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.

Pears in red wine sauce in a restaurant somewhere on the Dublin DART line, I think Monkstown, in the 1990s. Have occasionally had that dish since if I have found it on a menu but never did anything taste so good as that one!

We ate smoked, whole cauliflower in a restaurant in Berlin. It tasted like sausage and was amazing. I live nowhere near Berlin now and have never seen smoked cauliflower on a menu.

pineallle fried in rum, butter, lime and chilli with coconut ice cream. I am not a puddings person normally but it was HEAVEN.

Lobster bisque at the Stratosphere revolving restaurant in Las Vegas.

Asparagus risotto in Venice - it doesn’t sound exciting; but it was divine!
Stuffed cabbage leaves in Cafe Hungaria in Budapest!
Lobster in a Pernod sauce in a restaurant near Ashbourne - a marriage made in heaven!
Lamb souvlaki in Greece recently - one of the best dishes I have ever had!

The cafe I used to work in served an incredible Brie ciabatta with a salad and a special chilli and tomato “sauce” made by the chef. I used to ask for it for lunch every day. When I left I asked for the recipe for the sauce and it was dead simple but I could never make it taste the same and it’s still and ongoing quest!!

i think I need to buy a ciabatta toastie thing and try again

It's a little controversial and not something I'd order now knowing more about it, but I had suckling pig about 12 years ago in a very cheap restaurant in Mallorca. It was 5 courses plus wine for something like €15 and I asked the waiter what he recommended. I can't even remember the other dishes I had but the suckling pig was out of this world! I felt rather guilty when I watched a documentary some years later about it and realised just how young the piglets are

Also summer rolls. The first time I had them they were so tasty, light, moreish. Every other time they’ve been carby, damp and flavourless!

I want to eat every single thing on this thread x

cajun rice in St marteen. Never got it right.

The best thing I have ever eaten was a cheese omelette with dauphinois potatoes and a green salad in a cafe in rainy Bordeaux about 23 years ago. Sounds bizarre but it was the best omelette and the most creamy potatoes with crispy bits from being stuck to the side of the dish and the salad actually tasted of salad. I’m salivating now just thinking of it.

A dessert, it was some sort of cheese soufflé with a balsamic glaze, but the whole thing was still sweet. I don’t even know what it was called so have no idea how to ever find it again. I’ve kept my eye out for something similar for 25 years

Not an individual thing but I've had 2 meals this year that were really off the charts :

Nobu when I was in Doha on business and Hakkasan in Mayfair for DH's birthday. Just stratospheric food.

Not necessarily the nicest thing ever. But asparagus. Now I don't like vegetables. I begrudgingly eat some to keep me healthy and that's about it. I don't enjoy them. But how the hell a restaurant in Spain made a starter of asparagus (literally just asparagus and dressing) something so delicious and memorable, I'll never know.

I very much doubt it was in anyway healthy though- I think lots of olive oil and salt were involved.

Matcha pancakes with some sort of yoghurt (Greek?) and granola over the top with fruit and some sort of sauce. I’ve made matcha pancakes and waffles since but nothing as nice as this.

Chili paneer in Nepal. 😋

An egg dish made with pickled mustard greens that I had in Vietnam. It was part of a mix of small plates and I only ordered it because they didn't have many veggie dishes. I've done a lot of googling and can't find the recipe, only Thai ones that sound different.

Some sort of baked/smoked mozzarella with lemon oil, I had at a conference dinner in a fairly small restaurant in Verona, years ago
i can’t even describe it enough to do it justice when I’ve never eaten anything like it since!

I had to Google this and there are recipes online. Tomorrow's experiment sorted!

Scallops on a bed of cauliflower purée with pancetta and deep fried capers in a hotel in Rye

Smoked miso aubergine with crispy onions in Brighton.

Plain pizza by the side of the road by Pompeii station.

There was a family restaurant in a small town in Turkey that did a starter my Dad called rugby balls due to their shape. They were deep fried, the outside was possibly bulgar wheat and filled with some sort of minced meat. Really light, super tasty and I’ve never seen them in any other Turkish restaurant either in Turkey or the UK.

Sound like Lebanese Kibbeh?

A crouton and goat's cheese in a hotel that doesn't exist anymore.

A Georgian chicken casserole flavoured with lemon and some kind of delicious herbs.

A PP has reminded me of the amazing seafood ravioli that we used to be able to get at a local restaurant. It has now been turned into a burger place

And I'm also remembering some garlicky eggs and greens that I ate in a convent in eastern Turkey many years ago. No idea how to make it and it was so tasty!

Salads in pretty much every restaurant in Vietnam - so fresh/ sour/ herby.

I've eaten in some very good Vietnamese restaurants here, but it's never the same. I guess the herbs are either imported or grown in poly tunnels, which is never the same.

Also - something involving Yuzu in the Greenhouse in Mayfair. I'm now obsessed with ordering things involving yuzu and buying various yuzu sauces, but it never hits the mark.