I haven’t posted a list of my top five meals in my life in awhile. A recent trip to the island of St. Martin produced a culinary delight that I just had to add to this list. A friend encouraged me to post my thoughts, so here they are.

A top five meal for me isn’t just about the food. It’s the total experience: the food, drink, service, ambience and my own mood. So, obviously, this is a very subjective list. But, in the many years since I started thinking about top five meals, I’ve only replaced one entry on the list. So, on to the list, which is not ranked, but ordered by date.

  • Chez Girard, Lyon (France), 1995
  • Yacout, Marrakech (Morocco), 1997
  • NOLA, New Orleans (US), 2001
  • Gary Danko, San Francisco (US), 2005
  • La Villa, Grand Case (St. Martin), 2013

Chez Girard was a perfect “hole-in-the-wall” that Diane and I found on our first trip to Europe together. We stumbled upon this tiny, two story restaurant and were escorted upstairs, via an old stone wall staircase. This was my first three hour meal in a restaurant. It didn’t feel rushed, nor slow, but perfect. It was almost like we were at a friend’s place for an evening. The food was excellent and our server left us be. When we were seated, there was an American couple next to us. They seemed very impatient in both their talk and body language. The man was even running his knife through his fork tines over and over. We spoke French with our server, as best I could with just a short course from the local college, and he treated us great while the food and check arrived very quickly for our neighbors. The funny part of the evening, which I remember fondly, was when my French skills weren’t enough to surmount a cheese course selection. I had to choose between fromage sec and fromage blanc. I went with the blanc (white), assuming it was a white cheese selection. Nope, more like a cottage cheese or cream cheese. I had meant to order the “sec”, which means hard. But it was still yummy and I can recount it with a smile today.

Yacout was the epitome of a top five meal for me. Located in the old, walled city, it had a nondescript entrance that opened up onto several floors of dining experience. The roof was also open and from there, you could see the whole medina. There were Sudanese musicians playing in a corner and we just soaked in the warm night air and looked at the stars above and the city below. The food and drink came often that night, in course after course of deliciousness. The staff were there when you needed then and then blended into the background when you didn’t.

NOLA’s was a fantastic event, but it illustrates the fleetingness of this type of list. We were in New Orleans for a conference and were able to get a reservation here for dinner. This was after the hotel concierge laughed openly at us when we asked around 5:30pm if there would be anything available that evening. But, it turned out there was a cancellation, I think maybe at 6:30. A little early, but we wanted to try one of Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants while we were in town. We chose the chef’s menu and a wine pairing to go with each course. We had a nice table upstairs, overlooking the entrance and elevator from the front part of the floor. Very romantic and private. Each course was described by the food server and the sommelier came over to describe each wine and why it was paired with that particular course. A fantastic evening, evenly paced and just perfect food. However, we went back to NOLA’s a few years later and left disappointed. The food was okay, the service not as good, but the ambience was just dead. We were on the second floor again but not a great table. And I think part of the excitement of our first experience was because it was the first experience. It’s still on our list because looking at the one meal we had in 2001, it was definitely a top five.

We went to Gary Danko’s for our 15th wedding anniversary. Diane had found it and it was rated the number one restaurant in San Francisco by a bunch of organizations. We got 9:30pm reservations about three or four months out, and even that was hard to get. But it was well worth it. There was a small waiting bar where we had cocktails before our table was ready. We then got seated in the more quiet room off to the left from the main entrance. They pulled the table out for us and we sat side by side, looking out at the room. We were introduced to the restaurant by one of our many servers during the night. The food was to die for, especially the cheese course. They rolled a trolley to our table with about 30 types of cheese from California, Oregon and Washington. This meal could have made it into the top five with just the cheese course!

Finally, I can add La Villa to this list of top meals. We were cruising Restaurant Row in Grand Case, stopping to look at menus and see what the restaurants looked like. Some had touts or overeager staff begging you to come in. When we stopped at La Villa, an older gentleman came out to us and we expected the same spiel. But, he just pointed out the menu, said he had space inside and the first drink would be on him. He then said he’d leave us to look things over. Wow, just that won me over to at least eat there. We went in and were seated at a nice table near the entrance and our first round of drinks were provided, gratis. We had a lovely meal with various wait staff popping into and out of our vision, never too far away, never dallying. At the end, the man who first welcomed us came back. Turns out he was co-owner, along with his wife. He presented us nice after-dinner drinks of local banana rum and something else. When we finished that, he reappeared, poured another and left the bottle on the table, telling us not to be shy. We were a little shy and he came back later and poured more. We begged him to take the bottle away for fear of drinking it all, but he said that was no problem and we had another! But, we needed to be able to see to sign the bill, which was never produced until we asked for it. Perfect. Such wonderful service, quality of food, presentation and drink. A fitting entry on this list.

In closing, I do have to add that we went back to La Villa two nights later. Unlike our experience with NOLA, La Villa remained an excellent choice on the second trip. In fact, if possible, it was better. We met the other owner, had wonderfully different food and then ended the night with an even nicer, and a bit more refined, bottle of after-dinner liqueur.