After months of traveling to more than 30 states and eating in hundreds of restaurants, it’s not easy to keep track of all the dishes that crossed our tables. But on the other hand, there are some we couldn’t forget. Whether soups or sweets, a single tasting-menu course or a perfect ham sandwich (it’s true), these are the bites from 2024 that will linger in our minds well into the new year. BRIAN GALLAGHER
Molotes de Plátano at Komal
Los Angeles
The chef Fátima Júarez learned to make this style of small, delicate molote from her Oaxacan mother, who ran a restaurant in Mexico City. The airy mashed plantain is crisp outside and tender inside, barely sweet, giving way to a center of melting, freshly made quesillo. Ms. Júarez serves the dumplings in a light and mellow mole negro that’s intricately flavored with dried chiles and cacao — so delicious you’ll want to drink it. Better yet, order the sweet-smelling fresh tortillas, made each day with heirloom Mexican corn, to help clean your bowl. ($9.50) TEJAL RAO
Tonnarelli With Green Garlic and Narragansett Clams at Giusto
Newport, R.I.
A deceptively modest variation on spaghetti with clams, this pasta — best enjoyed in spring or summer, on the restaurant’s shaded deck overlooking Newport Harbor — tastes of just three things: green garlic, butter, and clams. But there’s uncommon depth to the dish. The pistachio-green sauce is achieved by cooking the green garlic tops and bottoms separately, and the pasta finishes cooking in a broth of clam juice and dashi that adds flavor without fishiness. Texture is the other play: The tonnarelli (made in-house daily, like all the restaurant’s pastas) is springy, and the tiny local clams are poached until just tender. JULIA MOSKIN
Suadero Taco at Paprika
Austin, Texas
This is brisket boosted to another level — crisp-edged meat rendered extra beefy from cooking in its own fat, swaddled in a nixtamalized tortilla. The salsas are made fresh, and all of it tastes better when served out of the Paprika truck by the ever-cheery taquero Margarito Perez ($4). PRIYA KRISHNA
Ham Sandwich at Mike’s Famous Ham Place
Detroit
I don’t know if Mike Muftari dreams of ham, but his ham sandwich has been on my mind since May. He’s been plying pork for 50 years at Mike’s Famous Ham Place on a desolate stretch of Michigan Avenue. His is an honest and satisfying sandwich built on a poppy-seed roll, with five or six solid planks of ham, a slice of cheese, a squirt of yellow mustard and some pickles. He sold the business in October, but has stayed on through the end of the year to teach the new owners the ropes. Aside from forms of payment, they don’t plan to change a thing. ($10.50 for regular, $13 for large) SARA BONISTEEL
French Onion Soup at Little Sparrow
Atlanta
You probably have your own idea of the perfect soupe à l’oignon gratinée. Mine arrived in a footed white bowl encased in toasty Gruyère at a brasserie in Atlanta. The thin, melty layer of cheese yielded to my spoon without work. A slice of sturdy sourdough softened and became one with the dark, complex and slightly sweet broth. That such deliciousness can be coaxed out of beef stock and onions is one of those culinary miracles. ($17) KIM SEVERSON
Foieberry at Lazy Betty
Atlanta
These days, researching restaurants means sitting through a lot of tasting menus. Some I remember more for their duration than the food. But I love it when something emerges from the parade of dishes like a rising star. That’s the foie gras that arrives early on in a six-course slate at one of Atlanta’s favorite fancy restaurants. It has the texture of a torchon but the shape of a strawberry, which emphasizes what it is: a marriage between goose liver from the Hudson Valley and Oishii strawberries, accessorized with Sichuan peppercorns, a bit of pickled green strawberry and a scatter of tiny flowers. (Part of a $225 tasting menu) KIM SEVERSON
Birria at Birrieria Ocotlan
Chicago
Diners crumble dried chile de árbol over their birria, taking comfort in the steam rising off their stew. As you reach for a tostadita, a server walks by and wordlessly tops off your bowl with consommé poured from a water pitcher. This is what mornings are like at Birrieria Ocotlan, where the aroma of braising goat has been wafting onto the South Chicago sidewalk since 1973. The recipe for the signature dish dates to 1926, when Tereso Reyes — a great-grandfather of the current owner, Andres — obtained a goat from a neighbor in the Mexican city of Ocotlán and made birria out of it. ($14) BRETT ANDERSON
Fried Chicken at Stanley Supper Club
Stanley, Idaho
This fried bird is an expertly crunchy version: brined, buttermilked and spiced in a largely canonical way. But it’s also the perfect vehicle for the trio of dipping sauces. The usual housemade lineup is a trifecta of classic ranch, pineapple-habanero hot sauce and a spicy honey. But keep an eye out for guest stars like a fermented tomatillo number that hummed with vegetal heat on the back of the tongue, or a plum-fenugreek condiment that is a play on a traditional Georgian sauce. The whole setup is a hearty, fortifying delight in a place where a snowstorm in late June isn’t out of the question. ($32, serves two) BRIAN GALLAGHER
Bò Lá Lốt at Moon Rabbit
Washington, D.C.
Bò lá lốt is a Vietnamese street food staple that the chef and co-owner Kevin Tien serves with a dipping sauce of labneh crowned with lemongrass-chile crunch, a nod to his love for dolmas. A similar swirl of influences animates all of the food at Moon Rabbit. But this dish of juicy grilled beef wrapped in perilla leaves is one of the only items you can plan to find on the always-evolving menu. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take it off,” Mr. Tien said. “Some tables order it twice.” ($19) BRETT ANDERSON
Corn Mash at the Lobbyist
Memphis
Jimmy Gentry built his reputation in Memphis for cooking Southern food that pushes vegetables to the center of the plate. This helps explain why there are twice as many vegetable dishes as there are protein dishes on the menu at the Lobbyist, the intelligent, accessible modern Southern restaurant he opened last year. It’s hard to say which is the star of this signature dish: the coarse Delta Grind Grits, made from Mississippi corn and enriched with mascarpone, or the roasted seasonal squash mounted on top of them. ($18) BRETT ANDERSON
Chochoyotes at Acamaya
New Orleans
Certain types of traditional New Orleans restaurants deploy blue crab meat as liberally as parsley. Ana Castro reminds diners how prized the ingredient is at this remarkable Mexican restaurant in the Bywater neighborhood, where she is the chef and co-owner. In late summer, she combined housemade chochoyotes — masa dumplings — with local mushrooms and handpicked crab meat from Higgins Seafood, in the bayou-side town of Lafitte. The dish was the product of careful craftsmanship that felt homespun — sweet, buttery and carrying a distant whiff of the wetlands. ($32) BRETT ANDERSON
Trúng Và Trúng at Sap Sua
Denver
The unassuming list of ingredients — soft scrambled egg, brown butter, fish sauce, trout roe, rice — doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the ethereal experience that comes together in the bowl. The eggs have a fluffed, custardy texture while the base note of brown butter layers in a richness that plays against the funk of the fish sauce and the briny pops of roe. It’s justifiably become one of the most popular dishes on the menu. ($16) BRIAN GALLAGHER
Arroz Caldo at Kultura
Charleston, S.C.
Stuffed into a small parlor with a bustling counter, Kultura has the feel of a very hip diner. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the evening menu at this creative Filipino restaurant leads off with a dish perfect for breakfasters and nighthawks. The version that the chef Nikko Cagalanan inherited from his grandmother, then customized, is not only deeply restorative but downright immersive, its chicken-and-rice porridge studded with myriad tastes and textures. There’s the smoke of trout roe, the crunch of fried garlic and housemade chile crisp, the creaminess of a soft egg, the umami kick of mushroom XO sauce and the zing of calamansi. All the best medicine, in a single bowl. ($16) PATRICK FARRELL
Horchata Berlinesa at Ema
Houston
Come early if you want to secure one of Ema’s horchata berlinesas, a seamless marriage of European and Mexican confectionery. The breakout star of the pastry case, these doughnuts are as light and fluffy as they come — sugarcoated puffs encasing a not-too-sweet cream infused with the subtle, cinnamon-laced flavors of horchata ($4.65). PRIYA KRISHNA
Burnt Honey Pie at Grand Opening
San Francisco
At Melissa Chou’s pop-up bakery in Chinatown, it’s impossible to choose among chewy passion-fruit cookies or mortadella bao with translucent lamination. But it’s the burnt honey pie that best sums up her pastry prowess. The “burnt” here refers to the layer of deeply toasted honey custard that shines like amber. It sits atop pasta frolla, an Italian sweet pastry dough seemingly too delicate and flaky to provide such architectural support. But that’s the mind-boggling sorcery that Ms. Chou enables in each of her pastries. (Slice for $12; whole cake from $88) ELEANORE PARK
Goat Chops at Aga’s
Houston
There is a deeply primal pleasure that comes with eating the goat chops at Aga’s, a beloved (and enormous) Pakistani restaurant. They’re served on a fajita platter, striped thickly with grill marks, sizzling loudly under a bed of onions. The warmth of the spices runs deep, and the chops are tender to the bone. Eat with your hands, letting the fiery marinade stain your fingers a delightfully Cheetos-esque shade of orange. ($26.99) PRIYA KRISHNA
Lamb Posole at Paloma
Santa Fe, N.M.
It was bitingly cold in northern New Mexico in the spring when I found this heady soup, just in time. The grassy gaminess of the smoked lamb shoulder (from animals raised in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains) was swaddled in the deep, piquant flavors of a guajillo chile bone broth, and balanced with a smattering of grilled nopales. The dish was cast an appetizer on the menu, but you’d really need nothing more. ($18) BRIAN GALLAGHER
Tuna de Tigre at Mr. Tuna
Portland, Maine
At Mr. Tuna sushi bar, you’ll find the impeccable, sustainable sushi and handrolls that made Jordan Rubin and Marisa Lewiecki’s food truck such a fixture of Portland. But their new, full-service restaurant offers many more delights, and one of the best is Tuna de Tigre. Listed on the menu under “Dressed Up Sashimi,” the cubes of ruby fish are decked out in a tangy-sweet sauce of puréed coconut, lime juice, fish sauce and chiles, and crowned with a tangle of crunchy, golden shallots. It might seem unwarranted to dress up a fish already so exquisite in the raw, but Mr. Tuna makes an irresistible case for opulent attire. ($24) MELISSA CLARK
Mushroom Breakfast Taco at Ocotillo
Portland, Maine
It seems simple, just a mushroom breakfast taco in a flour tortilla. But one bite reveals that it’s so much more. The local shimeji mixed with maitake mushrooms are meaty and chewy, and perfumed with cumin, garlic and black pepper. The soft scrambled eggs provide a fluffy textural counterpoint to the crisp potatoes. But then the real whammy is the housemade salsa macha, a brick-red drizzle exploding with toasted chiles, nuts and seeds, and sweetened with roasted garlic — the kind of haunting sauce you’ll want to slather on everything. ($8) MELISSA CLARK
Croissubi at Bake Sum
Oakland, Calif.
The baker Joyce Tang has created a star with the Croissubi — a hybrid that captures the superlatives of both a maximalist and minimalist croissant. Topped with Parmesan and togarashi, a blend of dried red chile, sesame seeds and seaweed, the flaky, laminated layers form the perfected honeycomb cavern of a traditional croissant — with Spam suspended in the middle. Among the growing wizard scroll of outstanding bakeries around the country, the Croissubi stands out. ($5.75) ELEANORE PARK
Pierogi z Dynia at Little Walter’s
Philadelphia
The narrow-minded might believe that once you’ve had one pierogi, you’ve had them all. But the chef Michael Brenfleck manages to take them far to new and delicious heights — though traditional pierogi ruskie are always on the menu. In the summer, the specialty pierogi were filled with sweet summer corn and by fall, it was eggplant. Now they’re stuffed with the bounty of early winter produce: squash, lacinato kale and a pleasantly biting horseradish sauce. They’re never the same. The only constant is the comfort of digging into a plateful. ($16) NIKITA RICHARDSON
Cherries Jubilee Sundae at Sugarpine Drive-In
Troutdale, Ore.
This seasonal sundae contains the cherry multiverse, with sweet and sour stone fruits playing their roles among the riot of textures. Shards of almond brittle and cubes of cherry almond baba rhum could stand alone, but here they’re set adrift on a sea of vanilla soft-serve and sour-cherry Jubilee sauce, the flavors combining to create a startlingly excellent entry to the cherry dessert canon. The restaurant, which started life in the 1920s as a gas station on the Sandy River and later became a bait and tackle shop, is a Columbia River Gorge must, up there with Multnomah Falls and Herman the Sturgeon. ($9) SARA BONISTEEL
Mussels With ’Ndjua Butter at Heavenly Creatures
Portland, Ore.
The bistro-cum-bottle-shop room here belies the aspirations of the food on the plate at this wine bar with fine-dining dreams. The mussels dish that was on the menu in June is a perfect example: Seafood and sausage are common enough platefellows, but the tingle of the ’ndjua butter — each shell meticulously topped up with the crimson elixir — accented with the zip of fresh mint and lime, was an unexpected delight. ($18) BRIAN GALLAGHER
Beef Empanadas at the Port of Call
Mystic, Conn.
The conceit of the Port of Call’s wildly eclectic menu is that each dish hails from a different port, from Casablanca to Shanghai. But the unlikeliest source it lists is the landlocked city of Torrington, Conn. That’s where the chef, Renee Touponce, grew up making empanadas with her Italian American mother and her stepfather, who was born in Puerto Rico. Her beef renditions are at once definitive and idiosyncratic — from the tender homemade crust to the ground beef from nearby Beriah Lewis Farm, juicy with sofrito, olives and American cheese. ($16) PATRICK FARRELL
Lebanese Sundae at Leila
Detroit
Arriving to the table like a Star Trek tribble ready for a night on the town, this dessert holds your attention from the first bite. Pistachios cover the mop of fairy floss atop the dish, and ashta, the rose-flavored ice cream with hints of orange blossom water, hides underneath the gossamer. The restaurant, on Capitol Park in downtown Detroit, is named for the matriarch of the Eid family, also the owners of Phoenicia, and the menu nods to home cooking. This dessert delights with its simplicity and whimsy. ($10) SARA BONISTEEL
Mozzarella Sandwich at Bread Head
Los Angeles
The bubbly focaccia baked at Bread Head is thin, with a seriously crackling golden crust — an ideal vehicle for the spectacular veggie sandwich from Alex Williams and Jordan Snyder. It holds thick pieces of mozzarella, crunchy pickled onions, loads of grassy sprouts and some ripe avocado. But the effect isn’t hippie sandwich, it’s thoroughly luxurious. ($14, half; $25 whole) TEJAL RAO
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The post The 26 Best Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2024 appeared first on New York Times.
