This picks up where the flights recap left off: the best bites from the year. Places are listed by Beli score (highest first).
Bresca
Washington, DC -
Short DC trip to hang out with Joe and Chaerin. They had a 9pm availability for walk-in, so we pre-gamed at Service Bar (23rd best bar in North America 2025).
The tasting menu was fairly classic, starting with caviar, yellowtail crudo, foie gras. The standouts were the cacio e pepe—perfect chew, cheese and pepper in balance—and the Amish chicken: tender white meat, stuffing packed with umami, and crackly skin.
Jungsik
New York City -
Hit up Jungsik in NYC with Steph's then-fiancé in the kitchen. Hot summer day, broken AC. 😅
The banchan-style amuse brought familiar Korean flavors with a fine-dining twist. Grilled octopus and uni bibimbap were perfect; the signature yellowtail kimbap hit fatty, crunchy, sweet, and umami. The A5 wagyu galbi good as expected.
The real star was the dolhareubang (돌하르방) dessert: hazelnut cream, roasted-rice ice cream, puffed rice. So good we had to hit up the pastry chef's patisserie, Lysée, afterward.
Tresind Studio
Dubai, UAE -
A tasting menu where “spicy” actually meant spicy. I booked the first seating at 6pm because my flight left at midnight. Despite a small mixup, they quickly pulled out another table and made it work. In return, I think they comped roughly half the drink pairing, saying things like “I want you to try this drink.”
The menu moved through the geography and cuisine of five regions of India. Throughout the meal, someone walked the room with a large map giving geography lessons. Later a line of maybe a dozen chefs and servers built a dish on a banana-leaf-shaped plate to echo a traditional Sadya feast.
Many courses were accompanied by broths. Highlights: pani puri, ghee roast crab, pickled pepper with buttermilk-curry ice cream, lobster with smoked chili jam.
Langosteria Bistrot
Milan, Italy -
Seafood cooked perfectly. The smoked spaghetti vongole had an umami kick with sundried tomatoes to cut the richness (and I usually don't even like sundried tomatoes).
Don't skip the tiramisu - soft cream, crisp top layer. Probably the best I’ve had.
Kashiwaya 柏屋
Osaka, Japan -
Kaiseki in a private room of a house in a residential neighborhood. The menu was fully seasonal—vegetables and seafood with minimal seasoning, often just sake salt to lift each ingredient.
The sashimi course included small pieces of squid, tuna, and yellowtail; the squid was the sweetest I’ve tasted. Crab prepared in four different ways. Dessert was seasonal fruit and matcha. On the way out, the chef bowed as the taxi drove away. A memorable cap to the year.
Google Maps Pins
Here's my list of have-been and want-to-go restaurants on Google Maps.