Jeremy Repanich
And thus my tour de gout for 2024 has come to an end. Another year of crisscrossing America has seen me dining at restaurants both old and new, finding gems like a creative wine bar serving Lao food in Nashville and a brilliant marketplace and restaurants serving Texas fare in San Antonio. Here are the 31 best dishes I tried in my pursuit to cover the world of fine dining for Robb Report.
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Scallop-Stuffed Crepes, Bad Idea
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich A restaurant like Bad Idea is what makes me so excited to visit Nashville. Industry vets Alex Burch and Colby Rasavong teamed up for a wine bar with a stellar list that doesn’t play it safe with the food. Instead, Rasavong explores Lao flavors in dishes shot through with French technique. His scallop-stuffed crepe with nam prik blanquette, resembles a classic Lyonnais quenelle de brochet, but with fish sauce for added depth and a tuille for a delightful crisp.
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Barbecue Shrimp, Burdell
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich At his Oakland restaurant Burdell, chef Geoff Davis imbues soul-food classics with a California influence. The barbecue shrimp is a revelation. One side is sautéed hard to add a charred flavor, while the other side is cooked gently. The sauce has a subtle, persistent heat playing in the background—more like a bassoon than a blaring trombone. You’ll want even more of the buttery sliced brioche to sop it all up.
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Txuleta, Somni
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Aitor Zabala has made his triumphant return. Back in 2019, his restaurant Somni inside the SLS Hotel earned two Michelin stars, but the pandemic would eventually shutter the small space a year later. He has returned with a standalone Somni in West Hollywood, serving a stunning menu merging his Spanish heritage and years spent working in California. The final savory is an homage to the old cows served in Spain, with steak from a 7-year-old cow that’s grilled and paired with Zabala’s riffs on piquillo peppers.
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Lechon, Lenox
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chef Jhonny Reyes opened his Afro Latino restaurant that’s an ode to Harlem not in Manhattan, but Seattle. The menu is filled with delights like his alcapurria (plantain and cassava fritters), tostones, and ropa vieja. The star on my visit was the lechon, a crispy rolled pork belly served with arroz guandules and coco greens. The pickled mustard seeds provide little pears of flavor and an edge of acid that cuts through the unctuous dish.
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Risotto, Quince
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich After closing for nearly a year to undergo a remodel, Quince returned with a force. Michael and Lindsay Tusk’s Michelin three-star restaurant is beautifully designed, making you feel as if you’re hanging out in your most stylish friend’s condo for the evening. The menu lives up to the decor. The creamy passion fruit risotto with Hokkaido uni, sea beans, Espelette, and Meyer lemon is an absolute stunner.
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Surf and Turf, Brasero
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chef John Manion was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in Brazil, and that country’s food has been close to his heart ever since. At Brasero, he’s reconnecting with favorite dishes and flavors by way of the massive wood-fired hearth that anchors the kitchen. Intrigued by the lobster but knowing Manion—also owner of Argentine steakhouse El Che—is a master of beef, I went surf and turf. It’s a grilled Wagyu picanha with chimichurri paired with half a lobster that’s kissed by the fire and topped with miso-chili-garlic butter.
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Suckling Pig, Saga
Image Credit: Evan Jake Cohen Before chef James Kent’s passing this year, we ventured to Saga to film our new series Culinary Masters. In the episode, he showed us the crazy amount of work that went into the final savory course in his Michelin two-star tasting menu. This pork dish, and the video itself, really shows off Kent’s skill, creativity, and passion for representing multiple cultures on the plate.
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Crab Omelette, Locust
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich This is simply the greatest omelette I’ve ever had in my life. As Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” appropriately blared around me, I enjoyed Trevor Moran’s creamy, briny, umami-rich crab delicately encased in thin layers of egg that were so perfectly cooked that they had the strength to contain the filling and hold the shape while remaining supple. The dollop of caviar on the top added a bass note to the dish with a deep kelpy flavor. Locust is a restaurant that has a lot of hype in the food world, but it lives up to it.
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Eggnog Cruffin, Dan the Baker
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich On the edge of Columbus, Ohio, and in the same complex as the Sbarro Innovation Center, is Dan Riesenberger’s outstanding little bakery. He is adept at breads as well as pastries, so a recent trip meant grabbing a loaf of his olive polenta loaf and his flaky eggnog cruffin, where his croissant dough is baked in muffin tins and then piped with a seasonal cream filling.
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Iberico Pork Pluma, Stella
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich You’d be right to go to Stella and focus your meal entirely on its house-made pastas, but creative and delicious food abounds at Rob Gentile’s Italian restaurant in West Hollywood. While the restaurant had built up an impressive selection of beef for steakhouse-starved Angelenos, the Iberico pork pluma is a star. The grilled pork neck is coated with saba, a dark, thick grape syrup.
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Skate Karaage, Aphotic
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich The Michelin-starred Aphotic just closed this month, citing the difficult state of the restaurant world in its particular San Francisco neighborhood. But when it was open, the restaurant was doing some very interesting things with seafood. My favorite bite was the karaage, which had a crunchy exterior contrasted with the very tender skate wing inside. The miso caramel added a nice salty-sweet finish to a creative dish.
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Langoustine, Restaurant Yuu
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich The curtain opens, the lights go up, and a row of cooks inside a kitchen is revealed. Chef Yuu Shimano steps forward and welcomes the 18 diners seated at the counter to his restaurant, and with a clap of his hands, the team members scramble to their positions for the show to begin. This little gesture could come off as pretentious or annoying, but it’s just the right amount of whimsy for the night ahead at Restaurant Yuu, which performs at an extremely high level but also seems to be having fun with fine dining. Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about the place I named the Best New Restaurant in America earlier this year. The langoustine is grilled over binchotan, adding a touch of bitterness to the sweet crustacean that arrives swimming in an elegant crème fraiche, which is given a slight vegetal touch with the shiso oil.
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Tuna Tartare, Le Coq
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Tara Monsod created a truly addicting dish with her salty, sweet, tangy tartare. The column of fish comes in a creamy caviar-studded crème fraiche and then is topped by the pickled gooseberries that provide a burst of freshness that set this dish apart.
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Grilled Cornbread, Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Luke McKinney was born in Mississippi and opened his first restaurant in Houston; and he’s serving dishes from the Gulf Coast in between the two locales. The young chef is also incorporating global flavors into his creations that feel at home with the multiculturalism of H-Town. He offers up a very composed-looking cornbread that he grills and covers with Steen’s cane syrup, tabasco whipped cream, lemon zest, and scallions.
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Lamb, Theodora
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich At chef Tomer Blechman’s latest restaurant, he continues to explore the Mediterranean while focusing on dry-aged fish and cooking inside a wood-fired hearth, which anchors the menu. The large-format lamb dish is a roasted shoulder that’s shredded, served atop grilled, house-made laffa bread, and completed with a quartet of sauces.
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Gnocchi, Yolan
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Tony Mantuano counts some exceptional chefs among his proteges at Chicago’s Spiaggia, from Top Chef winner Joe Flamm to Lilia’s Missy Robbins. A few years back, he left the Windy City behind to open Yolan inside the Joseph, a luxury hotel in Nashville. His signature oblong gnocchi is inspired by his mother but is given two luxurious additions of aged Parmigiano Reggiano and shaved truffles.
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Mango Tart, Kasama
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Did you even go to Chicago if you didn’t go to Kasama? My schedule was tight on my latest trip, but I stopped on my way to the airport for a Filipino breakfast of fried egg, garlic rice, and longanisa sausage along with some sweet treats from the breakfast case. The mango tart that finished my meal had an oat frangipane and coconut pastry cream. My 2-year-old son was caught eating my hand pie I’d packed for myself after I returned home to L.A. Guess I’ll have to go back and get it again.
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Crispy Yuba Prawn Cheung Fun, Washing Potato
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Part black-box theater, part homage to dim sum, restaurateur Alan Yau and chef Richard Chen’s fantastic Washing Potato was a delightful detour from the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards festivities in June. I stole away for a lunch where at one table was chef Jon Yao of Michelin-starred Kato and at another was living legend Alain Ducasse, so I felt I was in the right place. I definitely was. The cheung fun had crisp prawns encased in a chewy wrapper that made for excellent comfort food.
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Kouign-Amann, Petit Grain Boulangerie
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich If you wanted to find me Friday mornings in 2024, there’s a pretty good shot you’d see on my way to or from Petit Grain Boulangerie. This charming little neighborhood bakery opened this year, serving viennoiserie, breads, and assorted sweets. The rotating menu kept you guessing as to what you’d get when you popped in on a given day, but a consistent favorite is the crunchy, flaky, and sweet kouign-amann.
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Leeks Vinaigrette, Raf’s
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Taking my wife to her birthday lunch, we settled into Camari Mick and Mary Attea’s lovely little Nolita restaurant that absolutely buzzing on a Thursday afternoon. The standout dish of the meal was a simple preparation of leeks that was topped with oozy stracciatella cheese, an herbaceous sweet-and-sour vinaigrette shot through with tarragon, and the toasty crunch of hazelnuts.
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Potato Gnocchi, Iggy’s
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich At chef Ryan Poli’s debut solo venture, he’s serving up a menu dominated by pasta, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it Italian. The pasta is merely a vehicle for the flavors and techniques he has been refining over a career that has taken him around the globe. One of his heartier dishes is the gnocchi served alongside tender hunks of Bear Creek Farm short rib, fermented carrots, and a lime-herb salad. The beef is supple and tender, while the mint adds a herbaceous lift to the whole dish.
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Shrimp Parm, San Sabino
Image Credit: Evan Sung There is no sophomore slump for chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli at San Sabino. The follow-up to their mega-hit West Village restaurant Don Angie takes their style of red sauce Italian fare and focuses more on seafood. This stunning shrimp parm is an homage to Tacinelli’s grandmother. The duo’s take on the northeast classic has some key changes that make it distinctly their own—from Thai basil to a sweet and spicy arrabbiata that’s punchier and more dynamic than the marinara you might be used to.
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Seafood Jeon, Paju
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Bill Jeong moved his modern Korean spot to bigger digs this year, and it now sits a handsome wood-lined space in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. His crispy jeon, a savory seafood pancake, is shot through with strands of scallions, topped with creamy aioli and a generous shaving of bonito flakes that dances as the plate approaches your table.
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Beets, Isidore
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich They did it. My god, they did it. At the Kevin Fink and Tavel Bristol-Joseph’s wood-fired restaurant Isidore, inside San Antonio’s ambitious Pullman Market, the chefs have actually made me love beets. They lay sliced red roots from the hearth over Texas pecan butter. It’s a very simple plate of food, but the smokiness of the beets is subtle, yet spot on, and there’s a wonderful sweetness to the dish, as well as a lack of any muddiness that has afflicted some beet dishes I’ve had in the past.
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Basque Butter Cake, Maxwells Trading
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chefs Erling Wu-Bower and Chris Jung have created a playful and eclectic menu incorporating Asian flavors with techniques from around the globe. The whole meal is outstanding, but Maxwells Trading’s Basque butter cake is one of the best desserts we’ve had anywhere in the country. The little golden column sits atop a light miso caramel, and its crisp exterior gives way to a pillowy interior. A topping of apple confit and rosemary imparts a savory dimension that makes this treat dynamic and irresistible.
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Gai Tod Naeng Noi, Night + Market
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Since my second kid was born, Friday nights out have generally become Friday nights in with takeout from one of our family’s favorite spots. Night + Market in Venice is in heavy rotation, and a non-negotiable each time is Kris Yenbamroong’s fried chicken thigh that uses a recipe from a street vendor in Chiang Rai. It’s probably my favorite fried chicken in L.A., and it comes served with ranch and nam prik noom that’s an incredible dipping sauce. I save this one for cheat days, is what I’m saying here.
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Stuffed Buffalo Wing, 7 Adams
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich After walking away from their Michelin-starred restaurant Marlena due to a dispute with ownership, chefs David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher returned on their own terms. At 7 Adams, they’re serving a delightful five-course tasting menu in the dining room and an eight-to-10-course experience at the chef’s counter. A delightful surprise was the deboned Buffalo wing, stuffed with sausage, slathered in a Frank’s Red Hot–based sauce, served alongside a can of Barrel Brothers Match Light Lager. It was a nice little break from California cuisine where Fisher could make a nod to his native Buffalo.
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Lobster Blanquette, Le B.
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chef Angie Mar’s Le B. is a glorious spot—a lush and cool throwback to the New York of the 1980s and ‘90s, where her love of decadent French fare is intermingled with her own history and heritage in exciting ways. In her lobster blanquette, shellfish mingle in a sea of indulgent, umami-rich sauce: beurre blanc, flavored with soy and shiro dashi to give it uncommon depth.
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Hot Cod Sandwich, Daybird
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chef Mei Lin already makes my favorite hot chicken sandwich served anywhere, so it was about time I ventured to the Silver Lake strip mall where her little shop resides to enjoy the Top Chef champ’s crisp hot cod sandwich topped by cheddar and slathered with yuzu tartar sauce.
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Holubtsi, Anelya
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chef Johnny Clark—along with his wife and co-owner Beverly Kim—created Anelya as an ode to his Ukrainian heritage. The couple reimagined the space that had previously been the tasting menu restaurant Wherewithall, which I quite enjoyed when I visited a few years back. When they reopened after the pandemic with a new focus, I knew I wanted to make it there. Clark isn’t just parroting traditional recipes; with his stuffed cabbage, he’s including a coconut cream that his grandmother might not have approved of. But the coconut adds depth and interest to the dish and intermingles wonderfully with the warming spices.
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Housemade Goma Tofu, Katami
Image Credit: Jeremy Repanich Chef Manabu Horiuchi’s strip-mall grill, Kata Robata, has developed a loyal following of industry peers and diners alike over the past 15 years. Sitting at the bar for an omakase, there was a parade of excellent dishes from Japanese sardine nigiri with kombu, ginger, and green onion to a green-tea kakigori made with ice imported from Kanazawa, Japan. The house-made goma tofu with house soy sauce, fresh wasabi, and ginger was simple yet memorable.
