With so many wonderful dining experiences this year, the struggle was real when it came to narrowing them down to just a few especially memorable ones.

I hope my picks inspire you to try some new places or to revisit ones you haven’t been to in a while.

Here are my Top 10 eats of 2025, in no particular order:

1. Matzo Ball Soup at Bubbelah in Menlo Park. There are matzo ball soups that may fall on the bland side. Or others that skimp on the carrots, celery, and herbs. This, my friends, is a matzo ball soup that lacks for nothing. It’s aptly called “Meaty Matzo Ball Soup” on the menu and it means business. The broth is loaded with shredded chicken. So much so, that it’s almost more like a stew. If that weren’t enough, there’s even chicken in the matzo ball, which remains fluffy and gains even more flavor. This is the soup you want when you’re feeling under the weather or anytime you need a welcome dose of blissful comfort.

2. Scallion Croissant Bread at Yeobo, Darling in Menlo Park. Admittedly, there are a few dishes at this contemporary Taiwanese-Korean restaurant that have been burnished into my memory, including the koshihikari rice blanketed in the crispest, tiniest anchovies. But this stunning pastry-bread mashup in collaboration with Redwood City’s The Baker Next Door is one that takes my breath away. Shaped like a perfect block with hospital corners, it is deeply golden all over with visible swirls from the layers of lamination. It is indeed like a giant French croissant that got together with a Chinese scallion bread to create an offspring that outdid its parents in butterniness, flakiness, and sweet onion taste. It’s served with a crock of butter fortified with rou song or pork floss for even greater richness.

3. Fire-Wood Ice Cream at Ima in Kyoto, Japan. From the first time I visited Japan, I fell under the spell of its superlative ice cream, made with local whole milk that is so rich that it coats the tongue and tastes somehow extra, extra creamy. That was especially true of the Hokkaido soft serve of which I couldn’t get enough. Even more next level was the ice cream that was served toward the end of the tasting menu at this special restaurant in a 110-year-old townhouse. With all of 10 seats around a counter, it affords a most intimate experience with chefs cooking dishes over a crackling fire right in front of you. As the last savory course came to a close, I heard what I thought was someone vaccumming upstairs. But no, it was actually Chef Kiichi Imai operating a Pacojet to freeze the custard base into freshly made ice cream. Only this was no mere vanilla. He had placed Japanese white charcoal known as binchotan into Kyoto milk to infuse it with a taste of the fire. It was smooth as silk, and milky sweet, with a kiss of smoke that gently lingered long.

4. Six-Layer Chocolate Cake at Alpine Inn in Portola Valley. There are so many things to love about this historic roadhouse that opened in1852 — from its huge menu that has something for everyone to its expansive beer garden that makes you feel like you’re vacationing in a forest to the fact that it somehow manages to feed as many as 2,500 on a busy day with such efficiency and aplomb. But it is the chocolate layer cake that, well, takes the cake. Dark, moist, fudgy, and rich, it lets the intense bittersweet cocoa taste of the chocolate be the star. This is the cake you dream about for your birthday, the cake that always makes you that much happier, and the cake that will lure you back time and time again.

5. Szechuan Wings at Square Pie Guys in San Francisco, Oakland, Campbell, and Palo Alto. At a place called Square Pie Guys, you know the pizzas will be good, and the ones here are definitely that. But it is the Szechuan-style chicken wings that are pure gold. They are dry fried in a light coating with five-spice seasoning that tastes of aromatic star anise and numbing Szechuan pepper. And they are just such an unexpected offering at this Detroit-style pizza joint. The coating is airy and cracklingly crisp all over. The wings get showered with the fresh verve of chopped scallions, and served alongside a cooling cilantro lime crema. Yes, you can order them for takeout or delivery. But do yourself a huge favor, and enjoy them at the restaurant when they are at their finest, immediately out of the fryer, so hot that you can barely pick them up with your fingers.

6. Honey Ice Cream Cones at Enclos in Sonoma. Dine at Enclos once, and it’s easy to see why it was awarded an impressive two Michelin stars less than six months after opening. The service is professional yet unstuffy, the food absolutely flawless, the presentations beautiful to behold, and the attention to detail off the charts. The memory of the last mignardise will stay with you for a very long time, not merely because it’s delicious but because its playfulness evokes the pure joy and giddiness of a child receiving something special for being good. It is the world’s itty-bittiest ice cream cone filled with honey ice cream in the shape of domed bee hive with a cascade of honey over it and bright yellow flowers affixed. It even comes propped up in a hole at the top of an actual bee hive frame. It’s clever, fun, and absolutely brilliant.

7. Abalone Skewer at The Harbor House Inn in Elk, CA. It is the tiniest of morsels. But wow, does it ever land a punch, flooring you with its incredible texture. I’m talking about the abalone course at this Michelin two-starred restaurant perched on a rugged bluff in the middle of nowhere. Abalone has been a mainstay at The Harbor House Inn, where the tasting menu captures the taste of its breathtaking surroundings like nowhere else. The abalone is threaded onto a brass skewer that gets heated, cooking the gastropod so its flesh turns more tender than you’ve ever experienced before while leaving the edges delightfully crispy. The final flourish is a brushing of egg yolk and miso made from the restaurant’s leftover house-made sourdough bread that accentuates the abalone’s umami taste. It’s all of two bites, but you do it in six, trying to make it last as long as possible.

8. Tater tots at Stoller Wine Bar in Newberg, OR. This wine bar in the heart of downtown has character written all over it. Opened this spring in a 1940s brick building that was once an automotive garage and dealership, this is the place to enjoy a glass, flight, or bottle from Stoller Wine or its family of brands that included Chehalem Wines, Elouan, History Wine, and Chemistry Wine. The food is a draw in and of itself, crafted with care in the winery’s own food truck that’s parked in the wine bar’s lot. Of particular note are the tater tots. I don’t think they’re necessarily made in-house by hand, given how tedious and time-consuming that would be. However, whomever is frying them has the art down pat. These are the crunchiest tater tots I’ve ever had. The crackle of their bronze armor gives way to pure fluffiness inside. We kept popping back one after the other. The generous portion size meant we had enough leftover to take back to our lodging to enjoy for at least two days afterward. The tater tots stayed crisp, too, even cold out of the fridge when we couldn’t bear to wait to enjoy yet one more.

9. Wagyu shumai at Underdog in Palo Alto. Co-Owner Dennis Kelly likes to describe Underdog as a dive bar — without the grit. For a Master Sommelier who’s usually turned out in impeccably cut, fashion-forward suits, this second venture may be his idea of lowbrow compared to his Michelin-starred restaurant Protege across the street. But for the rest of us, this bar-lounge is still pretty elevated. The cocktails are evidence of that with their playful names yet incredibly precise techniques with every ingredient that can be made from scratch done so. For more proof, consider the compact menu that goes far, far beyond your typical cocktail peanuts or popcorn. Take a bite of the A5 Wagyu shumai and it will gush rich, fatty, bodaciously beefy juice into your mouth. The artful dumplings are topped with chili oil, and pickled mustard seeds that look like caviar with the color of summer corn. I could easily eat an entire order of these — and then immediately want another round.

10. Pizza Margherita at Somni in Los Angeles, CA. Dinner at this 14-seat Michelin three-starred restaurant with its 25 courses is not just an event, but a mind-altering, soul-stirring experience for the ages. Chef-Owner Aitor Zabala carries on and builds on the thrilling, envelope-pushing cuisine he learned at such gastronomic powerhouses as El Bulli. This is the second incarnation of Somni, the first having been founded with legendary Chef Jose Andres. It is an intimate experience that’s filled with some of the most imaginative food you’ll ever encounter with flavors that are pure and incredibly intense. This is food that is often not exactly what it appears to be. Case in point: the pizza. Zabala changes up his menu regularly, but I hope this one never departs because it is simply astonishing. Sweet-tangy tomato sauce, milky burrata, glistening Iberico ham, and buttery caviar are the toppings for this slice of pizza made of pure egg white. The delicate airy meringue crust somehow boasts the vivid taste of tomato, too. Imagine the explosive taste of the most flavorful pizza you’ve ever had — but on an ethereal foundation of air. It is one of the most astounding things I’ve ever tasted, a true marvel of fleeting lightness that somehow possesses a massive and enduring presence. I still think about this pizza, and every time I do, I just get goosebumps.

More: My Top 10 Eats of 2024