Dining

Dining

Here's what Tripadvisor wrote about Trattoria Amalfi: Trattoria Amalfi puts you in a comfortable spot with its coastal-inspired Italian cooking and a welcoming atmosphere. The handmade pastas and fresh local seafood are standouts-ask about daily specials and don't skip dessert. Service is relaxed but on point, and the patio's a great call if you want to hang out with friends or family over drinks.

You may not find this list of rules on Cracker Barrel's website, but hopefully, by following them anyway, you'll have your best meal at the Southern breakfast chain yet. Of course, some rules are meant to be broken, so abide by them at your own discretion when you visit your nearest Cracker Barrel. But whatever you do, don't assume that the sweet and iced teas are the same thing. These are the Cracker Barrel rules you need to know.

Berenjak, a London-based Iranian restaurant, will soon be firing its coal-grilled kebabs in Los Angeles's Arts District. The restaurant opens Wednesday, September 24, on the garden floor of swanky Soho Warehouse, marking the first publicly accessible location in the U.S.; Berenjak also operates a location at the Dumbo House that is only available to members. The opening comes from a partnership between Soho House and JKS Restaurants, which also operates two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Gymkhana.

Chain restaurants offer a sense of familiarity and comfort that keeps people coming back. You can visit a location on the West Coast and then fly to the other side of the country and still know the menu without having too many surprises - that's a big part of what keeps people loyal to familiar eateries. There are plenty of chains to pick from, too, whether you like the seafood options at Red Lobster, the popular menu items from Applebee's, or margaritas at Texas Roadhouse.

I'm a sucker for fried shrimp, especially when they're fried whole, crisp from head to tail. When they're done right, they rival my favorite snack: a bag of shrimp chips. The tôm chiên at Mắm, the Vietnamese restaurant that's gradually expanded along Forsyth Street, certainly delivered in this regard. The shrimp are crunchy but not greasy, and they're savory with what the restaurant calls a "northern spice mix."

You may know your paratha from your roti. You may have even mastered how to pronounce the trickier dishes on the menu, such as paneer lababdar. The modern gourmand knows that they have to steer clear of the major mistakes that people commonly make at Indian restaurants. But beyond the finer nuances of the menu, there is a world of unspoken rules of dining etiquette that govern every Indian meal.

Hosting a dinner party can be a lot of fun, but it can also be kind of stressful. You want your guests to have a great time, enjoy good food and drink, and feel comfortable in your home. Hosts often put their focus on planning the dinner party menu, buying delicious desserts, and setting up decorations, but those aren't the only parts that matter.

Nobu is a brand with cachet. Founded in 1994 by chef Nobuyuki Nobu' Matsuhisa, Robert de Niro, and Meir Teper, there are now upwards of 60 branches worldwide, from Cape Town to Kuala Lumpur. New openings are awaited in Madrid and Rome, while Cairo is about to get its second restaurant. London has two. This successful empire is built on a fusion of traditional Japanese cuisine with Peruvian ingredients.

The people behind the now-closed Lord Stanley are opening a fine dining restaurant in Dogpatch, taking over the former Serpentine space.

The people behind and the now-closed Hina Yakitori are teaming up to open a currently unnamed restaurant, which will be an izakaya in the Financial District.

Looking around the deafening dining room's banquettes full of overengineered outfits, lamenting the apparent extinction of the under-$10 glass of wine, Eren and I admitted to each other that neither one of us was into this. At all. The restaurant, the name of which I've forgotten, is long gone, but at that moment in time, it was marketed everywhere as cool. But cool, when it comes to dining out, is visceral, and this did not strike either of us as cool, just loud and overpriced.

This popular Van Ness bread bakery and market is putting together a Rosh Hashanah feast for four to six people ($270). Dig into rich matzoh ball soup; traditional Jewish beef brisket; chopped liver with caramelized onions; and a fall salad studded with honeycrisp apples, pecans, and pomegranate. Honey-raisin bread or plain challah are also available. For dessert, choose between a honey-date-walnut cake or chocolate flourless cake.

The past decade has seen Atlanta grow into a dynamic dining city, with restaurants garnering James Beard Awards and Michelin stars. But it's not just the great food that makes this a parent-friendly place - it's the warm hospitality. Unless a restaurant explicitly says otherwise, most welcome kids in their dining rooms and put parents at ease. Children are part of the fabric of Atlanta's culinary scene.

"Just knock three times and whisper low, that you and I were sent by Joe," from the old song Hernando's Hideaway, came to mind as we approached the new Amai by Viktor on Dublin's Harry Street.

Not to cast spells, but [the restaurant] will offer the community something just as transformative: a meal that feeds the spirit as much as the body.

To gain some sense of what diners should consider when ordering steak, we got insight from experts who prepare (and conceptualize) steak dishes for a living. Michael Reed, owner and chef of the Michelin Guide-recommended and James Beard Award-nominated Poppy & Seed in Anaheim, California, and Oliver Lange, corporate executive chef of Next Door Astor Place in New York City, shared their opinions on the mistakes they most frequently observe. Their view emphasizes what can go wrong with steak, but also how we can build a memorable experience when we order with a bit more thought.

Jenna Bush Hager, the former president's daughter, revealed her father's hack on an episode of the Today show. She explained, "He'll call the restaurant and order the meal before we get there so we don't have to wait. He has a little bit of a restless personality." Bush apparently has someone on his staff send him over the menu, and then call his family to take their order, too. It speeds up the process so much that they can be finished eating in 30 minutes.

"I have a rule: I never accept an invitation if I don't want to invite somebody back," Garten told Esquire. According to Garten, you should never invite anyone because you feel obliged, and she is right! Fewer things are more uncomfortable than extending an invitation to someone whose company you don't enjoy, and on the flip side, no one wants to go to a dinner party if the invitation wasn't genuine.

When you're out with clients or colleagues, the last thing you want is your food becoming the center of attention. Spicy dishes, though tempting, can be unpredictable. Even if you typically handle heat well, the interpretation of "medium hot," "hot," or "very hot" isn't universal across restaurants - and a spicy dish at a new spot could leave you struggling to recover.

The epic Peking duck has our critic planning a return visit - just make sure to pre-order The first time I ate at China Tang, soon after it opened earlier this year, I arrived late, and by the time I got settled, there were already a lot of opinions. Rather than assume my default bossy mode, instructing people what they should and should not order, I demurred and went along with their choices, which included rather too much fifth quarter for my liking.

The first thing you notice when you walk by Umi's sidewalk window are sushi chefs doing their thing in the kitchen-the view does a good job of drawing people inside this tiny Japanese place. On a nice night, sitting on the patio is the way to go, but the other 312 days a year, the small, dark dining room does the trick. We especially like the nigiri and sashimi, but if you're in the mood for rolls, you can't go wrong with the Golden Dragon roll with crab, avocado, salmon, and lemon.

A special occasion brunch at Angelica's feels like gathering at the second home of your eccentric, wealthy, art-collecting aunt who also happens to have an impressive green thumb. Think: 1930s charm with sparkling chandeliers, a grand piano, a white marble-topped bar, and a plant-filled outdoor patio. The Latin American restaurant nails perfectly-spiced huevos rancheros with mole on crispy tortillas, and luscious eggs benedict topped with tender poached crab.

You're sitting down to enjoy a meal with your friends or family at a restaurant, and all of a sudden, a raucous begins to brew. While you grab your purse or wallet and duck under the table for safety, the disturbance reaches a crescendo of hollering, singing, bizarre costumes, and, sometimes, a prop or two. When you realize what it is, your surprise turns to a hope that it's not your table that the commotion is focused on.

Dear McDonald's: What the heck happened? Millennials had to grow up and have all the joy sucked out of them, but you, too? By 2025, McDonald's restaurants had become fairly minimalist, with severe angles and a fairly brutal aesthetic: They're the kind of buildings that look like they'd be serving up Soylent Green instead of Happy Meals. The official line is that the redesign is to make things more welcoming, but those who remember the 1980s-era McDonald's can argue that the opposite is happening.

Your next Financial District lunch should be at Heartwood. The American spot has quick service, cushy banquettes, and plenty of space for sprawling out with coworkers you actually like. And, famously, free martinis. They're technically a penny, but it's still the cheapest cocktail in the city. The lunch-only deal is simple: order an entree, like a burger or poke grain bowl, and get your choice of martini like a classic gin or vodka, espresso, or one infused with jasmine tea.

We independently select these products-if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing. Even though it feels like summer just started, kids are already going back to school, which means fall isn't far off. While it's always sad to bid farewell to a season, there's joy in knowing that another fresh start lies ahead, specifically when it comes to decor.