Most memorable meal

[JoeSousa]

Well, for now let me stick to some memorable restaurant meals I have had:

Franklin BBQ - Maybe the most masterfully prepared meal I have ever eaten. The whole experience was pretty much perfect. A few beers made the wait a great part of the meal and the food was beyond what I thought barbecue could be. Can't wait to go back.

Juliana's pizza in Brooklyn - My goodness, the pizza and meatballs were both crazy good.

Halal Guys (53rd and 6th in NYC) - Just a giant plate of street meat. Chicken and lamb with lettuce, pita, and some amazing white sauce. Perfect meal at 2 AM after a few beverages.

[au4stree]

We were at Canoe Restaurant in ATL. It was the night I proposed to my wife (not at the restaurant), she got steak (she always orders steak), I got venison tenderloin. We had such a pleasant experience sitting out over the Chattahoochie River. Looking back it was darn near a perfect day, weather, people were so nice, food wine, it was all perfect......

[RonB]

Best meal probably in NYC when my wife's dear departed wealthy uncle took us to a Chinese restaurant where he knew the owner in Chinatown. I think there were nine of us in a private room and the owner stood at the door and inspected every item brought into the room. There were too many great things to remember, but the Peking Duck was tops.

Best memory, and I remember it well after 50 years, was a meal along Mobile Bay. Three Navy buddies and I decided to visit Mobile one Sat. We drove along the bay and saw several dive lookin' restaurants and decided we would eat at one of them on the way back. We just picked one and went in. It was kinda dark as well as old, but we decided to stay. Everyone ordered and I asked if we could get $4 worth of shrimp as an appetizer. The waitress said sure. A few minutes later, (we were still on our first beers ), the waitress brought out a huge plate with shrimp piled high and all the way to the edge of the plate. It looked like someone had just shoveled the shrimp onto the plate. Then she brought out four soup bowls of cocktail sauce. It took us several beers to work through all the shrimp and we were stuffed. That's when she brought out our meals...

[latenight71]

I actually forgot to include favorite fancy meal. my grandparents and parents very much enjoyed the restaurant scene throughout Los Angeles, Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley, so I've eaten at every classic and/or iconic LA-area restaurant you can think of from the early 1970s-2000s, from Brown Derby to Spagos to Lawry's to Francois' to Michael's Canoga Inn, I've eaten at them all. Additionally, my dad was born and raised in New Orleans, so each trip back saw us visiting Antoines, Galatoires, Pascal Manales, Commander's Palace, and many others.
Still, if we are talking most memorable, I'm going with Chuck's of Hawaii in Santa Barbara, CA. Wife and I hit this place after seeing a Ben Harper show at the Santa Barabara bowl a few years back and had the most dynamite meal from beginning to end. Fried shrimp appetizer, insane salad bar (remember those!), and Prime rib-eye with baked potato, followed by warm chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream . It was a pretty perfect evening and the meal sealed the deal!

[HouseHomey]

Man I love a great salad bar. I’ve been known to kill the sizzlers in three trips.

[synodog]

Spettus Steakhouse in Recife, Brazil December 1993. My very first exposure to Brazilian churrasco. I thought they were joking that these guys come around to your table with grilled meat on metal skewers and slice off as much as you want. The flavor? Unbelievable! Not only could I eat as much as I wanted but it was some of the best grilled meat I had ever tasted.

[WI Bubba]

Home cooked when I could eat such things:
My mothers clam chowder. Every year as kids we would load up and head to South Jersey to visit family for anywhere from two to six weeks. Mom was a school teacher, so summer vacations had date ranges, not actual start and stop times. Once there, the whole clan would get together and head out to either go clamming, or hop on my uncles boat and fish flounder while also running blue crab traps. By late afternoon it was time to head back to my grandmothers' place and get to cooking. By the time I was eight I could shuck clams as well as any of the grown ups, knew how, but wasn't very good at filleting flounder, and could strip a blue crab clean in under two minutes. The highlight of these meals was always Moms' chowder. More clams than you think would fit, just enough potatoes to say that they are in there, and a broth that you could drown to death in and die happy. On the odd occasion the someone from out East would venture West to visit us, there was a very good chance they would show up with bushel or three of clams and inform my Mom that they weren't leaving until she made a big 'ol pot of chowder.

Restaurant:
It was as far from fancy as you could get, but Slaters BBQ in Waukegan, IL was my first experience with an actual Rib joint. Way on the wrong side of town, wedged in between the asbestos dump and a scrap yard, a stones throw from Lake Michigan was a little shack that had 2 booths, half a dozen seats at the counter, and some of the best pork ribs you could ever eat. The house made sausage simply called "The Footlong" was blend of God only knows what and they hung in the back corner of the fish tank smoker that cooked everything except the few things that were fried. I know God was aware of what was in the sausage, because they were nothing short of Heavenly smoked goodness stuffed into a casing. As much as I loved the ribs, and no matter how many sausages I devoured, plus taking into account the amazing sauce that came in two versions, hot or mild. The VERY BEST thing you could get at Slaters was Ma's fried chicken. Just imagine the most delicious, juicy, tender fried chicken you have ever eaten, and then imagine something just a little better than that. That was Ma's fried chicken. When the City announced in 1997 that they were going to "beautify the Lakefront", the Slater Family was informed that the rib joint they had been operating at the same location since April of 1957, was going to have to make way to progress, and close their doors. The news devastated those of us that had come to think of the Slaters as family. We felt that way because that is how Ma and Pa Slater always treated everyone, like you were part of their family, and they were glad you had time to stop by and visit with them. After She got to know me a bit, Ma never asked if I wanted an order of chicken, it was always "Are you going to let me fix you some?" I'm not sure why she asked. She knew the answer before the door had even closed when I walked in.

My own food:
Currently, it's my lamb ragu. Last year it was my Mediterranean chicken. Next year I'll have tinkered with something enough that it will become my new favorite. Hopefully I'll keep learning, and improving, and never think that I have run out of new things to try.

Other:
It's really a toss up between a wet beef, or two dogs, everyting. If you don't know what those things are, then get yourself to somewhere in the Chicago metro area, look for the sign that says Vienna Beef, wander on in and just say "I'll have a wet beef, and two dogs everything." Bring a friend, you're going to need help eating that.