Best/Worst Meal of 2021

Lets hear your best and worst meals, drinks, and culinary experiences of 2021.

Best Meal-
Woolly Bugger Restaurant at Sankoty Lakes
Schnitzel Fish $26
Potato Crusted Fish with Little Neck Clams, Hubbard Squash & Lemon Broth

This was hands down the best meal of the year and possibly top 10 ever. The fish was perfectly cooked hearty and filling with a delicious crust. The sauce was a bright green leek reduction that was light, citrusy, and tasty. This meal is definitely something worth traveling for, and the resort is super cool. Great for family trying to “get away from it all”. And for Peoria, IL its only 20 mins from our house. It was great to hop in the car and have just a short drive instead of a 6 hour plus jaunt with two screaming kids. CC: @kevjones

Worst Meal-
Taco Johns boss burrito. Avoid at all costs. Shout out to the chick getting a refund for “quality control” during my wait. Reality check, you are eating at a cheap version of Taco Bell. Temper your expectations lady.

However the potato olès were pretty fire along with the cheese sauce.

13 Likes

Best Meal:
Toki Underground in DC

  • Pork Belly Steamed Buns
  • Fried Chicken Roulade with eel sauce
  • Toki Classic Ramen with Karaage, Nitamago
  • Two bottles of Sapporo

Worst Meal:
We tried to make mapo tofu with sichuan peppercorns and it was almost inedible. The peppercorns had gone bad somehow and the dish tasted like spicy wood. The flavor haunts me.

14 Likes

Best Meal:

Alsace in Tierra Verde (St Pete Beach, FL)

French Onion Soup

Pâté with baguette

Duck L’Orange - Crispy skin, perfectly cooked with orange mustard glaze. Served with Sautéed Potatoes in butter/garlic and House Salad

French classics done perfectly in a delightful cottage setting. Took the in-laws there over the weekend in a return trip.

Worst Meal:

Uber Eats’d from this Mexican place down the street without really looking at menu. Had some sort of chicken burrito that had half-cooked bacon in it, which completely overwhelmed the rest of the flavors. Maybe the worst meal I’ve ever had.

3 Likes

Best Meal:
Cacio e Pepe, Santorini, Greece

Cacio e Pepe, the name of the restaurant and pasta dish I had. Legit was the best pasta dish I’ve had in my entire life and I believe wins out for me on this year’s best meal. An Italian man vacationed often in Santorini and liked it so much he decided to move there and open a restaurant. With most of our meals centered around Greek food while on vacation, we decided to do one dinner different and so glad we did.

Worst Meal:
Chili Night, Friend’s House

I often seek out spicy food, love it and have a pretty high tolerance. But for a chili night at a friend’s house it was so spicy it was almost inedible. I have absolutely no clue what they put in it, and it was pretty obvious they overdid it when they didn’t eat much and decided to order a couple of pizzas. My stomach hurt for almost 2 days just off of the bit I managed to get down.

7 Likes

Best Meal:

Roy’s Waikiki

  • seafood paella - lobstah, clams, mussels, prawns and a spicy chili sauce, crazy good
  • washed it down with bottle chilled sake

Honorable mention (also in Hawaii): Pineapples - Hilo
The Local Plate

  • Kulua Pork - say no more
  • Korean Style Kalbi Ribs
  • Mango chili slaw, might be the best slaw I’ve had (big slaw gui)
  • Crispy onions (homemade)
  • Corn bread festivals
  • Pineapple salsa

Worst Meal:

Que Pasa Cantina - Rapid City SD

  • don’t even remember what I had, but it was nasty, morale of the story is don’t get Mexican in South Dakota
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I’ve also tried to make mapo tofu a handful of times and all I’ll say is I now just leave it to the experts.

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I do a top 10 meals of the year on my instagram every year on new year’s eve, so i’m glad for this topic to make me go back through the google photos. I only have 8 so far, but I’ve got some mega meals planned ahead.

  1. Abel Brown’s Southern Kitchen and Oyster Bar, Augusta GA
  • Broiled oysters with a jalapeno sauce
  • Johnny cake (cornbread pancake, aka hoecake), pimento cheese, andouille sausage
  • Southern Farms Cold Smoked Ribeye - tasted like I was camping in yellowstone. Can’t explain it any more clearly than that
  1. Adele’s, Nashville
  • New York Strip, Smoked Artichoke, Cherry Tomato
  1. Edley’s BBQ, Chattanooga
  • Burnt Ends and Grits
  1. Flying Squirrel, Chattanooga
  • Teriyaki Pork Belly, Garlic Truffle Fries
  1. Halyard’s, St. Simons Island
  • Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
  1. Initial Q, Spartanburg SC
  • Pork Belly Steak over grits
  • Krispy Kreme White Chocolate Bread Pudding
  1. Sugar’s Ribs, Chattanooga
  • Ribs
  1. Southern Soul BBQ, St Simons Island
  • Brunswick Stew
  • Ribs
  • Brisket
  • Pulled Pork
  • Sausage

Worst Meal of the Year

Main Street Public House, Columbia SC
-Brisket and Cheddar Sandwich. Like eating a rubber tire.

5 Likes

Best meal: easily Goldee’s BBQ. Recently rated the #1 bbq in Texas. The beef rib and brisket changed my life. This was my birthday weekend so the night before I had a great bone-in ribeye from my favorite steak place and then the next day this barbecue blew it out of the water. Best meat I have ever eaten in my life. Very much looking forward to going back.

Worst meal: I managed to avoid anything truly terrible that I couldn’t finish or it made me horribly sick. I’ll say my most disappointing meal lately has been Whataburger. Place has truly gone downhill the last couple of years. It was easily my number one fast food for most of my life but now I try to avoid it.

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beef rib loooks awesome, as does the brisket. well done

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It’s fucking disgraceful how bad whata has become. It’s not even good if you’re hammered and have low expectations.

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Lol. I made turkey chili about 2-3 months ago and our whole family got hit with some bad onions. Myself, my wife, and my 6 year old were either in bed, puking, or shitting for 24 hours. It was awful. Chili is always a dicey play. Spin zone, I lost 20 lbs in a weekend so I had that going for me.

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The holiday/cold season has hit me hard in the weight category, mind sending me some chili?

Dayummmmmm :drooling_face::drooling_face:

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Homemade bread too

A good french onion soup with a fresh baguette positively slaps

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Best: French laundry back in March



Worst: Halal fried chicken from Ralphs (no pictures)

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I’m impressed people are having best meals during covid!

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The meal that I come back to when I think about this question is funny because I didn’t take a picture (very unlike me) and it was completely unassuming. I was in Fort Bragg, California, it’s a tiny coastal town like 1.5-2 hours north of San Francisco and we got burgers at Jenny’s Giant Burger. It was just a smash burger with cheese, onion, mustard, and lettuce and it was the best burger I’ve ever had in my life. It was so good I had a second one even though I wasn’t hungry. I think about that burger sometimes because I know the chance I’ll be back there is beyond slim and it was very simple ingredients but done to perfection. 10/10 would recommend twice even if you’re not hungry.

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Best was Mert’s in Uptown Charlotte.

Had this amazing place’s southern and soul food while in town for my dad’s Member-Guest. We had the Soul Rolls and Salmon Cakes to start, and then I got the Catfish, collard greens, and corn bread. It was the last thing I had after 4 straight days of golf, and it was a perfectly timed pig out.

I’m not too big on “worsts”, so fuck it, second best!

Brunch at Parc in Philly.

My fiancé took me for my birthday, we had cocktails and started with an indulgent lobster cocktail and French onion soup (it was the first cold weekend of the fall), then shared the mussels and steak frites. Can’t wait to go back.

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That place is awesome.

1 Like