The Hot 10 2013

The Hot 10 is here! See all of Andrew Knowlton's picks for the Best New Restaurants in America of 2013

An invitation to readers to Facebook-chat with Restaurants editor Andrew Knowlton about the Best Restaurants in America

Details make the difference at the country's most stylish pair of restaurants

At the trattoria-inspired Ava Gene's, the second restaurant from Stumptown Coffee Roasters founder and budding restaurateur Duane Sorenson, green-thumb cuisine becomes masterful

The story of how this unassuming, 39-seat restaurant in Los Angeles became the restaurant of the year is, to put it in sports terms, like that of a minor league baseball player who goes from batting .200 one year to hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to win the World Series the next

Images from Seattle's The Whale Wins, Andrew Knowlton's pick for 2013's ninth best restaurant in America

Jeffrey's and Josephone House owner Larry McGuire and creative director Ryan Smith assembled an esteemed team of designers, the likes of which have worked with Phillip Lim and Zac Posen, to design, produce, and style every staff outfit on the property.

Named for a kid's sailing dinghy, The Optimist is the creation of Atlanta chef and managing partner Ford Fry, who clearly knows how to navigate a winner: It is without a doubt the best of a growing number of big-name fish houses that have opened this year

At the trattoria-inspired Ava Gene's, the second restaurant from Stumptown Coffee Roasters founder and budding restaurateur Duane Sorenson, green-thumb cuisine becomes masterful

The Whale Wins & Joule may not be related, but they do share much in common

Now that you've mastered pasta dough, try your hand at this spiral shape called strozzapreti. The name means "priest strangler," but we promise no one will get hurt.

Images from Chicago's Fat Rice, Andrew Knowlton's pick for 2013's fourth best restaurant in America

At this Scandinavian-by-way-of-Brooklyn spot, chef Fredrik Berselius is as opinionated as he is gifted.

Images from the Austin, Texas restaurants Jeffrey's and Jodephine House, Andrew Knowlton's pick for 2013's eighth best restaurant(s) in America

Chef Philip Krajeck may have been put on earth to make pasta

At Seatlle's The Whale Wins, lamb gets the French bistro treatment and is served with a shingled stack of toasted bread.

At the trattoria-inspired Ava Gene's, the second restaurant from Stumptown Coffee Roasters founder and budding restaurateur Duane Sorenson, green-thumb cuisine becomes masterful

A conversation with Aska chef Fredrik Berselius reveals he's as opinionated as he is gifted

Images from Houston's The Pass and Provisions, Andrew Knowlton's pick for 2013's sixth best restaurant(s) in America

Dinner for two at Joshua Skenes's stunner will set you back--gulp!--$1,000

The cuisine of Macau is having a moment in the Windy City thanks to this restaurant