Most Memorable Restaurant Experience

Great story! I think present company in a restaurant can be just as memorable as the food :)

For me it was on one of my vacations to the American Southwest, I was doing a road trip through Utah and Arizona and I found myself at a dusty old dinner in Monument Valley, part of the Navajo Nation, when who do I see sitting next to me, none other than Stephen Fry, the famous British comedian of all places, I think he was shooting a documentary about Monument Valley for the BBC. Which would explain why there was a London taxi cab parked outside lol!

I remember it very vividly, I had some kind of Navajo stew with fry bread and Stephen Fry was having a country fried steak with the white gravy, though he was more interested in talking to his producer than the food, I think he ate only a few bites...

Many years ago, while having lunch at a very crowded Musso & Frank (on Hollywood Boulevard), a young woman politely asked if I would be willing to share my table with her. It was Jodie Foster. And, Yes, she is exactly what you might think - charming, frighteningly intelligent and truly spectacular. I have no memory of what I ate.

Ours was at The Test Kitchen in Cape Town S. Africa. I booked it 6 mos in advance and when we asked the hotel to have their driver take us there, several employees of the hotel said “how did you get reservations there”?!
Well, it was a spectacular meal! Many unusual foods and preparations and each course on the tasting menu had its own cutlery. Watching the waitstaff was like watching a dance.

One aspect that I enjoy about traveling solo is the people who I have met at dinners - a movie star and his family in Prague, a Mom and daughter from Australia on a dinner cruise. And in Budapest, when the tables at my "regular" restaurant were full, I asked a solo diner if I could share his table for 4. He was from South Korea and we had quite the conversation about our respective leaders and relations with North Korea. It felt like a kind of experience that international travels are all about.

When staying at the Hotel Baronesse in Vienna, I walked the main road near the hotel looking for a restaurant with some appeal. Neon lights and fast food seemed to permeate the area. I walk down the residential side street toward my hotel and continued past it because I saw some lights at the intersection. There were three places. Two of them were bars but at the far end of the street was Zur Böhmischen Kuchl at Schlösselgasse 18. When I entered the resto, the proprietress asked if I had reservation. I said no and received a “Tsk tsk.” and a shake of her head. As I turned to leave, she stopped me and said if I didn’t take too much time to eat, she would seat me. The dog came over and lay at my feet as I looked at the menu and ordered Grandfather’s Three Legged Stool - three skewers of beef, pork and chicken with a roast round of potato as the seat. When I was done, I asked for the check and the lady said no that I had to wait for dessert. The specially prepared pastry arrived about twenty minutes later. The restaurant filled up, I was never rushed or asked to leave and was offered two rounds of post dessert cordials. All in all I hurried through my meal in about 2 1/2 hours.

Here’s a link to the restaurant.

Wow, Yosmite1 ! That sounds like an AMAZING experience!

We've had many, from a little restaurant in the Austrian alps sitting next a group of women who all broke into song occasionally during their meal to a cozy little place in Paris where the food was out of this world. So many memories when I start thinking about it! Food is an important part of our travel experience. Part of the reason I love travel so much!

Enjoying Sous vide meals in Athens at Mani mani restaurant . Just melts in your mouth with lots of flavor.

Many memorable restaurant experiences over the years. One that comes to mind was on the island of Anegada in the BVI's. We were sailing on a 50 ft. sailboat and the 6 of us were picked up by a small motorboat and rode to the island for a Lobster dinner. It ended up we shared a table with a group of fun New Zealanders!
A most recent experience was in Prague a couple weeks ago. We had a lovely dinner at Hergetova Cihelna on the river bank. It was a magical evening with a view of the St. Charles Bridge and delicious meal. The staff were especially kind. They had to move the table next to us and apologized. They offered us each a glass of Prosecco. What a kind gesture!

Edit** I will add to the previous memorable meal thread at Mani Mani in Athens. We ate there 3 times!

That time fifteen years ago last month when I had just arrived in Paris two days prior and needed to find a restaurant for dinner with friends visiting from Prague.

I narrowed it down to three in the Marais (chosen because I had heard it was a “cool” neighborhood), and of the three, my friend picked the Italian wine bar.

We too were asked if we had reservations (and no, we did not), and were then gruffly told that if we could vacate the table by 9:30, we could dine.

Next thing I knew they were sending a charming Italian sommelier to our table.

Reader, I married him. We had our rehearsal dinner there three years later.

These are great stories!

Kim, that is just the best story every, like a movie! What serendipity!

I have a lot of restaurants and experiences I think of fondly because of the food or environment, but none for as neat an experience as these.

Kim, from Paris: I love "how we met" stories. What a beautiful romantic story.
sigh "And they lived happily every after."

I've eaten at some of the "great" restaurants of the world but the most memorable was at a tiny little place.
We had taken a boat over to San Fruttuoso (sp?) around the peninsula from Portofino on the ocean side. We perched ourselves in a small place overlooking the bay in town and ordered pasta...just pasta. It was made with sheep cheese, olive oil, garlic, and not much else. Something about it, not sure what, made it the most memorable thing I've every eaten. The flavor, the location, the wait staff, who knows! But I can still remember how it tasted over 30 years ago.

I think it must be a dinner at Plaza Athene in Paris in 1983. We were newly married (1981), and still not very overweight (today? don't be rude). We ate in the courtyard. I don't remember what we had, but the wine (only 1 bottle) was amazing, and the food was super. The whole evening has a haze of pleasure around it.

Last year while visiting Mykonos, we had dinner at Konstantis Beach restaurant at Ornos beach. My little girls, husband and my mother we had this amazing dinner right on the beach, tables set on sand. I remember how much fun we had, how much my girls enjoyed sitting right on the beach with dinner on the table, and how much they laughed and enjoyed every moment. The food was great but it was how my company felt that makes it so special.

One comes to mind in Germany, I helped a group of American's with their order at a restaurant - after hearing one ask how to say beer in German. Turned out we were all from Washington (state) and they were getting ready to go on a RS tour.

They are all in either pubs, beer halls or weinstubes. Some of them are so memorable that I can't remember a thing about them.

I have had so many incredible experiences, they are hard to list in detail. However, every single one was brought about by me asking the server about the restaurant and their favorite menu items there. If they have worked there for a long time, I explain that I would like them to order for me. That seems to trigger an innate desire in the staff to show me the best the restaurant can do.

At one time, at Wild Ginger in Seattle, the waiter had the chef prepare appetizer sized portions of many items that were not even on the menu. So we ate for three hours Tapas style well before that was even a thing here in the states. Even more memorable was that Slash (guitarist from Guns and Roses) was sitting at the table next to us and he kept looking over at us wondering why the hell we were getting so many plates.

Does it have to be 'restaurant'?
In 1978 I took a Med cruise on a now defunct cruise line. Last night was formal with traditional flaming baked alaska for dessert. The ceilings were low and equipped with sprinkler systems. Lights were dimmed and the waiters brought out the alaskas held high for effect. Several passed under the sprinklers and we all took in a breath waiting for a shower. It didn't happen and we weren't sure to be happy that they didn't go off - or nervous - because they didn't go off. Thankfully this was a last night meal rather than a first or we would definitely have been nervous.
Second memorable - 2002, was a second visit to a pizza restaurant just around the corner from the Pantheon in Rome. This time we asked for take out and sat on the Pantheon steps watching life go by and the falling dusk eating the simplest, freshest Pizza Margarita we had ever had. I think part of the memory stays knowing we can't do that sort of el fresco dining anymore.

A perfect lunch with the locals on the patio of a Lyon bistro - the food was superb, including a perfectly ripe local cheese round and an onglet, and fondant for dessert with a 1/4 of a Cotes du Rhone from the nearby cotes of the Rhone, and I was seated beside a group of ladies of a certain age who engaged me in conversation despite my poor French -- they had been meeting each week for lunch together for several decades, were now all widows and grandparents who had grown entwined like the vines in an old grape arbor. By the end of lunch they were only half-jokingly discussing which of their grand-daughters to set me up with...
And while all this was going on an accordionist and a chanteuse set up a chair, played a couple of tunes, moved the chair a few meters along the alley, and set up again ... and again ...