The meal of a lifetime.

This was my menu, slightly different to everyone else’s due to a shellfish allergy.
I would challenge anyone to recreate this at home?

I am/was a real "foodie" but as I have mentioned in here more than once I lost my sense of taste in March 20 due to covid and still can only taste very salty or sweet but I went to a little Thai restaurant in China town in Manchester and has the Green Thai curry with king prawns and Wow WoW Wow I could taste it ,still can't taste much else but I now go once a fortnight because it is the only thing I can enjoy.

Hear hear.

Sago

inshowen Castle Leslie is on my bucket list. I have it earmarked for my 60th birthday.
We love Tom Creans in Kenmare and Suzee Street Dublin.

Mummer I too consider myself a reasonably accomplished cook but the food we experienced was on a whole new level, every reduction,broth, garnish etc was exquisite, the tinctures, vinegars and marinades and syrups made from locally foraged plants were just mind blowing.
I loved watching the preparation and learning about the dishes as much as I enjoyed eating them.

That's just it Sago. Many nice meals can be cooked and enjoyed at home, but a really special dining experience goes above and beyond in terms of taste and presentation. The skill of a great chef is to challenge the palette and to mix interesting herbs and spices, to add flavour. Also to make modern innovative twists to traditional dishes, adding unusual decoration like foraged flowers, and to present art on a plate using jus, coulis and foams, (though I don't like this last technique). Of course, the highest quality ingredients make for the best results.

Sad to say - I cannot recall any "extra special" meals at all. I have (in the past) been treated to some very expensive meals, which I am sure, most people would have enjoyed. I am a notoriously "picky eater" (when I was at work, people would fight to sit next to me, as I invariably would not eat most of what was served). At least twice, I have been taken as a treat, to a very expensive Steak Restaurant (one of these was in New York ) I don't eat steak at all, but was with others who do, where all I ate would be bread rolls and butter, plus a pudding!
Another event I recall was a Celebration Meal at a prestigious Hotel in Peterborough, where again I ate only bread rolls and butter. When the waiter noticed that I hadn't eaten any of the four courses thus far (I think there were eight in total) - he asked if he could get me anything, and when I asked for a cheese omelette, his reply was "I'm sorry, I dare not ask Chef for that"!

My best meal was home after spending 3 weeks in Norway many years ago with a Norwegian friend. The whole time I was offered fish based dishes. I like fish, normally but not every day. Oh the taste og poached egg on toast when I got home, unforgettable.

inshowen Castle Leslie is on my bucket list. I have it earmarked for my 60th birthday.
We love Tom Creans in Kenmare and Suzee Street Dublin.

Mummer I too consider myself a reasonably accomplished cook but the food we experienced was on a whole new level, every reduction,broth, garnish etc was exquisite, the tinctures, vinegars and marinades and syrups made from locally foraged plants were just mind blowing.
I loved watching the preparation and learning about the dishes as much as I enjoyed eating them.

I agree it’s the company too

My second best was champagne afternoon tea at the Dorchester in London to celebrate my daughters graduation. Superb service on huge sofas and coffee tables rather than a dining table and a pianist playing at the same time

I’ve enjoyed reading all your dining experiences and happy memories. My most memorable and uplifting lunch was in 2020 when lockdown eased after more months than I care to remember being apart from my 4 grandchildren.

I packed a large cool box with sandwiches, wraps and treats galore for our reunion. We paddled in the sea, made sandcastles and fished in rock pools. Then sat on a rug and had our feast. It still brings a lump to my throat when I think of my little 6 yr old grandson saying “Gran, this is the best day ever!

I’m with Urmstongran and would choose double egg and chips. A cheap date!

Sixteen courses? I would die.

Undoubtedly the only time I have ever had Lobster Thermidor, as a very young sailor in the CeyFish (Ceylon Fisheries) Restaurant in Columbo, capital of Sri Lanka. I felt I had travelled to paradise.

The Beach Hut in Oxwich Bay on The Gower - a family lunch for my 70th in 2019. It was wonderful!

Sharina
Galway Bay is where we had our worst meal. ?

An evening meal at the restaurant on The Skylon Tower in Niagra…a fabulous meal with an amazing view!!

Quatre Saisons for me too. Have to say the time spent in his garden was every bit as good as the meal experience. Most beautiful and amazing sculptures. Also an amazing stroganoff in a shore-side restaurant in Leith (near Edinburgh). Memories that will live forevermore with me.

For the the restaurant, the food and the sea it has to be the Cliff in Barbados. A never to be forgotten evening. It must be nearly 20 years ago now but it doesn’t seemed to have changed and still getting raving reviews. It is a stunning place.

'Stayed in a a very grand hotel where the dinner was awful. The next (and last) night in the area we went to a local pub, where the food was the best I had ever tasted. We were full to the brim when individual willow pattern plates of quite large proportions were placed in front of us, a 'cheeseboard' of such size and variety that were were speechless. At least six different types of cheese with warm bread, butter, crackers, slices of apple, pear, and small bunch of grapes.

Eating seafood chowder in Galway Bay. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but that was the best seafood chowder I’ve ever eaten.

When either of my parents make me a homemade potato pie. I’m 53 and more than capable of making one myself but as soon as I hear they’ve made one I trot up the road like a gazelle to get some. If I’m ill they make me one, there is always one on the side in the kitchen when I return from a holiday, for my birthday for my husbands birthday. They also made the best FEB when we were little. The best meals are full of love and memories.

We were guests at my son’s retirement dinner in the Mess at his last RAF station. Seven courses of the most delicious food, beautifully presented, with wines and liqueurs to complement each course, cooked by RAF chefs overseen by a Warrant Officer who had cooked for the Queen on more than one occasion. It was a large gathering and a touching mark of respect for him.
Another memorable plateful was the Yokohama steak served hissing and spitting on a cast iron plate at the Churchill Restaurant in Singapore, fifty odd years ago. The sauce was so utterly delicious I have never forgotten it, nor have I ever been able to replicate it!

For me it's the tasting menu in Castle Leslie, Co. Monaghan. Absolutely sublime.

Anything and apparently everything I make! Don't like to dine out as I'm a very accomplished cook and can usually make better at home in my little kitchen .......and always for a fraction of the costs, we prefer to spend on useful treats!

I went to The Kitchen in Edinburgh in October with a friend to celebrate being 70 again. It was the most wonderful experience with sublime food, attentive but unobtrusive service plus Tom Kitchen served me my scallops. He was professional, attentive and friendly to everybody.
We both agreed it was the best meal we had ever had , worth every penny and we caught the bus back to our apartment. Result!!