The best dining experience I ever had was in Kyoto -- an old friend took us to a French/Japanese fusion restaurant (wish I could remember the name!). We had our own room. Amazing, amazing food -- I would never have guessed that French and Japanese cuisines align so beautifully. There was a truffle foam I can still remember the taste of perfectly. The pairings (Japanese alcohols and French wines) were spot-on.

I think, though, what made it the most special experience for me was being with my old friend and sharing her and her family's company. The warmth and happiness in the room were even better than the food.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to have to vote this most pretentious DCUM thread ever. And I"ve been to half these. I think I hate myself for even reading it.

I don't agree with you. I've never been to any of these restaurants. They seem like wonderful places but I would have to save to go to some of these so I'm going bookmark this thread and add some to my bucket list. Keep the reviews coming.

Signed,

One of The Poors

I've been to many, I could go every week if I wanted. You're not missing anything. They're mostly filled with strivers.

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to have to vote this most pretentious DCUM thread ever. And I"ve been to half these. I think I hate myself for even reading it.

I don't agree with you. I've never been to any of these restaurants. They seem like wonderful places but I would have to save to go to some of these so I'm going bookmark this thread and add some to my bucket list. Keep the reviews coming.

Signed,

One of The Poors

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so underwhelmed by places like Inn at Little Washington. They're nice enough, but they never really do anything for me. I always feel like I'm supposed to like it just because it's fancy and expensive.

I like a good lobster and steamed clams at a picnic table on a dock overlooking a harbor in New England, or a pulled pork sandwich at a dive BBQ joint in North Carolina. Stuff like that.

That's so cliched though...

Oh please! Like the other restaurants cited aren't clichés? They're just a list of the most expensive in the country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so underwhelmed by places like Inn at Little Washington. They're nice enough, but they never really do anything for me. I always feel like I'm supposed to like it just because it's fancy and expensive.

I like a good lobster and steamed clams at a picnic table on a dock overlooking a harbor in New England, or a pulled pork sandwich at a dive BBQ joint in North Carolina. Stuff like that.

That's so cliched though...

What is "cliched" about eating lobster in New England or pulled pork at a BBQ place? Should you have BBQ in New England and the lobster at the BBQ joint? Would it be better to have the pulled pork sandwich "deconstructed" and served at 10x the price? The pp clearly enjoys simple food prepared well rather than overly fancy food in a pretentious atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that.

Np here. Whether it's cliched or not to eat lobster in New England or bbq in NC, it is certainly expected. Weirdly enough, and this is just an observation on my part, I think that the gulf coast of Fl has better bbq than OBX NC does.

I'm the original simple poster. I don't think it's clichéd, they're just examples. Good BBQ doesn't have to be in North Carolina; I've had it plenty of places outside of the South or Kansas City. I just like simple food that is unpretentious. Like I said, Inn at Little Washington was interesting, but not my thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so underwhelmed by places like Inn at Little Washington. They're nice enough, but they never really do anything for me. I always feel like I'm supposed to like it just because it's fancy and expensive.

I like a good lobster and steamed clams at a picnic table on a dock overlooking a harbor in New England, or a pulled pork sandwich at a dive BBQ joint in North Carolina. Stuff like that.

That's so cliched though...

What is "cliched" about eating lobster in New England or pulled pork at a BBQ place? Should you have BBQ in New England and the lobster at the BBQ joint? Would it be better to have the pulled pork sandwich "deconstructed" and served at 10x the price? The pp clearly enjoys simple food prepared well rather than overly fancy food in a pretentious atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that.

Np here. Whether it's cliched or not to eat lobster in New England or bbq in NC, it is certainly expected. Weirdly enough, and this is just an observation on my part, I think that the gulf coast of Fl has better bbq than OBX NC does.

Anonymous wrote:Kobe Misono Teppanyaki at the top of the Simitomo building in Tokyo. Our own private chef and dining room. Food brought out alive before to show how fresh it is. Best Kobe I ever had. Sigh.

Did you mean the Sumitomo building?

Chik fil a when I got off a diet

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so underwhelmed by places like Inn at Little Washington. They're nice enough, but they never really do anything for me. I always feel like I'm supposed to like it just because it's fancy and expensive.

I like a good lobster and steamed clams at a picnic table on a dock overlooking a harbor in New England, or a pulled pork sandwich at a dive BBQ joint in North Carolina. Stuff like that.

That's so cliched though...

What is "cliched" about eating lobster in New England or pulled pork at a BBQ place? Should you have BBQ in New England and the lobster at the BBQ joint? Would it be better to have the pulled pork sandwich "deconstructed" and served at 10x the price? The pp clearly enjoys simple food prepared well rather than overly fancy food in a pretentious atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to have to vote this most pretentious DCUM thread ever. And I"ve been to half these. I think I hate myself for even reading it.

Yeah, I like how you inserted "I've been to half of these in". Go on clutching your pearls. I for one am enjoying the restaurant recommendations and storing it away for future reference.

This ought to be transferred to the misused quotes thread. You clearly don't understand this.

I went to Cyrus. I did not enjoy it because I was so stuffed and it was so expensive - it made me feel horrifically guilty after!

The most memorable dish I had was an artichoke and olive stew somewhere on the way to Salamanca.

The most memorable meal was at Little Fish in Philly the night after our fetal ultrasound turned out clear at CHOP

Maxims in Paris

Anonymous wrote:I'm so underwhelmed by places like Inn at Little Washington. They're nice enough, but they never really do anything for me. I always feel like I'm supposed to like it just because it's fancy and expensive.

I like a good lobster and steamed clams at a picnic table on a dock overlooking a harbor in New England, or a pulled pork sandwich at a dive BBQ joint in North Carolina. Stuff like that.

That's so cliched though...

I don';t know the name because I was brought there by my friends aunt after we took a trip around Eruope and stayed with them.

But we drove along these twisty, tiny roads on the Amalfi coast, finally came to a gated little garden in one of the mountains.

We parked and walked down this garden path, and finally saw the house, which was a very rustic restaurant.

We didn't get any menus, the owners, who knew my friend's family, served us what was fresh and they wanted to cook.

14 courses of the most amazing food I've ever tasted, and we could all barely move.

We asked later about the food being so good, turns out it had 2 michelin stars. Such a wonderful surprise.

Anonymous wrote:Citronelle. New Year's Eve. One seating, cocktails upstairs at 5, then dinner at the table closest to the kitchen with a full view of the kitchen until 11:30, champagne and celebrating upstairs until about 2.

Last year's New Year's Eve dinner was a close second, at Columbia Room on its last night with a five course meal by Jeremiah Langhorne. I couldn't even begin to describe all of the amazing drinks and morsels, but there were truffles in my bourbon. Then the party continued through Passenger's closing.

Sounds amazing.