The restaurant bucket list, done right.

Where it lives

Where to keep the list.

Use whatever you open without thinking. A saved list in your map app is good when you are out and hungry, because it shows what is near you. A note on your phone is better for the reasons and the order. A shared note works for couples and friend groups.

To be clear about where PlateDiary fits: it keeps the places you have been, not the places you want to go. The wish list lives in your map app; the memory of the meal lives in PlateDiary. That split is on purpose — a pin you saved and a dinner you remember are different things.

Prompts

How to choose what goes on it.

Add a place only if you can finish one of these sentences:

• “A friend who never gets excited got excited about…”
• “This is the dish this city is known for, and I have never had it here.”
• “I have walked past it a hundred times.”
• “It has been open longer than I have been alive.”
• “It is the only place nearby that cooks…”
• “It would be perfect for…” (a birthday, a first date, a rainy Tuesday).
• “It has a queue, and I want to know why.”
• “My parents still talk about eating there.”

Copy this

A restaurant bucket list template.

Copy this into a note or a spreadsheet. One block per place; the reason line is the one that matters.

• Place: name and neighbourhood
• Why it is here: one sentence from the prompts above
• Heard about it from: a person, an article, a queue you saw
• Order: the dish everyone mentions
• Bring: who would love it most
• Good for: date · big group · solo · rainy day · late night
• Open: days and hours (many places close one day a week)
• Added on: date
• Done on: date · Verdict: again / once was enough / not for me

Rules

Picking the next one.

• Oldest first. The place that has been on the list longest goes next, unless it is closed that day.
• Match the occasion. Filter by the “good for” line: a birthday gets a different pick than a Tuesday.
• Book the date, not the place. Put “bucket list night” in the calendar every month, then choose that week.
• Cluster by neighbourhood. Two list places on one street means a two-course night.
• Prune every season. If something has been on the list for a year and nobody is excited, cross it out. A shorter list gets finished.

Done

Cross it off, and keep what you had.

The moment you get the food is the moment a bucket list usually forgets. Snap the table in PlateDiary and every dish is cut out and filed under that place, with the night and who was there. Next time, the place page shows your usual and everything you have had there, so “once was enough” or “again” is a real answer, not a vague feeling.

And when nobody can decide where to eat, the free craving wheel spins through dishes you already loved.

Twenty-five

25 restaurant bucket list ideas.

Not specific restaurants — types of meals worth hunting for wherever you live or travel:

• A place older than your parents.
• A one-dish restaurant that has only ever cooked that one thing.
• A counter seat facing the kitchen.
• A tasting menu, once, for a reason.
• The dish a city is famous for, eaten in that city.
• A food stall inside a market.
• A 24-hour diner at 3 a.m.
• A breakfast-only place.
• A hotel high tea.
• A cuisine you cannot name three dishes from.
• The place your oldest friend swears by.
• A restaurant with no menu — they cook, you eat.
• Something from your family’s home region, cooked by someone else’s family.
• A rooftop at sunset.
• The restaurant from a film or book you love.
• A queue you have always skipped.
• A place that only opens a few days a week.
• The new opening everyone is talking about — in its first month.
• A dessert-only place, for dinner.
• A noodle shop where they pull the noodles in front of you.
• A night market, start to finish.
• A meal eaten on a boat or a train.
• A place where you have to share a table with strangers.
• The best-reviewed place in the town you grew up in.
• The restaurant where your parents had their first date.