The Best Dishes I Ate in 2023

Whenever tragic things are happening around the world, food writers like to bring out that old saw about food bringing everyone together. I don’t think it always does, really — not when the problems and differences we face are so profound. But a good meal can provide us with comfort, nourishment and a sense of community that helps us get through hard times.

Despite the headline, this list doesn’t necessarily purport to identify the “best” version of any particular cuisine or dish. Instead, when I look back on 2023, these were the meals that brought me the most happiness. Some were from brand new restaurants; others were simply dishes I tried for the first time this year. In many cases, I returned to them again and again.

Here they are, then, presented in roughly the chronological order in which I ate them:

1. Churrasco chapin at Antojitos Guatemaltecos

11252 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito

I’ve been an Antojitos Guatemaltecos evangelist for going on four years now, from back when it was just a little tamal cart I’d sometimes stumble upon, when the stars aligned, just a block away from my house. Now that the Aguilar family has opened a full-blown restaurant in El Cerrito, their tender, jiggly tamales still rank among the most delicious in the Bay, but I’ve been especially enamored with their expanded selection of homestyle Guatemalan entrees. The dish I keep coming back to is the churrasco chapin mixed grill plate, with its well-charred steak and sausage, fried plantains, queso fresco, seasoned rice and piping-hot tortillas — the perfect bit-of-this-and-that lunch or dinner.

2. Buta MAX ramen at Ramen Champ

6229 Santa Teresa Blvd., San Jose

As I embark on my annual ritualistic fattening for the winter months, the dish I find myself thinking about all the time is Ramen Champ’s Buta MAX ramen — a bowl of noodles that is as audacious and extreme as its name. Modeled after Tokyo’s famous “Jiro-style” ramen, each super-sized bowl comes topped with extra-thick chunks of braised pork belly, an alarming amount of deliciously softened pork fat, and, most arresting of all, a preposterously large mound of bean sprouts, cabbage and raw garlic. It’s the most unique bowl of ramen I’ve ever eaten in the U.S. — and, on chilly nights when I can’t make it down to San Jose, the one that haunts my dreams.

3. Mezze brunch board at Lulu

1106 Solano Ave., Albany

This glammed-up Palestinian brunch spot was one of my favorite discoveries of the 2023 — though I was clearly late to the party, as they were already booked up two or three weeks out by the time I managed to snag a reservation. Everyone orders the mezze brunch board, which is chef Mona Leena Michael’s ingenious, gorgeously herb-bedecked spin on the kind of three-tier cake stand you might enjoy for afternoon tea. The spread of Palestinian-inspired breads, dips and assorted bite-size snacks is as fun to share as it is perfect for the ‘gram. It’s also shockingly delicious: I couldn’t stop double-dipping into the hummus crowned with pine nuts and shimeji mushrooms, and I could have eaten a whole tray of the falafel topped with a smear of black garlic tahini. (Note that the restaurant is in the process of moving to a new, larger location on Solano Avenue, with plans to kick off the new year with an expanded dinner menu.)

4. Bánh hỏi dặc biệt at Tigon

10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito

In the Tsai household, there probably isn’t any greater-in-demand restaurant than this sweet, family-owned Vietnamese spot, where we order the same thing every time: the bánh hỏi dặc biệt, a build-your-own spring roll platter that generously feeds my entire family of four. The plate comes loaded with all of the major animal groups (beef, pork, chicken and fried shrimp), crispy egg rolls and bean curd skin, little rice noodle nests (the bánh hỏi) and a whole boatload of fresh herbs and lettuces. Kids (and grown-ups!) love the process of dipping rounds of rice paper into warm water to soften them, piling on their chosen ingredients and then rolling the whole thing into a tight, tasty, refreshing bundle. I listed Tigon on my list of favorite places to eat during hot weather, but the truth is, its bánh hỏi spread is the ultimate crowd-pleaser: I crave it all year long.

5. Roti at Aman Cafe

4021 Broadway, Oakland

I’ll order roti for the table anytime I see it on a menu, then monopolize far more than my fair share and wonder forlornly, as I pick at the last crispy shards, where it all went. What a pleasure, then, to eat at a restaurant where these buttery, flaky flatbreads are the centerpiece of the meal — equally delicious swaddled around a curried stew of chicken and root vegetables like golden beet (a revelation!) as it is when dipped, more simply, in the restaurant’s signature creamy coconut sauce. And of course, for good measure, you’ve got to save room for a sweet, sugar-dusted roti for dessert.

6. Loco moco at Masa Ramen

1923 University Ave., Berkeley

I’ve written before about how this Hawaiian-inspired shop serves some of the Bay Area’s tastiest ramen. Would it surprise you to know that the last three or four times I’ve eaten here, I didn’t order ramen at all? That’s because Masa’s Hawaiian dishes (the garlic shrimp, oxtail soup and island-style beef stew) are just as lovingly prepared — and if anything, good Hawaiian is even more of a rarity here in the Bay. The one I keep coming back to is the heroically portioned loco moco: two beef patties cooked so that they’re crispy around the edges, served in a pool of rich gravy with a runny egg, a scoop of potato salad and a big mound of rice. This is pure comfort food, the kind of thing I could eat every week without ever getting tired of it.

7. K-Pop bread at Rize Up Bakery

1160 Howard St., San Francisco (and various farmers market and retail locations)

The most bourgeois food habit I’ve picked up in the past year is that almost every Sunday morning, I’ll go to the Marin Farmers Market to pick up a $16 loaf of sourdough. But not just any sourdough! In my house, we hold in highest regard Rize Up Bakery’s Korean-inspired “K-Pop” loaf — sourdough that has been infused with gochujang, flecked with toasted black sesame seeds and, most crucially, studded with whole cloves of sweet roasted garlic. Is it blasé to get excited about fancy toast from San Francisco in the year of our lord 2023? Let me tell you, dear reader: A slice of K-Pop, simply toasted and slathered with good butter, is a breakfast worth getting excited for.

8. Veggie combo at Messob Ethiopian Restaurant

4301 Piedmont Ave. B, Oakland

In my life as a professional eater, it’s a relatively rare occasion that, three bites into a meal, I’m already sending out a bold-faced, all-caps text to every food-loving friend in my contact list. In 2023, T’Chaka was that place. The Haitian restaurant’s griots, a dish I’d never had before, are the platonic ideal of crispy pork: juicy, tender and full-flavored, with a satisfying crunch. Even better, the braised oxtails are about as good as I can imagine oxtails being — so succulent and luscious that I think about them constantly, months after I first sucked the whole plate of bones clean. To paraphrase what I said when I first reported on the restaurant: Plainly stated, T’Chaka is a knockout. Go eat there now.