My 100 favorite restaurant dishes this year

Ranked

I love end-of-year lists, and I love starting them early. I’m saving my restaurants of the year rankings for December’s 2024 Bangers Only post, but one helpful step in putting it together involves scrolling back through my Google Calendar and remembering favorite dining experiences and dishes.

I get text like this one a lot, and while I like answering them, I try to be careful about overdoing it with what-to-order lists when giving restaurant recommendations.

I think showing up somewhere for the first time with a pre-ordained order in mind — whether it’s via a friend or The Infatuation — is a little lame. It dampers the experience. Movies are the most enjoyable when you don’t watch the trailer and know as little about them as possible going in. Restaurants are the same. During the best meals, you forget about everything happening outside as the hours stretch on, and you let the night overtake you. It’s difficult to have that happen when you’re box-checking your way through someone else’s experience.

That’s why I usually answer with something like a short list of the truly special dishes, encouraging people to take control from there. And I’ve had a lot of special dishes this year. Here are my 100 favorite, ranked in order, for paid subscribers. Paid subs also received an email last week to RSVP to Jabroni’s, a dinner pop up I’m doing in LA on Nov. 23. If you missed it and want in, just reply here.

Restaurant dishes of the year

A mix of new spots, new dishes from old spots, and classics that still hit hard.