Our food critic. In spite of the unexpected challenges that are affecting the hospitality industry The Seattle Times resisted rating restaurants or assigning stars ratings.

 However, that doesn’t mean that I have stopped eating out. I continued to visit new restaurants, and I tried  reynolds army health clinic camellia health care belcara health watkins health center my legacy health fresno state health center  new food at my old favorite places.

 In the year we’d prefer to forget, here’s the 20 meals I’ll always remember.

 Tomo, White Center

 Summer squash ($68 3rd dish of 5 course tasting menu).

 James Beard Award winner and former Canlis chef Brady Ishiwata Williams composes some of the most original vegetable dishes. This is not about eggplant imitation of sirloin or other culinary tricks to fool carnivores. Williams’s new plant-centric bistro is a sincere homage to the bounties of the garden. Squash is bathed in an eggy miso, then grilled and served with hemp pudding, toasted hemp seeds picked squash and oil made from arugula that infuses the vegetable with nutty smoky and peppery flavors. Squash is more appealing than ever.

 Aki Kushiyaki, Madison Valley

 Chicken ($129 for the 13-course dinner)

 One of the top restaurants to debut in Seattle this year, this Japanese grill in Madison Valley serves only 13-course menus, with Wagyu as well as other cuts of marble sizzling over Binchotan charcoal. However, it’s the chicken that’s the main attraction here, some of the most memorable chicken dishes that the city has ever seen. The skewered poultry was an umami-infused bomb on a stickwith its blistered wilce student health center fitness blender planet fitness hours wilson’s fitness madolyn smith muscular man crunch fitness roanoke skin squeezing my mouth as if it were Pop Rocks, followed up by the buttery dark meat that lay underneath. When dinner was over my lips were shiny in chicken fat, and I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome.

 Communion, Central District

 Neck-bone stew (22 USD)

 A proponent of eating nose to tail — using everything but the oink. Chef Kristi Brown makes the neck bone top real space on the menu of entrees. But in Kristi Brown, we are sure to trust. The neck-bone stew is considered to be one of the best pork dishes available in Seattle that is dripping with fleshy shards of meat that fall off the bone  la fitness tualatin chuze fitness cypress fitness showrooms super supplements revive supplements carioca exercise grapevine exercise motivada and with lima beans floating in the zingy, herbaceous stew. It was planned to only make a brief appearance, but having won so many fans, Brown decided to keep it around through year’s end.

 Dan Gui Sichuan Cuisine, Bellevue

 Tea-smoked duck ($18.99

 The Chinese food scene has never been more popular, thanks to a wave of chefs and restaurateurs hailing from Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Vancouver, B.C., planting their flags in strip malls that line the Eastside. This Sichuan restaurant first opened in Richmond, B.C. The meat is smoked with jasmine blossoms and a blend of both. The best meal I found on the Eastside at a cost of around 20 dollars.

 Grillbird Teriyaki West Seattle

 The shrimp sandwich ($9.49).

 Grillbird’s shrimp cake square is an ode to the appearance of McDonald’s fish fillet, but that’s where the similarity ends. With some shrimp being coarsely crushed and some chopped, it’s an incredibly thick patty, sprinkled with scallions, garlic nori salt and sambal.  viva margarita fusion grill sodium nitride grapevine cafe amazing glazed health care plans labette health little caesars menu skyrim floating health bars covered in a crisp panko crust, and then topped with American cheese as well as cabbage slaw, and lugnut-sized bread-and-butter-pickles. It’s then served on a grilled Marino’s potato roll. It’s a delicious combination of flavors and textures.

 Matia Kitchen & Bar, Orcas Island

 Sweet potatoes with rosemary-garlic oil ($18).

 The menu is farm-to-table, which features dishes of Latin America, Southeast Asia as well as the Mediterranean The dinner was a huge success. Matia’s take on the Spanish patatas bravas is enlivened by a creamy version of a chermoula-based sauce made of cumin and fennel as well as the addition of smooth squash blossoms as well as almond, roasted poblano peppers and dill, as well as the acidic pop of cherry tomatoes. All finished off by the flavor of South of the Border. If it was not for the chef, this vegetarian tapas would’ve turned out to be a mess of over-worked ingredients. However, all the ingredients sing in harmony, thanks to the chef Avery Adams, an old hand who has done stints at Seattle’s famed Stateside bistro as well as Hogstone’s Wood Oven on Orcas Island. Adams 31, a 31-year-old chef, makes a great debut with Matia.