13 Best Bites of 2025

13 best bites of 2025 – a highly personal list of my best bites of the year.

2025 had its moments. I visited Switzerland, Spain, and Greece, visited Detroit for the first time (so cool) and returned to Boston, Manhattan, and San Diego. I found multiple treasures in the Napa Valley towns of Yountville and Calistoga, and a gem of a tamale in Sonoma. And discovered the joys of eating around San Jose and Berkeley.

Finding great food, dishes you want to return to a restaurant for, just so you can eat it again, is one of the pleasures of my work. Despite inflation and other economic pressures on restaurants and their diners, dishes that define a chef or restaurant are available in force. These are just some of my favorites. Please share some of your favorites, too!

Do I Like Scallops Now?

As a food writer, I suspect it is not a good idea to share that there are some foods I am just not fond of. Scallops – forever and always – was one of the foods on that short list. Then I experienced Chef Preeti Mistry’s Seared Scallop at Silver Oak Winery’s Chef’s Table and my world shifted.

Atop a pool of vanilla-scanted parsnip puree, a seared scallop graced with finger lime and tobiko shook my sensibility of what a scallop could be. I immediately called Chef so we could yap all about what makes it so good on my podcast episode, Chef Preeti Mistry Dishes on Their Culinary Evolution and Diving Into Asian Flavors in Napa. I hope you’ll give it a listen.

You’ll note that I have another vanilla-scented dish on this list (from Wolf In the Woods, below) and included a vanilla-scented dish in my 2024 Best Bites column (look under Glammed Up Tuna Tostada to find Angustina’s take). Vanilla – in savory dishes – is a luxury flavor in the United States, a local one in Mexico, and poised for savory re-imaginings of all kinds.

Looking Beyond Cocktails to Crab Tostada

Though technically a cocktail club and swanky speakeasy, San Jose’s Alter Ego serves up some damn fine eats courtesy of Executive Chef Roberto Mendoza’s flavor wizardry. Zhushed up with yuzu, edamame and sesame, Crab Tostada was bright and creamy and fresh and zesty. All I needed was my two hands to lift the crspy disc to my mouth for maximum deliciousness.

Brilliant Rice Salad

If you think Thai food has gotten boring, Tanzie’s Cafe in Berkeley will quickly dispel that notion with its five-course tasting menu. Studded with dishes like Nam Prink Pla Tu (pounded mackerel with garlic), Laab Moo (ground pork with rau ram and mint), Ap Ong Awe (pork offal custard with curry and makrut), and Tum Ma Muang (sour mango with coconut sugar, fish sauce and chili), any dish might blow your socks off. But I fell hardest for the rice salad.

Threaded with seasoned pork, cucumber, and just the right amount of garlic and cilantro, the dish is one anyone can make. In the right hands, though, it becomes something else, a simple dish elegantly presented, yes. A part of a coherent, flavorful whole, yes. And the essence of regional Thai cuisine. Yum. Be sure and make a reservation or prepare to wait outside for a table. (Tanzie’s provides parasols to shield you from the sun – sweet!)

Tamale, I Hardly Knew Ya

I always enjoy spending time in Sonoma and this time, got to try the Oaxacan-inflected deliciousness at Sonoma Eats, a quick-serve Mexican spot in Highway 12 just west of downtown. Wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf, the Tamale Oaxaqueña’s masa achieved a custard-like texture but it was the mole that made the dish a winner – savory not sweet, with a hint of chile and bitterness. Delish.

 

I Am Not Glazing Tuna and Vanilla

If you live with teenagers – and I do – “to glaze” is to talk something up, sometimes to the point of over-doing it (or the perception of over-doing it). That is not my intent with San Diego’s @wolfinthewoodsmissionhills Ahi Crudo with orange-vanilla vinaigrette.

It was the special the night I visited, the vinaigrette and chile reminding me of Zihuantanejo’s  @_angustina_ and their octopus taco with vanilla. The vanilla added just enough sweetness to balance the acid and chile, a flavor I now think of as Guerrerense. Delish.

 

The Essence of Modern Swiss Cuisine

Fifteen years after we last ate at one of Chef Sebastian Rösch’s restaurants (now-closed Mesa, Zurich) Stefan and I ate at Linden Hofkeller in Zurich this summer. We chose the “6 Gänge,” or 6-courses, which included a course known as Brotzeit. It was the biggest and best pretzel, served with a side of fermented butter stamped with an edelweiss.

Looking for modern Swiss cuisine with all the fun and funk? This is your place. Each bite was a revelation, a peek at Swiss cuisine today and, hopefully, tomorrow.

Shio Koji-fermented Wagyu Takes It to Eleven

Yountville’s RO Restaurant & Lounge is one of the few night life spots in Napa with plentiful lounge seating inside and outside as well as exceptional eats. Chef Jeffrey Hayashi’s menu leans into Asian flavors, especially Japanese. Chef’s Shio Koji-Fermented Wagyu uses locally-sourced koji (or salted rice injected with Aspergillus oryzae) to enhance both the texture and moisture, bringing out the beef’s natural richness. “We also use it in our shio koji fermented ice cream, where it layers in a subtle umami flavor,” Hayashi told me.

Seasonal Ceviche?

You bet your sweet bippie, fish have seasons. On a recent, mid-winter visit to Manhattan, I stopped in for dinner at Artesano, a Peruvian spot on the edge of the Financial District, helmed by Chef Rodrigo Fernandini. The presentation of the plate is eye-catching, sure, but Chef seasons fresh seafood with choclo, chulpi, and the warm heat of rocoto gel. The result was a dish at once warming and soulful, playful and bright. It was my order, but my mom and brother couldn’t stop eating it either. We must go back and order it all again.

Tuna, But Better

During my Family’s 10 days on Crete this summer, we had plentiful Cretan eating experiences. Palazzo al Mare served my favorite raki (chilled and sweetened with mango slushie) of the trip, for example. should you find yourself in western Crete’s primary hub of Chania, get thee to Salis. The seafood was fresh, the flavors were complex, and the view of the harbor was exceptional. I did not expect Tuna Belly with burned grape molasses and pickled watermelon or Octopus with lime aioli and sumac from a restaurant smack dab centered in the tourist bustle, but the chef was bringin’ it.

A Deceptively Simple Pork Loin

In up-valley Napa, the town of Calistoga is poised for a boom. Newly opened 8 North is a showcase for Napa Valley chef Abby Burk’s flavors. A dish of Bacon-wrapped Pork Loin was so flavorful and juicy with a crisp crust, I reached out to Chef for her technique.

“We brine the pork with maple, molasses, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, bay, thyme, and garlic,” says Burk. Burk then thinly slices double-smoked bacon and rests the loin overnight “so the bacon and pork become one.” A few moments on the grill and – poof! – deliciousness. The dish hits every textural and flavor element when the pork, along with a 64° egg, is laid atop kimchi fried rice. The thundering roar of umami lead me to polish my plate.

Old School Lamb Souvlaki

Even though Monroe Street, the main drag of Detroit’s Greektown neighborhood, was a construction zone when I visited t his fall, the simple deliciousness of properly prepared lamb and potatoes at Golden Fleece exuded the simple charm of simple ingredients done right. Seasoned with little more than flaky salt and oregano, the lamb was a crash course in coaxing flavor from slow-cooked meats and the magic of in-season tomatoes paired with tzatziki and fresh pita. The dining room is 100% charming and there’s even a Greek supermarket through the doorway. ‘Nuff said.

Abalone On My Mind

Though you can’t see the passion fruit seeds in the picture or experience the meaty texture of the abalone, I hope you’ll take my word for it that the Smoked Abalone at Yountville’s North Block brings together seemingly disparate ingredients to create magic on your palate. It is a rare dish, the flavor reaching to every corner of my palate. Bite after bite, too! This is the second restaurant in Yountville to make my list this year.

Spring Soup Spares the Vichy

The Vichy of France have a terrible reputation (look up literally anything about them from the World War II era), yet a soup named after the town where a famous early 20^th century French-American chef spent his childhood endures. At Boston’s Mooncusser this spring, a four-course tasting menu included an exceptional (and vegan!) White Asparagus Vichyssoise, spring parsnip agnolotti, and beautiful English lamb with fresh peas. The fresh flavors spin the menu into something more than the self-given “fish house” moniker may imply, temporarily alleviating the French of their terrible reputation.

 

For more inspirational best bites, here are my 2024 selections. https://christinamueller.com/13-top-dishes-i-ate-in-2024/