The meal of a lifetime.

MiniMoon

Tasting menu at Hyem in Wall. The only Michelin starred restaurant in Northumberland. 18 courses of the most sublime little dishes with the juice tasting menu. Everything was presented beautifully, and each course described by the very knowledgeable waiting staff.

It was a 70th birthday gift to my husband from our wonderful children and their partners.

Oh I’ve heard about this ! I thought it was in Hexham (where I went to school) though,

We went to a fancy restaurant next to Sydney harbour and the people we were with ( English) didn't like oysters so they gave us theirs. Sydney oysters are lovely so we really pigged out. Work was paying so that made it even better!

I was a very lucky child in that we travelled to other European countries for our summer holidays long before cheap package tours and flights were available. My parents booked a passage on the car ferry – Dover to Boulogne in those days. My father had an idea of where he was heading but we just travelled until we found somewhere where we wanted to stay for our remaining weeks of holiday. En route, we stopped at a hotel in a convenient town for the night – never booking ahead. We dined in numerous restaurants all over Europe, from Belgium to Italy and from France to Spain. I had the chance to taste and discover all kinds of food that wasn't part of my daily life although I would add that my mother was quite an adventurous cook for her generation.

I don't have a meal of a lifetime – I have a lifetime of meals.

I grew up in a Third World country just after the war. No fancy restaurants or food then…. After the usual poor student days, DH and I never really had the money to go to expensive restaurants.
My most delicious meal was in a little cafe on the river bank at Oporto. A bowl of cabbage soup, and then a salad of lettuce tomato, onion and cucumber with lemon juice and fresh olive oil, served with fresh bread. It was delightful.

Gosh 16 courses Sago! Was each course served separately?

There is a Michelin * restaurant in the next village to us, owned by the son of an old friends. We have been a few times and, as you would expect, the food is lovely.

My most memorable meal though was in a little restaurant, somewhere in the middle of France. It too was just steak and chips, kate but delicious.

When we lived in Jamaica we went up the hills to the Blue Mountain Inn. A beautiful setting at night , tasty food, wonderful service and a rose for every lady. We took my parents there for a treat. My mother was so impressed with being so spoilt.

You can take the girl out of Old Trafford ....

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Not one favourite meal but many, over the last 20 years while being in snd travelling through France. Until COVID we often rented a gite somewhere and always travelled slowly avoiding motorways and without pre booking accommodation. We stopped off in all sorts of places, often village restaurants to enjoy a freshly cooked 3 course lunch often with wine, for anything from 11 euro. Then in the evenings finding a fancier restaurant for dinner with menus from 20 euro. We have had some fabulous dining experiences. Looking forward to visiting France again and hope their prices havnt increased too much as ours have done here.

My fanciest meals have been places I was taken by the parents of grateful students. Certainly the food was very nice in them. 16 courses of haute cusine, including truffles (nice, but overrated).

But as some others have said on here, the best food I've ever had has been street food.

To name a restaurant our first ever really fancy meal was at Le Moulinel in St Josse inland from Le Touquet. The first time I had an amuse bouché. Teeny tiny which I panicked was my starter.
We returned many times over the years.

I’ve had two ‘tasting menu’ meals in France and TBH was distinctly underwhelmed, plus they were ludicrously expensive. Something I do especially remember, since after the second dh paid the bill for 10 of us!

OTOH a day or two after that one we had a (to me) much nicer, 3 course meal at a little restaurant in Beaune - fairly simple but perfectly cooked and a third of the price of the ‘tasters’.

A really memorable one was at some pub in Wales, when we were on the way to the ferry for Ireland. Smoked haddock with a sort of Welsh rarebit on top - it was truly delicious. I’ve been meaning to find the recipe - I know there is one - and make it, but have never got around to it.

Although we've been to a lot, I'm not keen on these 'posh' places. I find most of them pretentious and intimidating.
These days we like a panini and chips, two large glasses of wine, about £12 in Wetherspoons!

MiniMoon

Tasting menu at Hyem in Wall. The only Michelin starred restaurant in Northumberland. 18 courses of the most sublime little dishes with the juice tasting menu. Everything was presented beautifully, and each course described by the very knowledgeable waiting staff.

It was a 70th birthday gift to my husband from our wonderful children and their partners.

We are booked to go to there on Wednesday, every time we go to Northumbria we try and book but it normally has a three month waiting list, this time we managed to get a cancellation. I'm going with DH and DD for my 57th and DD's 30th birthdays. We're staying at Walwick Hall, so looking forward to it, nice to hear it is as good as the reviews.

The Elizabeth (long gone, alas), St. Aldates, Oxford, the evening after my degree ceremony. Famous for its crême brûlée and its wine list. We had a 1906 claret and a 1914 port.

It would be hard to pinpoint one meal, but those that stick in my memory, are on a beachside cafe many years ago, Pampelonne Beach in France, an Omelette Aux Fines Herbes, didn't have much money at the time, but a finer omelette I have yet to taste!

A Chinese boss when I worked at a firm of chartered accountants took some of us out to a Chinese restaurant only known to him and ordered for us, I particularly remember it was best Chinese food I had ever tasted, steamed whole Sea Bass with Soy and Ginger will forever etched in my memory as overwhelmingly delicious. Can't remember the actual restaurant.

A birthday meal in the much lauded River Cafe in London met all expectations.

My 60th birthday meal in Hotel des Cataratas, Iguazu, Brazil, best hotel I've ever stayed in, fabulous food even the breakfasts were sensational.

Like others, we’ve had plenty of meals that are memorable - either because of the quality / inventiveness of the food or because of the wonderful setting - or both!! Sometimes the simplest food is the most pleasurable if it’s just at the right time. Years ago we were travelling around Europe in our VW camper with the children. One day in Italy the children were hungry and getting fractious. We stopped to ask someone where we could find somewhere to eat and he leapt on his scooter and gestured for us to follow. He took us on a slightly hair raising ride through narrow streets to a well hidden tiny pizzeria where we had the most delicious food and the children were fussed over!
Closer to home, the Beach House restaurant on Oxwich Bay, South Wales , is well worth a visit. Great setting right on the beach and fabulous, mostly local, food.
beachhouseoxwich.co.uk/

The most memorable meals have been good fish and chips sitting outside overlooking the sea somewhere, preferably with friends and/or relatives.

We went to the Doyles in Sydney opposite the Opera House, EllanVannin the meal was ok, vastly overpriced but the view was terrific!!

One of the best meals ever, in the Wadi Musa after a walk to Petra. So much variety, Middle East cuisine at its best. The hummus, well you can forget your pot from Sainsbury's it’s nothing like the real thing.. A once in a life time experience.

In 1980 my then husband and I were staying with friends in San Diego; our 10th wedding anniversary was coming up, and they took us for lunch to the Hotel Del Coronado (where Some Like It Hot was filmed). Apart from the location and the dining room being totally stunning, the meal was amazing. I had a seafood salad which was served in a hollowed-out iceberg lettuce, followed by Strawberries Romanoff. We had champagne and afterwards, probably because of our awe-struck Englishness, the hotel manager gave us a tour.

Memorable indeed, unlike the husband (we divorced 3 years later!)

I don't have a meal of a lifetime – I have a lifetime of meals
Sums it up Absent !

TBH it’s not ever the food- it may be place or the occasion - but for me it is always the people (or person) I am with.

Sago I’d never heard of Cartmel village before and just now I bumped into a friend in the square and she told me she and her husband are off to stay there on Friday for 2 nights.
Witchy ?‍♀️

Cartmel is a lovely village.
There is a racecourse and races occasionally.
I think it is said to be the home of Sticky Toffee Pudding.
My memory may have played tricks on there though.

No Ann You are correct. We have partaken of sticky toffee pudding in Cartmel several times and brought some home for the famIly from the village shop!

My husband and I took presents to a Moroccan ship stranded in the River Fal. The impoverished crew were stuck there because there was a writ metaphorically nailed to the mast and the owners wouldn't pay their salaries. So sad. We thought we were going for coffee but they sat us down to a seven-course meal, including swordfish and a tagine that had been cooking for hours. The crew were so glad to have company (our small children were with us) and showed us photos of their families. They hadn't any money to speak of and the whole event moved me to tears. The food was wonderful.