Each day, you wake up in the same room. You wash up and brush your teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, then join the monotonous traffic that'll take you to work, where you stay all day. Maybe, you'll leave work for a little bit to get lunch, but then you go right back in a half-hour or so to that same place where you must stay until your shift ends. You go home, eat dinner, maybe watch some TV, then go to bed and wake up the next morning and follow the same routine.

Every day, you live the same day as yesterday.

Do you remember being a child, and thinking of all the adventures you could have when you grow up? Every now and then, we need (and deserve) a break from the ordinary. To step outside our bubbles and experience the extraordinary outside the boundaries of our screens, all while fulfilling the insatiable desire for food. 

Spice up your vacation (or even just your lunch) by exploring the amazing eateries in these cities. 

San Diego

Mr. A's

Still new to the San Diego arena is another opportunity for you to have fancy dining on a balcony, overlooking the city and closely (but not too closely) watching the planes pass by. At Mr. A's, you can give yourself that nice buzz with a cocktail featuring pineapple sage shrub or fresh ginger. Travel to Italy while not moving a muscle with a Bloody Mary of Vodka, black pepper, tomato, basil, and balsamic. Snack on forest mushrooms with lobster cognac sauce, then choose from their sandwiches and pasta menu. At Mr. A's, the only choice you won't have is anything plain. 

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung is still new to this location, but is already attracting crowds of folks like bees to flowers. To tide you over before the meal, try the fried pork chop, wood ear mushrooms, soaked in a vinegar dressing, or maybe the sweet and sour ribs. Maybe, you'll be in the mood for fried rice, hand-made dumplings teaming in seafood fresh from the ocean, and steam, or buns that are moist and soft, rich in warmth that melts on your tongue and jaws, and are stuffed with chicken and mushrooms, red beans and/or vegetables, then a red bean rice cake for dessert. You'll find a little something for the whole family. 

Toronto

Giulietta

Another way to fly over the Atlantic Ocean while saving a boatload of time and money is to visit the Giulietta. There, you could try fried Castevetrano olives snuggled with sausage, the lemon, and organic lamb sausage and wash it down with one of the over fifty different selections of wine. Treat yourself to grilled octopus or fried squid with lemon and shishito peppers, then the lemon crostata for dessert. 

Arthur's Restaurant 

At Aruthr's Restaurant, you'll be encouraged to choose from Louie crab glazed in a thousand island dressing, matzo ball soup accompanied with fine herbs, and other similar appetizers while you scan the menu. In the calm and fine yet still casual atmosphere of this eatery, you can stick to your favorite cheeseburger and Caesar salad, or give your palate some pasta Alla Vodka with almond Parmesan or veal chop. If you're a vegan, you might be interested in the spinach and almond Bechamel lasagna with cashew mozzarella. Whether you're interested in trying something you've never heard of or stick to your classics, the choice will always be up to you. 

Kojin

Known as ". . . a celebration of the hearth," Kojin is where you can feel warm as if you were snuggled in blankets by the fireplace at home, while you have Niagara Ham and Copa with pickled cherries, and red wine, cod fritters of jasmine and potatoes, annatto grilled chicken, or banana leaf steamed cod with soft pineapple ginger beer. No matter what you choose to feed your hunger, you'll feel warm while you do it.

Sara

The Sara restaurant looks the same as any Victorian style home, you may have seen in passing, because it sits in one. So, whether you're having the chocolate hazelnut with marquis hazelnut, praline and passion fruit, the king salmon bunking with puffed wild rice salad, sweet chili and avocado, or one of their small dishes, Sara is meant to make you feel comfortable as if you were home. 

Portland (OR)

EEM

In Portland, the skies are often cloudy and gloomy-looking with hardly any sunshine for days at a time, but why should that stop you from having a meal with pizzazz? While you sit and watch the rain, quench your appetite with a sweet beet salad with coconut cream, BBQ fried rice, or smoked mackerel. Whatever you choose, make sure you have one of their blended cocktails to compliment your meal.

Bella's Italian Bakery

If you really want to get away from the cold, you should visit Bella's Bakery. A crustless ricotta cheesecake with lemon and other fresh fruits, or lemonade hazelnut of cocoa nib granola and yogurt with sweet toasty coffee or wine to warm your throat and stomach at the same time. Allow the sweetness to keep your mood up beneath the stormy clouds. 

Seattle 

Aerlume

Imagine you and your loved ones, sitting round a campfire and away from the city. As you glance up at the night sky and very briefly watch the galaxy, you know you're in the midst of that "other part of life." It's the part that has nothing to do with going to work and is only about living life. Now, imagine you having almost the same experience at a fancy restaurant. While watching and listening to a glowing fire, try a Dungeness crab lettuce wrap of lemon, basil, garden greens, and crispy shallots. Maybe, you'll want the jumbo scallops and an Olympic mountain sorbet for dessert. Seattle is another beautiful place to watch the rain.

Bang Bang Cafe

Bang Bang Cafe is the place for vegans, meat lovers and everyone in between to travel south of the continent. Try the red and green chile brisket burrito, or chicken wings with a southwest salad lavished with fresh green leaf, sweet corn salsa, lime, black beans, tortilla strips, and chile ranch. Or settle for the enchiladas blanketed in red and green chile with onions, radishes, and cilantro spread atop alongside shishito peppers with pumpkin and sunflower seeds in pipian sauce, while you occasionally sip from hot chocolate with heart-shaped froth, or the nutty love cocktail with blueberry shrub.

Chicago

Flat & Point

You can have pork butter with cherry mostarda and lemon zest on toast, and smoked chicken Caesar salad. A pulled pork BBQ or Flat & Point style brisket/dry sirloin burger. Getting their ingredients from local family owned farms, and cooking everything from the way our ancestors did with pure wood and a crackling fire, Flat & Point prides itself on being a family and earth friendly barbeque restaurant. Their seasonal dishes also include selections for veggie lovers like the sandwich of croquettes filled with smoked lentils and a side of bean hummus, cilantro and yogurt. 

Los Angeles

L' Antica Pizzeria da Michele

Picture a restaurant with a sleek living room. It has a shiny fireplace, hanging lights shaped like tennis balls, three soft leather sofas, a coffee table and rich green plant. That's the main entry room of the L' Antica Pizzeria da Michele. Living just a few blocks from Hollywood, is a fine dining pizzeria. Treat yourself to fried and baked pizza of smoked mozzarella basil or baked grilled shrimp glazed in breadcrumbs partnered with arugula salad and lemon citronette as you're mesmerized by the fire.

New Orleans

Costera

This warm, Spanish restaurant offers you choices from mixed roasted mushrooms paired with sourdough croutons and warm egg yolk, crispy veal sweetbreads, shrimp and leek stuffed mushrooms, to beef shank of potato bomba and pickled peppers. You'll only choose from pairings you likely don't have every night and a European wine to wash it down with.

New York

Wayla

Deemed the best restaurant in NYC by customers, you might find yourself drawn to the stir-fried shrimp with chili paste, fried branzino, or house made pork sausage. But the stir-fried shrimp is the spiciest on their menu so be sure to sip from one of their cocktails like the Sway Wayla of Brooklyn gin, cucumber, lemon, butterfly pea blossom, and shiso.

Lokanta

Grilled octopus with white bean salad of Bermuda onions, parsley, beans and olive oil. Greek yogurt with hot peppermint oil. Fish cakes, a shrimp casserole, baked sea bass accompanied by rice pilaf and greens. Stuffed apricots and almond pudding are just some of the hunger cures happily given in this Turkish restaurant. Made just the way they were found in Turkey with zero changes, Lokanta will give you original food from the influence of countrysides with "Just the right climate, soil, and an abundance of vegetables and animals." 

Conclusion

You can keep things simple if you want, but earth is far too vast for that. We were meant to be curious and explore, so honor your palate and bring some spark to your meals and vacation!