Tell me your food stories!
For those lucky to have traveled abroad, what was the best food you’ve ever had, and what was the worst ? In terms of taste or just the overall experience.
Bonus point : what was the best vs worst “American” food you’ve ever had abroad ?
I’m not here to bash on any culture, so please stay respectful and let’s keep it all in good fun!
44 comments
Since I am myself a foreigner currently living in the US, I’ll just do the reverse and give you the best vs worst I’ve had in the States.
I have to give two for best because I really can’t choose: the whole barbecue plate with brisket, sauces, coleslaw, etc. in Flat Rock (NC) or the eggs Benedict from a breakfast place near Chapel Hill (NC). Simply incredible and can’t find anything like that in my country!
Then worst would probably be the mayonnaise. Still haven’t found any I enjoy, even though there are way more brands than in my hometown.
Best – Bake and Shark in Trinidad and Tobago
Best I’ve had was a pork shoulder roast of some sort in Nîmes, France. I don’t remember the exact details but it was served with its own sauce and some vegetables and lots of fresh bread.
Worst was probably something from an A&W just the other side of the border from Plattsburgh.
I have had so many wonderful meals abroad I don’t know how I could possibly narrow it down to one favorite.
I do have a vivid memory of my worst meal, however. I was staying on the outskirts of Copenhagen in some type of weird residential development with a sort of mall in the middle of it. I went to the mall to find some dinner, and I located what appeared to be an Italian restaurant. I ordered, like, pasta with beef ragu or something. Out comes the most revolting dish of Chef Boyardee rubbery tasteless grossness. It was literally disgusting. I ate maybe three spoonfuls and then put down some cash and walked out.
I had some pretty amazing fried feta in Santorini.
Honorable mention for some fantastic biryani I had in Hyderabad.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten American food while travelling. I try not to.
I honestly don’t know that I have a worst. Maybe ~20 years ago in London at a place called “Navajo Joe’s” … suffice to say, not many Navajo around London doing southwestern or tex-mex.
Best I would say was sushi in Japan, omakase style at a good place in Ginza Tokyo. On several levels. Each morsel absolute perfection. Small place, only a handful of patrons at a time, very friendly and tight knit feeling. And super satisfying on my first solo international trip, getting by conversing with the staff in very basic Japanese. The entire experience was super satisfying.
I’ve only ever been to Jalisco in Mexico, and honestly the food is pretty much the same as LA lol
Best would be this one spot that had some bomb azzzz pozole.
Worst would be some mango with chile I bought from a vendor. It was hot, not spicy but temperature wise hot on an already hot day, which made it just kinda nasty
Oh man, it’s hard to pick for best! I’ll say the first thing that comes to mind, which was this really delicious meal I had in Tirana, Albania. The cuisine was supposed to be “Ottoman”, sort of a pan-Balkan situation. The chef came out and asked us what we liked, if anyone had any allergies or food restrictions, took all those into consideration, and came up with a whole series of fucking awesome food. So good, and everything was such a fun surprise.
Worst: easily a pizza I had in Mexico. It was like 30 years ago and was so bad that my sister and I still talk about it as the nadir of food you can possibly eat. Like “this was pretty bad, but not like that pizza in Mexico that one time”. (Mexico obviously has great food, but we were in some cruddy tourist joint in Cancun with our parents.)
Went to a restaurant at lake como which was just unreal. Been in the same family for at least 400 years. The risotto was unreal.
Worst was a cheesesteak in Bangkok. I figured it would be bad but it was dreadful. But the then girlfriend wanted one. Generally speaking beef there isn’t good but this was just awful. Word is some guys from Philly are selling them out there now.
Best: some pancake and meat thing in Budapest, or hell Döner is up there too.
Worst: any Mexican food in Europe, I’ve tried several (don’t know why I willingly torture myself) and all just terrible.
Hard to pick the best one… Many strong contenders. Nasi lemak and beef rendang in Indonesia. Grilled iguana in Honduras. Ramen and takoyaki in Japan. Peking duck in China.
Worst? Without a doubt, the burrito I had in Ireland. I’m from San Diego, so more than anything it was morbid curiosity that brought me there. I knew it would be bad. But holy SHIT it was worse than I expected. You know how Chipotle is like a bland version of a taqueria? This was like a bland version of Chipotle. The dominant flavor was unsalted beans and sour cream. The “hot” hot sauce tasted like barbecue sauce (fuckin SWEET) and was about as spicy as marinara sauce. I couldn’t finish it.
Best: the haggis & salmon in Scotland, fish & chips in England.
Worst: Thai in Paris & Mexican in England.
Although I have a hard time narrowing it down to just one dish, my favorite overall food experience was in Mumbai. I’m a vegetarian, I find it challenging to eat adventurously in Europe because so much is meat-based. But in India? Man I ate everything I could get my hands on! The food was so deliciously spiced and complex, I can’t wait to get back there again.
Best: Moussaka at a restaurant in Athens. I ate a lot of moussaka while I was there, but one just stood out above the rest. Honorable mention to the food (all of it) at my hotel in Rome. It was a small hotel tucked away in a residential neighborhood and the restaurant, which was frequented by locals, had delicious food.
Worst: Probably this thing I had at the airport in Cuba (no, I did not expect airport food to be good, but this was really bad). It was like a cheesy bread type of food. It was just not good. A lot of the other food I had in Cuba was delicious, though!
Deep-fried haggis in Scotland, pork belly braised in apple cider in Dublin.
Worst American food – “nachos” in London that were potato chips topped with ketchup/tomato sauce.
Worst was at a little cafe in St Petersburg. I got chicken noodle soup and it was some skinny noodles, broth, and chicken parts. When I say parts I mean it had meat, but there were also organs (I think), smashed bits of bone, and I found a bits of feathers.
It looked like someone had dropped a cinder block on a chicken and thrown it in a pot.
I’m sure people have eaten more exotic, and worse foods. But I ordered the whitest meal in predominantly white Russia and got something completely wrong, though technically correct. This wasn’t a back alley cafe. It was on a Main Street and was pricy.
Worst: I went to a Mexican place in St. Petersburg, Russia and ordered tacos. What I got was some weird, vaguely flour-tortilla-like rounds filled with unseasoned shredded chicken, cabbage, and a squirt of ketchup. On the side were some truly awful beans.
Best: It’s harder to say, but my nephew got married in Georgia at a restaurant, and they served a complete Georgian feast with all the fixings. It was phenomenal,
I’d have to go with a fine French restaurant in Paris. Small plates many courses.
I truly cannot recall the name of the place but it was crazy expensive and like a small little place in a half submerged first floor walk down. I was young when we went but it really was the first time I really appreciated “fancy” food.
Apart from that just about any place in Switzerland that makes rösti mit kalbwurst und zweibelsauce.
But if I am truly being honest the best thing I ever had in a foreign country was my family and our friend’s family (they’re from very rural Ontario) cooking a fish fry dinner up on the lake. I caught the fish with my cousins and gutted and cleaned them with my dad (walleye and pike). My Neenaw made apple pie and our Canadian friends made the side dishes. My uncles and the patriarch of the Canadian family and his son fried the fish.
It was glorious.
Worst was some curry place we went in the UK in Henley on Thames where they clearly were just dialing it in. Like mafia money laundering front levels of just not giving a fuck. It was a very poor choice.
Best: a creamy gnocchi dish I had in rural southern France. Better than any Italian food I’ve ever had in Italy.
Worst: a “bagel” in London. My mom and I were appalled!!
Best is definitely okonomiyaki. Worst is by far bitter melon. It tastes like how hand sanitizer smells. I’m not a picky eater, but you’d have to hold me at gunpoint to eat that again.
It’s hard to pick a best because I’ve had a lot of great food overseas.
I’ll go with the Haggis I had at this local place in Edinburgh. It was legit amazing when I was expecting something awful.
Also hard to remember the worst because again, I had a lot. Actually I take that back this one was easy. I was in Norway for work and the locals took me to a bar after work.
You know how in the US we have peanuts or maybe pretzels in diver bars to snack on? They had jars of pickled fish. Worst thing that has ever been in my mouth. I wanted to throw up so bad but somehow I managed not to and just spat the fish out into a napkin.
Best – Japan – pretty much everywhere I ate was way better than I expected. Prices weren’t too bad either.
Worst Italy – ok, part of this is my fault. I was young and didn’t know you weren’t supposed to eat early. I was so surprised that there weren’t any impressive restaurants everything was just ok. The house wine everywhere was amazing. One day I’ll go back and focus on eating later in the evening.
Best is hard to say. Possibly a meal I had at a Seafood restaurant in Copenhagen. Unbelievably tasty.
Worst is easy. Harkarl. There isn’t even a close second place.
So far I’ve had pho while in Vietnam and holy fuck was it delicious. I can make at home but it will never stack up unless I take a cooking class over there. It’s top of the list at the moment but I’m not done traveling.
Worst was in Mexico. We went to a little restaurant in Mexico City can’t remember the name of it. And I love me some enchiladas. So I got 2 chicken ones and a couple street tacos. Tacos were awesome. Super tasty. But the enchiladas were so not. I was sad. Like they were OK at best but I’ve had much better here in the US.
Bonus point gives a point back to Mexico. I couldn’t resist and ordered an “American Double cheeseburger”. That was amazing. I’ve always wanted to get a burger from a Mexican restaurant because I’m curious how it’s different but I’ve never done it because theres better things on the menu. But this burger was so damn good. Ruined burgers for me for a while when I got back lol
Mexican Tacos/Doner Kebab throughout Europe/Tibetan Food in Bangkok and HotPot in China are my faaaaaves! Least favorite food and I can’t pick just one dish tbh, is Spanish food. I went being from CA thinking “ooh Spanish food this is going to be great!” But it was all so terribly bland. Sorry Ferran Adria!!
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I ordered ‘spaghetti’ at a place in Prague in 1991. The city had just opened to the west, so good food (for tourists) was hard to come by, but the waiter presented me with this: a plate of overboiled naked pasta and a bottle of ketchup (for sauce, I presume). Laughably awful. However, I got to see Prague before it became utterly westernized and commodified, so it was kind of worth it.
Second place: I had a terrible ‘Mexican’ meal in London in 2019. I take full blame for thinking London would know anything about Mexican food–but it was awful. I have lived in southern NM, so my standards are fairly high, but this place didn’t even make the bottom rung. The spices were weird, the beans weren’t cooked (strange, for the UK, where overcooking is kind of the norm), and the tortillas–well, I don’t know what they were thinking, there, but they were rubbery and virtually inedible.
That said, I’ve had a lot of amazing meals in my travels, including an incredible venison dish at a gasthaus in Bavaria. I don’t like game meat, usually, but this was outstanding. I’ve also had some great Algerian food in Paris…I love a good tagine, and you can’t get them here.
I’ve had a lot of great food in Mexico (panuchos, carne en su jugo, etc.), but the best thing I’ve ever eaten was the “half a hendl” in Munich, Germany during Oktoberfest. I was pregnant and just getting over 4 months of morning sickness. I was finally starting to enjoy my meals. I was eating those wonderful 1/2 rotisserie chickens twice a day. It made me feel better about not being able to drink any beer.
The worst thing I’ve eaten is spicy duck tongue in China.
Worst = Canned Corn on the cob in Finland.
Best = fresh coffee and Jerk Chicken at Croyden Plantation in Jamaica.
The “worst”.
Probably the “American Patriot Burger” in Pretoria, South Africa.
What got served was, “perfectly edible” I suppose. Tasted fine for what it’s was. I finished the whole bowl.
But I uh, take a little patriotic offense to anything served in a bowl and eaten with a soup spoon being called an “American Patriot Burger”.
I had chicken soup in Kuala Lumpur and it had vertebrae in there and it smelled really bad to me.. almost like a garbage juice scent.
I didn’t eat it.. I could tell the people I was with were kinda bummed on me but I’m pretty sure I made the right choice.. I’d rather them look at me as lame American than for me to start gagging at the table.
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Best.. or the experience I remember most was warthog in South Africa.
I was skeptical due to the unfamiliarity but turns out, it’s delicious
Best meal I’ve had outside of the US was at a pub in London near St. Pancreas station. Simple fish and chips, but it hit just the right spot when I was on my own and under the weather.
Worst was haggis, as part of a tourist trap dinner in Scotland.
Best: a kangaroo steak with a sublime sauce in Sydney.
Worst: a dinner in a small Tuscan town that has passed into our lexicon as a synonym for vomit. Despite having awesome meals elsewhere in the region this place seemed like we’d stepped into another dimension. It was like it was the first time they’d seen the inside of a kitchen.
Best:
Mikkeller @ Morebeer Amsterdam.
They recreated a McChicken but from scratch… ground chicken, etc. It was amazing. Excellent chefs there.
Runner Up was the Schnitzel at Bei Oma Kleinmann in Koln. So good. So big.
Best street food goes to Walk to Wok.
Worst:
Also Amsterdam but just random shops that cater to tourists… they have stupid things like Pizza Hotdogs. I got something like that once and it was terrible.
Yes I have been to a lot of places. Just nothing has jumped out at me other than these places. Though there’s a greasy Doner Kebab place in Brussels that I look forward to visiting again.
The best dish would have to be the babi guling I got at a small restaurant in Bali, it was just perfect. Crispy skin, juicy pork, extra sambal, lawar and rice.
The worst was definitely a subway in Mexico my friends all wanted to stop at, there is no reason to ever eat at a subway in Mexico
**Best abroad:** Margherita Pizza at Pizzeria Da Michele in Napoli. The second I bit into that crust I nearly cried. The ingredients are pretty much the same wherever, but its the crust. Right there in that atmosphere at that temperature with that oven with that water, that was so good. I went to one of the franchised Da Micheles in Los Angeles and….well, its actually a drastically different restaurant for a lot of reasons. But as I bit into it, the crust was not the same. Good, sure. But it wasn’t the same.
**Worst abroad**: Jetlagged and struggling to find our AirBNB in Barcelona, we finally found it and were exhausted. There were two places open near us, one less crowded than the other. Our mistake for choosing the less crowded one. Wanting something vaguely familiar I saw “quesadilla” listed on the Tapas menu so I’m like sure, I’ll get that. Holy shit, it is the worst quesadilla I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve had some awful in-patient hospital quesadillas before. You would think a former colonial overlord would retain some of the food but nope.
We figured out that the locals only went to this place for drinks because no one else was eating the food lol.
*Honorable mention for “best American food abroad”:* I gotta give this one to the McDonald’s in Barcelona near the Casa Batllo. Only restaurant in the area open til 2am, [they served a pretty good draft beer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKVc3_Lh2lA), always good for a quick pastry or espresso as they had a separate McCafe stand. I rarely eat McDonald’s at home but abroad, they are usually quite good for a quick coffee, snack, and free use of the restroom.
My examples are both from Russia.
Worst: Probably pickled tomatoes. I love tomatoes and gladly eat them raw, simply sliced in a bowl. But pickled tomatoes were like something out of a jar from a medical lab, soggy in the worst way, vinegary, and were the only food I had to start declining. The texture and favor just…had zero redeeming qualities for me.
Best: Herring Under a Fur Coat. Easily the most delicious thing I’ve eaten with the most disgusting sounding name. I miss it a lot, but it looks like an absolute chore to make (it’s a layered salad type thing), so I’ve never tried making it myself. Borscht is really fantastic, too, and way more tasty than I thought it would be.
The only place I can really remember is Mexico since I was so young for the other countries I went to, but I go to Mexico at least once a year. So, best and worst were both tacos in Mexico. The best were some al pastor street tacos we got out of a roll-up door place in downtown Puerto Vallarta late at night right before they closed. They were simple, but perfect. The worst I kinda feel bad about because the location was the owner’s passion project and he was a really sweet guy, but his tacos were complicated and had a weird flavor profile, namely the smoked albacore one. Too smokey and very dry.
Honorable mentions for both categories are the amazing shrimp quesadillas you can get at nearly any beach hut, and the mediocre mall sushi that took too long to come out while I was fighting with my SO. It was interesting, though, since they served it with sauteed serranos and onions rather than wasabi which I didn’t find bad.
Best: Probably this one random döner place in Berlin.
Worst: a Chinese place in London. Made buffet Chinese in the States taste like they deserved a Michelin star.
Best American food I had overseas was also in Germany. This burger place in Munich tasted like the great places here.
I’ve had so many good meals at home and abroad it’s hard to pick one.
The most *unexpectedly* good was the falafel stand right by my tube stop when I lived in North London. Their chips (french fries) were so goddamned good, it was surreal. I think maybe it was because of the oil mix they used and the other foods they fried in it, flavoring the oil, but they were some heavenly shit. Before you say so, yes I was drunk at midnight almost every time I got them, but I made a point to try them stone cold sober just to make sure it wasn’t the Drunken Gourmand Effect. They were still amazing.
Im gonna rightfully get a lot of hate for this one but
worst: Durian. I am sooo open to trying new things so even though it wasn’t my favorite smell, I gave it a try. For me, it tasted worse than the smell. Like old onions? I don’t know I cant explain. I was so disappointed because I wanted to love it!
Im gonna add hakarl to this because hakarl
best: hmm so many in this category so I’m gonna chuck out a few
– fresh seafood platter in positano
– the first time I had esquites in Guadalajara, my life changed that day
– chili crab in Singapore
– drunk cevapi in bosnia (mostar)
– the first time I tried Pavlova in Australia (my friends mom made it from scratch for me so it had extra love 🙂 )
Best: Noma before right before it got the “best restaurant in the world” title and, of all places, a British-owned Cantonese restaurant in Barcelona with a deep list of Belgian beers with two Chinese grannies rolling out dumplings by hand.
Worst: Supermac’s (McDonalds knockoff) in Ireland and a tourist trap Mexican/Italian combo restaurant in Denmark.
Best “American” food abroad: An epic burger at a place in Helsingør Denmark and an American style breakfast at a combination Diner/Coffeeshop (yes THAT kind of coffeeshop) in Amsterdam. I also recall Pizza Hut in Germany being really good.
The best is impossible. The worst is easy.
I’ve always believed I’d eat most anything people ate. I’ve eaten bugs. I’ve eaten snakes. I’ve eaten fermented stuff.
In the south of England, they make a thing that I assume they ate as an emergency food during the worst of WW2. It’s called “jellied eel.”
Let me be clear that I’ve eaten eel and enjoyed it. This was not that.
They take an eel and cut it into medallions. So far, so good. Then they boil the eel in water. Ok, it’s England. They add spices to the water. Great. But then gelatinous compounds come out of the eel, and they add a bit more. So now it’s a soggy, liquid/jello mixture. Horrifying, but likely still palatable.
Then they take the whole mess and put it in the fridge. So it sets. It turns opaque. It is a melange of bad textures and flavors and smells that is simply impossible to approach.
Every time I’m in Madrid the first thing I get is gambas al ajillo at Casa del Abuelo. It is such a simple dish which I just never get tired of. I also pick up some slices of Jamon.
I’m a pilot who flys mostly to Europe and this is my favorite food abroad.
2nd favorite is probably a gyro in Athens.
The single best meal I’ve eaten was at a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Belgium (I think Michelin has since demoted them), although I can’t actually remember what I ate. It was one of those multi-course meal where there were only a few choices on the menu, but my God was it amazing.
I love German food, and one of the best meals I had there was a perfectly smoked Schweinhaxe, served with dumplings and a Rauchbier. Simple, but amazing.
Absolute worst thing I’ve eaten abroad was an andouillette in France. I made the mistake of thinking it would be similar to an andouille sausage. It was not. It smelled like piss (and tasted the way imagine piss tastes) and you could identify individual pieces of internal organs. I couldn’t finish it, it was so disgusting.
Worst “American” food is the same as what others report. Mexican food in Europe is generally extremely bland.