Be Excellent To Each Other

Following a lot of interest in the cookbook thread, I sense a fair few foodies on here. So what are the best restaurants you've ever eaten in? Your top 3 say...

Mine are:

1. Seaham Hall Hotel (Durham, NE England)

We arrived at 7pm, took the 9 course "Prestige Menu" and we left at 1am. It was simply awesome. Beef fillet carpaccio, Sea bass fillets, mackerel and caviar, foie gras... it was the best of everything.

2. Eleven Madison Park (New York City)

The chef there, Daniel Humm, is a bloody genius. Everything about this place was just incredible. The food, the setting, the City, the service, everything.
They do a non-alcoholic cocktail there too, involving pressed apple juice, cinnamon and maple syrup which was quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted.

3. Keens Steakhouse (New York City)

The best steak anywhere. Nuff said.


The most over-rated place I've ever been to has to be The Ivy in London. The crispy duck was like pork crackling, the main course I don't even remember what I had as it was so bloody unforgettable! The only good thing was we were sat next to John Cleese!

What about you guys?

U Sedmi Svabu in Prague. Wenches serve you huge plates of lovely dead things, and grog.

http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=366

The French Laundry tied with Alinea
The Greenhouse
The Square
Hawksmoor
The Tamarind
Nobu
The Hardwick
Gaucho
Le Gavroche
The Foxhunter
In-n-out Burger
Michael Caines @ Abode
The Walnut Tree

(in approximate descending order of how often I fantasise about it)

#1 would be Nobu in Mayfair. The pickled ginger they had was the second best thing I've ever put in my mouth, but everything was perfect.

#2 was some multi-course thing at Le Jules Verne in Paris, which was so good that I even liked the tomato inside a tomato decorated with tomato course.

#3 was probably The Hawksmoor in London, because steak.

[edit]You suck at counting to three, doc.

Tricky, but here's my three. I won't order them because they all provide different things.

1) L'abattoir, Vancouver.
A fairly simple three course dinner on the face of it, but the absolute best of ingredients prepared superbly, innovatively, and with real flair. Also cheap for what it was. Under £50 a head including no insignificant amount of drinks.

2) Gidleigh Park, Devon.
Grand to the point of being ridiculous (the restaurant has a helipad), and just an incredibly accomplished 9-course dinner that was pretty flawlessly executed.

3) L'Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria
More of an experience than a meal, the 14 course dinner here was incredible. Every dish was a celebration of British produce in new, exciting, and innovative ways. Fantastic location, too.

I won't limit myself to three courses and I won't limit myself to three restaurants.

Gaucho though? Really?

yeah, Gaucho?

How was La Gavroche? Its on my wishlist!

and which Michael Caines was it? I've been to the one at Chester Abode, wasn't amazed by it tbh.

Oh, is that what the building contains? You think I'd know, working almost right next to it, but it's surprising how ignorant I am about my home and its surroundings.

yeah, its nice food for the price, especially the grazing lunch, but as far as fine dining goes its a non-starter.

Five of us went to the Manchester one before a meet last year. It was decent, but not stellar, but it introduced me to salmon mi-cuit, which was incredible. Gidleigh Park from my list is also a Michael Caines restaurant, and was last year's Times best restaurant in the UK.

Le Gavroche was interesting. A mix of incredible food and meh food. The Soufflé was one of the greatest things I've ever eaten, the main course roast lamb could have been from a pub doing Sunday lunch.

I've read a few articles about El Bulli recently, what with it closing down and all, and I can see why people call it the best restaurant in the world - the level of technical skill on display there looks incredible. I'm not sure a meal there would be a relaxing experience though. 15 courses of foams and emulsions and fiddly doodads just looked like hard bloody work.

A millionaire friend had his 40th at Eastnor Castle (which he hired out for the whole weekend) and we had a seven course meal all of which was the best food ever made.

Eating like that is definitely the best thing I can see about being posh.

The greatest meal I've ever eaten was the Songkran festival banquet we had on Honeymoon at The Tongsai Bay, Koh Samui. Actually everything we ate there was amazing during our 2 week stay. Also ate at Zazen in Bo Phut which was fantastic too.

Closer to home my favourite place to go is still Bukhara in Samlesbury, I've eaten curry extensively throughout the North West and this place is still the one to beat.

As for ponce food, I plan on going to L'Enclume at some point, would have liked to organise it for our Anniversary this year but don't think it's doable now due to holiday that month.

Foxhunter in Goytre's alright, isn't it? Rack of Lamb especially. Where are all these other places though, to avoid reading like a Sunday supplement columnist?

DOOO EEEEET. L'Enclume is brilliant. Stay there as well, if it's within budget.

Yeah, there's a room and meal deal. They'd be cool if we left the kids in the car, right?

Crack a window, you'll be fine.

L'enclume has a stellar rep, but its a mystery menu. You don't know what you're getting til you get there.

In the lakes, Miller Howe takes some beating and I haven't beaten it yet.

I liked Ghengis Khan's place in Manchester.

Yeah, but it's all completely brilliant. I had one course that was just carrot. 7 different presentations of carrot. And it was amazing.

Yang Sing in Manchester.

Bentleys Oyster Bar and Grill, Dublin. (Richard Corrigans old place, now closed.)

I'll have to try that Ying Sang some time.

What are you best local restaurants?

Ours are either Botanic Bistro in Southport, or the mulberry tree in wigan

I once ate in a Brewers fayre. That were alright.

Chapter One in Farnborough. Consistantly great and excellent value.

They were on my list -- the Foxhunter, the Walnut Tree, and the Hardwick. I like the Bayside Brasserie in Cardiff too, they have excellent chips.

The French Laundry is in Napa, California and Alinea is in Chicago. The three I've listed above are in Abergavenny (well, the Foxhunter is actually Nantyderry, but it's close enough). In-n-Out Burger is in California (and I will defend its presence on the list; its burgers are great). Michael Caines @ Abode was in Manchester, as Cras has mentioned. And the rest are in London.

Hell, I dunno. It's way off in that list. I guess I was just craving steak last night when I wrote it or something.

Although I will say; I had a great time at Gaucho because I met up with one of the TUAW editors and a couple of other Mac bloggers there, which indicates a deeper problem -- it's hard to separate the food and the restaurant from other factors that affect how good a time you had there. I first told Danielle I loved her over her birthday dinner at the French Laundry. Other restaurants might eclipse the food, but they'll never eclipse that, so it'll always be at the top of my list.

We've given serious thought to doing the route they take on The Trip.

Agree.

Strongly agree. Danielle's lamb was overcooked, for pity's sake -- there wasn't a hint of pink anywhere in it. That's appallingly cack-handed.

I'm not sure I'd bother. Certainly wouldn't advise the tasting menu; just go for lunch, order the cheese soufflé to start, and do the cheese course at the end. They were the highlights.

She didn't mind you standing on her food?

And for main, have another cheese soufflé.

Pretty difficult.

One of my best meals was at a small waterfront restaurant in Newcastle, Australia. The candy floss and Turkish delight pannacotta was incredible.

Reef 'n' beef in Copenhagen is a good mix of non pretentious place, with a bit of pretentious presentation, lovely waiting persons and decent stylish and tasty food.

Ultimately though the best meal I think I have had was at an Italian free range organic farm outside Modena which used the ingredients sourced direct from the farm, 7 exquisite courses.

Oh and a second for in-n-out burger. Also in Nevada. Needs to be also in rest of world.

Oh yeah, I forgot they had a few locations in neighbouring states. If you didn't know (I suspect you did), it's because it refuses to freeze its meat so can only open restaurants within a day's drive of it's meat packing plant. Why they don't just build another fricking factory somewhere else I cannot fathom. Apparently the east coast equivalent is Five Guys, but I've never eaten there.

Five Guys sounds a mouthful. Do they pack and deliver their meat fresh?

Yeah I can't understand they could be a household name,the burgers and fries are top notch. God damn I want a double double right now...

http://www.atomicburger.co.uk was an awesome meal on Saturday night.

Very much

Best burgers in Oxford.

Five guys is pretty good. Always go to the one at Washington airport when I go through from work. Their default is to chuck a ton of toppings on it seems, which is fine for me, but may not be to everyone's tastes. You can see the meat going on the grill, which seems to be the novelty, but it tasted pretty good.

Hot waitress, too. She gave me an extra slice of pie because she clearly fancied me.

I didn't care for In-n-Out. But that might be down to not caring for fast food in general, rather than the quality of its food.

Around here, there are only two places I actively enjoy returning to: The Helsby Arms which is a gastropub ran by some lovely people, and The Slow Boat which is a lovely Chinese restaurant in Chester and a place I've returned to almost every week since finding it. I'm yet to try any of the posh places, though I intend to when I'm not broke.

I didn't enjoy it that much. I enjoyed the GBK more actually, though I did invent a "magic burger" when I rocked up there hammered the first time. Cajun burger, medium, with about 5 things crammed on top - halloumi, blue cheese sauce, chilli sauce, bacon? Fuck knows really. I just remember it being a beautiful mess. I didn't enjoy GBK the second time I went, considerably more sober (er, really quite hungover and up far too early, actually). But hey, I ended up having a cup of tea with Mark Thomas and his family that day, so eh.

Atomic burger > GBK.

Kissyfur appears to have hacked your account, sir.

When I'm down in September I'll be sure to go back and try again.

I found the selection to be better, the burger better and the sides better. I'll come with you.

The selection causes me to spend an hour fretting. But that's okay, they sell beer.

Perhaps an hour spent studying in A&G beforehand would be wise.

A thread about best culinary experiences reduced to talk about burgers. Excellent.

A&G, Cape of Good, yeah, either. Drop me a line when you are down.

Given that I don't really do "fine dining", my experience has been more on decent pub/restaurant type stuff. The Longlands Hotel in Tewitfield, just outside Lancaster is a particular favourite. Johnny Foxes at Glencullen does awesome seafood, but you have to get past the (deliberately) cheesy Oirishness of the whole thing - though when they have the ceilidh band on, the atmosphere is wonderful. Elterwater Arms in Elterwater, Cumbria was an absolute gem.

Anyone here got a Taste Card? If not, can thoroughly recommend it.

Ooh! It appears that Simon Rogan of L'Enclume now has a London restaurant, Roganic - and it look like he's doing the same sort of food.

http://lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.com/20 ... ganic.html

That's firmly on the list then.

Edward Moon's in Stratford upon Avon.

Hussein's in SuA is also good, but I only went once, so might have just got lucky.

Otherwise... um.

We ate in SuA recently, can't remember the name though, was on a street that lead down to the river, and its name was shortened to something catchy by the locals.

Probably Sheep Street. About two thirds of the buildings there are restaurants. I don't think there's a bad one among them really (although a couple are fucking boiling in summer). Might've been Moons you ate at, then. You'd have been a minute's walk from the House of Artsies! Living in the middle of town was so easy.

Sigh.

Did you get up to anything good there? I really should go back sometime, it's a lovely town to wander round, especially in Summer.

Just don't go on the 'ghost walk' thing. It's probably the biggest con in town, although having the tour bloke talk about how "this room is always pitch black! Wooo, spooky!", and then replying with "That might be because it's a central room with no windows" was great fun. As was texting my sister immediately after he claimed that people find their camera and phone batteries would mysteriously die in this room.

Still not worth the money, though.