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Best Restaurant Meal of 2014


astrid

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I don't think there's a thread for this yet. So what was your best meal of 2014?

Lots of standout meals for us in 2014. The best overall is probably Willow Inn on Lummi Island, Washington (though Mitsui No. 30 is a strong runner up). Best locally is probably Restaurant at Patowmack Farm (though FishNook and Rogue Gentlemen are very strong runner ups).

(Honorable mentions to Fishnook, Ghibellina, Rogue Gentlemen, Pok Pok, Hawksworth, The Point at Wickaninnish Inn, Beast, Little Bird, Roe, Ulla, Fol Epi, Shiro's Sushi, Spur Gastropub, Walrus and Carpenter, Cascina Spinasse, El Corvo, Roberto's 8, Vernick Food & Drink, Le Cheri, Bangkok Golden, Sushi Kyotatsu, and Mitsui # 30.)

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Rose's rooftop, hands down, was the overall best meal.  It's hard for me to go with a number ranking since I didn't eat out a whole lot this year, but right after that would probably be Fiola Mare and then FishNook.  I also had several solo meals at Beuchert's that I thought were top-notch.

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Mine were as follows:

New York - Carbone and Charlie Bird - Charlie Bird was good, but seriously: Batard. Go NOW.

VA: Ashby Inn (multiple trips, but the first tasting menu we had with Chef Dunlap was the highlight of all of them - probably in Jan or Feb 2014)

DC: Fiola Mare

ME: Sweet Peas (sorry we didn't say hi again, Edan - see you next summer?)

Of all locations, best meal was Batard.

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VA: Ashby Inn (multiple trips, but the first tasting menu we had with Chef Dunlap was the highlight of all of them - probably in Jan or Feb 2014)

I'm glad to see this! I raved about a meal in August there in this thread,

But there hasn't been much action in that thread since then. Vindication!!

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Far and away the best meal was eating at the kitchen bar at Rose's Luxury. Combos of food, wine, service, atmosphere make it hard to beat, especially when I don't do much fine dining at other establishments.

Other notable meals include:

The Shack (Roast Quail with Chestnut Cornbread Stuffing, Pumpkin, Brussel Sprouts, and Cranberries)
Trummers on Main (coffee/chicory short ribs and sweet potato & sage rosti napoleon)
Red Hen (Mezze Rigatoni with Fennel Sausage Ragu & Pecorino Romano)
Pupatella (pizza special with chorizo, pine nuts, eggplant, provola and fresh mozz)
 
Honorable mention for the best donuts in 2014:
cronut from Donut Den (Nashville)
Better Maid Donut Company (Pittsburgh)
Holy Moly Donuts (Staunton)
Carpe Donut (Charlottsville)
Donut Palace (Springfield, TN)
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All of this talk about Rose's Luxury. <sigh> I am not that in to waiting in line for 3 hours to eat something. Even if it is THAT GOOD.

You don't wait in line 3 hours, though.  At most, it's about an hour if you're there waiting for them to open.  If you arrive within 1/2 hour of opening time and want to stake out a spot for a later (summoned by text) meal, that should do it.  Of course, you do need some place to spend the intervening time, but it's not like you're standing outside on 8th Street for 3 hours.

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Pat, I'm not sure I would agree with the Rose's wait time. Monday night at 8:30 the wait time was over an hour.  Some days people are in line at 4, other days later.  With the exception of cold rain there seems to be no real predictor as to how long the line will be before they open and therefor how long you will wait.

As for best meals of the past year, both were in Paris.  One was a picnic of a dozen freshly shucked Breton, Trou du Cru (a soft, runny cheese), a baguette, and a riesling drunk straight from the bottle in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on a perfect fall day.  The other was at L'Avant Comptoir, the little sibling of Le Comptoir Relais. Caramelized pork belly, pig feet, haddock mouse, and whatever Eric poured was amazing.

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By this do you mean that people who arrived at 8:30 stood out on the sidewalk for more than an hour before getting to the reception desk?  (Have to post on top because I can't get the cursor to insert after the quoted text.)

Pat, I'm not sure I would agree with the Rose's wait time. Monday night at 8:30 the wait time was over an hour.  Some days people are in line at 4, other days later.  With the exception of cold rain there seems to be no real predictor as to how long the line will be before they open and therefor how long you will wait. 

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Sadly nothing stands out as particularly excellent in 2014, even though we ate in New York City and Montreal.  If I can stretch the definition of "best", I'd say that my best meal was at a little shop on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where I went through a huge bowl of local mussels while drinking a local beer and listening to some fiddling.  This is remarkable only because I don't really care for mussels.  I'll eat a small order once a year, noramally.  But if all mussels were as good as those, I'd be eating them all the time.

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You don't wait in line 3 hours, though.  At most, it's about an hour if you're there waiting for them to open.  If you arrive within 1/2 hour of opening time and want to stake out a spot for a later (summoned by text) meal, that should do it.  Of course, you do need some place to spend the intervening time, but it's not like you're standing outside on 8th Street for 3 hours.

Well that is good to know. So how long do they give you to show up after they send you the text message? And what places are good for a drink that are nearby?

Now, for my Best of 2014 meal....I am not sure I can really pick one.  If you force me to, I will say dinner at CityZen in early August. This time, we ignored the tasting menu and chose courses as we desired and the meal was exceptional on pretty much every front. And I am sad to see it go, but looking forward to what happens with his next gig.

2014 allowed me two more meals at Palena - one in February with friends where we also ran in to other friends. It was a great meal and great night, and this was a couple of months before they closed. We got there again the day we found out they were going to shut down, so it was a bittersweet meal. Palena was home to me, so it was as though I was cast adrift.  FORTUNATELY, it meant I got to Ghibellina and also to Eat the Rich, both great places for different reasons. One of the finest things I had in all of 2014, was this fish dish nestled on a bed of the most otherworldly ratatouille I have ever had. Wow. Carrying on from the Palena front, I was so happy to get to a BreadFurst meal. It was a tight squeeze in there, but a fun meal. Met a lot of people from the culinary world that night, and most importantly met Frank for the first time. YES!

We had other great meals - Proof, Partisan, Fiola Mare, Ris, That Place (Ogunquit), Corduroy, Rhappahanock (Richmond), Buz & Ned's (Richmond) -- all for different reasons.  Also, perhaps the best single dish I had in all of 2014 was the corned beef hash from Cafe Amore in Ogunquit - the kind of dish that makes you just stop in your tracks and say 'Whoa.' like Keeanu Reeves (haha). And this was a year of serious contenders for great dishes.

Looking forward to 2015 with gusto!

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Well that is good to know. So how long do they give you to show up after they send you the text message? And what places are good for a drink that are nearby?

 
They give you 15 minutes to return with the entire party.  You might have to wait a little bit after that.  There are probably some good tips in the actual Rose's thread for this.   (This will all work better with a party of two than a larger party.)
 
There are a lot of places nearby for a drink.  It's not too helpful to say that it depends on what you want, but it depends on what you want <_<. If you want to stay right nearby and are okay with divey and or sports bar atmosphere, Rose's is bracketed by The Ugly Mug and Molly Malone's.  The ambiance at Chesapeake Room farther north on 8th is nicer but I can't comment on the quality of the drinks.  I particularly like the fish tank behind the bar.  Both Ambar and Lavagna have bars upstairs and down.  The ambiance at Ambar is the nicer of the two.  I personally like the bar at Matchbox, but that can easily be packed full, depending on the day and time.  
 
For better-quality drinks, I'd say Beuchert's or Hank's on the 600 block of PA Ave.  I have not been to Barrel, the whiskey bar on that same block, but have heard some good things (and at least one industry person saying the whiskey is overpriced).
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The Rose's Rooftop dinner was my best meal of the year (Thanks Pat!).  Other memorable meals were: Public Oyster in Charlottesville, Indian Accent in Delhi and The Source.

On a more low key scale the Fish n Lime Inn in Tortola on a nice day is pretty hard to say a bad word about and there are often days that I wish I was there so it must be pretty memorable.

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They give you 15 minutes to return with the entire party.  You might have to wait a little bit after that.  There are probably some good tips in the actual Rose's thread for this.   (This will all work better with a party of two than a larger party.)

There are a lot of places nearby for a drink.  It's not too helpful to say that it depends on what you want, but it depends on what you want <_<. If you want to stay right nearby and are okay with divey and or sports bar atmosphere, Rose's is bracketed by The Ugly Mug and Molly Malone's.  The ambiance at Chesapeake Room farther north on 8th is nicer but I can't comment on the quality of the drinks.  I particularly like the fish tank behind the bar.  Both Ambar and Lavagna have bars upstairs and down.  The ambiance at Ambar is the nicer of the two.  I personally like the bar at Matchbox, but that can easily be packed full, depending on the day and time.

For better-quality drinks, I'd say Beuchert's or Hank's on the 600 block of PA Ave.  I have not been to Barrel, the whiskey bar on that same block, but have heard some good things (and at least one industry person saying the whiskey is overpriced).

Well this is incredibly helpful. This is why DR is so awesome. Thanks!

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2014 was an epic dining year for us - as I type up this list I wonder how we pulled this off without simultaneously going broke and gaining 50 pounds.

In DC - Our two best meals were Rose's Rooftop and our final meal at Palena. Both memorable in different ways.

NY - Eleven Madison Park was memorable and excellent. The wine we had the next day at Maialino was better - the food just a side dish to the old Italian bottles.

CA- Ad Hoc

Best for purely memorable and special - Mezze in East Jerusalem at a restaurant without a name

Buenos Aires - Aramburu, Hernan Gripponi, Parilla Don Julia, El San Juanino

Tokyo - Rakutei, Yoshitaki, Den, Hiosaku, L'Osier also Tuna 'tastes' in Tsujiki

London - Dinner, Fat Duck, Five Fields, Gykhana, Dishoom, The Ledbury

Paris - Porte 12

Copenhagen - Relae, Noma

Cape Town - Savoy Cabbage, Test Kitchen

Tokyo -

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