The best meals we've had while traveling

Upon joining the Lonely Planet team, new employees are required to answer one essential question: What is the very best meal you’ve had while traveling? From pizza omakase in Tokyo (yes, pizza) to elegant raspberry tarts in France, it’s a question we take very seriously, which is why we’ve rounded up some of our favorite responses to inspire your next food-focused trip.

If you’re the kind of traveler who’s always thinking about your next meal, keep reading.

1. Upscale dining in San José del Cabo, Mexico

Rachel Lewis, Senior Social Media Manager

Don Sanchez in San José del Cabo, Mexico, checks all of the boxes of an upscale dining experience: it's a stunning space with a mix of indoor and outdoor seating. Both its food and drinks are life-changing (and I'm a vegetarian, so five stars from me), and the chef, Edgar Román, is a delight. The service is fabulous and friendly, but never intrusive. You'll eat everything from jicama sashimi to hibiscus enchiladas to beet mole and leave full and happy. Located in the city's arts district (officially right outside the Gallery District), end your meal with a stroll to check out street performers, loads of cute shops and galleries.

2. Ravioli at a winery near Parma, Italy

Serina Patel, Sr Marketing Manager

In 2018, I went to Italy with my family and stopped at winery Lamoretti Azienda Agricola Vitivinicola for a quick wine tasting and lunch. What we expected to be a simple and dependably good ravioli meal, turned out to be a dish we'd talk about for many years to come. The ravioli was prepared without sauce – just oil and parm with some decadent balsamic on top – and it was mind-blowingly rich and perfectly al dente.

3. Oil Down in Grenada

Alicia Johnson, Destination Editor

Grenada's national dish, oil down, is a stew filled with ground provisions, veggies, meat and loads of spices. The version I had was made with cassava, pigtail, chicken, breadfruit, coconut milk and spices. Eating it was a special experience because it's mainly cooked only during the months when the recipe's ingredients are in season. If breadfruit isn't in season, you're not getting any.

4. A Michelin-recommended spread in Singapore

Akanksha Singh, Destination Editor

I’m a firm believer that good food pairs well with theatre, and Man Fu Yuan is all about drama! The food itself is stellar (and Michelin-recommended), and from the honey-glazed duroc pork char siu to their stone bowl rice with kurobuta pork, tobiko and egg yolks, the menu begs for ample “oohs” and “aahs.”

My favorite is the chilled papaya with snow fungus, peach collagen and golden bird’s nest. Chilled on a bed of dry ice, the dish is refreshing, delicately balanced in its tartness and sweetness, with liberal chunks of juicy seasonal fruit. (Plus, the bird’s nest is ethically sourced.) 

5. A nostalgic Persian feast in Dubai

Zara Sekhavati, Destination Editor

Ariana’s Persian Kitchen in Dubai instantly took me back to my childhood. The smell of sweet saffron in the air (the restaurant gets through 1.5kg of the good stuff a month), the crunch of French fries on the top of khoresh-e-gheymeh, dried lime, lamb and split pea stew, and the refreshing burst of faloodeh (frozen vermicelli noodles) – it’s all here. When I lived in Iran, we would finish our Friday meals, then drive to find faloodeh. We’d slurp up the noodles drenched in lime and rose water by the side of the road, doors open, enjoying the cool evening breeze whilst trying not to get the liquid all over our chins.

6. Breakfast on Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan

Melinda Anderson, Guidebook Development Senior Editor

The first trip I took with my now husband was to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, and the breakfasts I had at Casa Palopo were particularly memorable. To paraphrase Willy Wonka, "The eggs tasted like eggs! The avocado tasted like avocados! The snozzberries tasted like snozzberries!" And the view is divine.

7. Fried chicken and alligator cheesecake in New Orleans

Chamidae Ford, Digital Editor

My favorite meal while traveling has to be the dinner I had at Jacques-Imo's in New Orleans. The whole trip was filled with fantastic food, but Jacques-Imo's was on another level. To start, the ambiance is no frills; colorful string lights line the restaurant, which is packed to the gills with patrons. Each room is loud, rambunctious and filled with the smells of Creole soul food. My night here was unbelievably fun. We devoured gumbo with potato salad in it (something I didn't know existed, but I am so happy it does) and crispy, juicy fried chicken smothered in Louisiana hot sauce. The true star of the show, though, was the alligator cheesecake, a savory, spicy, cheese-filled masterpiece of a delicacy. I have spent far too much time since scouring the internet for a recipe so I can recreate it for everyone I know.

8. A raspberry tart in France

Margo Rosenbaum, Inspiration and Gift Books Editor

I'm still dreaming about a raspberry tart I had in France as a child, so sadly, I don't have any photos to share. It was a combination of the delicious treat and the experience of being in Europe for the first time that made it so wonderful. It had a delicate, flaky pastry base, filled with rich cream and topped with fresh raspberries. What truly made this little tart so unforgettable was the glossy glaze that coated the berries; It sparked my lifelong love for fruity desserts!

9. Handmade pear and pecorino pasta in Florence, Italy

Shalayne Pulia, Contributor Marketing Manager

When I was in Florence for the first time, I ate a pear and pecorino handmade pasta pocket dish from Trattoria Ponte Vecchio. It was one of those meals where my family and I went in for lunch... and didn't leave until after dinner. The owners came to sit with us and gave us half the menu to try. I still dream about this pasta and even returned to the restaurant a few months later just to eat it again. (13/10 recommend!)

10. A cozy brasserie in Paris

Sarah Fuger, Senior E-commerce Analyst

One of the most unforgettable dinners I've had was a three-course meal at a random brasserie I stumbled into called La Boîte aux Lettres in Paris' Montmartre. It was a cold winter night, and the waitress placed the English-language chalkboard menu of daily specials in the seat across from mine to make sure I saw it. First, was a chestnut soup so thick I don’t know if you could call it a soup, but the server added cream tableside, so I suppose that counts. Next came a steak cooked to perfection (medium rare) with a foie gras sauce and finished off with a dessert trio of tiramisu, chocolate cake and a macaroon. I went back this past summer, and it still holds up!

11. A world-famous cheeseburger in Copenhagen

Ann Douglas Lott, Digital Editor

The world is full of beautifully diverse cuisines, but occasionally when you're on the road, all you need at the end of the day is a really good burger. And the lore you've heard about Gasoline Grill in Copenhagen is true: the line is alarmingly long, you'll have to wait almost as long for your order if they've run out of certain ingredients, and it's all completely worth it. My fellow editor Chamidae Ford and I both experienced this rite of passage for any first-time visitor in Copenhagen last year, and that first bite into the world-famous cheeseburger while leaning on a park wall was...glorious. 

12. A plate of oysters on the Normandy Coast

Brekke Fletcher, Senior Director of Content

I had the best plate of oysters in my life in Honfleur on the Normandy Coast. If there is a platonic ideal of an oyster, it's the meaty, salty, fresh taste of the Huîtres à Volant. I eat oysters whenever they're near, but there's something about these babies that tasted as if they'd been just plucked and shucked. I can't be sure they were, of course, but sitting outside, facing the harbor and paired with an ice-cold glass of white Burgundy, I can't remember tasting anything so perfectly delicious in my entire life.

13. Maakouda (potato cakes) in Fez, Morocco

Paula Somoza, Senior Analyst

The maakouda (potato cakes) I ate while in Fez, Morocco, are probably one of the Top 10 bites of my life. As we made our way through the narrow streets of the largest and oldest medina in the world, our local Fessi guide spontaneously bought us these potato cakes seasoned with spices, wrapped inside some homemade Moroccan bread, a fried egg and a pepper drenched in a spicy tomato sauce. Even my picky dad could not stop raving about it. We, of course, returned the next day for a second helping.  

14. Pizza omakase in Tokyo

Caroline Trefler, Destination Editor

I was in Tokyo recently, where a lot of people like to splurge on a sushi omakase meal – the word omakase translates to, “I leave it up to you,” so it’s the chef’s choice. Instead of sushi, though, I chose to do a pizza omakase.

Pizza? In Japan? You might scoff, but this is no ordinary pizza and no hole-in-the-wall restaurant. This is pizza made with specially crafted and fermented pizza dough that uses Italian flour, with the best local Japanese products for the various toppings. And it’s all prepared and served by Italian pizzaiolos at a marble-topped bar in front of a brick pizza oven on the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo. There are eight seats around the bar and eight 12-inch pizzas, or pizzinos: each is cut into eight pieces so that everyone tries them all. The pizza that I was most skeptical of, topped with morel mushrooms, smoked provolone cheese and a slice of tender wagyu beef, was my second favorite.

Reservations are hard to come by, though. I got lucky after putting my name into the system as a solo diner in case of last-minute cancellations.

15. Yōshoku-style Japanese fusion in London

Matthew Johnston, Principal Designer

Here is the hill I will die on: The best dessert in the world can be found at Yōshoku-style Japanese fusion Shakfuyu on Old Compton St in London. Their Kinako French Toast would be amazing alone – it has the fluffiest insides with a caramelized crust – but it is topped with soft serve matcha ice cream, creating the most divine balance of flavors. In fact, just thinking about it makes me sad, simply because I know I can't get it anywhere else. (So, now I'm sad, but I'll add that their prawn toast is also magical.)

16. A seasonal five-course dinner in Helsinki

Deepa Lakshmin, Director of Social Media

I’ve had a lot of incredible food on the road, but to this day, I cannot tell you exactly what I ate in Helsinki, Finland, at Passio, a restaurant serving surprise multi-course dinners that change seasonally. There was no deciding what to eat, only how much – three or five courses? Five, obviously, and each tasted as good as it looked. Helsinki was just a quick stop on my way up to the Arctic Circle to explore Rovaniemi before crossing the border to Kiruna, Sweden; and Tromsø, Norway. Passio was my first official intro to Nordic cuisine, which I’d say, is wildly underrated. If you brave the cold and venture this far north, nothing beats warming up with lingonberry juice by a fire after a day frolicking in the snow.

17. Turkish-Irish fusion in West Cork, Ireland

Sasha Brady, Digital Editor

I've been coming to Baltimore in West Cork for years, but Chef Dede's new-ish restaurant Baba'de gives me another excuse to be obsessed with this harbor village. Just steps from his two-Michelin-starred Customs House (which I can never manage to get a booking for), this more casual sister restaurant brilliantly combines Turkish traditions with Irish ingredients. From the whole West Cork blue lobster to the oyster mushroom shawarma, there's nothing on the menu that isn't sublime. After dinner, I head to The Algiers or Jacobs Inn to watch the sunset over Roaringwater Bay.

18. Sushi with an ocean view in Cabo

Rhia Hylton, Associate Photo Editor

Picking a favorite is simply impossible, but one restaurant I have to go to every time I'm in Cabo is Zai Sushi Surf Bar. At the end of a long, bumpy dirt road is some of my favorite sushi ever. It looks over Playa La Fortuna, so you can watch surfers and whales while you eat. The fish is so fresh and so delicious – I always split a bunch of rolls with my friends, and they disappear in seconds. One of my other favorite dishes is the octopus karaage – the sauce is to die for! The cocktails are perfect, as well.

19. Spearfished lobster grilled on the boat in Belize

Sarah Stocking, Digital Editor

I'm a street foodie. Give me a plastic chair and a bowl of noodles any day, and I'm a happy traveler. But there is something special when you know your food is as fresh as possible. On a sailboat off the coast of Placencia, Belize, I learned to spearfish lobster. Diving deep with a spear in hand, it took me hours, but I pulled up a Caribbean spiny lobster. The staff grilled it on the deck and served it with freshly made ceviche that we enjoyed in our bathing suits as the sun set over the ocean.

20. Pierogies in Poland

Ian Karnick, Senior Marketing Analyst

The best meal I've ever had was at a pierogi shop in Krakow, Pierogi MR Vincent. My mom's family is 100% Polish, so we went on a 10-day trip to Poland last summer, and I ate pierogis every day. From this particular restaurant, we had a combination of potato and cabbage pierogis from our main meal, and then dessert pierogis afterward, which were filled with strawberries or blueberries and topped with powdered sugar and sour cream.