There’s no other restaurant in Philly quite like Provenance, the Society Hill spot serving a $225 tasting menu that shows off 25-ish pristine French-Korean dishes. This is food in HD—you can taste every element of the lineup, which includes velvety uni with buttercup squash and ruby red bluefin tuna topped with foie gras and black truffle. An 11-seat soapstone counter where chefs hand out three-bite portions could easily feel serious. But Provenance gets loud and lively, thanks to Motown music, an open kitchen, and couples polishing off their wine pairings with fermented satsuma plums. If you’re a French mother sauce aficionado, the food alone warrants an immediate visit. But if you aren’t, you should still go. Provenance is the best dining experience you’re going to have in a town that's full of them.

This Queen Village Japanese restaurant has a walk-in izakaya in front where you can sit in a booth, drink a balanced cocktail, and eat chirashi and fried fish collars like a happy kitten. The room is dark, the bar is bumping, and we rarely spend fewer than three hours loitering here. But if you want to feel like the princess of Philadelphia, try to book the 17-piece sushi omakase in the back. You might get dry-aged mackerel with chive oil or a silky chawanmushi topped with an obscene amount of caviar. Both dining options are memorable in their own ways. Which is nice, considering you probably can't get into the omakase.

This two-story American spot in Rittenhouse has an incredible first-floor bar where you can order a la carte, and a tasting-menu only dining space upstairs with candles, velvet booths, and stained glass windows. It’s an atmosphere that’s somehow both relaxing and sophisticated, and no matter where you sit you’ll have an unforgettable meal. The eight-course menu is $165 per person, and you can expect things like perfectly executed beef tartare, charred octopus, crudo with caviar, and New York Strip with cinnamon-y yams. When your meal is over, head back downstairs to the bar, order a well-made cocktail, and keep the night going.

For excellent and exciting Thai food in a chic and sexy package, look no further than Kalaya. The Fishtown restaurant's industrial space includes a full bar and lounge area, booths for large groups, and two-tops surrounding 14-foot Thai palm trees that reach up to an atrium glass ceiling. The southern Thai menu is extensive—your best bet is to come with a group and play table tetris with an order of (almost) everything. You’ll want some chicken dumplings that look too pretty to eat, and the fiery, sweet, and sour grilled squid. Save room for one of the umami-rich wok-fried dishes, and at least one curry from the rainbow of options. From their innovative cocktails to unforgettable dishes, Kalaya is an experience unlike anywhere else in the city.

Her Place serves a four-course, $90 tasting menu that changes every two weeks, and to get a reservation, you’ll need to be ready when they drop them on every other Sunday at 6pm. You'll eat lobster ravioli and brown butter profiteroles and harmonize with the chefs to a Destiny’s Child song, all while they put the finishing touches on a plate of housemade pasta. Energy-wise, a meal here is more like hanging at a chef’s house than dining in a tiny Rittenhouse restaurant. It's a ton of fun, and even more delicious.

This tiny, tasting-menu-only spot in Queen Village feels more like a great dinner party than a restaurant. At its core, Ambra is all about rustic Italian, and delivers it unlike anywhere else in the city—with tweezer precision, a dash of molecular gastronomy, and exceptional service. It’s a once-in-a-presidential-term kind of meal that you’ll want to have once a season. You have the option to dine in the kitchen with the chefs, but the best seats are at the single communal table in the candlelit, flower-filled dining room (your only other option). That’s where ten strangers become friends during a wine-, caviar-, and truffle-fueled meal. Warm, seamless service and chatty tablemates make the three-hour experience fly by, but you won’t want it to.

This Cambodian noodle shop could only exist in Philly. The small Bella Vista BYOB has walls covered in old rugs, mirrors that the host of Antique Roadshow would drool over, and dishes that we think about more than the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. The menu is heavily influenced by the chef/owner’s Cambodian heritage, but you’ll find soups, noodles, and skewers from all over Southeast Asia. We always get the head-on soft-shell shrimp with fish sauce caramel, and tell everyone we know to do the same.

Thanks to it's glimmering seafood towers, modern French mains, and caviar-topped everything, this Rittenhouse restaurant works just as well for a martini-fueled group dinner as it does for a romantic night out on the town. Like its sister restaurant, Her Place Supper Club, it’s a tough reservation to get. But a blow-out meal here is worth the hassle. They make technically impressive food and cocktails without any of the self-seriousness that usually comes with it.

Fine dining places can, after a while, all start to mesh together. But Vernick Fish isn’t just any fine-dining restaurant—it comes from the team behind Vernick Food & Drink and serves some excellent, creative dishes. Located on the ground floor of the Comcast Tower, the dining room looks like it belongs in a Versace Home catalog. They have an impressive wine list, several crudo options that deserve streets named after them, and an incredible New York strip. Save it for a fancy night out.

Philly has plenty of Middle Eastern food, and we can’t seem to escape Mediterranean restaurants. But Emmett, a sophisticated restaurant in Kensington, delivers a combination that you won’t find anywhere else. The service is seamless, and drinks like a lamb fat washed-rye cocktail are as fine-tuned as what’s coming from the kitchen. Influences come from the Levant, with stops in France, Italy, and the American South, but no matter the inspiration, every dish is delicious. Horseradish-flooded wagyu tartlets are topped with wasabi caps, charred carrots bathe in spicy mangal jam, and the ruby red duck–the city’s best–is paired with caramelly dates and seared foie. Eating an array of confident, complex dishes isn’t the issue at Emmett. Figuring out how to try them all is.

River Twice thrives on details. Every table has built-in utensil drawers. Each menu is stamped with the date. Every dish in the $75 four-course tasting incorporates a delicate little sauce or an infused oil that someone probably lost sleep over. These facts would normally point to a boring restaurant. But between the inventive food—often made with East Coast seafood and produce, Japanese and French techniques, and some Texas flair—and the handful of cooks scurrying around the open kitchen, you'll be pleasantly locked into your meal. Come for a big-deal dinner and, unless you hate yourself and/or don't eat meat, add on the Mother Rucker burger (our favorite in the city).

Blue Corn is one of the first places we send people for Mexican food in Philly. Almost everything here is made on site—from the two salsas that appear on every table to the corn tortillas used for their tacos, quesadillas, and huaraches. And while you might find al pastor tacos and ceviche on lots of menus, Blue Corn does the basics better than anyone else. The Italian Market restaurant looks like it's decorated for a holiday you're not aware of, so why not make it a celebration—they make some of the best margaritas in the city.

Illata, a modern American spot in Fitler Square, strikes the perfect balance between casual neighborhood bistro and sexy, sophisticated BYOB. The candlelit restaurant is definitely intimate—they only have 20 seats, plus a tiny bar area that's reserved for walk-ins. But the laidback atmosphere means you’ll probably get a glimpse of the chefs dancing to Lou Reed in the open kitchen. The small menu of seasonal seafood and produce is full of surprises like lobster hidden inside a squid ink crepe, and the marinated mussels in miso chili oil and the brown butter tart are some of the best bites in the city. Almost every dish costs less than $30, so it’s great to bring a few friends and order all 10-ish dishes. What a feeling.

Few things in life will train you for the rejection you’ll face when trying to reserve a table at Zahav. Only going to the DMV on a Saturday can come close. But when you do get a chance to eat at this Israeli icon in Old City , you’ll get to taste a rotation of small plates like fried carrots, fluffy laffa bread, and silky hummus. Everything on their rotating $90 five-course tasting menu is good, but their tender pomegranate-glazed lamb shoulder and juicy swordfish coated with earthy kale tzatziki are the headliners (when they’re on the menu). They also have a $45 wine pairing featuring all Middle Eastern producers.

The next time you want to dive into a book, have a memorable breakfast or lunch, and forget the rest of the world exists, come to this Vietnamese coffee shop in Kensington. They even have long tables so you can bring a group of friends here to start your day with oniony broken rice porridge, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches on long rolls, cha fries that come covered with salsa roja and fried eggs, or crispy chicken ​​bánh mì coated with a sweet gochu glaze. Pair any of them with a custard-layered egg coffee (made from beans sourced from Vietnam and roasted on site).

This revered Italian spot in Center City has a tasting menu that includes things like a dungeness crab budino with a puffy gnocco fritto, a pasta lineup featuring spinach gnocchi and corzetti with pistachio tarragon, and a few mains like poached halibut. It’s the kind of place that starts to feel like home after a few courses, especially since the servers make you feel so at ease that you may end up telling them your life story. While a meal here will run you $165 (and more with the worthwhile $95 wine pairing), a night at the intimate spot is more than worth it. Whatever they serve you, you’ll be replaying every bite in your mind all week like a highlight reel.

It's wild that one cash-only spot in Bella Vista makes the city's best pizzas and cheesesteaks. But that's Angelo's for you. Come when you want the best of both worlds, like their cheesesteak on seeded crackly bread (that they bake in-house), the signature Upside Down pie that buries a layer of cheese beneath mounds of tomato sauce, and a classic margherita with the creamiest fior di latte in the city. People care a lot about cheesesteaks and pizza in this city, and after you eat at Angelo's, you'll understand why.

This beloved Italian Market taqueria only has a few items on the menu—barbacoa and pancita tacos, a lamb consomme, and specials like tamales and quesadillas. They're all very good, especially the juicy, fatty, incredibly flavorful lamb barbacoa, which is the star of the single best taco in Philly. The corn tortillas are just as memorable as the fillings—they're thick and speckled with mini air pockets, and delicious whether they're cradling pancita or simply dipped in the housemade salsas. It’s a pretty popular spot with tourists (thank you, Chef's Table), so show up before noon or later in the afternoon if you don’t want to wait in line.

There’s only one deli-by-day, trattoria-by-night that serves a five-course, $100 tasting menu to the tune of My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy. Before 5pm at this South Philly shop, grill dads hover over the glass case admiring a perfect slab of shortribs, but come sundown, guests are seated around the open kitchen for unexpected, intricate dishes like aged toro with peperonata, agrodolce onion, and fennel pollen, or goat ragu on a creamy mattress of house-milled polenta. Stop by early for a game day Italiano platter or stacked sandwich. But if you want to dine in the smoky beef heart of it all, make a reservation, grab a bottle of your favorite red, and prepare to relive your garage band fantasies for just one night.

What makes this modern French spot in East Passyunk one of the best restaurants in Philly? Well, it’s like a chameleon. The mirror-lined space works for a big-deal date, but it’s still casual enough to sit at the bar by yourself and blend in. The real reason Laurel is at the top of the list, though, is that we’re always blown away by the originality of the dishes, which are now offered a la carte instead of strictly via tasting menu. Try the mussels hiding under shiso leaves and scallops in an oyster cream that you’ll want to bottle and take home. It'll feel Iike eating the ingredients again for the first time.

If you want the best restaurant in Chinatown, just look for the friendly cartoon duck in a chef’s hat. He’s the welcome committee at Sang Kee, which has been serving the best Peking duck in the city since 1980. The restaurant is usually packed, but service is fast so wait times tend to be short. Of course you’ll need to order the glistening, crispy-skinned duck with scallions and hoisin sauce, but the understudies here are just as impressive as the star of the show. Sang Kee also makes excellent Hong Kong-style BBQ, noodle soups, and stir fry in huge portions, perfect for sharing.

There's no shortage of fantastic Mexican restaurants in this city, but there is a shortage of great cemitas. Lucky for us, there's El Chingon, an all-day Mexican cafe and BYOB restaurant. It's a plant-filled corner spot perfect for grabbing coffee and conchas before work or sharing a bunch of tacos and tostadas for a casual date night. The whole menu is worth exploring, but the real specialties here are the Pueblan-style sandwiches. We can't stop thinking about the clásica, which comes stacked with crisp fried chicken, avocado, chipotle peppers, and stringy, salty quesillo cheese, all on housemade rolls. Chingon's chef/owner started the bread program at Parc, so you know those buns are good.

Come to Dante & Luigi’s whenever you get the chance: to celebrate a birthday or anniversary, to satisfy a lasagna craving, or when you want to feel like an extra in The Godfather. The century-old Bella Vista institution is buzzing with waiters in vests and families ordering the usual (who needs a menu when you’ve been coming for generations?). Fill the table with Italian powerhouses—creamy penne a la vodka, fall-off-the-bone osso bucco, and the best veal parmigiana in the city. Decadence is the name of the game here, from the top tier service to the chocolate cannoli. So whether you walk in on a Tuesday or plan to propose, it’ll be a meal that you’ll never forget. 

This Fishtown restaurant is in our Best Burgers, Best Brunch, and Last Meal In Philly guides. Okay, the last one was made up, but that’s how much we love Middle Child Clubhouse. The place combines creative cocktails, American comfort food, and pictures of Princess Diana in Eagles gear. And it just keeps getting better with age. Come solo for breakfast and eat some fluffy pancakes and pastrami-and-egg burritos, then bring friends back for dinner and split housemade pasta and peppery brick chicken. It’s that rare fun place that works for everything from a low-key morning to an exciting night out. And that’s why we (and most of the city) keep going back.

Jumping through hoops to secure a meal tends to make the food taste worse. But CJ&D’s Trenton-style pies are so good, it’s well worth the trouble of getting one. The South Philly pizzeria is hidden inside Cartesian Brewing, only accepts orders in person, and makes each of its four types of pies one at a time. For the uninitiated, Trenton-style means cheese is laid directly on top of the dough, and then covered in sauce. We’re partial to the white pizza, but you can’t go wrong here. The crust is a thin and crunchy, no-flop situation—it holds up even under the creamy mozzarella, tangy crushed tomato sauce, and juicy pepperoni cups—and each slice is well-lined with puffs of char bubbles along the edges. So if you’re dedicating time to getting this pizza, which you absolutely should, don’t just order one. By the time you secure it, you’re going to want more.