New York State probably has more famous and top-rated restaurants than any other state. Arguably, many of them are in New York City. But the Upstate region is no piker when it comes to fine places to eat. You can find award-winning restaurants in the big cities like Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, and Buffalo, and also you can find them in smaller towns and villages. Little "off the grid" places.

That is what this list is all about.

Here are 11 places you may have heard of, passed by in your travels, or perhaps, have yet to discover them. You should definitely put them on your road trip bucket list.

An actual old mill that has been a restaurant for as long as anybody can remember. A diner in the Tug Hill Plateau. A small perfectly countrified restaurant on Main Street in one of the smallest communities in Central New York where the word "yokel" is a badge of honor. A restaurant named Coal Docks, because that is what once was there. A small roadside fish fry now in its second generation of family ownership and still one of the best in the state. And...how about some fine dining while actually inside a greenhouse?  

Check them all out. I have been to all of these and I look forward to returning. Soon!