The 13 Best Dishes We Ate Around the World in 2025
An updated Indian standard, wonderous savory French pastry and fully loaded fries all made the cut.
Behold the terre and mer pithivier with beetroot ketchup from Le Chêne in New York, a 2025 highlight dish.
Photographer: Andrew BuiHere we are at the end of the year, when I take stock of the hundreds of dishes I ate and pick out the best. As a subplot, I also read the remnant tea leaves as food editor for Bloomberg Pursuits, looking for what it all meant — which trends we succumbed to and which we didn’t.
As a general rule, I tend not to follow the crowds, instead searching for places and dishes that don’t feel overexposed. I’ve rolled my eyes as I walked past bagel lines and the crowds that continue to form outside the Sex and the City-famous Magnolia Bakery in New York’s West Village. I make a point of not ordering the burnt Basque cheesecake that remains a fixture on menus, even if the place has no connection whatsoever to the Spanish region. Another ubiquitous dessert, the affogato — the espresso-doused ice cream that’s become almost as omnipresent as its distant relative, the espresso martini — is also something I have, in the past, just said no to.