The 26 Best Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2024

A perfectly beefy suadero taco, a studded arroz caldo and more of our favorite bites from a year of eating.

After months of traveling to more than 30 states and eating in hundreds of restaurants, it’s not easy to keep track of all the dishes that crossed our tables. But on the other hand, there are some we couldn’t forget (including many from New York City, which we gave its own list). Whether soups or sweets, a single tasting-menu course or a perfect ham sandwich, these are the bites from 2024 that will linger in our minds well into the new year. BRIAN GALLAGHER

The chef Fátima Júarez learned to make this style of small, delicate molote from her Oaxacan mother, who ran a restaurant in Mexico City. The airy mashed plantain is crisp outside and tender inside, barely sweet, giving way to a center of melting, freshly made quesillo. Ms. Júarez serves the dumplings in a light and mellow mole negro that’s intricately flavored with dried chiles and cacao — so delicious you’ll want to drink it. Better yet, order the sweet-smelling fresh tortillas, made each day with heirloom Mexican corn, to help clean your bowl. ($9.50) TEJAL RAO

A deceptively modest variation on spaghetti with clams, this pasta — best enjoyed in spring or summer, on the restaurant’s shaded deck overlooking Newport Harbor — tastes of just three things: green garlic, butter, and clams. But there’s uncommon depth to the dish. The pistachio-green sauce is achieved by cooking the green garlic tops and bottoms separately, and the pasta finishes cooking in a broth of clam juice and dashi that adds flavor without fishiness. Texture is the other play: The tonnarelli (made in-house daily, like all the restaurant’s pastas) is springy, and the tiny local clams are poached until just tender. JULIA MOSKIN