For me the best dinner experiences so far were those when there was no time to plan or think about much. Just head out to eat ex tempore and then suddenly get caught in and enchanted by the fleeing moment.

If you are dining with someone who has it all you probably want to order antibiotics

French Laundry has resisted my efforts to get a table, but I did do Per Se around a year and a half ago. No view, and expensive tab, but otherwise one of the best meals I've ever had. And impeccable service.

"Greedy FTers???"

Watch it, buddy!

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I find that many of the attributes that the OP asked for can be achieved easily enough, but that the last one, "good value" is tough to pull off.

^
Less-than-perfect food with entertaining companions is better than perfect food with a person/people with whom you have no connection. (Perfect food with people you love, though, is ideal. )

Alain Ducasse's "Le Jules Verne" at the Eiffel Tower is an exception to my personal belief that a restaurant with nice views never has both good service and good food.

La Plage - little know place way out east on Long Island. Right on the north shore beach. Beautiful sunsets, amazing menu (changes daily based on what is in season and what the chef feels like making), fantastic wine list (quality, not quantity) and perfect service every time. The only thing that improves it is my SO.

Did I write 'greedy FTers'? I made notso go red.


(For lunch, Cafe Sydney might be the better choice for a lunch or a drink, to taken in the view. If it's toward sunset, go to my standdout fave, the Shangri La's Blu horizon lounge. ^ [You know this anyway!])

Korfez - IST. Food, view, service. ^^

Hotel breakfast buffets are still, IMO, the best 'had it all' experience...

not quite sure that hotel breakfast buffets really make the cut

though, the Bally's Sterling Brunch is the best of the lot, with regard to the "breakfast/brunch buffet" category.

I thought this was referring to a meal with a happy ending.


The Fort, Morrison, Colorado
On 56, Shanghai, China
Mona Lisa, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

But don't really make it into the view or value category

While I am not the most discriminating eater, I would say Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye, Scotland meet all those areas, except the wine list. I say except because I'm not a wine drinker, so did not peruse the wine list - I have no idea of it's quality. All the other aspects were spot on, though!

While it was surely the most expensive meal I've had in my life, I would say that El Bulli on the Costa Brava in Spain "had it all." The food is legendary, of course, but the service was fantastic, and not at all stuffy. The wine list had lots of good local choices as well as obvious internationally-famous wines. The sommelier was super-helpful. Even the after-dinner herbal tea was a work of art, with living herbs snipped from a rolling cart that was planted as a portable garden. On the setting/view question, we were lucky: after our first few courses on the terrace overlooking the little bay, we were led to a very private table in a little alcove with a window that also overlooked the bay. Other tables had less privacy and no real view.

So despite the heart-stopping bill, I considered it money well-spent.