China Poblano

While the burger and hot dog certainly have their place, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't agree that Chinese and Mexican food are two of the greatest cuisines ever created in America. Damn, we rule. Ruling even more by fusing those two patriotic traditions: China Poblano

The awesomely intermingled creation of James Beard Award-winning José Andrés, China Poblano welcomes guest through an urban street-looking facade (complete with take-out windows) into a space with wood picnic benches, bicycle spoke red ceiling lamps, and giant digital photo frames rotating through images of Lucha Libre dudes, Chinese children, and Mao, all while you do exactly that to some food. The menu includes hyper-creative tacos like the Silencio (duck tongue, rambutan fruit) and the Tierno (soft beef tendon, Kumamoto oyster scallions, Sichuan peppercorn sauce) and Dim Sum like crispy lamb pot stickers and steamed buns w/ Chinese BBQ pork dubbed When Pigs Fly, also what Alec Baldwin calls it when his daughter travels. Unless you're eating with Val Kilmer, entrees are meant to be shared, whether it's the Like Water for Chocolate (fried quail, dragon fruit, rose petals, chestnut), Shrimp Mojo w/ sweet black garlic & roasted poblano peppers, or Jicama Crab Sui w/ mango, jicama skin, marinated salmon roe, and jumbo lump crab, aka, that annoying Val Kilmer as he dominates the dinner convo by complaining about the Presidents of the United States of America

To help you forget about Kilmer, they've got monstrously creative cocktails like the Lemon Drop Soup (a vodka based tipple served in a cup of lemon noodles), the Cold Tea for Two (green tea, tequila, and beer served in a tea pot), and the mescal float-aided Ron Cooper Margarita, based on the classic drink that put America on the cocktail map, at Señor Frog's Myrtle Beach in 1986.