My culinary expectations for my family vacation to Maui were low. Not because there isn’t great food on the island—looking at you, Tin Roof and Sam Sato’s—but because we were eight adults, two kids, and one rented Ford Impala staying near the resorts of Kā‘anapali. I steeled myself for a week of 5 p.m. White Lotus-style hotel dinners. But a hot tip led us to book a reservation at Waicoco, the newly opened restaurant at the Westin Kā‘anapali. The chef, Chris Kajioka (who co-owns the restaurant with Mourad Lahlou of San Francisco’s Aziza and Mourad), did tours at Restaurants You Have Heard Of on the mainland before returning home to Hawai’i to open his own James Beard-recognized spots. That type of cheffy, tasting menu approach can be hard to translate to a hotel restaurant the size of a football field, but Kajioka and his team killed it. We ate “ohana style,” sharing family-style platters of warm Hawaiian rolls flecked with crystals of salt, rosy-pink seared ahi, and umami-rich black garlic Sun Noodles. The whole family was happy, from the four-year-old (who bogarted the rolls) to the seventy-four-year-old (who loved the Mai Tais). Resort dining during the high season is usually not something to write home about, which is exactly why Waicoco was among my most memorable meals of the year. —MacKenzie Chung Fegan, senior commerce editor
Kasama
1001 N Winchester Ave, Chicago, IL
As someone who can’t make it very far in the day without caffeine, I find myself pretty allergic to breakfast experiences that involve long lines. But the wait (down the block) for breakfast at Kasama, in Chicago, was worth every minute, and I’d do it again for a taste of that garlicky sinangag with tocino. The Filipino-inflected menu is full of incredible breakfast sandwiches (I lucked into a few bites of the longanisa, egg, and cheese), and thoughtful pastries, like a miniature ube and huckleberry-filled take on a gâteau Basque. Next time I go, I’ll nab a table inside the cozy, inviting restaurant for some coffee and savory treats, and then get as many pastries as I can carry to go. —Anna Hezel, Epicurious senior editor
Myers + Chang
1145 Washington St, Boston, MA
I went to Boston with my family for my brother’s college tour weekend, and I was determined to squeeze in a few good meals while there. We ended up at Myers + Chang, and it’s a rare place that all four of us were equally excited to eat at. Walking into chef-owner Joanne Chang’s restaurant and being warmly greeted felt like being welcomed into a friend’s home for a dinner party. Ravenous after traveling, we ordered nearly the entire menu: lemony shrimp dumplings, crackly scallion pancakes, wok-roasted lemongrass mussels, crispy tofu with pickled jalapeño, chewy udon noodles in a black bean oyster sauce (that had us savoring the dregs of sauce at the bottom of the bowl with a spoon). Every dish was a highlight, and there wasn’t a single miss in our order. Warm, bustling, and with service that gives you just the right amount of time to linger between small plates, it’s the kind of place that encourages unfettered laughter and easy conversation. I can’t wait to visit again. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor