America's Best Museum Restaurants

Provenance does in fact know the origins and lineage of food served in the 76-seat dining room (plus a casual café with atrium plaza seating). “Curator of Food” Doug Katz offers a changing three-course prix fixe menu that ties in with special exhibits, as well as items like pan-roasted striped trout and Moroccan braised chicken. The French-inspired Mary Cassatt menu has included salade de chèvre, beef bourguignon, and crème caramel. clevelandart.org

Opened in fall 2012, the newest museum restaurant on our list is full of surprises: head cheese, fresh goat liver, and veal brains, for starters. Dishes here are as experimental as the contemporary artwork on display, thanks to chef Hugue Dufour (of Montreal’s Au Pied de Cochon) and his wife, Sarah Obraitis. Set up like a classroom, with long desks for communal dining, M. Wells will school you in the art of transforming animal fat and innards into a satisfying meal. momaps1.org

The restaurant’s tagline is “flavors from the earth,” so don’t be surprised if your server shares exactly which farm provided the ingredients for the day’s menu specialties. Halcyon’s design brings the outside in with lovely touches like a chandelier made from twigs and a trickling stone fountain. Adventurous eaters can add crispy pig ears to salads and pasta or enjoy a tour de force spice-lacquered duck breast with truffled cauliflower and turnip purée, smoked and fried cabbage, and glazed beets. halcyonflavors.com

Gather by D’Amico, which replaced a Wolfgang Puck Asian fusion restaurant, has introduced a fresh dose of inventive salads and entrées like buttermilk-marinated chicken with artichokes, sweet peas, chard, and burrata. Every first Thursday of the month, the museum stays open late, and Gather obliges with happy hour specials and a unique tasting menu concocted by a guest chef (5–7 p.m.). gatherbydamico.com

A museum in its own right, Collections Café honors glass artist Dale Chihuly’s passion for collecting objects. Vintage accordions hang from the ceiling, and glass-topped dining tables double as display cases for clocks and toy soldiers. The food is Northwest hearty: a pressed pork sandwich with apple butter and spicy cider vinegar slaw; grilled wild salmon with green onion spaetzle, cauliflower, and porcini butter. And you can expect plenty of craft beers and regional wines. chihulygardenandglass.com

Named after legendary film producer Ray Stark, this Renzo Piano–designed glass box with an open-air bar is a perfect setup for people-watching. Chef Kris Morningstar’s wood-burning oven and wood-fired grill produce trendy rustic fare like steelhead salmon with beet purée, chanterelle mushrooms, boudin noir, kale, and lime brown butter. His bar bites menu includes a wood-roasted chile stuffed with chorizo, and dates and local goat cheese with an almond sauce. Stop by on a Monday night for the three-course tasting menu and signature cocktail flights. raysandstarkbar.com

Newcomer Palette has already become a go-to local choice for Sunday brunch alfresco—say, bread pudding French toast or lump blue crab cakes and a mimosa. Follow up the meal with a screening from the museum’s film series. Lunch features seasonal tarts, truffled wild mushroom macaroni and cheese, and slow-roasted pork tacos. For the First Friday of each month, when the museum is free, Palette offers a special on appetizers or local wines. phxart.org

Since 2011, visitors to Forest Park’s three museums and zoo can look forward to the added treat and pick-me-up of a meal at Bixby’s. Fans rave about the charred Amish chicken and special menu inspirations like this winter’s persimmon theme, which inspired dishes like a persimmon and black walnut chicken salad with radish sprouts and pea-shoot pesto. bixbys-mohistory.com

With floor-to-ceiling windows and couches as well as seats at the bar and at high and low tables, Café Noma feels more like a living room than a restaurant. It’s open for lunch or snacking on bruschetta, a pulled-pork slider with slaw, a roasted gulf shrimp salad, or whatever else tickles your fancy. Owner Ralph Brennan’s “Eat Drink and Play” option of flatbread pizza with a glass of house red or white wine is available for $10 on Fridays. cafenoma.com

Make a point to reserve a window seat at Robert in advance, as the biggest selling point is the entrancing view of Columbus Circle and Central Park below. Live jazz during dinner and Sunday brunch amplifies the romantic mood, as does the design: orchid-pink hues, cushioned furniture, and light and video installations. Food is sophisticated contemporary American, such as chorizo and potato encrusted halibut and braised pork tenderloin and pork belly with rhubarb purée. Order another round of elderflower cocktails; you won’t want to leave.

Mitsitam, which means “let’s eat” in the Piscataway and Delaware languages, serves foods indigenous to the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Categorized at serving stations as Mesoamerica, Northern Woodlands, South America, Great Plains, and Northwest Coast, menu items range from pork shank marinated in chocolates with guava chili sauce to maple-brined turkey with cranberry maple syrup and green apple compote. Mitsitam recently launched a new espresso bar that serves Native-inspired drinks. mitsitamcafe.com

Chef Tony Mantuano, whose Spiaggia is one of the country’s best Italian restaurants, is also behind Terzo Piano, a beautifully minimalist dining room flooded with natural light that overlooks the city skyline, Millennium Park, and Lake Michigan. Diners are in for bold (and organic) flavors like a pork belly appetizer with brown sugar–aleppo pepper crust and a crispy chicken breast with butternut squash, pine nuts, and currants. terzopianochicago.com