To ask what the best meal you've ever eaten is?

Ah...food...my favourite thing to fantasise about...

Oysters on the wharf in Sēte, SW France. Sitting on packing crates. Had been taken on a quick shallow boat trip to see the oyster beds which were laid down in Roman times. With a very, very cold Vin de Sable. If I go to heaven it will be there.
Also, when I crave Indian food (quite often !) I can't think of any I have had that betters Ganapati Kitchen in Peckham (Keralan)
Drooling at everyone's suggestions / memories...even things I couldn't eat...because the delight is in the moment and the memory.
Sunshine, the slap of the sea and love in the air for me !

Lamb kleftikos in a hillside restaurant in Rhodes

churros from a van in Barcelona

Like you OP it was fish and chips. I'd was buying my ex out of our flat, lots of stress as he kept threatening to kick me out and put the flat on the open market. The day I completed I sat down on my sofa in my own flat and had fish and chips and champagne. It was the best meal ever.

Lowering the tone a bit - but the first time I ever had Taco Bell. It was my birthday, I was hungover and broke, and Taco Bell was new to the UK at the time. I actually went back again the next day.

Other than that, the food at Call It What You Want in Cowes was probably the best restaurant meal I’ve ever had, plus any kind of street food on holiday tbh.

Ham and salad barm made by my gran after I'd been in hospital with hyperemesis.

Roast beef Sunday dinner at a local pub when I was severely hungover. It was perfection.

Steak in Chile when we lived there, with creamed spinach and delicious potatoes cut amost as thin as crisps but cooked freshly with garlic.

I’m glad you enjoyed your fish and chips OP and that the operation went so well.

Arbroath Smokies in a little country pub many years ago.
A roast beef Sunday lunch in the one posh hotel in our town, booked by my DH as a last treat before baby number 2 arrived. I had her later that day 34 years ago. Recently I had a prawn cocktail, steak and fries with Stilton cauliflower and a queen of puddings. I'd not eaten any of those things for a very long time, it was all good but that queen of puddings was to die for, just the right texture to the base, then the jam and the most heavenly meringue on top, served just hot enough to need a little blow, with a jug of cream on the side. It was a huge portion and I struggled to finish it but no way could I have left it. I could eat it again right now

Nearly 40 years ago we went for a walk on a beach in the Algarve. We stopped at a little restaurant that was really just a shed by the sand dunes. The staff spoke as much English as we did Portuguese (no please, thank you, hello, goodbye) and there was no written menu and no choices. They just bought the grilled fish of the day with salad and chips. Drinks choices were the most delicious chilled white wine that flowed very freely, beer, coke or water and the total bill was about £12.

It was all very simple but every element was perfect and I've never had such a wonderful meal again.

Probably fettunta in Tuscany - amazing bread (Tuscan bread normally has no salt and so I'm not a fan, but this was a different kind of bread) with the new season olive oil and salt. So simple, but exquisite. I've never forgotten the taste.

Also fresh burrata in Florence with local tomatoes. To die for.

Oysters followed by chargrilled octopus in Edinburgh. So full of flavour.

A creamy blue cheese mousse that tasted like clouds in the Hunter Valley.

Tomahawk steak overlooking Porthminster beach in Cornwall.

Also, piping hot, crispy battered fish on Porthmeor Beach.

Basil sorbet with balsamic strawberries overlooking the harbour.

Egg and bacon naan from the Permit Room.

I really like delicious food!

I had hyperemisis in my second pregnancy and lived off very little other than water and ritz crackers. I was dying for proper food. I came home from the hospital and had a wee mini cheeseboard from m and s, nice olives, sundried tomatoes, chicken liver pâté, a ciabatta and chilli jam. Best meal ever.

I had put it in the fridge in anticipation. I had a section and hemorrhaged the following morning. All I could think of all day (other than my gorgeous squishy baby!) Was getting home to that meal. They nearly kept me in a second night, though I had told dh that he was going to have to pick it up and bring it to me if they were keeping me!

A honey and mustard potato and chicken salad from m and s in my hospital bed after DS was born - had only eaten bland food whilst pregnant and had been ill and not eaten for a few days after birth. I can still taste it now.

Ah @GoingOutShoes - that just made me shed a tear.😢

For me - lamb tartare at a restaurant called Six Head overlooking the Sydney Opera House in September 2019. I could eat that at every meal for the rest of my life.

What’s coming to mind first is a lovely chateaubriand meal (chips and two sauces) at Alston Bar and Beef in Glasgow! Lush

Sausage and mash with a jugful of gravy at a National Trust restaurant with friends. I was pregnant at the time and horrendously nauseous and hadn't been able to eat a proper meal in weeks. I was kind of dreading going as I felt so awful but I was craving meat so much I ordered the first meat dish I read. It came and I ate every morsel and for about 20 minutes in the last 10 weeks I didn't feel sick.

Steak and chips 25years ago on the Indian Pacific railway. It took three and a half days to cross Australia and my word it was gorgeous.
Worst meal was a bacon sandwich at the Broken Hill stop in the outback, bloody foul. The Aussies just couldn't do decent bacon or bread in those days.

Mums beef stew after being stuck in the hospital for two weeks after ds was born, eating nothing but low fat yogurts and mns food.

Or

Dad's home made pirogi

Post Covid lockdown I treated myself to a late 50th birthday meal in our nearest big town - fancy place that did fancy food - I had a mushroom tart with truffle foam and a poached egg in the middle - I was in heaven - it was delicious as was the pudding of strawberries 4 ways!

Other than that I'd rank tea and toast post birth at number 3 and number two (no pun intended) was post colonoscopy - due to delays I hadn't eaten for 26 hours - I got a quarter pounder meal on the way home and it was amazing!

There's a few.
Butter paneer masala sat the local indian place. I think because my expectations weren't high.
Restaurant at the holiday park when dh and I were on a wellness weekend. 5 courses. Melt in your mouth.
The fish from the night market in Zanzibar.
The white chocolate cheesecake at simply french Lancaster.

Crab thermidor in Cornwall with skinny, salty fries and a lovely dressed salad.

Tea and toast after my first labour. Honestly the best meal I had ever had

Steak fries in Angouleme. There was a Roquefort sauce and the most perfect garlicky green beans. 15 years ago and I've never forgotten it.

🙄😂

Wood fire restaurant in a castle ruin on top of a Spanish hill. A very well hung steak topped with chargrilled foie gras (don't judge me, different times). Just amazing. I suspect the steak was actually a little too well hung as I was then ill for days, but I would still eat it again. Totally worth it

I forgot tea and toast after labour definitely up there.
cheesy mash at the Eden project.

I've a few that have been really memorable.

A seafood risotto as a starter at a conference in a hotel in London. I can't remember which hotel it was though. The risotto was amazing. So creamy and full of flavour. I was sad it was just starter size - I would have so happily had it as my main course too.

Calamari at a Greek restaurant owned by some friends. The calamari was always so amazing. They have retired now. ☹️

Baked beans and oven chips cooked by my husband for me when I was just starting to recover from Covid. I'd had days and days of no appetite at all. He made me a little portion of beans at chips and I managed to eat it all and i enjoyed every mouthfull. It was exactly what I needed at that time.