Unlike books or movies or music — the subjects of most best-of lists — dining is not a static experience. It is the chemistry formed when a patron and a restaurant come together in perfect harmony. But this frisson requires so many variables: The diner has to be in a good mood, buzzed just enough, and accompanied by companions they enjoy. A restaurant has to have cooks on their game, a happy server, and a dining room with energy. Oh, yes, and then there’s the food. While a delicious dinner is obviously key, warm and friendly service may factor in even more (which is why we’re so happy to see QR codes have mostly disappeared).

From night to night, a restaurant changes, as do we, which is why we decided to select our best meals of the year, as opposed to the best restaurants — opening the door both to the epic and eloquent and the humble and soulful. Following are the picks of the Standard’s food editors, listed in no particular order.

A four-hour dinner can feel like a slog, but not when you’re seated in a velvet-wrapped semi-circular corner booth with a full view of Quince’s dining room, which owners Michael and Lindsay Tusk spent almost a year renovating. Thanks to the soft, natural color palette and near-total absence of right angles, Quince now feels like the home of a classy — but fun! — very wealthy friend. I could have eaten plates of venison tartare with caviar, Marin-grown produce, hand-rolled farfalle, and smokey little squab buried in truffles until sunrise. And just when I thought the night couldn’t get better, a cart of vintage amari was rolled out to cap things off. Quince, 470 Pacific Ave., Jackson Square 

This hip, nationally recognized Cantonese-American 36-seater, run by two former Mister Jiu’s chefs, was the hottest restaurant to see and be seen this year — and for good reason. Four Kings is the kind of place where you might run into a friend who will send over oversize tequila shots or see a table of industry folks you’ve never met but recognize from Instagram. On every visit, I’ve been intoxicated with the raucous energy and no-holds-barred cooking that takes the traditional escargot drenched in butter and adds spicy XO sauce. I’m still thinking about the jellyfish salad dressed in nose-clearing hot mustard and the mala spaghetti infused with Sichuan peppercorns that left my lips pleasantly tingly. The dish I can’t wait to return for? Squab so succulent I shamelessly licked each tiny bone clean. Four Kings, 710 Commercial St., Chinatown 

Is there room for more great pizza in this city? If chef Max Blachman-Gentile is baking it, then 100% yes. The former Tartine baker has proved he has a way with dough and knows how to coax a delicate yeasty flavor out of his crust before adorning it with peak-season produce. The Madrone, a simple-sounding combo of zippy tomato sauce, four kinds of cheese, and basil leaves, demonstrates Blachman-Gentile’s skill at taking the best ingredients and letting them shine. On a May evening, with slats of honey light hitting our spread of pizza, butter-bean salad, and wine, I felt like I’d stepped into a photo shoot for a glossy magazine. The only bummer was Jules’ pop-up status, but I’ll take comfort in knowing Blachman-Gentile is opening a brick-and-mortar next year. Jules Pizza, coming soon to 237 Fillmore St., Lower Haight

When I wandered into Z&Y Peking Duck for a midweek lunch in May, I did not expect the meal to live rent-free in my brain for the next few months. I thought, honestly — how good can roasted duck really be? Well, pretty damn good, it turns out. Sliced into crescent moons, arrayed on a platter resting over tiny votives, flanked by a plate of crepes and batons of green onion, the duck is still vivid enough in my memory to make my mouth water. Our party of four devoured as much as we could, folding fatty slices of meat and housemade sweet bean sauce between the paper-thin crepes. The spot, which opened late last year across the street from its Sichuan-focused sister restaurant Z&Y, might not be everyone’s idea of a power lunch. But I left feeling bolstered. Z&Y Peking Duck, 606 Jackson St., Chinatown 

With the additions of Ebiko in FiDi and Hokkaido Sashimi Marketplace in the Richmond, takeout sushi has reached new heights in San Francisco. But the understated Aji Kiji on Fillmore Street is the best of them all. Chef Jinwoong Lim set out to prove he could offer Michelin-quality sushi at an affordable price, and given that Aji Kiji always sells out within hours, I’d say he succeeded. In a display case that looks like it could house fine jewels are a rainbow of sashimi and nigiri garnished with carrots cut into tiny flowers, escorted by koi-shaped bottles of house-blended soy sauce. I devoured the box of salmon belly, buttery amberjack, and fatty tuna on my couch, legs crossed and TV on, giddy, like a kid getting away with something naughty. Aji Kiji, 1552 Fillmore St., Japantown

Alongside chef Eric Ehler of the pizzeria Outta Sight, I set out on a balmy August night to hit up four of the Mission’s finest late-night street-food destinations. Eating puffy panuchos on the sidewalk across the street from Foreign Cinema, I realized I’d been blind to a vibrant side of the Mission food scene filled with hard-to-find tacos Arabes, cheesy hamburguesas, and one seriously gut-busting pambazo. No longer would my perception of street food be confined to bacon-wrapped hot dogs and foil-wrapped pollo asada burritos. Honestly though, the memory I most cherish is of chef Eric and I knocking down beers at El Terbol Sports Bar, followed by ice-cold martinis at Martuni’s, a much-needed digestif.

Once upon a time, I was a 13-year-old Sacramento kid who loved nothing more than dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. So I should have known I’d fall hard for Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack, the family-friendly Italian restaurant on Mission Street that got a new owner and a high-octane cocktail menu this summer. On a weeknight,  a rowdy group of friends and I ate a big basket of garlic bread and several bowls of spaghetti, and I sucked down so many piña colada old-fashioneds that someone else had to take my car home. Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack, 3230 Mission St., Bernal Heights

A katsu-focused tasting menu isn’t normally my idea of a low-fuss Sunday night, but to my surprise, my dinner at Showa Le Gourmet Tonkatsu in September was an ideal weekend-ender. The katsu was the most thoughtful part of the meal, starring a Dungeness crab croquette with breadcrumbs made of dehydrated rice and a skewer of dry-aged Duroc pork encased in long-grain panko made from a special low-sugar, high-yeast loaf. I was just as impressed by the ridiculously well-appointed bathroom (fancy lotion and black toilet paper, anyone?) as by the siphon-brewed kombu. Mostly, however, I loved the exuberant and warm hospitality offered by co-owner and maître d’ Joe Chang, who made me feel like I’d known him for years. Showa, 1550 Howard St., SoMa

Dining at Chapeau! is like being welcomed into the Gardelle family home, where Philippe and son Andrew share kitchen duties, while mom Ellen shakes cocktails and checks on guests. It’s the kind of true mom-and-pop shop that feels anachronistic in 2024, so wholesome and familial you might think you’re in a Provincial village, not the Richmond in San Francisco. But the family behind Chapeau! is, indeed, just as sweetly authentic as the food they serve, such as a bubbling plate of garlic-soaked escargot and soul-satisfying cassoulet, a hearty amalgamation of beans, duck, and sausage that is the epitome of a rustic French meal. Chapeau!, 126 Clement St., Richmond 

I’ve never been big on birthday cake, so this year I opted instead for a birthday sandwich; specifically, a classic muffuletta from Sandy’s on Haight Street. I took the whole thing — a foot in diameter, stacked with mortadella, prosciutto, salame, provolone, spicy olive spread, and Duke’s mayo — to Golden Gate Park to split among friends. We lazed away the afternoon eating Zapp’s chips and quarts of homemade ice cream paired with a few bottles of sparkling red wine. It was undeniably the best way to celebrate another trip around the sun. Sandy’s, 1457 Haight St., Haight-Ashbury 

A $250 omakase is pricey as hell, but if you’re gonna be a baller, do it at the relocated Akikos. The gorgeous, year-old SoMa location comes complete with a glass aging refrigerator, where fish hang like a rack of couture, and a white-oak sushi bar as glam as a catwalk. The canape of toasted milk bread topped with fatty tuna, caviar, and gold leaf gets the ’gram, but I loved the jiggly chawanmushi with lobster-maitake sauce and shavings of summer truffle more. The most memorable part of the night: Japan-born Shinsuke Hayashi, who effortlessly crafted 10 pieces of eyes-to-the-heavens nigiri while chatting hilariously about his years in the American South, where he learned to appreciate the glories of greasy food. His repartee alone made a potentially serious dinner absolutely delightful. Akikos, 430 Folsom St., SoMa

Pasta Supply Co, which this year opened its second location in the Mission, is a little punk rock (the music is always up), has a sense of humor (one of the many compound butters is called Hot Mess), and is constantly throwing flavor ideas (Calabrian XO sauce, corn ravioli with fried black peppercorns) to the wall to see if they’ll stick. Chef-owner Anthony Strong has created the kind of place that lives within its means: a reservationless joint where you can stop by on a whim, grab a salad and some pasta, and leave with some hot-as-hell “vulcan” chiles to boot — which is exactly what I did last week. With this restaurant-cum-market, he has created what they call a brand, and I’m down for it. Pasta Supply Co., 3565 20th St., Mission; 236 Clement St., Inner Richmond

Chef Sung Park of Kothai Republic, an Inner Sunset restaurant that opened at the end of 2022, is the kind of guy, who will kindly drop your table a gratis plate of sweet-spicy fish crudo with mango-citrus coulis and tart cape gooseberries. The pantry he pulls from runs the gamut of ingredients, mostly with Asian notes, demonstrating a sophisticated sensibility that belies the fact that Park never worked in a kitchen before opening his own. My favorite dish was the last one: Umpqua Valley lamb shank braised in a sauce tingly with Sichuan peppercorns and earthy with cumin, atop smoky roasted eggplant. We mopped it all up with flaky roti and swooned. Kothai Republic, 1398 9th Ave., Inner Sunset

I arrived at the little sister to the third-gen SF stalwart Original Joe’s as a snobby skeptic. I left a convert. It turns out that, yes, you can take a Marina restaurant with zucchini fries seriously. At LOJ, which opened in May, the addictive fries come as a towering tangle of delicately crisp summer squash, showered with parmesan and served with a squeeze of lemon. Parm also covers the garlic bread knots with your choice of marinara or ranch, the solid Caesar, and, of course, chicken parm. The pastas are solid, the pizzas are tasty, and the martinis are big. But the thing I savored most was the friendly, flawless, old-school service, coupled with a dining room brimming with carb-loaded, very happy people. Little Original Joe’s, 2301 Chestnut St., Marina

The warm, still summer evening I spent at Galinette was magical (even more so because, in the Outer Sunset, there are only a handful of warm nights a year). The self-proclaimed “beach bistro,” which opened in June, keeps it as casual as the guy who dined at a sidewalk table wearing sandy flip-flops. My teenage son and I swiped crisp, spicy radishes through salty-oily-fishy anchoiade and dipped into chicken liver pate with briny gherkins and seedy mustard. Steak was served with a rich bordelaise sauce and frites, and a hefty bowl of bourride was good and rustic. Two women drinking wine the color of apricots bantered in French as if they were well-planted extras. The best restaurants transport you, and if you’re lucky, the destination is the south of France. Galinette, 3554-3560 Taraval St., Outer Sunset

For those of you (like me), who think San Francisco in on the brink of anti-fashion, a Frenchy night at Verjus is a perfectly accessorized shot in the arm. The restaurant and wine bar from Lindsay and Michael Tusk of Quince and Cotogna opened in 2019 but closed during the pandemic. This fall’s reopening has breathed life into the increasingly chic Jackson Square hood. From our table, we had a view of the open kitchen displaying a tower of butter, as well as tables of well-heeled patrons with VIP energy sipping Champagne (there are 100 bottles for less than $100) and digging into lamb sausage curried up with vadouvan and omelets with salade verte. The killer, glossy, blood-red ceiling is the color I will paint my nails when, inspired by Verjus, I eventually move to Paris. Verjus, 550 Washington St., Jackson Square

When you find out your boss’ husband grew up in a Thai restaurant family, you take him here as an expert witness to confirm that, indeed, SF is having its big Thai food moment. (He concurred.) Following on the heels of Nari and Prik Hom, Khao Tiew, a casual West Portal restaurant that opened in March, is not another green-curry-with-chicken joint. Chef Wipada Rattanapun and her front-of-house partner Arkaranit Dusitnitsakul offer up classics such as khao soi, as well as less traditional dishes, like silky, spicy panang curry served with a fan of sous-vide-tender duck breast. But the dish that did it for me was a humble and tart chicken-and-herb soup with fragrant tamarind stems and makrut lime leaves. Boss be damned: I wanted to hoard it. Khao Tiew, 272 Claremont Blvd., West Portal

In a brunch-obsessed city that can’t quite wrap its head around a leisurely weekday breakfast, Early to Rise in Nopa is a decadent outlier. Just the words “apple-butter French toast” might be enough to get me to play hooky, which I did one Friday, sinking into the giddy joy of far too many complimentary refills of Signal coffee, warm service, and abundant portions. Considering that chef-owner Andrew McCormack previously worked at Quince, it’s no surprise that everything is a little extra: A benedict has Dungeness crab, the bagels are housemade, the Anson Mills grits are next-level, and McCormack, a certified meat processor, even makes his own thick-cut bacon. Early to Rise, 1801 McCallister St., Nopa

Dalida has hit it out of the park since chef-partners Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz started serving their lovely Eastern Med menu in June 2023. Most people head to the pretty Presidio space for dinner, but let me pitch you on brunch — particularly if you have visitors. Following a walk along the Marina Green, sit down to oysters on the half shell and a pita-rific spread, dipping the steamy, chubby flatbreads into muhammara or swiping up the sauce from a plate of poached eggs with braised greens, yogurt, and amba (an Indian-adjacent, salty, mango-pickle condiment that I can’t get enough of). And, yes, their deservedly famous octopus and sujuk dish is available too. The entirety of the late-morning meal is simply stellar. Dalida, 101 Montgomery St., Presidio

Everything was great at Chaa Roen Poen, a humble Thai-Lao restaurant that opened in Parkside in October. From the little Lao menu, I loved the crispy rice salad with fermented sour pork sausage and — a new discovery — catfish steamed with sticky rice powder in banana leaves, with copious amounts of dill. But there was something about the quirky alchemy of the out-of-place country music, the chilly night, a catch-up with a good friend, and the kao piak — a soup with handmade rice noodles, chunks of bone-in spare ribs, crispy onions, and a nourishing pork-and-ginger broth — that was just pure pleasure. Co-owner Kanjana “Ana” Sankad sweetly served us that night, and I could just tell she was putting her all into it. Chaa Roen Poen, 1241 Vicente St., Parkside