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Hundreds of dishes were ordered, consumed and analyzed this year by yours truly, and with every bite came the hope that I was about to eat something phenomenal, something spectacular, something — dare I say it? — epic.

Truth is, you’d be lucky to get something delicious, and more often than not, you’d just get something OK. Not every Netflix series is a winner, not every friend is a keeper, and not every red wine pairs with red meat. And how great, because if everything were wonderful, that painfully overused adjective would lose its meaning. We need the mediocre in order to truly appreciate the spectacular, and when it comes to restaurant meals, the former outweighs the latter by a mile. But when you do hit an eyebrow-raiser of a dish, what a thrill!

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So, what makes a dish great? Quality of ingredients to start, followed by skilled cooking, well-balanced seasoning and a playful use of texture. Well thought-out accompaniments are key, and as the cliché goes, beautiful presentation seduces with the eyes before the palate. Creativity is not a necessity, but when added to the equation, it often results in a higher score.