This is not going to be easy. Many of these meals were had before camera phones. Some I remember almost every individual bite of food, and some just the service. For all, the company was a key component.
I'll add some of my honorable mentions at the bottom, and I'll make a future post about my favorite value dining destinations but, to be fair (in whatever way one can when making a purely subjective list), I'm going to keep this list to fine dining / haute cuisine. Here they are in no particular order.
Christmas Eve Dinner at The Inn At Little Washington (Patrick O'Connell - Washington, VA)
Service was some of the best I've ever had. Harvard Business School wrote a case study on their method of measuring the relative happiness of each guest on a 1-10 scale at various points in the evening with a goal of getting each guest to a 9 or 10 by the end of the night. At one point I saw a gentleman give his jacket to his date to keep her warm. Seconds later, a server emerged with a blanket for her to feel more comfortable. Amex Concierge made the reservation and got us a prime table in a relatively private room. The food was extremely creative and perfectly prepared - from classics like an American Turkey Dinner to some more avant-garde American fare like torchon of foie gras with a dusting of black ash like two lumps of coal for Christmas.
An amuse bouche
Lumps of Coal
A beet salad
Oysters four ways
The Roast Turkey Dinner (close up, then far away) featuring the chef's family recipe for cranberry sauce.
March (Wayne Nish, NYC - shuttered)
Another meal where the exceptional food was almost overshadowed by the service. We went pre-theater on a birthday celebration for my mother. After dinner we saw "The Odd Couple" which was starring Broderick and Lane at the time, but Nathan Lane fell ill, so rather than the understudy, they brought in Brad Garret, who played an amazing Oscar Madison. The menu was prix fixe and we opted for six courses. You could order any courses in any order, and they would size them appropriately for the order they came. This was an incredibly unique and wonderful way to do a prix fixe menu and I wish more places did so. Prior to our first course, the restaurant brought six red roses for my mother to celebrate her birthday. There was no charge for this, and we did not ask them to do it. They simply asked if it was a special occasion when I made the reservation.
Trio / Alinea (Grant Achatz - Chicago, IL)
My first meal at Trio was my entree into the world of molecular gastronomy. I ate with a group of chefs, and learned so much about the food and techniques used to prepare it. I also gained a lot of confidence in my palate and my ability to discuss food and cooking with a group of very knowledgeable individuals. It was a grand dinner. I wrote some comments about it on
FlyerTalk.com
Classic Achats - a dish you need to eat with no hands, in a somewhat awkward "sucking" motion.
Oysters four ways (one of the ways is an oyster leaf, sitting on a half-shell), with a razor clam, and a smoked oyster.
Salmon three ways - the flame underneath was creating a smoke frangrance that augmented the meal.
Black truffle explosion - a signature dish. One of the great one-bite dishes in the world.
A supplementary course of white truffles over a mushroom risotto. The truffle just kept coming.
Lamb three ways with about 75 condiments. Yes, we tried them all.
There was a skewer of meat hidden in these smoldering leaves. It was a very "autumnal" dish. Really full sensory experience.
A signature dessert. notice how the sauce spills onto the tablecloth and turns into squares instead of circles? It basically defies the laws of physics. They get the sauce to the exact viscosity that will sit in the microscopic grooves in the silicon tablecloth.
Corton (Paul Liebrandt, NYC - shuttered)
I can't, for the life of me, figure out how this place closed down. I guess I know the answer - it was a partnership dispute of some type. It's just such a tragedy. The food there was creative, full of flavor, pushed boundaries. I ate my first cockscomb there. I had a white truffle supplement. The menu was prix fixe with a variety of tastings available (a 6 course, an 8 course and a 10, I believe). They were more than happy to sell me the 6 course and then allow me to add an individual course or two from the other menus. It was in one of my favorite neighborhoods in NYC. It's the only meal on this list where I dined alone. I eat alone frequently, but usually I'll sit at the bar, talk to the bartender or other diners, etc. I've shied away from such high end eating by myself because of the sheer duration of the meal, and the desire to share the experience with someone that can compare and contrast and understand my delight when it's all said and done. I was seated next to an incredibly odd family that kind of adopted me, so I wound up with quite a bit of entertainment over the course of the evening.
I discovered this gem with my good friend Amy on my first trip to Paris in 2007. Since she had a cute waiter making eyes at her, we were able to eat there several times over a two week trip. About 2 years later, our President Barack Obama ate there, and it kind of blew up in popularity. But, at the time, it was about half the size physically and much easier to reserve a table. The oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine) were life changing. They also make an incredible cassoulet, and so many other classic french country/peasant dishes to such a superb standard. The atmosphere is homelike, the service is amiable, and the signature checkered table cloths are a beautiful nod to the history of the restaurant industry. It is the first place I recommend any of my friends go if they are visiting Paris.
Tetsuya's (Tetsuya Wakuda - Sydney, Australia)
A beautiful "east meets west" fusion of French and Japanese influences. Tetsuya wins points from the service, to the atmosphere, to the concept, to the execution. Every dish was extraordinary, including his signature coriander-crusted salmon. Fresh ingredients, zen-like setting, and expert seasoning and preparation. I ate this meal with my sister, a friend from Chicago, and an old business school friend who moved from Chicago to Australia with his wife and daughter a few years prior. I was running late, but found out when I got there that all other parties had met previously in Chicago... it really is a small world.
Tribute (Takashi Yagahashi - Detroit, MI - shuttered)
A beautiful "east meets west" fusion of French and Japanese influences (where have you heard that before?). Takashi Yagahashi studied in some of the luminary kitchens in Chicago (including the departed Ambria) before moving to Detroit. It was an oasis within a city not exactly known for its culinary offerings. It was an excellent value, my friends loved the wine pairings, and the food was superb. We were celebrating a big go-live, so I was with a group of work companions. The one course I remember distinctly was a take on Rick Tramonto's caviar staircase. It was the first time in my life I tried
Blis hand-harvested domestic steelhead roe, an ingredient which I relish when it is on the menu at Alinea as well. I'm happy to have
Takashi in Chicago, and I enjoy any opportunity to eat at his flagship restaurant or his more casual spot The Slurping Turtle.
Le Bec Fin / Le Bar Lyonnaise (Georges Perrier - Philadelphia, PA - Shuttered)
I never ate in the main dining room at Le Bec Fin. The bar downstairs was a tiny enclave - more casual, exclusive in a different way. Chef George Perrier frequently dined at the bar after completing his shift. There was a bistro menu (featuring the second best French Onion Soup I've ever had, after Bern's in Tampa), and you could order either the tasting or ala carte from the flagship menu. Everything I tried, from both menus, was spectacular. The first time I ate there, one of the regulars at the bar noticed they were bringing up some Kirsch to the upstairs. "Cherries Jubilee?" he asked... "I should have eaten upstairs tonight... I'm really in the mood." About 10 minutes later, a procession of carts, burners, chefs, liquor, ice cream, and cherries came down the steps, and they made a table-side cherries jubilee in the basement. The flames from the flambe literally singed the ceiling. We each got a taste, probably by accident, as we were not regulars. What was really amazing was that the next time I visited, my parents were in town. I asked the server if they could repeat the cherries jubilee experience, and they did. What a fantastic place. I miss it so much.
From the Flagship menu:
Sea Bass
Sweetbreads
Poussin
Dessert
Ria (Danny Grant - Chicago, IL - Shuttered)
I won this dinner at a raffle in a work event. The first prize was an iPad 2. Second prize was dinner with a partner and two friends or colleagues. Oddly, there were no parameters on Second prize. Suffice it to say we spent about 4 iPad 2s by the time the night was over (oops). It was phenomenal - a 9 course degustation with wine pairings for those who drink wine and a pairing of beer, sake, and cocktails for myself. It was enough alcohol to incapacitate a small army, but each course was stellar in concept, execution, and presentation. We dined for well over 5 hours and enjoyed every moment of it.
Bolo (Bobby Flay - New York, NY - Shuttered)
Based on food alone, this would never have made a top ten list. It was good... great even, but below is a list of "honorable mentions" with food better than most people in the world will ever be fortunate enough to taste, and far better than the food I ate at Bolo. Bolo was Bobby Flay's second restaurant - less southwestern than Mesa Grill, with a pure Spanish menu. It was the first truly high end restaurant I ever had the opportunity to enjoy. I had watched Bobby Flay on TV my whole college career, during the birth of the Food Network. He, along with Emeril Lagasse, Mario Battali, David Rosengarten, Ming Tsai, Sarah Moulton, and Alton Brown taught me how to cook (and pretty well, I think). I still remember what I ate - a house salad that included cabrales blue cheese and crumbled chorizo with some candied nuts. It was fantastic. I had a paella for the main course and, while it was not a perfectly traditional paella, it was very tasty. What made that meal even more special was the party sitting next to me. This was the night I met a dear friend, Gena Berry. She and two friends were sitting about 3 inches away from us (crowded Manhattan dining room) and were clearly receiving VIP treatment, with Flay's partner Laurence Ketchmer making frequent stops at the table to check on them and offer some extra bites here and there.
Honorable Mentions:
- Bern's Steakhouse (Tampa, FL)
- L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (Paris, France / Las Vegas, NV )
- Daniel (New York, NY)
- Le Bernardin (New York, NY)
- Sage (Las Vegas, NV)
- Bayona (New Orleans, LA)
- Antoine's (New Orleans, LA)
- Nobu (Malibu, CA / New York, NY)
- Bo Innovation (Hong Kong, HK)
- Nahm (Bangkok, Thailand)
- Blue Ribbon (New York, NY)
- eBar / e by Jose Andres (Las Vegas, NV)
- Tru - Chef's Table (Chicago, IL)
- L20 (Chicago, IL)
- Benu (San Francisco, CA)
- Sebo (San Francisco, CA - Shuttered)
- Mirai (Chicago, IL)
- Arami (Chicago, IL)
- La Rochelle (Tokyo, Japan)
- Kubey (Tokyo, Japan)
- Green Zebra (Chicago, IL)
- Nola (New Orleans, LA)
- Five Lakes Grill (Milford, MI)
- Sam Choy's (Honolulu, HA)
- Astrid y Gaston (Mexico City, MX)
