Restaurants are the backbone of the American food economy, and a crucial element to our shared love of eating out. It seems you can’t walk (or drive) more than two blocks before running into a restaurant — I mean, literally running through the doors of a restaurant — and shouting, “OOH I’m so hungry, let me order some food from you, restaurant!” And then? Menu in hand, you make your choices … the server brings you the food … you eat it … MISSION ACCOMPLISHED … you pay your bill … and then the food passes through your body and comes out the hole in your bottom.

That, my friends, is the “restaurant lifestyle.” It’s a rush unlike anything else, and you can only find it … at the restaurant you went to just then.

Here are the TOP TEN RESTAURANTS OF 2016:

10. Indian restaurants

9. French restaurants

8. New restaurants

7. (TIE) Cutting-edge restaurants / Tiny restaurants

6. Restaurants that have never been better

5. All-you-can-eat restaurants

4. My favorite restaurants

3. “I’ll meet you at the restaurant”

2. Restaurants where the chefs look like Hell’s Angels but they know all about where their carrots were grown, like anybody gives a shit

1. Restaurants that are the greatest restaurants the world has ever seen