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Belly up to this Wailea bar, which dazzles with a display of blue-glass Japanese fishing floats, for Hawaii’s best mai tai. Here, chef Peter Merriman, a pioneer of Hawaii Regional Cuisine, brings his genius to the classic cocktail, adding a thick head of honey-lilikoi (passion fruit) foam. Be sure to also score a table for later, as Monkeypod Kitchen does double duty as one of Maui’s top restaurants. Menu standouts include such seasonal dishes as kiawe-roasted squash ravioli, coconut-corn chowder, Hamakua wild mushroom pizza drizzled with truffle oil, and bulgogi pork tacos with Asian pear and house-made kimchi.

Expect the unexpected at Ka‘ana Kitchen, set within the funky yet sophisticated Andaz Maui. Here, executive chef Isaac Bancaco draws from the best of the island’s bounty, using local ingredients in a mix of Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Native Hawaiian cuisine. Think breadfruit hush puppies, Kona clams with savory malasadas (Portuguese doughnuts), and ahi tataki with burrata and lilikoi (passion fruit), enhanced only by the restaurant’s sweeping coastal views. You don’t need to change out of casualwear to dine here, but Bancaco has a knack for turning meals into events, inspiring diners to dress up a little.

Named for its owner’s “poz-itive” vibe, this casual, welcoming restaurant ranks among Dominica’s best. Expect Cajun, Creole, and Caribbean fare in the mix, along with fusion dishes and strong vegetarian options. Menu standouts include callaloo soup, veggie rice, and snapper in coconut-curry sauce, but the lobster, grilled with lemon-garlic butter, tends to steal all the headlines—or at least those not occupied by the fresh juices and home-infused vodkas. Open for dinner only, Poz is quite small in size, so make a reservation to avoid waiting for a table.

A stalwart on the “best of” lists, this restaurant blends dynamic global cuisine with comfort food… set against a steampunky-sports bar décor. None of this should work, but it very much does. The industrial touches evoke the city’s heritage as a Western working town, as well as its iconic grunge epoch that swept the globe. (The bottle-cap portrait of local legend Jimi Hendrix is especially endearing.) Don’t miss the chicken khao soi, foraged-mushroom pizza with taleggio, or the sublime Vadouvan-spiced carrots with thin curls of feta smoked in-house. The restaurant’s connected to the Kimpton Hotel Monaco and also delivers a mean breakfast, from malted waffles to duck confit hash with cippolini and dried cherries.

This airy, elegant Richmond eatery celebrates the fusion of French and southern-central Vietnamese cultures in its look and menu. Chef/owner Lan Do and her team painstakingly bake baguettes daily and simmer beef bones for 12 to 15 hours for the pho stock, enriched by onion, ginger, shallots, star anise, cinnamon and cardamom. Another standout: the banh khot, petite savory rice crepes tinged with turmeric that cradle shrimp. Finish with macrons and a TWG tea from Singapore. Note: Bánh Mì Très Bon has slightly elevated prices for a restaurant tucked near the Walmart Super Centre, but that’s only because it sources as locally, sustainably and organically as possible—the same nutritious food Do would serve her own family.

Local restaurateur Hide Sakurai—also the force behind Shokudo next door—brings healthy grab-and-go options to the heart of Honolulu’s Ala Moana, the state’s largest shopping center. An artisan café and pinot wine bar, Bread & Butter seats around 50 and serves three meals a day. Argentine chef Arnaldo “Masa” Gushiken adds hints of Spanish and Japanese cuisine to the otherwise very locavore American menu. Highlights include the beet-peach-arugula salad and the house-smoked-ahi sandwich, balanced by the bright crunch of pickled vegetables in its side salad. Regulars also rave about the single servings of paella, the bell-pepper-goat-cheese dip, and the decadent truffle chicken starring an entire game hen.

One of the most recognizable sites in Hawaii, this volcanic ash cone overlooks Waikiki’s coastline—a tectonic memory from an explosion half a million years ago, measuring almost 3,500 feet across. British sailors named it Diamond Head in the 1800s, mistaking calcite crystals in the crater’s soil for jewels. Despite its volcanic grandeur, the ascent takes most hikers an hour or so, clocking in at 560 feet of elevation gain and 1.6 miles round-trip. At the top, on a clear day, you can see all of Oahu’s south shore, from Koko Crater and Waikiki to the mountains of the Wai’anae Range.

This lovely contemporary-American eatery anchors the Ballard Public lofts. Chef Shaun McCrain shows off his time spent in the kitchen at New York City’s Per Se with reimagined classics like foie gras layered into a terrine with apple, black sesame, and a gelée of dashi (a Japanese broth). Even the cocktails are innovative—ask for the restaurant’s fresh take on a Pimm’s No. 1 cup. Reserve ahead for a leisurely dinner, or just belly up to the bar. And if you don’t have time for that nonsense, no worries! You can order a takeaway case with goodies like truffled deviled eggs, white bean spread, and lemon-thyme flatbread.

Seattle’s most iconic restaurant has earned its laurels, reinterpreting Pacific Northwest classics like bonito with chrysanthemum and sea bean caper, and ricotta dumplings with mustard, rapini, and stinging nettles. in 2015, a young hotshot took the helm: Brady Williams, formerly from the two-Michelin-star Blanca in Brooklyn, New York. He ditched his goal of playing professional hockey to cook—and, boy, has it paid off! Among other distinctions, he was anointed a finalist for Rising Star Chef of 2017 by the James Beard Foundation (the year it won “Best Wine Program”). Reserve ahead and break out the grown-up clothes to check out his masterpieces, served high on Queen Anne hill overlooking the seaplanes and sailboats gliding on Lake Union.

This famous Vashon Island creamery maintains a toehold on the mainland in the Chophouse Row Building on Capitol Hill. It sells cheese, including the gooey bloomy-rinded Dinah’s treasured by top Northwest chefs. But all products pale beside the simple richness of Kurtwood Farms ice cream. Churned on-site in Seattle, it’s made with Jersey cream and milk, organic cane sugar, and pastured eggs. Yes, you can order farm-fresh flavors, like bay laurel, lemon verbena, and even Sungold tomato jam. But connoisseurs prefer the real deal, straight up. “The taste is pure Puget Sound, it’s the grass the cows are eating,” notes the Emerald City’s columnist-in-chief Dan Savage.

The first Taiwanese restaurant to earn a fancy-pants Michelin star, this steamed dumpling and noodle chain gets rave reviews from Seattleites and reviewers alike. Long a staple of nearby Bellevue, Din Tai Fung has finally crossed Lake Washington to establish a Seattle outpost and and added a second option at Pacific Place shopping center (600 Pine Street). Go for the scrumptious, pillowy xiao long bao (Chinese soup dumplings), of course, but don’t neglect the rest of the menu. Standouts include sweet taro buns, vinegar-laced wood ear mushrooms, and sautéed mustard greens with shredded ginger, along with the red bean sticky rice wraps for dessert.

Already a popular day trip, this jade-colored waterway rocketed to fame as the site of Calypso’s house in Pirates of the Caribbean. Hire a guide and colorful rowboat—most seat up to eight passengers—for the one-mile excursion upstream and watch for crayfish and young barracudas in the brackish river, which is lined by mangroves with mighty buttress roots. Don’t miss the fruit drinks and Dynamite rum punch at Cobra’s Bush Bar, the trip’s turnaround point.

Stroll a rain-forested path—or hire a brightly painted rowboat and guide—to reach this open-air watering hole. It anchors a rudimentary botanical garden up the Indian River, one of the most famous Pirates of the Caribbean film locations. Try the Dynamite Punch, a stiff concoction allegedly containing 44 fruits. “One cup is good, two is better, but for three, we call 9-1-1,” cautions Guide James “Bond” Henry.

What began as a recreation area for immigrants from Brazil’s northeast is now a destination for visitors looking to get off the beaten tourist path. The densely populated São Cristóvão quarter is home to this enormous complex, open seven days a week, to which visitors may arrive at a reasonable hour and not get out before dawn. Afternoons are for shopping and noshing; but after dark, the volume goes up, and the marketplace becomes a scene for partying, pop-up karaokes, and live-music performances that are 100-proof Brazil. Authentic northeastern music known as forró plays until sunup.

This stone building, called the Mother-of-Water Fountain, is an old cistern where Lisbon locals used to fetch the water that flowed to the city along the monumental Águas Livres Aqueduct. Now, inside the cool walls, a wine bar has been constructed. Journalist and wine critic João Paulo Martins has selected the 300 labels stocked in the wine cellar (some stored in bottles along the stone chutes that used to rush with water). Small plate selections like carpaccio, seafood, cheeses, and different kinds of cold cuts can be ordered to accompany your wine. During happy hour, between 6 and 8:30 p.m., several wines are available by the glass or in curated flights.