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Original poster

What is the best restaurant you’ve ever eaten at?

182 replies

PosyPrettyToes · 15/12/2023 20:28

Just ate some delicious pho for dinner and it reminded me of a tiny place a few streets away from my childhood home. (Rural, EU foreign country) There was a little Vietnamese family run restaurant and it was the most INCREDIBLE place. They didn’t speak anything but Vietnamese, and while my dad spoke a little, it wasn’t very good and most of the diners spoke none at all. There was no menu either, they had a card with vegetables on you could point at if you were a vegetarian, you’d sit and delicious food would just start appearing. It was always packed, and they never turned people away - if there were spare seats on your table you’d get budge up gestures and be joined by whoever just came in. I loved that place! We used to eat there every week as a family.

From what my dad understood, the couple who ran the restaurant moved over with their adult daughter who was some kind of wealthy banker, and they were supposed to be retired but they got bored so they started the restaurant. We later understood all the waiting staff were their grandkids and all spoke the local language perfectly well but the grandparents thought it was fun to bamboozle the locals Grin

OP posts:
Mytholmroyd · 15/12/2023 22:00

And for a non-vegetarian meal The Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye - the most fabulous scallops I have ever had!

Shf · 15/12/2023 22:01

L’enclume - amazing food, wonderful friendly service, gorgeously relaxed atmosphere.

Having said that, I still remember very fondly a gastro pub in near Tring that did a steak and Stilton pie with chips that I nearly licked the plate clean.

ODFOx · 15/12/2023 22:05

Best restaurant is a toss up between Manoir au quatre Saisons and Northcote. The food was slightly better at one and the service and staff were significantly better at the other. We stayed overnight at both and the overall experience at Northcote was better because of the staff who were amazing.
We enjoyed Kitchn in Edinburgh.

My best meal ever (but not best restaurant) was a big bowl of mussels on the quayside at Portree about 35 years ago. We visited in late September when most tourist spots across Scotland are closed. The lady behind the counter left us alone in the cafe, turned the 'closed' sign on the door, and set off along the quay with a bucket. Best mussels I have ever tasted.
IMO the best restaurants have lovely food but also a really good atmosphere: relaxed and not to pretentious, not too casual but putting everyone at ease.

SaltySeaCat · 15/12/2023 22:05

Nathan Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen in Port Isaac 😋

Nomorebeer22 · 15/12/2023 22:08

A restaurant called (I think) New Delhi in Belfast. Just booked it as was near the hotel. Most amazing food, we just fancied a curry but that place was off the scale nice. Couldnt stop eating even though I was absolutely stuffed! Never eaten food that good.

Will definitely be going back if we go to Belfast again.

HippeePrincess · 15/12/2023 22:09

@Buttercup176 I was just about to say the olive tree in Bath that’s up in my top 3 I reckon, I remember the name of it as it was only last year that we went. I’m trying to remember the others.

Tootingbec · 15/12/2023 22:11

Chez Bruce Wandsworth Common in SW London. Was many years ago but still think about the food now. Most memorable was a crime brûlée with rhubarb at the bottom. Just a perfect balance of sweet and sharp flavours 🙂

margotsdevil · 15/12/2023 22:12

Three Chimneys in Skye is amazing.

Most disappointing was Rick Stein's in Padstow.

muddlingthrou · 15/12/2023 22:12

Gordon Ramsay at Claridges! The first proper fancy restaurant I ever went to, and it's never been equalled. Service and atmosphere were spot on too. Maze was ruined by a snooty sommelier.

Also can't forget a little ragu place we went to in Naples that just churned out these little bowls of pasta and ragu that were unbelievably heavenly. They'd perfected that dish to the max. Hungry now!

mrstea301 · 15/12/2023 22:12

ODFOx · 15/12/2023 22:05

Best restaurant is a toss up between Manoir au quatre Saisons and Northcote. The food was slightly better at one and the service and staff were significantly better at the other. We stayed overnight at both and the overall experience at Northcote was better because of the staff who were amazing.
We enjoyed Kitchn in Edinburgh.

My best meal ever (but not best restaurant) was a big bowl of mussels on the quayside at Portree about 35 years ago. We visited in late September when most tourist spots across Scotland are closed. The lady behind the counter left us alone in the cafe, turned the 'closed' sign on the door, and set off along the quay with a bucket. Best mussels I have ever tasted.
IMO the best restaurants have lovely food but also a really good atmosphere: relaxed and not to pretentious, not too casual but putting everyone at ease.

This sounds amazing, I love Skye! Always find it hilarious that there is only one Chinese takeaway on the island - and it doesn't open on a Saturday!! 😂

Sholkedabemus · 15/12/2023 22:13

Le Gavroche
Sat Bains
The Hand and Flowers

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 15/12/2023 22:15

Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons was amazing, but I think my favourite ever place to eat was Chez Lindsay in Richmond. I haven't been there for about 25 years, but apparently it's still there!

Veryverycalmnow · 15/12/2023 22:15

La bouchee in London. Went once. Perfect beautiful french food and service. It is now closed which is sad.

ActDottie · 15/12/2023 22:17

A place in Amsterdam called Hearth. It was all vegan food and amazing. Had an amazing tiramisu for dessert as well.

Kleptronic · 15/12/2023 22:18

The Owl by the canal in Leeds. Absolutely belting. Only for if you like meat, mind. Built up to an absolute crescendo on the tongue. Had to walk twice round the Asda HQ, up to the first bridge and back afterwards.

StaunchMomma · 15/12/2023 22:21

Spirallingdownwards · 15/12/2023 20:33

Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons

Hard agree.

MadMadMad · 15/12/2023 22:22

VanKerkwijk in Amsterdam, daily changing menu recited by the waitstaff but fantastic food.

Pallisers · 15/12/2023 22:27

Mytholmroyd · 15/12/2023 21:47

Cafe Paradiso in Cork - vegetarian fine dining. I am not a vegetarian but this really opened my eyes to how fabulous vegetarian food can be and made a big impression - I still tell people about it years later!

Denis Cotter is really visionary when it comes to vegetarian cooking. That restaurant became the restaurant of choice back in the mid -late 90s in Cork - when being a vegetarian was neither profitable nor popular, as they say. I loved it - his vegetable tempura was unbelievable. I've been recently and it doesn't have the same impact on me but that could be me.

The best meal I ever ate was steak and chips in a pub in Kerry after a 12 hour hike in the rain. Nothing has tasted as good as that.

I am through with fancy restaurants where the chef's reputation dictates the experience but I can see how it can appeal to people. What I like in a restaurant is food I cannot reproduce myself at home and that generally means very good steak or food from non-european countries.

istolethetalisker · 15/12/2023 22:29

The Life Goddess in London Bloomsbury. It’s a cafe in the daytime and did amazing pastries and coffee, which I used to get now and then as a treat for my elevenses when I was a student. Walked past one evening with a friend and was shocked to find it was also restaurant (I was quite an unobservant student). The food was so divine we didn’t even mind when we got shanked a bit by the bill. (The evening restaurant clientele were clearly a cut above their daytime café clientele, with prices adjusted accordingly).

Also, a tiny restaurant that only did crêpes in the old medieval bit of Bordeaux, by the river. It was called the Sel et Sucre, I loved it, and I’ve just had a google and discovered it has shut forever. I’m sad now.

LadySpratt · 15/12/2023 22:32

I used to love that place. It was the first time I tried Iles flotantes and I was in heaven! It is such a shame that it is t there any more!

Ragwort · 15/12/2023 22:35

I have find memories of Cafe Paradiso too ... and I had the vegetable tempura- fab. Went there is the late 1980s, happy times.

Mytholmroyd · 15/12/2023 22:35

The best meal I ever ate was steak and chips in a pub in Kerry after a 12 hour hike in the rain. Nothing has tasted as good as that.

You are very right @Pallisers context is all and best doesn't always mean most expensive! I guess up until I went to Cafe Paradiso vegetarian 'dining' to me was mostly boring, big quantities and under-flavoured - as opposed to simple things of course like cheese on toast. I haven't been recently though so maybe the world has caught up with him!

I have had some very awkward/uncomfortable meals in Michelin starred/swanky restaurants over the years and would never go back. But as you, lots of joyous unforgettable often unplanned and unexpected ones that didn't cost the earth!

Lyn29 · 15/12/2023 22:39

A Mauritian restaurant in south Croydon, best curry, oysters, cocktails, staff.....

Lyn29 · 15/12/2023 22:41

OH took me in a cab to surprise me and it was gone but I still think of it fondly

Anotherdayanothernight · 15/12/2023 22:41

Trattoria al Gatto Nero on Burano island, Venice