Best food/dining experiences

Post your best restaurant or dining experiences here. You can use my categories or whichever you want to come up with. It's useful if you post the location though...

For me:

* Best overall dinner experience: sunset dinner with my wife on the small terrace at Chateau Eza in Eze (French riviera). Wonderful and inventive food, perfect service and a view unlike any other. The walk up the narrow paths of Eze to get there was a great prelude too

* Best lunch experience: Carrà des Feuillants, Paris. Classic gastronomy

* Best New York overall dinner experience: Per Se, dinner near the window on the park

* Best New York food: Le Bernardin. Went three times and I can't find a fault in the cuisine. Absolute perfection in my book. Room and setting are not nearly as nice as Per Se so it doesn't get my top prize for overall NY experience

For me:

* Best overall dinner experience: Dinner with my best friend at L'Aberge in Carmel. The food is great, the service is amazing, it is cozy and you can just sit, relax and know that you're enjoying a wonderful evening on the American Riviera. It was also at that point that I realized how great an area I grew up in is.

* Best lunch experience: Any of the small restaurants on Piazza del Campo in Siena. While the food may not be something to write home about, sitting there in the warm sun is amazing.

* Best New York overall dinner experience: Thanksgiving Dinner at Alain Ducasse.

* Best New York food: Danube. I've been 2x and when I went next door to Bouley I probably would have been happier at Danube.

*Best New York Lunch/Brunch Jean Georges $24.07 prix fixe

*Best LA Dining Experience Katana. It's, to me, the epitome of LA. Across from the Standard, on Sunset, going to see at least 1-2 people you can tell your friends about and to me the food is better than Koi.

*Best NY "Sit-Down Lunch by Yourself on a Work Day" Lunch Really depends on your part of town. But, for Tribeca I would say Devin Tavern.

For me:

*Best overall New York dinner experience: Per Se. I believe it was table #23 with a great window view.

*Best lunch experience: Bouley, NYC

*Best food experience: Daniel's, NYC

*Best seafood experience: Le Bernardin, NYC

*Best overall dinner experience: The Dining Room at the Ritz, San Francisco

*Most whimsical dining experience: Alinea's, Chicago

*Most orchestrated dining experience: Tru, Chicago

*Most relaxing dinner environment:Babbo, NYC

*Best food only (i.e, great food but poor service): Chanterelle, NYC.

For me:

* Best overall dinner experience: Probably the best overall experience was dinner on a July evening at Buerhiesel in Strasbourg. It is situated in a large park in Strasbourg which also has a zoo. Walking through the park to the restaurant in a light drizzle was a great experience, the food was absolutely fantastic, the service was great and by the end of the evening the glass roof was being pelted with huge raindrops. Adding to the great experience was the fact that my wife (then girlfriend) and I had been saving for months in order to go there and that there was absolutely no let down at all. Unfortunately, it appears that the chef left the restaurant to his son last year and it now has no stars having had 3 every year for the last 15 or so.

* Best lunch experience: The minceur lunch at Michel Guerard after a menu gourmand dinner the night before.

* Best US overall dinner experience: Hard to say. Probably Ginza Sushiko in LA which was where Masa hung his hat before leaving for NYC. The food is probably equal, but the old place, while beautiful in its own way, was not well known and was a bit of a hole in the wall, albeit in a very nice wall.

* Best New York food: I have never eaten well in NY. I have had good meals at Le Bernadin and some others, but nothing stands out to me in any special way. It is possible that I don't really "get" the whole NY scene being a small town boy myself.

matt - does NY have any redeeming qualities at all for you? Last place you'd ever want to live, never eaten well in NY, etc... There seems to be something deep here that may need a bit of analysis...

There is no "whole scene" to "get", just a good number of amazing chefs - some of which delivering fantastic cuisine

I was just talking about this last night.

The best food experience I've had in the past few years was at Subway. I was very sick for about 1.5 weeks due to food poisoning, and just started to get better thanks to some strong antibiotics. The time I was sick left me feeling very weak and hungry because I ate so little, and probably because I had some nutritional deficiencies at that point.

Anyway, I ordered my usual spicy italian with extra pickles and lots of mustard. It was exactly what I was craving, and I thoroughly enjoyed it because for the first time since I got sick I could enjoy myself and eat food without worrying about an upset stomach. It sure isn't the best food around, but I don't have any memory of a meal feeling so satisfying!

Originally Posted by gdl203

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matt - does NY have any redeeming qualities at all for you?

Last place you'd ever want to live, never eaten well in NY, etc... There seems to be something deep here that may need a bit of analysis...

There is no "whole scene" to "get", just a good number of amazing chefs - some of which delivering fantastic cuisine
You know, I always have a good time when I am there, but if I am going to spend my entire day on the plane and don't need to, I am going to Paris. I have eaten really well at casual restaurants in NY, but never all that well when we have gone out to special places. Also, 3/4 of my family lives there and it is not the part which I rate highly... where is my couch?

It may be associated with family then?

I just find that funny that you actually felt the need to create a category in your post for best NY food, just to indicate that you've never eaten well in NYC. I think it says something... just not sure why

Originally Posted by gdl203

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It may be associated with family then? I just find that funny that you actually felt the need to create a category in your post for best NY food, just to indicate that you've never eaten well in NYC. I think it says something... just not sure why

I actually just used your post and added my own answers. When I couldn't find anything else interesting to say, I just kept the last category. Honestly though, I love NY when I have nothing to do and have the time to cruise around the city on foot with my wife. When I have a bunch of meetings to get to and the cabs are spraying me with disgusting water while I try to think over the noise, not so much love.

* Best overall dinner experience: Dinner at sunset in Castel Gandolfo. The restaurant we ate at was not far from the Papal palace, and it offered a completely breathtaking view of the lake. My grandparents have been dining there since the 1980's and have never had a bad meal. I wish I remembered the name of the place. It was down the street from the Palazzo Papale...the big building here is a portion of the facade of the Pope's summer palace. * Best lunch experience: This is really hard. Daisy May's BBQ (any of the three locations in Midtown) offers the best value for BBQ in NYC, bar none. Their chili is literally out of this world...I haven't gone in 8 or 9 months, but last time I think it was still under $10 for a huge heaping bowl. Le Parker Meridien's Burger Joint is also one of the best places in town for a good, cheap lunch. * Best New York overall dinner experience: Gotta be Jean Georges. * Best New York food: New York City or NY state? There are some great restaurants outside of the city.

Most perfect in every way dining experience: Anise. The food was innovative and service was exceptional. Unfortunately, it no longer exists in its original form. The same chef still owns it so i'm hoping she'll do an occasional dinner in the old fashion, such as for new year's etc.

GQGeek - what do you think of Chez L'Epicier? We had a really awesome dinner there last year but it seems like it's not everyone's cup of tea

Only really have experiences with NY:

Best cheap eats: Sripraphai - This was before the restaurants renovation and became more mainstream. Still really good but I dont think it is quite the same

Best overall dining experience - Babbo. - Had a great 3ish hour meal downstairs at Babbo with gf. Walked in on a whim on a very cold snowy night and scored a great table in the front. I always dig the atmosphere at Babbo, the music, vibe etc. and basically having the entire front of the restaurant to ourselves was awesome.

Best overall food (haute) - Daniel

Best overall non western food - Sushi Yasuda

Best non NY dining experience - Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Most Unexpected Find: The Cottage Place in Flagstaff Arizona. Great classic style cuisine, great service, Wine Spectator "Best Of" list for years.

Best Upscale Asian Dining: Rain, Toronto Ontario.

Most Elegant Al Fresco Dinner EVER Tee Box Eight, The Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale Arizona. Night time dining on Camel Back Mountain, linen/crystal/china table setting at the eigth tee off by a tuxedo'ed waiter, with violinist while you eat. Then some lounger chairs to chill in for cocktails with dessert.

Foie Gras Served More Ways Than Should Be Legal: Au pied de Cochon, Montreal Quebec. I had the meat sweats after I finished there.

Best Crab Feast: Little place in Alexandria, Stan's Place. A little dive run by a surly Korean guy. What a feast on Chesapeake Bay blues though.

Sorry, have never been to NYC. I keep meaning to, and when I do go, I plan to "do it right" and have just never allocated that type of cash for one reason or another.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Foie Gras Served More Ways Than Should Be Legal: Au pied de Cochon, Montreal Quebec. I had the meat sweats after I finished there.