The 12 Restaurants Where You Need To Eat In 2015

We asked a handful of the country's most esteemed food writers, "If a friend were coming to your city to visit, what's the one restaurant where you would tell them to dine?" and allowed them to suggest restaurants outside of their city along with that. 

Both Larry Olmsted and Heidi Rinella suggested making a special trip to Bern's. Here's what Olmsted had to say: "'Best' is very subjective and, in my opinion, there are very few big cities, like New York, London, and Paris where you claim just one 'must eat' restaurant. However, in a few places there is one restaurant so special in its way that, to me, a trip to that city is wasted if you miss it. A perfect example is Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa. I'm just never going to Tampa and not eating at Bern's, which, in addition to great food, has the best and most unique wine program in the country if not the world."

"Everything that typifies NYC is here at Alfred Portale's 32-year-old restaurant: a grand dining room and good long bar, swank, swagger, a very devoted New York crowd of regulars, and cuisine that is always inventive, always generous, never trendy. Service hits that ideal note of professionalism and personality." — John Mariani, Esquire

"Any visitor to Dallas is probably looking for at least one meal that involves steak, barbecue, or Tex-Mex, at least they should be. Chef John Tesar's Knife just opened last year, and it's a carnivore's playground. Tesar had his own dry-aging room where the beef goes as long as 240 days (which goes for a hefty $80 per inch), or you can get a four different cuts of beef grilled over wood for just $25." — Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly

"Miami has a longstanding and not-undeserved reputation for being home to lousy pizza joints. So when a good one opens, people notice. And when a really great one comes around? We do a little happy dance over oven-blistered, Neapolitan-style pies topped with tender oxtail, black garlic, and caramelized onions. We twirl our forks tightly around fat ribbons of handmade pappardelle tossed with roasted mushrooms and a glossy glaze of sherry vinegar. We laugh with glee as we nibble macaron ice-cream sandwiches. And we raise a pint of local craft beer to it all at Proof Pizza & Pasta, the place to eat right now in Miami. The three-month-old Proof is the work of young, ambitious former fine-dining chef Justin Flit, who wanted to open his own spot to showcase local food at reasonable prices. He's already proven that to tourists (who came in droves during last month's Art Basel) and locals, including Miami Herald critic Victoria Pesce Elliott, who awards Proof 3.5/4 stars in this week's restaurant review." — Evan S. Benn, Miami.com

"I had a blast at The Duck Inn — and a great meal. Duck, of course. I loved the location, in scrappy Bridgeport, I loved the nonpretention, and I loved watching Kevin Hickey give the once-over to every duck that rolled off his rotisserie." — Penny Pollack, Chicago Magazine

"When you say Houston has great Vietnamese food, most visitors picture phở or sandwiches. I like to take them to Que Huong restaurant and introduce them to dishes like the rare beef and shrimp salad with water spinach. The intensely aromatic mam ruoc (fermented shrimp sauce) served on the side is not for everyone. Many people are shocked to learn that this Asian salad is locavore food: Most of the nation's water spinach is grown in the Houston suburbs by Cambodian immigrants." — Robb Walsh, Houstonia Magazine