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.

Definitely not able to recreate it without going again but Oistins (sp) fish bar in Barbados late 90’s - paper plates and locals queuing up to eat - the most delicious meal I’ve ever eaten.

Seconded by a trip to Grease with very little money, found a side cafe/restaurant and had the most delicious steak and jacket potato with a sort of cream cheese buttery topping. Sounds so simple but I have had nothing like it again.

I remember the first posh restaurant pizza I ever had, 1990s, it was unbelievably delicious and I haven’t ever quite recreated it. Aubergine, pine nuts, raisins, red onion, goats’ cheese. Maybe a few curls of rocket on top. Sweet, smoky, garlicky. I want to get in a time machine and eat it again.

Simple thing, but vanilla ice cream in a restaurant in Brittany. Well it was my son’s but it was the most heavenly thing. It was yellow with flecks of vanilla. So rich and fragrant. I can taste it now.

This was supposed to be a reply to DesignerRecliner and her visit to Bear in Dublin. Bloody reply button never works for me, I have to use quote.

I can't remember what we ordered, but a Vietnamese meal in San Francisco. When we went back a few years later - we have family there, we went back to the same restaurant. Also paella Valenciana in Valencia, zarzuela at a Balearic beach side restaurant, steak tartare in a casino restaurant in France. Deep fried lobster from Arnold's lobster shack on Cape Cod. My absolute favourite though is chipirones done properly in Spain. Delicious.

Massive langoustine cooked on a bbq on a beach in Spain. They were all garlicky and washed down with cold beers, sand between my toes. Delicious 😋

Arancini in a chintzy pizzeria in Rome

Actually I've realised all the best meals have had holiday connections...wonder if it was the taste or the holiday memories that made them so good?

Venice.

On the Fondamenta Nove, a restaurant overlooking San Michele. It's seating was on a covered decking over the lagoon. Hearing the water lapping the Fondamenta next to us. The smell of red geraniums, basil and the faint hint of the cypress trees.

Pizza Bianca (without the tomato sauce), cheese, walnuts, radiccio and a drizzle of honey.

I still dream of it, a perfect meal, in a perfect setting, at the beginning of a magical holiday

Scallops in a creamy sauce in a little restaurant in Reims in 1982, the 4 courses were 79FF. The next time WE went it'd become a burger bar.

The roast duckling at the Horns Inn in Goosnargh, lovely crispy skin with no fat underneath. Sadly, it's now closed.

A fantastic gamey casserole at Auberge des Moissons in 1999. Dd was too small for a children's menu and took nearly all of mine. The staff were fascinated by this little English girl, not quite 2, making short work of terrine, guinea fowl and chocolate mousse.

I do agree. Going from my own entry to this post, I wonder if the food would have been as wonderful if I was handed a plate of it on my sofa in the UK without all the of the atmosphere, smells and emotions at the time.

TBF, omelette, chips and a green salad is almost always excellent in Portugal and Spain.

A crème brulee at Y Sospan in Dolgellau. It was like eating ice-cream without actually eating ice-cream. It was a perfect end to an excellent dinner.

Hare stew on rye. Some fish dish with banana. Zimbabwe. Camembert in Paris.

Not sure if you have it near you but The Good Earth restaurant and take away do an excellent one.?

There was a restaurant called Papillon that my parents loved, we went there the year I turned 13. It was my first taste of French onion soup, and it was divine. Closed years ago unfortunately.

Another one was a local restaurant that was so cheap - in a terrible area, I never saw anyone in it and it closed a while ago. We went, I had whitebait to start and it was gorgeous. I then had a moussaka which rivalled my yia yia’s and it was about £20 for two of us, including drinks. I’m not surprised they closed as I don’t see how they could be making a profit, but I sure am sad about it!

i’m pretty sure these are Cypriot koupes - they’re normally a street food.

www.kopiaste.org/2007/12/koupes/ This is a good recipe I have used before,
or if you’re in London there are Greek bakeries that sell them.

A lamb dish with lentils and blackberries I had at Ferret Hall Bistro in Headingley in about 2003. Can still taste it now. Never tasted anything like it since.

Base of Mt Ruapehu (NZ) after skiing, a very simple dinner of white fish with a caper sauce and asparagus. It was so fresh and delicious. Again with fish but this time in Edinburgh served with samphire. First time I’ve had it and the last, can’t get it where I live. That was about 14yrs ago.

A spaghetti, tomato type sauce & fresh clam dish that we had in Antigua on our honeymoon 26 years ago. I don't even like pasta or seafood that much, but this was amazing & I've never managed to replicate it.

That’s so bittersweet.

there are meals I associate with certain people and can’t eat them again.

Similar - but it was lemon linguine - sublime

Chicken Tikka Chasni at the Wee Curry Shop in Glasgow. Looked like a yoghurt tikka but I can't make it the same.

Lemon mousse in the now gone Panos in Cambridge. It was a Greek/French restaurant. I have got close but never quite reached perfection in my efforts to replicate it.

TBF, omelette, chips and a green salad is almost always excellent in Portugal and Spain.

I had a cheese and ham omelette with salad and fresh crusty bread in Greece recently - it was fantastic! As they said though, all their food is organic, without organic prices!

Remembered something else - homemade scampi in a seafront cafe in Tenby. So good! Oh & a dish in South Africa which had fruit ontop of the piece of fish. Absolutely delicious & the fish melted in your mouth. Proper Greek salads in Crete. DH & I recreated them at home for a while but they weren’t as good.