The 20 best desserts in America

Once you've made your way through this LA hotspot’s pastas, charcuterie and pizza, don’t go home without ordering Bestia’s chocolate budino tart. Made with Mast Brothers bittersweet chocolate, salted caramel, cacao crust, olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt, it's an addictive ending to an already memorable meal.

James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Mindy Segal is something like the mama of the Chicago dessert scene, and her loft-like Bucktown restaurant/dessert bar is a longstanding favorite among locals and visitors who want to head straight to the dessert course. Segal’s decadent sugar pie is like an individual pecan pie without the nuts, topped with a scoop of melty maple ice cream and set in a pool of rich coffee-toffee butterscotch.

Tucked away in beautiful coastal Portland, this charming bakery turns out far-ranging breads and pastries including French baguettes, German vollkornbrot (brown bread), Italian focaccia and more. Absolutely everything is divine, but customers rave, in particular, about the chocolate rye cookies: tangy, decadently moist and studded with huge chunks of dark chocolate. 

Local legend has it that Al Capone is alive and well and living in this steakhouse’s acclaimed wine cellar. The place itself is a rococo-lover’s fantasy: multi-chambered, ornately decorated (and priced) and completely over the top. So it comes as no surprise that the restaurant offers an eponymous dessert that’s served warm in all its sweet decadence: the Forge soufflé. Available in chocolate, Grand Marnier, s’mores, birthday cake and marble flavors, this high-domed beauty is more than worth its $20 price tag. So, when your server asks if you want to put in a dessert order while you're still enjoying your entrée, ignore your almost-full belly and answer with a resounding yes. 

Located in a resplendent restored 1844 property that’s also home to a luxurious inn, Peninsula Grill serves the south’s most beloved coconut cake. The towering 12-layer wedge (that’s six layers of moist cake and six of thick coconut-cream cheese frosting) is fragrant with its namesake fruit, not overly sweet and an ideal ending to any southern-style meal.