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.

Scallops cooked by a pupil of Rick Stein at a hotel in Cornwall.

Food served on the train from Bangkok to suratani epic!

Burtaga Pasta in a random restaurant in Sicily

Thai food in a local Thai place in askew road London som tam 'duck in tamarind'

Nans Jamaican oxtail and butter bean, and anything she cooked

All bloody lovely 😀 never tasted the same anywhere.

A gorgeous melt in the mouth peach Melba in Paris. Never had anything like it again sadly.

I had an amazing pasta dish with sweet potato, leek, mushroom and feta once. I can make a fair resemblance of it but hanker after the original (which I ate more than 20 years ago)….

A viking pizza in paris 1990s.

Smoked salmon, creme fraiche and lemon zest and juice.

I've tried to recreate it but it isn't the same.

Up to date on the pizza front - a char cooked margerita yesterday with anchovies which DD said was the best pizza she had every tasted. Bristol.

Ages ago, in a Welsh pub when we were on our way to the ferry to Ireland, some smoked haddock dish with a sort of Welsh Rarebit topping. I know there’s a recipe for it, but I’ve never got around to trying it.
I’ve travelled all over and eaten all sorts - both street food and fancy restaurants - but that still stands out.

Also a plain saffron risotto in an Italian restaurant in Richmond (Surrey) - utterly delicious.

I had ravioli filled with orange and ricotta in a lemon cream sauce. It was when I was in Florence. I have never seen it anywhere else.

Great thread! I remember a wonderful meal at an Italian restaurant in Cleethorpes of all places when I was about 14. It was very simple but the steak was absolutely delicious & had some sort of creamcheese topping. My friend & I had a stunning pizza Margarita in Florence. One of the best things I have ever eaten wasn’t in a restaurant. I was a nanny & the family were staying in their Portuguese farmhouse. We had cold ratatouille for lunch some days & I could easily have eaten the whole bowlful!

It was at a testing lunch for an awards ceremony. My main was an aubergine and chickpea dish that was absolutely gorgeous (but changed at last minute so they didn’t serve it on the night).

Desert was profiteroles - oh my god they were so light and fluffy -one waiter served the ‘baked’ profiteroles then a second would follow with a huge bowl of melted chocolate and drizzled it over them 😋.

Some of the very senior types said it was too like ‘school dinners’ (silver service waiting staff and fresh pastry with melted chocolate??) but I said it would go down well with the audience (which it did).

I had the most delicious suckling pig with some sort of tomato chutney in Barcelona. Best thing I ever tasted!

I had a pasta dish in Italy with a sausage and (had to Google this translation) bladder campion sauce. It was delicious and none of my attempts to recreate it have worked.

There used to be a steak restaurant in Dublin called 'Bear', and it was honestly the best steak & accompaniments I've ever had. It closed down and I could've cried

Monkfish in lobster sauce in a slightly strange hotel near Chorley - I was hoping it would be on the menu all week but it was just a one off special.

Enchiladas in a cantina in Santa Fe - I could have eaten another plateful all too easily.

Smoked halibut on a British Rail train about 30 years ago. Amazing what they could cook in a tiny kitchen.

Really simple but a cauliflower pie and roasted baby veg I had in dubai, NOTHING has ever tasted as good. I check the menu alot and it's never reappeared since, I'm sure all would appreciate a visit from me just so I can get a pie 🤔

Swedish princess cake. Like eating a marzipan-covered cloud.

Chocolate sorbet, in an Indian restaurant in Southfields about 15 years ago. It was amazing, like crystallised ice dark chocolate. Never seen it again.

A properly done gyros!

Whatever my mother served, first night home from school.

One the other hand, the 'last supper' the night before I went back early the next morning, was always as dust and ashes in my mouth.

Good times.

Satay @ Newton Circus or Lau Pau Sat in Singapore - eaten with dad... all others eaten elsewhere are pale imitations

The duck @ Tour d'Argent in Paris 22 years ago - it even had a serial number. Pretentious much😬?

Mine is pretty simple. I had a brunch/early lunch at a spanish tapas restaurant in London about ten years ago. One of the items on the plate was these mashed/crushed new potatoes cooked in olive oil. Really basic but I've just never been able to get the same result at home.

Otherwise it would be the wonderful tiny deep fried squid on Lanzarote. They tasted like sea and chicken skin. It was a lovely little restaurant and we ate them and a couple of other dishes, had some cold beers and watched an electrical storm out over the ocean.

Was it at The Jolly Fisherman? Fabulous pub - and then a walk to Dunstanburgh Castle

Could you say which riad or is that too outing?

I went to that! I'm sure it was a little chain that started out as this tiny burger restaurant. Best burger I ever had, bar none. Honestly better than the steak.