Bite by Bite
Conquering My Culinary Bucket List One Dish at a Time

My top 10 favorite things I ate in restaurants last year

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The ubiquitous lists that punctuate the end of one year and the start of a new one beckoned me to get on the bandwagon as well and I just couldn’t resist. Last week, I shared with you my top 10 favorite things I made last year. So this week, I’m sharing – in no particular order – my top 10 favorite things I ate out in restaurants in 2024.

 

Reviewing the list, three burgers, two pizzas and two salads were among the items making the cut.

 

I’ve cut back drastically on eating burgers in recent years, but once in a while I choose to indulge and partake and there’s just nothing better or more satisfying than a big, thick juicy burger. These three didn’t disappoint.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the “Black & Bleu Burger” at Wunsche Bros. Cafe & Saloon in Old Town Spring last February en route out of town for a community journalism symposium. Their famous one-inch thick 80/20 patty on a toasted brioche bun was topped with blue cheese crumbles and a saute of mushrooms, onion and smoked bacon and was a delight.

 

During our spring break trip to Corpus Christi, I selected a “Seafood Queso Burger” at Blackbeard’s Too in Ingleside. The blackened patty was topped with their famous seafood queso and avocado slices and was such a refreshing treat as I’d never had seafood queso before, much less on a burger.

 

Our last meal with family over Christmas break was at Jakes Burgers in Waco. Known for their fresh baked poppy seed buns, I chose the “Jalapeno Bottle Cap Burger,” a classic double cheeseburger (double cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mustard) topped with “Jakes Jalapeno Bottle Caps” which are coins of breaded jalapenos. I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to tackle a double meat, double cheese burger, but it was excellent … even if I did spend the trip home picking poppy seeds from my teeth.

 

Moving toward a little healthier fare, there were two salads I enjoyed in 2024 that particularly stood out. One was the “Italian Salad” at Stella’s in Livingston. It consists of roasted chicken, arugula, roasted cherry tomatoes, seared bell pepper, mozzarella, parmesan, pasta, Kalamata olives and house croutons and is delightful.

 

For the longest, the standard Caesar salad was my go-to salad. However, in recent times, I’ve been veering toward wedge salads and I just can’t seem to get enough of them. There was one in particular that was above average in my opinion. It was the “Iceberg Wedge” at Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill in Austin. Composed of bacon, tomato, blue cheese, candied pecans and ranch, it was perfectly stellar. I think what pushed it over the top for me were the candied pecans and the generous amount of bacon on it.

 

There were two pizzas I ate last year that may be two of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten. One was the “Dire Wolf Pizza” at Grateful Head Pizza Oven & Tap Room in Broken Bow, Okla. It comes with Old World Italian sausage, pepperoni, bacon, hamburger, Canadian bacon & Genoa salami. And of course, we added jalapenos.

 

The other was the “Sweet Texas Heat Pizza” at Fiume Pizzeria and Wine Bar in San Antonio. It is made with a white sauce, applewood smoked bacon, hot Calabrian peppers, basil and local hot honey sourced from Texas Farms. This was truly amazing.

 

Two of the best meals I had last year were both at Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill in Austin. One was the “Horseradish Crusted Salmon” with lemon dill butter sauce and Brussels sprouts and the other was the “Jalapeno Hanger Steak” with salsa verde, demi-glace and Yukon mashers. Everything I’ve ever eaten at that place has been excellent and I would gladly order again.

 

Rounding out my list of the best things I ate out last year was a dish that I just recently wrote about in my article about our trip to see Baylor play in the Texas Bowl on New Year’s Eve. It was the “Crispy Chicken & Cornbread Pancake” at Tom’s Watch Bar in Houston and was a sweet cornbread pancake topped with Nashville hot chicken and served with honey butter and maple syrup. It was scrumptious.