Simply the best

[TightEnd]

The best meal you have eaten please (outside of your home)

where and what and why?

could be location, could be the establishment, could be the chef or could be the food....and in doing so you can give us recommendations

[Woodsey]

Anyone who says Nando's deserves a......

[Woodsey]

Quite enjoy the Hawksmoor and Gaucho chains for a good steak, pricey though.

The Steak and Lobster chain at some of the Radisson Blu hotels is a great value restaurant, quite simply either a rib eye steak or whole grilled lobster with unlimited chips and salad for £20. I get a £30 allowance from work when I stay over somewhere so with a glass of wine it fits my budget perfectly.

Rules restaurant in London if you like old school British food, reminds me of my dad too as he liked to go there.

I honestly think most of my memorable ones were more about the location than the restaurant, a few that spring to mind.....

- Millenium new year overlooking table mountain in Cape Town in the background, we were greeted by a local choir singing African choir music, very special.
- A sunset BBQ overlooking the Zambezi river in a game park in Zambia with animals milling around in the background.
- The best stir fried red curry I've ever eaten overlooking the Mekong river in Laos
- When I worked in Cape Cod many years ago there was a rustic seafood shack/pub overlooking the sea close to where I worked, they used to do Lobster happy hours and we sometimes used to go there after work and scoff a couple of lobsters each, can't remember how much it was but it was very cheap

[Marky147]

Had loads of excellent meals at CUT, in the Palazzo/Vegas.

Food is superb, albeit having to pay Vegas taxes.


Most unique dining experience I've had, was at é, which is also in Vegas.

It's a private dining room, closed off from the rest of the Jaleo restaurant, and the meal is a ~20 course tasting menu. All courses are prepared in front of you, by the chefs, and they talk to you about each course as they prepare them.

http://nevergrowupmag.com/food-drinks/e-by-jose-andres-las-vegas-review/

[Nakor]

Andrew Fairlie's restaurant @ Gleneagles is the best dining experience's I have ever had.
Made to feel very welcome and special on both occasions I have attended.  The food is out of this world and personal. Nothing was too much effort.  Not at all what I expected it to be.
Had a Lobster and a Lamb main and both were taste sensations.  I am no fine dining regular but would imagine it takes some beating on a UK stage.

My favourite meal ever was Cabo Wabo on the strip - double portion of the extra hot wings, drinking crazy cocktails looking at the Bellagio fountains watching the world go by before being unexpectedly invited to my own wedding, a brilliant and unexpected evening.

Having said all that I a m great believer in the company makes the night - Soulville Nottingham with 15 odd poker players for the first Dtd bash was an epic night.  Laz, Thomas, Boo and more hero's made it one of the more memorable nights of my life.

[arbboy]

Hotel in Luxor in 1999.  James Bond film was shot there years earlier the staff said.  Can't remember its name.  The level of service and food was incredible and the owner invited us into his private snooker room after dinner for drinks. He fancied himself a bit at snooker so i said 'shall we have a frame?' He wasn't very impressed when we had a couple of frames and he broke off and i cleaned up without him getting a shot leaving him needing snookers.

Numerous beach restaurants in Antigua as well whilst i was working out there were pretty memorable as well.  Think i had the most expensive steak i ever had there.

Best kebab shop i have ever been to for lunch daily was outside the office in Malta.  Truly incredible what they would serve you up for a fiver.

[bobAlike]

In UK
Lemonia - Greek restaurant in Primrose Hill London. Great authentic Greek food without the loud music banging in your ears

In USA
After a recommendation by the Camel - Gallagher's Steak House NY. I've been a couple of times now and I can safely say amongst best steaks I've eaten out.

I tried Wagyu beef at a restaurant in Disney Springs a bit pricey but the most tender ribeye I have ever experienced. Worth every dollar of the $23 per/Oz price tag. The Sushi was also spot on.

I will be trying Hawksmoor for the first time this Saturday.

[RED-DOG]

I’m not much of a one for fancy restaurants, I can’t afford them, but now and then over the years, even I have enjoyed some excellent meals amid some remarkable surroundings.
I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that these meals are part of some glamorous or exotic life style; nothing could be further from the truth. Almost everything I do is done on a shoestring budget, but I will admit to being extraordinarily lucky to find myself in the right place at the right time.

I once had kofta, (a kind of kebab) with fresh salad and an enormous pot of proper English tea while sitting under a little parasol on the deck of a ship floating down the Nile. The river was about half a mile wide at this point. Native fishermen in beautiful traditional boats called felucca cruised slowly back and forth, their white sails, like the wings of the following ibis, were filled by the first stirrings of the early evening breeze. The far shore was a narrow sliver of sand against a dense tangle of green. A man watered his cattle, and naked children played, their cries and laughter carrying plainly across the water. You could have gone back in time for thousands of years, and that scene would have been exactly the same, I thought it was magical   

There is a very small settlement somewhere in the American mid west called Annadarko. I had bacon, eggs, Canadian sausage, hash browns, pancakes with syrup and fresh coffee in a diner there one morning. Two grizzled old cowboys in dungarees and Stetsons conversed loudly: “Elmer, did your dawg ever tackle a bear?” “Nope” “Well mine did…Nah he’s all swelled up”.
I fell into conversation with these old guys, they told me I was Annadarko’s first ever tourist.

I had chicken and rice in Thailand. It was cooked by a girl who lived in a packing case.
I met her when she tugged at my sleeve to attract my attention, at first I thought she was a prostitute or a beggar, but as it turned out she was trying to return a 500 baht note that I had accidentally dropped. She worked as a waitress. What little money she earned was sent home to her village to help support her infant son and her parents. I was so impressed that she had returned the money that I told her that she could keep it, in return she cooked me the meal. We ate sitting cross-legged on the floor, overshadowed by the vast opulence of the magnificent kings palace, we spoke not a word of each other’s language, but we smiled and pointed. When we had finished, we bowed formally and parted. I will never see her again, but I will remember her always.

If you stand at the base of the great pyramid of Giza and look in one direction, you will see nothing but desert. Thousands of square miles of nothing but rock and sand. Look in the other direction and you will, believe it or not, see a Kentucky Fried Chicken shop.
I stayed in a modest hotel in Cairo. On my first night there a guide sold Mrs Red and I a ticket which entitled us to join his tour the following day. The tour was excellent, but then he was showing us one of the Seven Wonders of the World, he didn’t have to work very hard.
Just as we were being rounded up in preparation for our return to the hotel, an Arab taxi driver sidled up to me and whispered, “Let me bring you out again tomorrow, I’ll show you something most visitors never see” Of course I asked a lot of questions and haggled over the price, but to cut a long story short, I ended up making a very good friend who became our private chauffer for the rest of our stay, at a cost of about £10 per day.
I can’t remember what time he collected us the following morning, but it was still dark when we arrived the pyramids. Our driver parked his ancient taxi by the side of the KFC and, although it was closed to the public at this time of the morning, when he knocked on the door it swung open and he beckoned us inside. We were shown to a table by the window, and a waiter brought hot coffee in small cups, and a bottle of Coke with two straws.
Dawn broke. Sunrise over the pyramids cannot be described, and I won’t try here. I can only say that for half an hour or so neither of us spoke a word, we were totally and utterly transfixed.
When we spilled out onto the pavement a little while later, the heat, dust and noise brought us back to reality like a slap in the face. I looked across at Mrs Red, was it a dream? Her breathless expression told me that it wasn’t.

I’ve had Schnitzel and apple strudel in the Donauturm, a revolving restaurant atop a huge tower in Vienna, had lunch with The Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth house, and tea with the Queen at Buckingham palace, but yesterday, I think, surpasses them all.


I rode my bike to Binley woods in Burbage, a distance of about four miles. When I arrived I made my way, as I’m prone to do, down one of the less well-travelled paths to where I knew there was a secluded clearing.
I have never been there in the spring, but I have to say I was totally astonished by the breathtaking beauty of the place. It was just like a scene from a child’s storybook. The trees were laden with blossom, and the ground was a sea of wild flowers. Bees hummed, butterflies flitted, and birds, which perched in plain sight and seemed not to fear me, sang for all they were worth.
I sat on a fallen log with my flask and a cheese and onion sandwich from my bag and I swear to you now, no one ever had a more enjoyable meal or ate in more wonderful surroundings.

[BigAdz]

Hotel in Luxor in 1999.  James Bond film was shot there years earlier the staff said.  Can't remember its name.  The level of service and food was incredible and the owner invited us into his private snooker room after dinner for drinks. He fancied himself a bit at snooker so i said 'shall we have a frame?' He wasn't very impressed when we had a couple of frames and he broke off and i cleaned up without him getting a shot leaving him needing snookers.

Numerous beach restaurants in Antigua as well whilst i was working out there were pretty memorable as well.  Think i had the most expensive steak i ever had there.

Best kebab shop i have ever been to for lunch daily was outside the office in Malta.  Truly incredible what they would serve you up for a fiver.

Tender. Still my favourite Vegas Restaurant, after all these years.

[Woodsey]

Hotel in Luxor in 1999.  James Bond film was shot there years earlier the staff said.  Can't remember its name.  The level of service and food was incredible and the owner invited us into his private snooker room after dinner for drinks. He fancied himself a bit at snooker so i said 'shall we have a frame?' He wasn't very impressed when we had a couple of frames and he broke off and i cleaned up without him getting a shot leaving him needing snookers.

Numerous beach restaurants in Antigua as well whilst i was working out there were pretty memorable as well.  Think i had the most expensive steak i ever had there.

Best kebab shop i have ever been to for lunch daily was outside the office in Malta.  Truly incredible what they would serve you up for a fiver.

The one time I did an all inclusive was in Antigua about 20 years ago, think I had fillet steak for dinner 14 nights on the trot 

Dangerous shit those all inclusives, reckon I didn't remember going to bed the majority of nights  I've regularly drunk a lot of golden rum since though 

[booder]

I’m not much of a one for fancy restaurants, I can’t afford them, but now and then over the years, even I have enjoyed some excellent meals amid some remarkable surroundings.
I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that these meals are part of some glamorous or exotic life style; nothing could be further from the truth. Almost everything I do is done on a shoestring budget, but I will admit to being extraordinarily lucky to find myself in the right place at the right time.

I once had kofta, (a kind of kebab) with fresh salad and an enormous pot of proper English tea while sitting under a little parasol on the deck of a ship floating down the Nile. The river was about half a mile wide at this point. Native fishermen in beautiful traditional boats called felucca cruised slowly back and forth, their white sails, like the wings of the following ibis, were filled by the first stirrings of the early evening breeze. The far shore was a narrow sliver of sand against a dense tangle of green. A man watered his cattle, and naked children played, their cries and laughter carrying plainly across the water. You could have gone back in time for thousands of years, and that scene would have been exactly the same, I thought it was magical   

There is a very small settlement somewhere in the American mid west called Annadarko. I had bacon, eggs, Canadian sausage, hash browns, pancakes with syrup and fresh coffee in a diner there one morning. Two grizzled old cowboys in dungarees and Stetsons conversed loudly: “Elmer, did your dawg ever tackle a bear?” “Nope” “Well mine did…Nah he’s all swelled up”.
I fell into conversation with these old guys, they told me I was Annadarko’s first ever tourist.

I had chicken and rice in Thailand. It was cooked by a girl who lived in a packing case.
I met her when she tugged at my sleeve to attract my attention, at first I thought she was a prostitute or a beggar, but as it turned out she was trying to return a 500 baht note that I had accidentally dropped. She worked as a waitress. What little money she earned was sent home to her village to help support her infant son and her parents. I was so impressed that she had returned the money that I told her that she could keep it, in return she cooked me the meal. We ate sitting cross-legged on the floor, overshadowed by the vast opulence of the magnificent kings palace, we spoke not a word of each other’s language, but we smiled and pointed. When we had finished, we bowed formally and parted. I will never see her again, but I will remember her always.

If you stand at the base of the great pyramid of Giza and look in one direction, you will see nothing but desert. Thousands of square miles of nothing but rock and sand. Look in the other direction and you will, believe it or not, see a Kentucky Fried Chicken shop.
I stayed in a modest hotel in Cairo. On my first night there a guide sold Mrs Red and I a ticket which entitled us to join his tour the following day. The tour was excellent, but then he was showing us one of the Seven Wonders of the World, he didn’t have to work very hard.
Just as we were being rounded up in preparation for our return to the hotel, an Arab taxi driver sidled up to me and whispered, “Let me bring you out again tomorrow, I’ll show you something most visitors never see” Of course I asked a lot of questions and haggled over the price, but to cut a long story short, I ended up making a very good friend who became our private chauffer for the rest of our stay, at a cost of about £10 per day.
I can’t remember what time he collected us the following morning, but it was still dark when we arrived the pyramids. Our driver parked his ancient taxi by the side of the KFC and, although it was closed to the public at this time of the morning, when he knocked on the door it swung open and he beckoned us inside. We were shown to a table by the window, and a waiter brought hot coffee in small cups, and a bottle of Coke with two straws.
Dawn broke. Sunrise over the pyramids cannot be described, and I won’t try here. I can only say that for half an hour or so neither of us spoke a word, we were totally and utterly transfixed.
When we spilled out onto the pavement a little while later, the heat, dust and noise brought us back to reality like a slap in the face. I looked across at Mrs Red, was it a dream? Her breathless expression told me that it wasn’t.

I’ve had Schnitzel and apple strudel in the Donauturm, a revolving restaurant atop a huge tower in Vienna, had lunch with The Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth house, and tea with the Queen at Buckingham palace, but yesterday, I think, surpasses them all.


I rode my bike to Binley woods in Burbage, a distance of about four miles. When I arrived I made my way, as I’m prone to do, down one of the less well-travelled paths to where I knew there was a secluded clearing.
I have never been there in the spring, but I have to say I was totally astonished by the breathtaking beauty of the place. It was just like a scene from a child’s storybook. The trees were laden with blossom, and the ground was a sea of wild flowers. Bees hummed, butterflies flitted, and birds, which perched in plain sight and seemed not to fear me, sang for all they were worth.
I sat on a fallen log with my flask and a cheese and onion sandwich from my bag and I swear to you now, no one ever had a more enjoyable meal or ate in more wonderful surroundings.

What a fantastic post.

[bobAlike]

I’m not much of a one for fancy restaurants, I can’t afford them, but now and then over the years, even I have enjoyed some excellent meals amid some remarkable surroundings.
I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that these meals are part of some glamorous or exotic life style; nothing could be further from the truth. Almost everything I do is done on a shoestring budget, but I will admit to being extraordinarily lucky to find myself in the right place at the right time.

I once had kofta, (a kind of kebab) with fresh salad and an enormous pot of proper English tea while sitting under a little parasol on the deck of a ship floating down the Nile. The river was about half a mile wide at this point. Native fishermen in beautiful traditional boats called felucca cruised slowly back and forth, their white sails, like the wings of the following ibis, were filled by the first stirrings of the early evening breeze. The far shore was a narrow sliver of sand against a dense tangle of green. A man watered his cattle, and naked children played, their cries and laughter carrying plainly across the water. You could have gone back in time for thousands of years, and that scene would have been exactly the same, I thought it was magical   

There is a very small settlement somewhere in the American mid west called Annadarko. I had bacon, eggs, Canadian sausage, hash browns, pancakes with syrup and fresh coffee in a diner there one morning. Two grizzled old cowboys in dungarees and Stetsons conversed loudly: “Elmer, did your dawg ever tackle a bear?” “Nope” “Well mine did…Nah he’s all swelled up”.
I fell into conversation with these old guys, they told me I was Annadarko’s first ever tourist.

I had chicken and rice in Thailand. It was cooked by a girl who lived in a packing case.
I met her when she tugged at my sleeve to attract my attention, at first I thought she was a prostitute or a beggar, but as it turned out she was trying to return a 500 baht note that I had accidentally dropped. She worked as a waitress. What little money she earned was sent home to her village to help support her infant son and her parents. I was so impressed that she had returned the money that I told her that she could keep it, in return she cooked me the meal. We ate sitting cross-legged on the floor, overshadowed by the vast opulence of the magnificent kings palace, we spoke not a word of each other’s language, but we smiled and pointed. When we had finished, we bowed formally and parted. I will never see her again, but I will remember her always.

If you stand at the base of the great pyramid of Giza and look in one direction, you will see nothing but desert. Thousands of square miles of nothing but rock and sand. Look in the other direction and you will, believe it or not, see a Kentucky Fried Chicken shop.
I stayed in a modest hotel in Cairo. On my first night there a guide sold Mrs Red and I a ticket which entitled us to join his tour the following day. The tour was excellent, but then he was showing us one of the Seven Wonders of the World, he didn’t have to work very hard.
Just as we were being rounded up in preparation for our return to the hotel, an Arab taxi driver sidled up to me and whispered, “Let me bring you out again tomorrow, I’ll show you something most visitors never see” Of course I asked a lot of questions and haggled over the price, but to cut a long story short, I ended up making a very good friend who became our private chauffer for the rest of our stay, at a cost of about £10 per day.
I can’t remember what time he collected us the following morning, but it was still dark when we arrived the pyramids. Our driver parked his ancient taxi by the side of the KFC and, although it was closed to the public at this time of the morning, when he knocked on the door it swung open and he beckoned us inside. We were shown to a table by the window, and a waiter brought hot coffee in small cups, and a bottle of Coke with two straws.
Dawn broke. Sunrise over the pyramids cannot be described, and I won’t try here. I can only say that for half an hour or so neither of us spoke a word, we were totally and utterly transfixed.
When we spilled out onto the pavement a little while later, the heat, dust and noise brought us back to reality like a slap in the face. I looked across at Mrs Red, was it a dream? Her breathless expression told me that it wasn’t.

I’ve had Schnitzel and apple strudel in the Donauturm, a revolving restaurant atop a huge tower in Vienna, had lunch with The Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth house, and tea with the Queen at Buckingham palace, but yesterday, I think, surpasses them all.


I rode my bike to Binley woods in Burbage, a distance of about four miles. When I arrived I made my way, as I’m prone to do, down one of the less well-travelled paths to where I knew there was a secluded clearing.
I have never been there in the spring, but I have to say I was totally astonished by the breathtaking beauty of the place. It was just like a scene from a child’s storybook. The trees were laden with blossom, and the ground was a sea of wild flowers. Bees hummed, butterflies flitted, and birds, which perched in plain sight and seemed not to fear me, sang for all they were worth.
I sat on a fallen log with my flask and a cheese and onion sandwich from my bag and I swear to you now, no one ever had a more enjoyable meal or ate in more wonderful surroundings.

What a fantastic post.

totally this.

[nirvana]

Yah, sometimes forget to say when I've enjoyed reading something, good read, thanks Red

[Marky147]

Almost as good as Tikay's stuff on Trains

Dunno how I missed that first time around. Makes me even lazier than Glenn for not commenting, ffs...

Excellent read, Red.

[StuartHopkin]

I love all the Vegas restaurants but I would struggle to choose between two restaurants in London as the best meal I have ever had;

HKK in Shoreditch, part of the Hakkasan Group and The Peninsula Restaurant in the Intercontinental nr the 02 Arena with a couple of drinks in the Eighteen Sky Bar first