I know. We haven’t done this lately.
What’s the best restaurant you have ever eaten in. Note, best doesn’t mean the most expensive.
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57 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.I have a best and worst from the same restaurant – or location at least. The Keg was a small northwest chain, had an outstanding dinner there for an anniversary. The location was bought out by a local steak house chain and last time we ate there it was the crappiest experience ever, sit us in the ‘bar’ area rather than the nicer restaurant area, steaks were obviously previous frozen and reheated (after having fresh, great steak from the same proprietors). Just nasty.
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I haven’t been to The Keg for a few years, but it’s still one of the best steakhouses I’ve been to.
There’s a local place I’ve started going to after hearing an ad on the radio. Their claim to fame is a chef with experience across Canada who takes traditional meals and turns them upside down. My first dinner there I had a 1/4 roasted chicken with Belgian waffles. The prices are pretty good too.
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Just saw on their website that they aren’t as small as I thought, they just bailed out of Oregon. Going to Victoria soon so might have to plan a dinner there to see if it is as good as the Oregon one was….
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Da ru Ma Japanese steakhouse. It’s one of those restaurants where the chef cooks the food at the table and juggles his knives while he flips shrimp tails into his hat. At about $45.00 a meal it’s reasonably priced for a fancy night out.
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I’d have to say “Delmonico’s” at the Venetian. It’s Emeril’s high-end steak joint on the Strip. We got married in Vegas in 2001, and when it was still affordable, we’d go back every year. Delmonico’s was always our go-to place for the anniversary lunch/dinner. Excellent food. Diverse menu and wine list. Exceptional service, and pleasant staff. It would be fun to catch Em in the kitchen one day, though. We’ll see what happens.
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I ate at Delmonico about 2 years ago and wasn’t to thrilled with it. It was a pleasant experience but it didn’t blow me away. I actually liked his restaurant in MGM a bit better.
Although things change there so quick or maybe it was just an off night.
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Who can say? Off nights happen.
I seen his place at the MGM, but have never tried it. May have to give that a try. 
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The Five Sails in Vancouver. Amazing food, one of the best views you can imagine, incredible service. Spectacular in every respect.
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“Le Messob D’Or”, a wonderful mom and pop Ethiopian restaurant in Montreal which unfortunately no longer exists.
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Hmmm.
Kokomo’s in the Mirage in Vegas was a really good meal. It was a prime rib which is easy enough but the sides were incredible. Sweet potato puree or something which tasted like a dessert.
There’s a small Thai place near my house in a strip mall which serves the best Massaman chicken curry I’ve ever tasted. Such an unassuming place with really tasty food.
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I’d love a Thai place like that out here in the sticks. There’s a fairly decent place that makes burritos as big as your head, but how many times can you eat on of those, you know? That’s usually a monthly or bi-monthly trip due to its distance.
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Purple in Seattle. Anyone who brings me that much wine is my best friend, and they have a beef sandwich (essentially a reuben) which is one of the finest things I have ever put in my mouth.
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Ahhh, Seattle. (Content sigh)
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We recently had an amazing family dinner at Fish Story in Napa. Fresh crab, trout, steak, salad, soup, sides…. every dish was wonderful.
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The first night I was in Tokyo we found a hole in the wall.. actually it was up a narrow trail with cobblestone steps.. and there was the most delicious Italian restaurant.. we had a pizza and seafood pasta and it was absolutely mindblowing. I wish I could remember the name but I probably never knew it.. they had a cute octopus on the bill though and it was in Omori district. Oh and tipping doesn’t exist there, its considered an insult.. the chefs’/servers honor comes from the guests appreciation only.
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Ferrari Subs in Killeen TX. The place is run down, the owner/ only employee is a racist old bastard, service is slow, and there’s no aircon… But the sandwiches are just amazing.
Locals refer to him as the sandwich nazi.
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Back in 2001 there was an amazingly good Italian restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. It was called Rocco’s.
Rocco was a slightly crazy Italian man who had married a Chinese woman and emigrated.
Best Lasagna I have ever eaten, and I’m a trained Italian food cook.
There’s also a really great Chinese place in Tel-Aviv, right in the crappiest part of town. Brilliant food, great service, and authentic Chinese flavour, not the usual Westernized crap.
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Casa de Fogo in Panama City Beach. 5 of my friends and I were there for Spring break and someone pointed it out and said it had unlimited steak skewers. That was all the rest of us needed to hear.
For $25, so long as you were still able to stuff your gullet, they’d keep coming out with steak, chicken, pork, and bacon-wrapped scallops. We ended up spending about 3 hours there eating. Best $25 I’ve ever spent on food.
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Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York. This is a vegetarian restaurant, and, although I am not a vegetarian myself, this is the most delicious meal I have ever had. Both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our dishes (I had enchiladas verdes), but we were informed that they were out of the dessert we had ordered, a raspberry ricotta mousse. The kitchen staff felt bad for us, so they gave us gratis a small bowl with the very last of the mousse, as well as the desserts we did order. On the way out, passing trays of food smelled so good that we were hungry all over again.
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I have one of the Moosewood cookbooks but haven’t had the chance yet to visit the restaurant. Your description makes me want to go there even more.
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One called “La Casa Tacino” in Edmonton. No longer around. Their Caesar salad and hazelnut cheesecake were unreservedly amazing. The rest of the food was fantastic as well, but I still get cravings for the salad and dessert almost 20 years later…
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Harris Steak House, San Francisco. It’s like walking into a fancy restaurant of yesteryear–a real time machine experience. The menu is typical steakhouse fare, but the quality of said steaks are pretty much the Platonic ideal. I like lots of different, international food, but nothing beats a high-quality steak. Also, the martinis there are huge. They serve them like milkshakes–they fill up the glass and leave the rest in a salted ice bath on the side.
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I really liked The Amazonian in Aruba.
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The Bacchus Bistro out in Wine Country east of Vancouver, BC. Have eaten there twice now and have been blown away each time. Great thing is they can pair up your meal with wine from their vineyards which is also great.
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The Ravenous Pig in Orlando, Florida. Great southern American pub-style fare, with a slightly Greek inflection.
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Defunct restaurants:
Nirvana on the Rooftops. NYC. Very good Indian food and an incredible view of Central Park at a shockingly low price.
Taste of Portugal. Obscurest corner of NW Houston burbs. Some crazy man from Mozambique installed a giant grill in a hole in the wall with 12 tables. First place I ever had fresh sardines. Best fish in the world.
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Apparently Nirvana moved over to Lexington Ave and 40 St. Hopefully they’re just as good. I’ll have to try.
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Without the view of Central Park it would just be a pretty good Indian restaurant.
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Pauline’s in Burlington, VT. Pork cutlet, thin, crisp, and tender with a light lemon caper sauce. It was fall and the sides reflected that.
AquaKnox at the Venetian. I was traveling with friends and it was the birthday girl’s choice. The array of house smoked fish as an appetizer was one of the most expensive dishes I’ve ever paid for and it was perfect.
Thin, wood fired pizza at Zona 78 in Tucson accompanied by a real Caesar salad. They never fail to bring a small side cup of anchovies by request.
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My choice would have to be Smokin’ Swine, (no longer in business). The one time I went there, the owner happened to notice my practically orgasmic dining experience. The food brought back sooo many memories for me, of my upbringing in the South. There is no real Southern cooking up here in the North-West, that I know of. I’ll never forget that meal and since they are closed, I won’t have to go back a second time, which could spoil the first time’s excellence.
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In NYC our favorite place to eat is Awash (ethiopian). There are currently two locations, one down on Indian Row (east 6th street) and another up on Amsterdam by Columbia Univ. Best time to go is about 5pm for an early dinner because the place is busy but not too busy and the chef is in the swing of things. My favorite has always been the beets (surprisingly) and carrot side dish. Best fucking root vegetable side dish I’ve ever had.
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Now gone, but never forgotten….
Jardin Sun Heung, in Montréal’s Chinatown. Litterally a 22 seat hole-in-the-wall that any sane person would not squeeze in to. Run by Mr. and Mrs. Kwong with help from their kids.
Funny enough you would always see the same people there, no one else. Every now and again they would be some new person, but never too many to let the secret out.
Number 95. NUMBER 95! The first cut is the deepest. I had no idea what it was, so I ordered it. On the menu it was
95…. Hung to ye mein
but it is still heaven.
The base was a very light broth, maybe it was chicken, or just water. Add big and fat, light and fluffy, oversized lo-mein noodles. Not the regular ones, these were super fluffy. But every soup could have this. No other soup could have The Goup
The goup is a mix of oyster sauce, asian mushrooms, shrimp, chicken, egg, pork and magic.
AARRRggghhhhhhh!!!!!
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The lunch counter at the Rexall Drug Store in Bar Harbor Maine in ’81. They kept a huge pot of clam chowder hot on the stove all day, and I’ve never had so good before or after in my life.
Forget the damages but it was around a buck for a large bowl.
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My favorite restaurant is Bayridge Sushi because the sushi is very well made and very affordable.
The best steak I ever had was a Ribeye at Flemmings Steakhouse.
The best variety of food I’ve ever had is the Sterling Brunch at Bally’s Steakhouse in Las Vegas!
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I can remember quite a few restaurants that had wonderful food and great service, and many nice memories, but if I ever knew their names, they are gone now. That’s because none of them are in my small town, sadly. There was a place on the outskirts of Nanchang, run by some ethnic minority group. Not only did no one there speak English, our Chinese translator had a hard time communicating as well. But they kept bringing us more and more wonderful food and their hospitality was above and beyond the call of duty.
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I really liked a place called Soup & Yogurt in the mid ’80s. That’s all they served: soup, frozen yogurt, and bagels. But the soups were out of the ordinary and always delicious and filling. I doubt they are still in business.
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Culpeper’s in Indiana, PA. Awesome pizza.
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there’s a small town on the coast of Normandy called Yport, go there you’ll find a restaurant called ‘le nautique’ not far from the entrance of the town. They serve the finest fresh fish platters you’ll eat in a lifetime dirt cheap and delicious.
Also , their duck is excellent.
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Michael Symon has a restaurant in Detroit called “Roast”. MIND BLOWING! The combinations of flavors the guy uses just work. It is pricey however. I wish my wife and I had more “big events” to celebrate throughout the year so we could enjoy it more.
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frasca, boulder
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Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen in Montreal. This place serves its own type of cured brisket called “smoked meat,” which is similar to but different than–and far superior to–corned beef.
While the main attraction is the meat, the character of the place is also a huge draw for me. Business is brisk, waiters are surly, there’s always a line, you aren’t allowed to hold a seat, and everyone shares tables. They renovated in the 1990s to make the place look older, and they begrudgingly expanded in the late 2000s to add a takeaway counter but no additional seating.
The first time I walked in, I ordered a reuben, not realizing that Schwartz’s is kosher. The waiter rolled his eyes, asked if I was from the states, and told me I was having a smoked meat sandwich. Fortunately, he allowed me to have a dill pickle and a black cherry soda as well. When it arrived, it was pure bliss. On subsequent visits I always made sure to build in a two-hour naptime for the meat-induced coma that followed a lunch there.
I’ve been lucky enough to eat at a lot of good places, from fancy restaurants to greasy food carts, but Schwartz’s is number one in my heart, always and forever.
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If you’re ever in New Jersey, near where the turnpike and parkway meet, you’ll have to try Harold’s. The best pastrami on the best rye bread with the best mustard and the best sour pickles. Be prepared to share.
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Open Range, Calgary. Bison Burger is pure yum, Blueberry goat cheese sundae fir dessert was to die for…
Grizzly House, Banff. Breakfast, lunch & dinner, but the appetizers are delicious.
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I can’t remember exactly which one of the specials it was, but I had a very memorable hot dog at Hot Dougs in Chicago. It involved a sausage made with shrimp and chicken and one of the toppings was blue cheese. It was inexpensive too which was crucially important to me at the time.
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Northlake Tavern (in Seattle); best. pizza. ever.
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Tough call.
I’d say L’Atelier by Joel Rubichon in Vegas, Topolobampo in Chicago or Daniel in NYC. All incredible, super memorable, and places I’d go to again in a red second.
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So it’s a bit out of the way, but it was by far my favorite meal ever.
During my honeymoon, I stayed at a bed & breakast in Burgundy, France. It’s called Auberge du Paradis.
The B&B is run by a chef (Cyril) and his wife. First, the rooms are amazingly decorated. The place is just awesome, but I digress….
This chef was unbelievable. Right out of Iron Chef. There was a Michelin judge there next to us when we were eating. A 7 course meal, and everything better than the last. You can go on Trip Advisor and see pictures of some of the meals. The one I remember most was a desert with strawberry, avocado, and cumin. Not something you’d expect to be good, but it was awesome.
If you ever find yourself in Burgundy, do not miss it.
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Mom’s in Salina, UT
Breakfast is the meal to go for. Best omelet I’ve ever eaten.
It’s the exception to the “Don’t eat at a restaurant named Mother’s or Mom’s” rule.
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There is a restaraunt in Toulouse, France, that serves nothing but steak & fries. It is refreshingly inexpensive and superb! People queue round the block to get in. Now that the Kashmir on Spital Hill (Sheffield, UK) is closed, I nominate that place in Toulouse .
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Very tough choice, but The Crows Nest in Santa Cruz, CA has one of my favorite shrimp pasta dishes and a view of Monterey Bay and sailboats coming in and out of the harbor.
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Probably Bern’s in Tampa, FL. It was an amazing experience! The wine cellar alone is worth the trip. We ended the night with a trip to the dessert room. Truly a decadent evening.
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a tiny vegetarian place in the suburbs of philadelphia. it only seats around 30 people, but their food is always amazing. they have a vegan chocolate mousse that beats any traditionally made mousse i’ve ever tasted.
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Best place that’s still around is the original Tampico on Airline Drive where all the seafood and produce wholesalers are. Great raw oysters, OK squid, and the best steamed fish ever. You ask for a fish, they count the people and how hungry they seem, and they bring you a giant steamed fish with herbs and veggies.
The Menu is in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl.
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The French Laundry in Yountville wins for the stunning precision of the food and the whole atmosphere surrounding it, but a close second is a little family run place called the Restaurane Don Joao, just outside the town walls of Obidos, Portugal. They had a massive steak with au jus and a sweet peppercorn sauce that i will never, ever forget….
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The Sign of the Mermaid, on Anna Maria Island, FL. We went there for our first anniversary, and everything was absolutely wonderful.
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The True South Dining Room at the Rees Hotel in Queenstown, New Zealand. Garden Salad, Australian medallions of beef in a beet reduction, whipped garlic potatoes, hericots vert, extraordinary amuse bouche between each course and an unbelievable lemon meringue tart for desert.
That or the Five Guys about two miles from here. Jeez! They KNOW how to do french fries right!
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If you’re ever in Bar Harbor, Maine, and want a lobster dinner, skip the fancy places downtown and head to the West St. Cafe on the north edge of town. It’s where the locals eat, and it has a very inexpensive “early bird” special lobster dinner. Nothing fancy. Lots of butter.
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