One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is reflecting on the best moments of the year, and while we give lots of attention to our favorite wines of the year, I feel like not nearly enough reflection is paid to the best meals of the year. At least for me, they often align with some of the best days of the prior 12 months.
I’ll get this started with a ‘long list’, which I hope to narrow down in the next 2 weeks.
San Francisco Bay Area
Prelude - An ‘elevated southern’ restaurant that had just opened at the end of last year. Beautiful space in downtown SF, and an interesting and highly pleasurable meal – especially the grits and the crawfish.
The Progress - Went here for my wife’s birthday with a big group, and it was the best meal we’d had in ages. The shared mains (duck and fish) were phenomenal, and the Chile verde sausage was so good we ordered a second serving.
Sirene - The new spot from the team behind The Morris surpassed all my expectations. Top notch fried chicken, one of the best biscuits I’ve had in my life, and super interesting seafood charcuterie. I might prefer the menu to The Morris (shh).
Kitchen Istanbul - Ate here several times this year. Each one was great but one meal in July stands out, just as they were starting to integrate a few items from the new menu. Cannot recommend it enough between wine, food, and good vibe.
Yeobo, Darling - The second new opening on this list, a fascinating and super enjoyable Korean-Taiwanese fusion restaurant in Menlo Park. Go for the Kalbi, croissant, and lasagna (!).
Rintaro - Rinatro doesn’t need to me to say it’s a special restaurant, but this year we enrolled in their at-home bento program via Table 22. The bento’s are truly works of art, and pretty different from much of the menu in the restaurant. But they are an excellent showcase of the restaurant’s skill, and being able to enjoy it at home is something we look forward to every month.
Zuni (HoF)* - Last year I decided that classics like Zuni – which continually contribute MOTY contenders year after year – should no longer be eligible for my personal MOTY, barring significant culinary changes. So, congratulations to Zuni on advancing to the MOTY Hall of Fame.
New York
Kabawa - We were lucky to dine here early in the year, shortly after it opened, and it still stands out as one of the best meals of the year. The tasting menu was surprising and delicious at every turn, with standouts being the “jerk” duck sausage, goat curry, and remarkable coconut sorbet. Top notch vibes.
Cactus Wren - The ‘caviar service’ gets a lot of acclaim, but the mortadella toast and pizzas are what I remember. Great vibe and team as well. Can’t wait to go back.
The Four Horsemen - Finally dined here this year, and it lived up to the hype. Definitely my favorite bread and butter of the year, and the veal skewer was incredible. Wish I lived in NY so I could visit more often.
Bar Contra - Finally had a chance to visit Dave Arnold’s new bar, and I ended up returning several times throughout the year. The rotating sundae with potato chips is fresh and delicious, and every cocktail is special. The Two Percenter might be my drink of the year (non-wine edition)
Japan
Fufu Atami (Atami) - Our first trip to a traditional Japanese Ryokan, and the kaiseki dinner and breakfast experiences were illuminating. I get it now. This was our favorite part of the trip to Japan and we can’t wait to visit again.
London
Planque - Had been wanting to dine here for years, and - like a lot of places on my list - it surpassed all my expectations. The wine list is next level, and the btg offerings were enlightening. Everything we ordered was on fire, from the scallop tartlets, to the crab rice and aioli, and the best monkfish I’d ever had. We had just visited Paris, and I have to say Planque’s duck liver terrine surpassed all the charcuterie we had there. Make sure you order desserts.
Maybe a few more contenders will sneak in before the year’s done, but even if not - it’s been a delicious year. I’ll return to this thread and post my personal #1 next week.
My “winners” are
Four Horsemen (NYC) - Enough gets said about this place, but it really is special. Top-notch execution on the food, wine, and service, without sacrificing the smaller neighborhood feeling or getting stuffy.
Barra (Berlin) - Was traveling in germany with family, and the rest of the group was skeptical of the menu and vibe at the beginning of the meal, but by the end of the meal we had ordered seconds of dishes they hadn’t wanted to try in the first place - it really ended up being a convivial evening and everyone went home happy. Similar vibes to 4H, neighborhood place just doing things right.
Izakaya Seki (DC) - Classic izakaya with a sneaky wine list. My wife and I have been going for our dating anniversary for a while and kept going since we got married because it coincides with early spring and the firefly squid season. Cute hand drawn menus for all the specials too, this is one of our favorite places in DC.
HOF - Fore Street (Portland ME). I’ve never had a bad meal here and have been lucky enough to go regularly since I was a kid. They really set the standard for what farm-to-table American food should be for me, and have plenty of well deserved accolades.
Honorable Mentions - My Little Chamomile (DC), La’ Shukran (DC), Causa (DC), Juveniles (Paris), Esquina Comun (CDMX), Otto (Berlin).
Impossible to pick a favorite meal of the year for me.
Here are some restaurants that we really loved. We definitely eased up on the tasting menus this year. One of my worst meals of the year was a 3 star.
LA
Anajak - No surprise here but I do love the renovation. They nailed the right combination of keeping the spirit of the original and updating and refreshing. Love everything about it. We were the first customers when they reopened.
Baroo - Wow do I love this place and I actually don’t think it gets enough accolades. We ate here several times. We prefer the vegetarian menu. Possibly our overall favorite restaurant of the year.
RVR - Game Changer! Love the combination of Japanese Izakaya staples, California oriented vegetable dishes, wine list, hospitality, music and just dig the overall vibe. We also ate here several times. including one memorable Saturday where we were having such a great time we just kept ordering until we realized we had done both lunch and dinner.
Sora Kraft Kitchen - What an absolutely wonderful restaurant. Turkish Chef who has worked at Per Se. Eleven Madison Park and Melisse. He is doing his own thing with only one or two other helpers in the kitchen. Thought provoking model. I wish they allowed wine.
Momofuku - We had several fantastic lunches here on Saturday and Sunday. I hope they continue on with lunch.
Destroyer - Always a favorite but it has been a bit up and down this year. Our last two meals were definitely up and fantastic.
Those were some of the highlights for LA.
I continue to be very inspired by LA dining scene and I am beyond excited for Noma LA in 2026!
Up next LA, NYC, Paris and the surprise of the year Nashville!
For me, it was breakfast at the Harbor House Inn - and more specifically, the shirred eggs.
We made the trek to Montecito to dine at the eponymous two-star Michelin restaurant. We had dinner there the first night of our stay, and as expected, it was excellent.
Given the lengths it took to get there, we stayed for two nights. As part of the stay, we were served breakfast both mornings. We had zero expectations. Both mornings they served us their version of shirred eggs.
I have never in my life eaten eggs that tasted so heavenly. Soft and gooey, but with a depth of flavor that belied its pillowy texture. The yolk would unfurl on the tongue, gently perfumed by the freshly-picked florets. After the first bite, my wife and I glanced at each other in stunned silence. We agreed that this was better than anything we had eaten at dinner the night before. They were so good, I might just have to make the treacherous journey up the PCH to taste these eggs again.
I had a (modified) patty melt for the 1st time in probably 25 years. I used ground chicken instead of beef and a King Size English Muffin (it was the only bread in the house). Damn it was good. Next time I will go get rye bread. And it won’t be 25 years from now (I will either be dead or incapable).
Wife and I went to Grand Cayman in May. Eating jerk chicken while watching a magnificent sunset after a great day of snorkeling just hit the spot. And having taken a local bus to/from the restaurant just gave us an extra island feel.
2nd place:
Couldn’t get a reso at Exteberri but this turned out to be exceptional. Truly an all around spectacular dining experience. A little hard to get to in Basque Country: Txispa.
MOTY:
Fortunate enough thanks to a friend to dine here during its summer, fall, and winter menu. Each meal on its own is worthy of MotY. There are no bad times to go. It’s just a peaceful, harmonious, meticulously prepared meal. Each dish with I’d say max 2-3 ingredients including garnish. As seasonally fresh as it can be. In LA so a short flight away for me, and as good a spot as any I’ve eaten at: Hayato.
Honestly this year was underwhelming for restaurant food despite eating at a lot of acclaimed restaurants including a lot mentioned in this thread so far. Almost all the best meals we had this year were at home.
The most underwhelming was Oriole which was very disappointing; it’s been going downhill for awhile and I hadn’t dined there in awhile but on returning they’d gotten rid of the two best dishes on their menu and almost everything else was a miss.
Honestly the best restaurant meal we had this year may have been at Perrones in Pawleys Island, SC.
Seline (Santa Monica) winter menu (January). I love what chef Beran does… I find the meal to be creative, very evocative, and of course, delicious. Very comfortable ambiance, great music and great service brings it all together.
Four horsemen: Suave perfection every time. Like it’s such a calm spot for such an intense city, with recipes that seem like something you could do at home but it’s so perfected and precise. And the wine program is fantastic and I hope it will continue to be like Justin meant it to be. I didn’t even care to make it somewhere new because that place has so many good memories.
Dandelion. For our Paris trip we had a little too much work to mix with Michelin stuff, so Dandelion came highly recommended by a board member. So fresh yet so French. l Really loved our night there.
Honorable mentions are just good home meals. Our neighbor grandma serving up a feast of stuff she dived after. Anne Houillons amazing lunches after long mornings harvesting in Jura.
With a nine months old, we didn’t get to find out as much this year and did a lot more lunches (with the baby) than dinners…
Higher end:
Two dinners (summer and winter) at Chef’s Table at Hotel Rote Wand in Lech (Austria). Two stars and deserving of three.
Sushi Yoshizumi in San Mateo.
Steirereck in Vienna (lunch).
Thierry Schwartz in Alsace (lunch).
Every day:
Many lunches at The Morris in SF.
State Bird Provisions in SF.
A dinner at Singlethread was excellent, but still didn’t quite meet the extremely high expectations given the price and hype. I’d rather spend my money elsewhere (for example on a flight to Europe )
Les Enfant du Marché - Several great meals here in 2025. The new chef has put his imprint on the menu and we really like.
EME - One of our favorite meals of the year! Opened in November and it is stunning and just the way we want to eat light, thoughtfully composed dishes, not afraid to highlight vegetables. Chef has diverse culinary background that he puts to good us.
JIP - Chef Esu Lee is on a role and I love his creative approach to the dishes and menu format at JIP. I wish the restaurant was in NYC. We are going to his new restaurant Orson in a few weeks.
Restaurant AT - A perennially favorite. Chef has been changing up the menu a lot and it is as good as ever.
Mokonuts - We hosted a wonderful private dinner here on Thanksgiving for a roving group of friends including one of our favorite bands Say She She who were performing the following night.
Double - From the same group that opened JIP and Orson. Fantastic innovative cuisine in a micro space that utilizes the tasting menu format but it is not too long or too much.
The Paris food scene is changing and evolving. In 2024 I had a 3 month gardening leave so we used it to travel to 20+ countries or cities that we had not been to so we only hit Paris for two short trips. Our goal for 2025 was to get back and caught up with Paris. We managed two long trips and a short weekend and feel we are almost caught up on the culinary scene so if anyone needs recommendations please reach out!
RIP Le Chateaubriand. I can’t believe it is closing. Not every meal / experience was great over the years but many were exceptional and we had a special relationship with them.
My MOTY was at Angler in SF for my wife’s and my 15th anniversary. We had the tasting menu. It was absolutely wonderful from start to finish. The DOTY (dish) was the Angler Potato with Sauce of Taleggio. When my friends who have been there (@AndyK is one) talk about the restaurant, the Potato always gets mentioned.
I’m going to second the Poulet Frites lunches at The Morris. We went each time with Andy and his family (and other friends). The whole vibe is great, especially when the weather is conducive to eating outside. The food is excellent, too. And it’s a screaming deal.
On my recent Japan trip:
Gion Fukushi (Kyoto). A Michelin one star kaiseki place. They have two seatings. We had a reservation for the early seating. My friend and I were the only 2 patrons for that seating. The level of care and cooking precision was terrific.
Sushi Kimura (Ginza) in Tokyo. Oh, how I wish I could get sushi of this quality at home for $168 out the door!
Unagi Yonsaime Kikukawa (Osaka). A friend told me I HAD to have hitsumabushi while in Osaka. It’s a regional speciality just as okonomiyaki and takoyaki are. I’ve never had eel like this. Probably the most surprising meal of the trip.
Forsythia was bad enough, I wrote the GM a long email after receiving the usual automated “We are so glad you enjoyed your meal here!” email stating exactly why we hadn’t in fact enjoyed our meal. He offered me a sizeable gift certificate to come back. We used it at the bar and the drinks were just fine. Why would I want to eat more of the food I didn’t like?
This is a boring one (for others), but for me there is a standing MOTY that never fails - Mom’s Ethiopian food.
The only downside is that it doesn’t go well with wine. Having had my first Cantillon this autumn and think quite a few of their beers could work very well as a pairings.
This and Olivier Nasti in Alsace are two of my top 10 meals ever. Haven’t been in a couple years. Is it still in a smaller space with an iron stove in the back?
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