Eater - Here’s exactly Where to Eat in 2024

“The bread man” doing his thing at Khufu’s in Cairo. | Yehia El Alaily

I’ve never been the type of person who can just show up at the airport without a destination, pick a place off the departures board, and go. While I have a lot of respect for last-minute travelers, I prefer to plan ahead — and based on the traffic to Eater’s maps and guides, I have a feeling that you might like to plan too. That’s also the approach the Eater team takes to our yearly travel package, Where to Eat, which arrived this week. Before we hit publish, we spent months talking to culinary authorities on the ground all over the world about the most engaging places to eat right now. Unlike past years, we'll be here to offer travel advice for a while longer too. Instead of dropping our picks at the start of the year and then leaving readers to their own devices, Eater will continue rolling out a bunch of restaurant maps and stories through June, helping you become a savvy traveler wherever you’re going.

The extended stay not only allows us to cover a great food spot for every season, from the mountains of Austria to the beaches in Brazil. It also allows us to dig into the culinary cultures of those destinations, helping you plan a retro-chic Alpine ski getaway or giving you the rundown on the unique mix of religion, culture, and history that infuses Afro Brazilian cuisine. We recruited some of our sharpest contributors, each tapped into their local scene with tons of firsthand experiences to draw on, for the project too, as well as our own team of expert editors. Eater SF editor Lauren Saria talked to chefs reviving Japantown in Sacramento, California, who are helping to fuel the state capital’s citywide restaurant boom, while Eater Philly editor Ernest Owens unpacked how the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection became a James Beard Awards darling.

We also tried a few new things this year, including our first-ever Readers Choice addition to the Where to Eat list. Thousands of readers voted to recognize Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as one of the best places to eat in the world in 2024; they cited the flaky böreks at a classic Serbian restaurant tucked into an old Schlitz tavern (Three Brothers), bloody marys that prove Wisconsin has made the drink an art form (Sobelman’s), James Beard Award winners and nominees lighting up the scene (Lupi & Iris), and the latest season of Top Chef filmed in the city. As one reader put it so elegantly, “Milwaukee fucking rules!”

While you’re reading, throw on the Spotify playlist inspired by the package, which combines songs loosely tied to each destination into a truly eclectic soundtrack. There are plenty of winks to the food world hidden in there, like “Blister in the Sun,” the song that led to the breakup of the iconic Milwaukee band Violent Femmes after it appeared in a Wendy’s commercial. I’m personally a huge fan of “Market With My Sister” by Felukah, a love letter between siblings from one of Cairo’s smoothest rappers; “Ramen Rock,” a banger by Osaka pop-punk band Shonen Knife who routinely sings about Japanese food (and once counted Kurt Cobain among its superfans); and “Somtam Samurai,” a collab that combines Thailand’s rural mor lum music with hip-hop in an ode to papaya salad.

Start on the package landing page, where you’ll find all sorts of fun appetizers, including a guide to hitting the reggaeton clubs of Medellín, Colombia, a primer on seafood destinations in Busan, South Korea, and a rundown of the wine grapes to know in the Turkish Riviera. Then, jump into the maps and stories, and look out for more in the coming months. There’s a lot to see and eat out there.

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