Top 10 Restaurant Meals of 2005

[rich]

I'm ashamed of myself. I forgot to add two Tampa meals I had back in January on my post upthread.

An excellent tasting menu at Sidebern's and the most wonderful Delmonico Steak in existence at Bern's the night after.

Just as a side note - Jeannie will be cooking for us again January 21st at Sidebern's -probably the most underrated chef in the country.

[docsconz]

My top 10 meals of 2005 are very diverse.. This year my girl and I drove across the country 4 times.. We had gone to a bunch of very expensive place at a bunch of very cheap places.. This year I had the best burger I have ever had, the best wings, the best oysters,the best lobster roll, taco,fried clams,hotdog, chili, the best ribs,custard, the best bbq, the best of a lot of things, including the best restaurant.. Tru..  Here are just some of my favorite meals off the top of my head..In no particular order, but if forced would put Tru first and then Laurie Raphael..

1)New Years Eve dinner at Laurie Raphael..- Quebec City

Not to quibble, Daniel, but this meal probably occurred in2004!

I love the diversity of experiences posted on here. There is so much that goes into making a meal a great meal. The food itself is certainly an integral part of it, but I think one's own state of being at the time of the meal is also significant. That being said, I have had great moods thwarted by bad meals and poor moods elevated by great meals.

[yellow truffle]

My top 10 meals of 2005 are very diverse.. This year my girl and I drove across the country 4 times.. We had gone to a bunch of very expensive place at a bunch of very cheap places.. This year I had the best burger I have ever had, the best wings, the best oysters,the best lobster roll, taco,fried clams,hotdog, chili, the best ribs,custard, the best bbq, the best of a lot of things, including the best restaurant.. Tru..  Here are just some of my favorite meals off the top of my head..In no particular order, but if forced would put Tru first and then Laurie Raphael..

1)New Years Eve dinner at Laurie Raphael..- Quebec City

Not to quibble, Daniel, but this meal probably occurred in2004!

It may have started in 2004, but the question is when you signed the check.

[WHS]

New Year's Eve at Spice Market at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok

Pizza at Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn

Porterhouse steak at Wolfgang's, New York

Dinner at Notchland Inn, Crawford Notch, NH

Cassolette of Lobster and Sea Urchin at Clio, Boston

8 course tasting menu at EVOO in Somerville MA

5 course dinner at Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge, Ballingary, Ireland

Scallops at Out of the Blue in Dingle, Ireland

Hot Dogs at Nathans, Oceanside, Long Island

Seafood Risotto and grilled branzino at Angelo's, Flushing, Queens

[M.X.Hassett]

Last night (27th) ATL: One.midtown Kitchen. For the NYcentric, think WD-50 meets Blue Ribbon, innovation meets comfort.

Edited December 28, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[Daniel]

Cassolette of Lobster and Sea Urchin at Clio, Boston

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Do you have recipes, pictures, or better descriptions of this.. Sounds great!

[WHS]

Cassolette of Lobster and Sea Urchin at Clio, Boston

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Do you have recipes, pictures, or better descriptions of this.. Sounds great!

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A cream soup with the velvety texture of Billi Bi, with yuzu and "japanese pepper" (shichimi?). The lobster's there to justify the $16 price--what elevates this dish is the uni--it's like eating the ocean.

[Chris Amirault]

"[L]ike eating the ocean": a great phrase. It's what I think of when I get a particularly good oyster.

Since it's still 2005, I'm adding one more to the list. Last night, after I had navigated a minivan down to NYC where I gave the in-laws a four-mile walking tour of downtown (Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho/Noho, Greenwich Village, East Village, and the Lower East Side), we decided that we were sufficiently well exercised to hit Katz's. I got (what else?) a fantastic pastrami sandwich to split with my wife, and also a frank and some fries.

As always, there is no better eating experience in the world for me, and introducing my wife and her family to it was wonderful. Plus -- who knew? -- baby Bebe loves half-sours!

[WHS]

"[L]ike eating the ocean": a great phrase. It's what I think of when I get a particularly good oyster.

Since it's still 2005, I'm adding one more to the list. Last night, after I had navigated a minivan down to NYC where I gave the in-laws a four-mile walking tour of downtown (Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho/Noho, Greenwich Village, East Village, and the Lower East Side), we decided that we were sufficiently well exercised to hit Katz's. I got (what else?) a fantastic pastrami sandwich to split with my wife, and also a frank and some fries.

As always, there is no better eating experience in the world for me, and introducing my wife and her family to it was wonderful. Plus -- who knew? -- baby Bebe loves half-sours!

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Ah, pastrami to make you weep...I lived across Houston Street from Katz's and Russ & Daughters back in the '80's--did I go? I was too busy eating bad trendy food in SoHo. Now that it's a 4 hour drive, I miss it.

[bilrus]

Looking back at my list from 2004, I see that this year didn't quite measure up, so I am only going eight deep. But it wasn't for a lack of trying.

In the interest of giving some context, I've posted some fairly lengthy reports from some other sites or linked them if they were from eG.

#1 - Maestro, Tyson's Corner, VA, June

#2 - 2941 - Falls Chruch, VA, November

Often in a meal like this a few dishes really stand out from the rest. But to give those who weren't there an idea of the food that was served last night I want to focus on the dish that was probably only my fourth or fifth favorite of the night - "Miso Marinated Sable with confit of spahetti squash and yuzu jus"

Forget the spaghetti squash confit, which was fine in and of itself, and focus on the fish. Buttery, meaty and flaky all at the same time. Seared just long enough that it melted in your mouth. But on its own it would be too rich, too unctious, just too much. That's where the citrus of the yuzu came in - as much to balance the dish as to add flavor.

Any other night this would have been the dish everyone was buzzing about the next morning. You're going to hear more about the Langoustine Cassoulet and the Chestnut Mousse and the Beef Tartare. But don't forget about the Sable.

#3 - Topolobampo - Chicago, June

#4 - Komi - DC, December

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to have had the cookie platter at Palena knows about Ann Amernick's caramels. Sweet, a little salty, chewy and melting all at once.

The mascarpone filled date I had early in my dinner at Komi last Saturday night was all that and more. The sugars in the skin had caramelized and put up just a bit of resistance before giving way to the chewy interior. This was just an example of Chef Monis' ability to take a a few simple ingredients and gently coax them into something more than they are on their own and make you look at them in a different light.

Dish after dish highlighted the alchemy that was going on in the kitchen at the end of the long, narrow dining room. A plate of burrata, a luscious cross between mozzarella and ricotta, was paired with some fried garlic, olive oil, a few broccoli florets, a small piece of anchovy and some salt to form a dish that was all about simple tastes and complex mouthfeel.

And how could I not order the white tuna wrapped in speck again? Forget beef and lobster - fish and pork is the ultimate surf and turf. The speck does double duty here as both a flavoring and moistening agent.

They've revised the way they are doing their tasting menu - $55 gets you your choice of pasta and main courses preceeded by a parade of amuses and starters then finished off with a cheese plate and your choice of dessert. It is still added up to ten or eleven courses, each one better than the last, over three and a half hours.

Is there a better value or more interesting cooking anywhere in town?

#5 - The Modern - New York, March

#6 - Charlie Trotter's - Chicago, June

After a long day of trying to get to Chicago from DC (F***ing cab came too late to get me to Dulles early and F***ing gate agent for United wouldn't bend the rules by 2 minutes to get my luggage on the plane despite the F***ing curbside check in people delaying me for 10 minutes.) Charlie Trotter's ended up being just what I needed to get my short vacation back on track early enough to salvage the rest of the weekend.

As I referenced above, I had gone through several reservations before settling on Trotter's. Others elsewhere have called the service at Trotter's stuffy or even arrogant, but I found it pleasant and soothing. Some have said the food there can be a bit stodgy or out-of-date, I found good ingredients, well-prepared. Some have hinted that Trotter's might be resting on its laurels. This was my first time, but I found a restaurant that felt like it was doing what it does well and not trying-too-hard-to-impress.

The courses were always good, some excellent. A scallop, crab and clam dish was a little too plain. There were a few too many dishes featuring mushrooms on my wife's vegetable tasting. But on the whole these are small nits to pick. I thought the squab dish was excellent, in fact one of my favorite dishes this year (similar to the one posted above, but I don't have my menu with me for the details). We were pleasantly surprised to be served an extra main course of Kobe Beef Four Ways that didn't appear to go to any of the other tables. And when we mentioned how much we enjoyed the macaroons they quickly brought us a box to take back to the hotel.

This was a meal that wasn't setting off any fireworks, but not every night is the 4th of July. And I like it that way.

#7 - Magnolia's - Charleston, SC, September

#8 - Modesto - St. Louis, August

Edited December 31, 2005 by bilrus (log)

[Kevin72]

1. Sunday Lunch at Il Frantoio—Ostuni, Italy (03/06): A three-hour extravaganza of arch-Pugliese specialties, dishes, and wines, overseen and explained by Armando Belastrazzi, the proprietor of this hotel/farmstead just outside of Ostuni.

2. Osteria del’ Tempo Perso—Ostuni, Italy (03/05): Eaten the night before we headed off to Il Frantoio, this meal kicked off a great 24 hours of eating. The standard offering of nine antipasti were almost enough to wipe us out, but we kept on and enjoyed orecchiette with seafood and ‘ncapriatta, a puree of dried fava beans with various condiments.

3. Babbo—New York (10/22): Sensing a theme here? I was a little worried going in, not only with a bunch of Italy restaurants to compare this with, but also that Mario Batali has been such an influence on my own cooking that I would be underwhelmed. Pure arrogance on my part, of course. Impeccably done; even the most elementary dish of the evening (clams in a tomato and chile broth) had such pure, crystal-clear flavors that I was just left in awe. Plus the joys of discovering and liking lamb’s tongue, sweet breads, and squab livers.

4. Hugo’s—Houston (12/23): While I’ll freely admit to a hometown bias, I think Houston, always a great eating town, has evolved by leaps and bounds into one of the better dining destinations in the U.S. This restaurant, serving Mexican and in particular Oaxacan standards, is always a fave. I had roast suckling pig wrapped in a banana leaf, served with pickled onions, crumbly Mexican cheese, and a basket of tortillas to wrap the meat in. Sloppy and sublime.

5. York Street—Dallas (07/01 and 11/25): This place had caught my eye a number of times, including on the eG Texas board, and didn’t disappoint. It’s a very small place, seasonal menu, top-quality ingredients used simply but expertly.

6. Trattoria Cadorna—Rome (03/03): I went to Rome looking for a quintessential trattoria experience, complete with carafes of wine, a daily menu of local favorites (on this day, Thursday, it was potato gnocchi with spicy tomato sauce that I was after) and found it here in a crowded, loud place just a block up from out hotel. That it was a total fluke caused by the torrents of rain we were getting that night, limiting our desire to be out very long, made it that much better.

7. Kreuz and Smitty’s Barbecue—Lockhart, TX (06/25): The town of Lockhart in Texas, about 40 miles outside of Austin, has three of its best barbecue joints. This is Central Texas, Czech-style barbecue that places minimal emphasis on sides and sauce and you get the meat wrapped in butcher paper, which promptly gets transparent from the grease. I went for a double-header to compare the two: Smitty’s, the original, gets better atmosphere as you walk in right by the pit. Kreuz, the offshoot, had better food, but both made for a memorable experience that has my mouth watering as I write this. Coincidentally, this is also the #1 for Most Full I’ve Been All Year.

8. Lombardi’s—New York: (10/23) Painstaking research (mostly on eG) for the best pizza in NYC led me here and I was blown away.

9. The Green Room—Dallas (12/30) A last minute entry bumps the previous holder (Besso in Houston) off the list. A new chef has taken the reins to one of our traditionally favorite “splurge” restaurants in Dallas, and I was a little worried going in; these things are rarely handled well here. But almost every dish was done as well as it possibly could be, with wine perfectly matched for each course.

10. Nameless Osteria in Ostuni, Italy (03/06): I was too loopy from the rough local wine to remember the name. But it’s a sunk-down, cavern-like room, a roaring fireplace keeping the whole place toasty, and an open word-burning oven in the back, with two women dressed in traditional (?) contadina outfits making bruschetta, a casserole of bitter greens, or soup. This gets in the top 10 for sentimental reasons, a memorable time, a unique experience. We went into town with a couple from Britain that were staying at Il Frantoio and had a good time sharing each other’s company.

[Guest MNewman]

Per Se (NYC)

French Laundry (Yountville)

Alinea (Chicago)

Soto (Atlanta)

L'Imperio (NYC)

Lacroix (Philly)

Le Bec Fin (Philly)

Tojo's (Vancouver)

Lumiere (Vancouver)

Pizzeria Bianco (Phoenix)

Edited January 1, 2006 by MNewman (log)

[philadining]

New Year's eve seems like a good time to look back.

I know it looks like a flip, jokey list, but I'm serious...

StudioKitchen (Philadelphia)

StudioKitchen (Philadelphia)

Per Se (NYC)

StudioKitchen (Philadelphia)

Susur (Toronto)

StudioKitchen (Philadelphia)

StudioKitchen (Philadelphia)

Striped Bass (Philadelphia)

Birchrunville Store Cafe (exurban Philadelphia)

StudioKitchen (Philadelphia)

I might have to change the order of a few of those StudioKitchens....

I sincerely considered placing some of these runners-up in the top ten for effect, but it just wouldn't have reflected my actual experience of "top" meals. The next few would have to include:

The Modern (NYC)

Majolica (suburban Philadelphia)

Katz's (NYC)

Guelaguetza (LA)

Melograno (Philadelphia)

Una Pizza Napoletana (NYC)

Tifco's China Bistro (suburban Philadelphia)

Szechuan Tasty House (Philadelphia)

it's been a good year. Let's hope 2006 is even better!

[percyn]

I dread following Philadining's post as we share many of the same top 10 restaurants and in fact maybe even the exact same dining experiences

Anyway, here is my list

StudioKitchen

Per Se, NYC

Lacorix, Philadelphia

StudioKitchen

Le Bec-Fin, Philadelphia

StudioKitchen

Seafood Market, Bangkok

Morimoto, Philadelphia

Lemaire, Richmond VA

Spice Market, Bangkok

In addition to these restaurants, I also enjoyed:

Street food in Bangkok

Food at the Wine festival in Budapest

Birchrunville Store Cafe

Majolica

TifCo's

Dim Sum in Philly Chinatown's Lakeside Deli

Edited to add places I had forgotten about...and I am sure I am still forgetting a new great meals which will come to me later

Edited January 4, 2006 by percyn (log)

[yellow truffle]

1. Château Les Crayères (Reims, France), November 3

2. La Rive (Amsterdam, Nederland), November 1

3. Alinea (Chicago, Illinois), December 31

4. Mosconi (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg), November 4

5. Mix (Las Vegas, Nevada), May 19

6. Moto (Chicago, Illinois), March 31

7. Im Schiffen Düsseldorf, Deutschland), October 29

8. Avenues (Chicago, Illinois), November 9

9. Sweets & Savories (Chicago, Illinois), November 10

10. DB Bistro Moderne (New York City, New York), February 28

The list has no doubles. Otherwise Alinea would have slotted in there at least two more times. Biggest disappointment of 2005, WD-50 (New York City, New York), February 26.

[scottie]

2005 was a very good dining-out year for me. This was the year I first tried foie gras, pork belly, monkfish liver, and sweetbreads.

The Inn at Fearrington House, Chapel Hill, NC - Feb. 14. Excellent service. Blood Orange Trio dessert was fantastic.

Gramercy Tavern, NYC- April. Grilled pork belly, meltingly delicious. Made me feel a little naughty.

Elaine's on Franklin, Chapel Hill- May. Excellent Kumamoto oysters with sake/yuzu granita.

The Modern, NYC- June. My birthday, and by far the best and most enjoyable dining experience of the year. First foie gras experience ever!

Le Bernardin, NYC- July. Not as good as I had hoped, but pretty incredible, nonetheless.

Annisa, NYC- summer sometime. Visiting parents blown away by this meal.

Tabla, NYC- October. The wine pairing with the squab opened my eyes to what the right wine can do for food. Too bad I don't remember what it was!

Prune, NYC- December. A really fun time with great food- monkfish liver, sweetbreads, and cardoons, all firsts for me. Very friendly service.

Fred's, Sarasota, FL- December. Surprisingly excellent.

Ophelia's, Sarasota, FL- New Year's Eve. A wonderful and beautiful night. Excellent foie gras.

Honorable mention: Sammy's Roumanian, NYC. Sarge's Deli, NYC. Too many meals to count at DuMont in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, all of them good, some of them really really good.

Angus Barn in Raleigh, NC- very good venison in a rather ridiculous good ol' boy environment.

Recounting the year's top meals makes me realize how very lucky I am to have such a wonderful and generous boyfriend who shared most of these meals with me. It was being with him that made these meals so memorable.

Apologies for overuse of the word "excellent"!

[bleachboy]

In order:

1. Alinea (Chicago, IL)

2. Capitol Grille (Nashville, TN)

3. La Petite Grocery (New Orleans, LA)

4. Blackbird (Chicago, IL)

5. Alex (Las Vegas, NV)

6. Citronelle (Washington DC)

7. Wing Lei (Las Vegas, NV) (all-duck tasting menu)

8. Coop's Place (New Orleans, LA)

9. Topolobampo (Chicago, IL)

10. Corduroy (Washington, DC)

11. Goodson's Cafe (Tomball, TX)

[IrishCream]

Manresa

Craft

Boulevard

Chez Panisse

Peter Luger's

Katz

Rioja (Denver)

Lupa

La Roca (Nogales, MX...the atmosphere and service propelled this into the top of the list)

Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas, the food is great and they treat me like visitng royalty )

High Hon. Mention to the San Cayetano Dining Room at Esplendor Resort in Rio Rico, AZ and the Foundry Grill at Sundance Resort in Utah

[Daniel]

"[L]ike eating the ocean": a great phrase. It's what I think of when I get a particularly good oyster.

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Chris thats exactly what I say when I describe tasting an oyster or sea urchin.. Its like eating the ocean..

Edited January 5, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[rjwong]

My top 10 restaurant meals of 2005 are listed in reverse alphabetical order:

Water Grill (Downtown LA)

Thousand Cranes at the New Otani Hotel (Downtown LA)

Sushi Gen (Downtown LA)

Ruth's Chris (Beverly Hills)

Prime at the Bellagio Hotel (Las Vegas)

Noé at the Omni Hotel (Downtown LA)

Lawry's (Beverly Hills)

La Terza (Beverly Center/Third St., east of Beverly Hills)

Empress Pavilion (Downtown LA)

Dining Room, Ritz Carlton Huntington (Pasadena)

Ciudad (Downtown LA)

[jeffj]

It was a good year...a lot of absolutely fantastic meals ended up below the top 10:

1. Pierre Gagnaire, Paris, 11/20/05

2. Joel Robuchon at the Mansion, Las Vegas, 12/27/05

3. The French Laundry, Yountville, 08/21/05

4. L'Arpege, Paris, 11/21/05

5. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Las Vegas, 12/28/05

6. Le Meurice, Paris, 11/23/05

7. The French Laundry, Yountville, 12/11/05

8. The French Laundry, Yountville, 06/04/05

9. L'Ambroisie, Paris, 11/22/05

10. Urasawa, Beverly Hills, 04/01/05

[docsconz]

It was a good year...a lot of absolutely fantastic meals ended up below the top 10:

1. Pierre Gagnaire, Paris, 11/20/05   

2. Joel Robuchon at the Mansion, Las Vegas, 12/27/05

3. The French Laundry, Yountville, 08/21/05

4. L'Arpege, Paris, 11/21/05

5. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Las Vegas, 12/28/05

6. Le Meurice, Paris, 11/23/05

7. The French Laundry, Yountville, 12/11/05

8. The French Laundry, Yountville, 06/04/05

9. L'Ambroisie, Paris, 11/22/05

10. Urasawa, Beverly Hills, 04/01/05

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Very interesting list! Did you post on your Gagnaire dinner. I would be very curious to read about it as Gagnaire was my most disappointing meal of 2005. How did the Robuchon restaurants differ? Did you go to the two in Paris?

[David McDuff]

2005 was a year of breathing in for me: little travel and lots of staying close to home. My list might just be a bit condensed as a result....

1. WD-50 (New York) - May

2. Susur (Toronto) - February

3. Django (Philadelphia) - monthly

4. Wallse (New York) - May

5. Studio Kitchen (Philadelphia) - November

6. Ryland Inn (New Jersey) - October

7. Marigold Kitchen (Philadelphia) - November

The WD-50 trip, my second, was the clear highlight of the year. Wylie's sublime menu, combined with his pop's solid wine pairings, really knocked my socks off.

Closer to home, having been a regular at Django since it first opened, it remained a consistent favorite throughout 2005. My last meal there under original owners Aimee Olexy and chef Bryan Sikora had to have been one of the best over the course of their almost five-year stewardship. I was also extremely pleased with long overdue returns to both Studio Kitchen (no surprise here, Shola's the best) and Marigold Kitchen (very pleasantly surprised).

I'll have to get out more in 2006...!

Edited January 7, 2006 by David McDuff (log)

[little ms foodie]

Thanks Doc for pointing me here,

these aren't all necissarily the best, but they are the great/unique/wonderful places I ate at in 2005:

dinner at Bouchon, Las Vegas - Jan

dinner at Davidburke and Donatella, NYC- April

lunch at The Frech Laundry, Napa CA- May

dinner and lunch at Bouchon, Napa CA- May

dinner at The Herbfarm, Seattle WA - July

dinner at Rovers, Seattle WA- Aug

dinner at Toque!, Montreal - Sept

dinner at WD-50, NYC- Oct

lunch at the Modern, NYC - Oct

lunch at dbBistro, NYC- Oct

dinner at Babbo, NYC- Oct

dinner at Le Bristol, Paris- Dec

Edited February 22, 2006 by little ms foodie (log)

[tupac17616]

Here are 10 meals that really stand out in my memory for 2005, in no particular order:

Le Reve -- San Antonio, TX

Kreuz BBQ/Smitty's BBQ -- Lockhart, TX

Salt Lick BBQ -- Driftwood, TX

wd~50 -- NYC

Casa Mono -- NYC

L'Impero -- NYC

Babbo -- NYC

Gramercy Tavern -- NYC

Barney Greengrass -- NYC

Balthazar -- NYC