, with bagels, pizza, and deli sandwiches as equally argued about as the city's haute cuisine. French, Italian, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese foods are well represented by the city's diverse melting-pot culture.


Eat: Impossible as it is to narrow it down, some of New York's can't-miss eateries include Le Bernardin and The Spotted Pig, while Eataly is a surefire hit with newcomers and old hands.

Sleep: The uber-hip Mercer Hotel is contemporary cool in the boutique and café mecca of SoHo, or book into The Surrey for an intimate uptown vibe.

California's premier wine regions boast lush vineyards and a bright blue coastline. The wines and flavors are oft-imitated and craved, from buttery white wines, earthy red wines, and fresh seafood to locally produced cheeses and farmers' market fruits and vegetables. Mexican flavors, too, like fresh fish tacos and hearty tamales have infiltrated Californian cuisine.



Eat: Try the bar at Cyrus in Healdsburg for a French Laundry-like meal without the set menu. Brassica in St. Helena, Jarvis Winery, and Joseph Phelps Vineyards are must-stops, as are the gorgeous grounds of Chateau St. Jean winery in Sonoma.

Sleep: Rest your head at the charming and luxurious boutique Hotel Healdsburg, just north of Sonoma, or spring for the spa services and sweeping views of Napa's Auberge du Soleil.