

This is another case where any pie will likely be better than most you've had in your life (that rosa with red onions and pistachios!), but the signature Margherita will recalibrate your pizza baseline forever: tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Another location is coming to Los Angeles, making it one of the city's most hotly-anticipated openings.Įven though Bianco no longer makes every pie the restaurant turns out (a bout of "baker's lung" nearly killed him), Pizzeria Bianco is now an American classic. The wait, once routinely noted as one of the worst for some of the best food in the country, has been improved by Pizzeria Bianco starting to serve lunch and the opening of an additional Phoenix location (as well as spinoffs Pane Bianco and Bar Bianco). The restaurant serves not only addictive thin-crust pizzas but also fantastic antipasto (involving wood-oven-roasted vegetables), perfect salads, and homemade country bread. Try telling that to the legions of pizza pilgrims who have visited the storied Phoenix pizza spot he opened more than 20 years ago.

We asked them to vote for their favorites, but only ones that they'd dined at within the past two years. From there we assembled a survey, and sent it out to a panel of hundreds of America's leading culinary authorities.

We compiled a list of America's best purveyors of pizza, burgers, hot dogs, tacos, and more, ending up with more than 500 restaurants that we believe represent a vast cross-section of America and the casual restaurants that make it great. To assemble our ranking, we took a similar approach to the one that we have used when compiling our 101 Best Restaurants in America. Our main criterion was the price factor: Can two people fill themselves up and get out for less than $50, excluding tip and alcohol? Other factors we took into account were an overall comfortable and relaxed ambiance, a "destination" status (that is, is the place worth traveling for?), and a proven reputation and longevity. With all that in mind, what makes a restaurant casual, exactly? It goes far beyond the dress code.
