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.

Just remembered a slice of honey cake in Prague, served with coffee with thick cream on top. I could eat that right now.

There's a restaurant called Helmand on the outskirts of Boston. They did something amazing with pumpkin. I would love to taste that food again one day.

Scallops with blobs of puréed carrot and cumin in Cornwall. Restaurant permanently closed next time we went. Young and really nice chef, I hope he went on to do big things.

Huge Wiener schnitzel the size of a plate with proper garlic fried potatoes and lemon and caper dressing-German beer hall in Stockholm!!!

In Romania 1982 at the time a country still under soviet control. Food was very simple but as we traveled through the Carpathian Mountains our tour stopped at an amazing hotel

we were served deep fried breaded cheese served in a dish of almost tomato soup swirled with cream. It was perfect and I still look for a recipe to this day

The large fluted tortilla baskets filled with rice, refried beans, salad, salsa, cheese and soured cream in a Mexican restaurant in Correlejo on Fuerteventura, I remember it well it had a model Horse and Cart outside
we went there every night - happy days 🥰🌶

A bowl of pasta with a simple tomatoe based sauce and a fresh chopped salad made especially for me in a hotel in Italy. The restaurant was crowded with a party and the hotel owners suggested we eat on our own in the smaller restaurant they used for breakfasts, the chef came out as there was obviously no menu and I said whatever is easiest for you as long as there's no meat. It was the nicest meal I have ever had everything was so fresh and delicious and I've never been able to recreate it myself.

We had these in Samui over a decade ago, ate them every day and never again since! Amazing and I've never found them on a Thai menu in this country.

Also Portuguese Chicken in a Pot which was a simple baked chicken in a clay pot about 35 years ago. The most sublime gravy I've ever tasted. Tried to recreate many many times. Never the same.

A pasta with goats cheese in Paris, circa 1998. I’ve tried and tried to recreate it ever since, and failed miserably every time.

Courgette flowers deep fried are the thing I always have to order at least once in Italy. It's not Italy without it, ditto Paris doesn't count if you don't have a citron presse.

But my favourite lost meal is from our late lamented cheap and cheerful pizza takeaway, Pizza Man. Their pizza was hot, thin and crispy, and they had some unique options, including a Vegetarian Hot with roast aubergine, garlic and chilli oil. I'm not even vegetarian but I had it every time.

I also miss the deceased EAT chain's bonkers annual Valentine special sandwich: marscapone and sliced strawberries with chocolate sauce on chocolate bread. The highlight of my February.

Bailey's soufflé under a spun sugar cage, St Martins Hotel, Isle's of Scilly.

30 years ago on honeymoon.
Divine.

I've remembered another one, there was a restaurant in Berlin that a friend and her DH took us to, I think it was called the Schwarze Raben (sp?). I had a strawberry risotto with scallops, it came as two separate things on the place, a small hill of risotto and a couple of scallops in a scallop shell. It was delicious and I've never found another place that serves strawberry risotto. The restaurant was quite a long way from where we lived (we lived in the West and friend lived in the old East) so we didn't go back.

Also, not specific just general, things in Berlin were much more seasonal than I was used to and they used to go mad about asparagus when it was in season. I ate so many delicious variations on asparagus dishes and the all tasted better than asparagus ever had before.

I love this thread. Imagine all these chefs and cooks who have created so many individual perfect moments. Cooking really is magic at its best.

Mine is a green papaya salad at a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant in a back street somewhere around Camden Town in the very late 1990s or early 2000s. It was such a taste explosion.

I’ve got more, some from much posher places, but when I read the thread title it was the green papaya salad that leapt to my mind.

I once had a seafood and fennel soup on the beach in Sicily. It was absolutely incredible, cost about £5 and I have never been able to recreate it.

Also a huge bowl of fresh cherries and cream in Tel Aviv. The intense flavour of the cherries was something I've never had in the UK.

Anything containing Guinea fowl!

Watercress soup in a little French place we stopped off to break the journey back to the boat. I've tried every watercress soup recipe I can find since then, but never managed to make something so flavourful and lightly creamy.

The food at a tiny Japanese restaurant in Avery Row, Mayfair. My introduction to Japanese food in the early 80s. Everything there was so good.

The first time I ever had lobster, in a tiny little quayside restaurant in Mousehole in Cornwall years ago. It was baked, iirc, may have had a cheese sauce - so effectively lobster Thermidor, I guess - but there was a tiny bit of sherry involved too, somehow. It was the most delicious thing ever.

My mouth's watering just thinking about it.

Cranachan from the Inn at Applecross. I think they still serve it but its a long way to go just for a pudding.

Went to a restaurant in little Italy in NYC when I was 14. Cant remember the name of the restaurant but the salad was absolutely delicious and I've never forgotten about it.

The dressing was just so nice, garlicky... so good. That's all I can remember and I don't know how to re create it. I think about it all the time😂

Zizzi used to do a fusilli dish with a creamy sauce with Gorgonzola and pine nuts. Like 15-16 years ago. It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten and they took it off the menu!!

Crab bisque in a local restaurant. Never found quite as good again or able to recreate.
Also orange and poppy seed cheesecake. Literally 25ish years ago and I still think of it!

The set menu at www.fermeduvert.com/fr/menus-cartes.html around 20 years ago, incredible cooking...confirmed me as a Francophile...

Phad thai from street food vendors in Bangkok
A swordfish roulade (but not moussey) with mint that I had in Palermo

Not able to recreate the first and haven't even been able to find a recipe for the second!

Saturday Satay at the Tanglin Club with rice wrapped in leaves. The amazing peanut sauce to go with it.

There is a Vietnamese near me that does marmite peanut butter cauliflower as a starter. Absolute food of the gods!