What's the nicest thing you've ever eaten in a restaurant? And been searching for ever since?

[catinboots123]

Mine was battered zucchini flowers, in Rome about 20 years ago.

Also snow crab on a boat trip in Florida also about 20 years ago.

Never been able to find anything similar to either.

Perfect agedashi tofu

I want to try everything on this thread, all sounds so delicious

Vietnamese spring rolls I ate in a tiny Vietnamese restaurant in Paris. Never been able to go back, can't remember where it was.

I can make it myself, not that difficult to make, but something is totally different. Or maybe I think it is, just because I was never been able to go back and taste it again.

Gazpacho at a restaurant in Sagres in Portugal. I went back about two years later but it wasn’t on the menu anymore.

Rice flavoured ice cream in Hanoi in Vietnam about 20 years ago.

I have never tried to recreate either of them because as the poster above said atmosphere is a huge part of the experience.

Or Lebanese makdous for breakfast. Has to be eaten with a bright blue sky and an absolute ignorance about how much garlic and olive oil went into it.

As a waitress in a hotel I used to silver serve one particular dish then spoon the accompanying piquant sauce over it.

there were many times I’d grab a spoon on the way back through to the pot wash and enjoy the last remaining bit of the sauce off the salver, all with the chef’s knowledge.

it’s been 30 years…how I’d love to taste that sauce again.

Cream of lettuce soup at a hotel in Nairobi Kenya in 1986. It was sublime. Never seen it on a menu anywhere else.

’no name’ in Thailand 20+ years ago when travelling. We lived off it. All the islands did it - it was something in tempura batter with sweet chilli dipping sauce. I’ve tried googling but it’s like I’ve dreamt it!

This mini chicken at a place in Prague my friend nearly didn't let us get it but I insisted I've thought about it a lot over the years the restaurant is still there and I would go back just for the chicken

Actually just googled again and found it www.thaicookingkohtao.com/recipe/cooking-class-no-name

Vanilla cheesecake with forest fruit sauce on the side from Little John's in Inverness nearly thirty years ago.
Still dream about it.

There’s a little restaurant local to us that’s nothing fancy at all, people don’t even usually have it on their list of main options of places to go. They do the most insane goats cheese though. It’s on a salad with this amazing glaze and recurrent chutney or something.The sauce is just so so good. I tell people about it all the time and almost get annoyed when people don’t instantly go and try it 😂

it looks like the Thai version of Indian Bahjia or Bhaji’s.

I had patty pan on the side of a lamb dish some years ago and I loved the taste and texture. I've never seen it since.

Kaiserschmarrn anywhere in Austria - the most gorgeous pancake dish with the pancake torn into sort of cubes sprinkled with icing sugar and served with plum or apple sauce/mousse.

The most unbelievable fillet steak in DuPont Circle, Washington.

I’m hungry now!

A perfect and perfectly simple panna cotta and dessert wine at Po in New York in the noughties. It no longer exists but I think about that pudding constantly.

A takeaway near where I used to live made a shredded chilli beef dish that was just amazing. I never tired of it. It was sweet and garlicky and dark and wonderful. They retired and moved back to Hong Kong. Since then it's been disappointment after disappointment, ordering shredded chilli beef and being served deep fried orange cornflour stick things.

I still remember the dish number - S9.

<sob>

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal probably not quite the same but the crab lasagne in Galvin restaurants is amazing.

@QueenMabby I had gorgeous lettuce soup in a small restaurant in France about 30 years ago and like you haven’t seen it since!

Mine is the hazelnut mousse filling in a chocolate petit four in the only 3 Michelin star place I’ve ever eaten. It was a mammoth meal but that mousse has stayed in my mind ever since. Never had anything as delicate but delicious since.

A dessert I had in Greece about 30 years ago - cheesecake with a layer of jelly on top. Never seen it anywhere else. Still dream of it sometimes.

A saffron and pear parfait at a swish hotel that work was paying for- when there was still some money in education.

Fishcakes at the Magpie in Whitby

A dessert at a posh restaurant in Birmingham. After seeing me lick the bowl the waiter brought me another! 😂

Swordfish we had in a restaurant in Malta. We'd never had it before, and were young and inexperienced with names of meals etc, so havn't a clue what is was. It was a cheap "special of the day" on the board of a random restaurant close to our hotel, and we were feeling adventurous so chose it. Absolutely delicious.

We've tried numerous swordfish dishes in the many years since and none have come close, in fact, we didn't even like most of them.

There must have been something special about the sauce or the way it was cooked. But, given disappointments of trying to find what it was, we've given up trying and havn't tried it now for a few years.

A local italian restaurant serves the best prawn, lime and chilli linguine imaginable...... I've tried so many times to replicate it and just can't. I'm a diabetic and rarely eat carbs but when I do, this is what I want to have!

Baked goats cheese with honey in a restaurant in rural Andalucia years ago. Tried many variations on a theme and to do it myself but it's never lived up. Spit roasted suckling pig in Sardinia. Made me feel quite guilty but it was so delicious!

Some sort of artichoke quiche/tart in Italy. Ate it every lunchtime for a week.

And a chocolate orange truffle cheesecake in Zizzi.

Spaghetti in tomato sauce in a hotel in Italy. The most simple dish yet heavenly.

Around 1994/5 I went to a restaurant in Fleetwood if memory serves. It was unusual in that in wasn't a typical restaurant layout but rather half a dozen private rooms/ alcoves. The chef there did a set menu with about 6 courses every night and it was amazing. I can't quite remember them all but there was a kind of pesto pasta and the dessert was a plate of mini desserts. I must of been about 14 at the time and loved every mouthful.
At home we mainly had something with chips and beans every night so this was the first fine dining dinner I'd ever tasted and it completely changed my attitude to food after that.