📍Alameda, CA: Wild cross-cultural mashups are a hallmark of Bay Area food, and this weekend-only barbecue spot was the tastiest, most audacious example I experienced this year. Maybe the only restaurant in the world specializing in “Indo-Tex” cooking, Fikscue slings jiggly, smoke-kissed brisket and beef ribs that are pure Texas, then pairs them with Indonesian sides like nasi goreng. The combination is ingenious—and also feels like the most natural thing in the world. —Luke Tsai

📍 San Francisco: A solo lunch at the shiny new Bernal Heights outpost of my favorite Chinatown butcher shop yielded some of the tastiest Cantonese barbecue I’ve ever eaten. Did the elegant dining room and sweet, attentive waitstaff help elevate the experience? Maybe. But I credit the power of old-school cooking mastery—for the pork belly’s flawless, crackly skin and the lusciousness of the deboned roast duck, drizzled with warm jus. The taste has lingered in my memory for months. —Luke Tsai

📍Sunnyvale, CA: For me, 2024 has been all about exploring the Bay Area’s often-maligned—but surprisingly robust and varied—late-night food scene. And no restaurant surprised or delighted me more than this 24-hour Indian market, which buzzes with hungry customers and an infectious, electric energy even at 1 a.m. The curries and chaats from the hot food counter are a marvel: big, spicy samosas; puri puffs doused with tamarind chutney; and chunky pakoras dunked in a zippy yogurt curry. —Luke Tsai

📍London: An impulsive early dinner at Bread and Wine, the looser (and, to my mind, best) version of St. John, provided an opportunity to run through one of the restaurant’s many perfect menu routes. We had cod’s roe and egg with layered confit potatoes, a whole pie to share, beef dripping chips, a bowl of steamed greens, and a dozen madeleines, a meal that seemed to me as elegant and as perfect as an Euler proof.* —Jonathan Nunn*

📍London: My birthday meal was at the Pashtun restaurant Charsi Karahi, where 30 of us sat around a central Brat-green tarpaulin to eat a whole lamb, an order that feels like an event in a way that eating at no other London restaurant does. The lamb itself is really a very expensive container for the rice, steamed inside the animal’s belly, which can be then used to mop up chapli kebabs with a thick fried crust, or wreta arranged around a central dais of bone marrow. —Jonathan Nunn

📍London: I have been to The Ritz twice: once taken by someone who wanted to apologise to me, and this year to celebrate an anniversary. It’s apt: If I needed a restaurant to show someone I loved them, or to ostentatiously say sorry, it’s this one, where canapés have the kind of detailing reserved for the transepts of cathedrals, and crêpes Suzettes are made tableside in a column of flame. No other restaurant in London has such a complete understanding of hospitality as theatre. —Jonathan Nunn

📍Miami: A few sips into my martini, and a few globs of butter onto my Parker House roll, and I knew I was about to have one of my favorite meals of 2024 at the long-awaited return of Sunny’s. Sure, the dining room is fancier and the crowd bigger, but it feels like a natural progression for one of Miami’s favorite homegrown restaurants. Since that first visit back, I’ve returned more times than I’d like to admit, and every single time I leave happier than I could have imagined. —Elizabeth Jaime

📍Miami: Sometimes, the food just hits. That pretty much sums up my first time trying the new menu here, which solidified Gramps Getaway as one of my favorite spots in Miami. I must have ordered everything on the menu, but what I remember most are the double-patty smash burger with its perfectly crispy edges and the grilled prawns smothered in five-spice butter and garlic-chili crisp. Gramps is special, it's delicious, and it always leaves me wanting to come back. —Elizabeth Jaime

📍Miami: The Surf Club isn’t exactly cheap, so I basically use any life milestone as an excuse to dine here. This year, I published my very first book, and to celebrate I treated some friends to a swanky dinner here, using the special occasion as excuse for a very over-the-top order. Think: tater tots (off-menu item!) covered in caviar, Hemingway daiquiris for me, espresso martinis for everyone else, tableside beef Wellington, and a huge slice of decadent chocolate cake. —Elizabeth Jaime

📍 Los Angeles: I’ll never forget one of Evil Cooks’ last underground omakase-style dinners. The out-of-the-box dishes by these evil geniuses are the most unique I’ve eaten. None was more memorable than the “tom yum aguachile”: fresh scallops and shrimp in a sweet-and-sour reduction, presented in a beautiful clam shell. The bad news is that Evil Cooks is not underground anymore; the good news is that you can now find this dish on the dinner menu at their new brick-and-mortar. —Memo Torres