Nearly every meal comes with gallo pinto, brown beans and rice spiced with garlic and coriander, and there is also an exquisite national dessert: tres leches, or "three milks," a rich, creamy, cakelike concoction.

Likewise, the creme brulee, one of several exquisite desserts, was perfection - a warm, light, creamy custard sealed by melted burnt sugar so ephemeral it dissolved instantly on the tongue.

The exquisite desserts include chocolate flan with white-chocolate ice cream and rum sauce.

The exquisite desserts, the artfully casual, warm surroundings and the genuine niceness of the staff all make Oliva my top culinary memory of the year.

Kadayıf Dolması is an exquisite dessert made with walnut.

It has an atmospheric summer courtyard, Mediterranean cuisine, exquisite desserts, faultless service and an excellent wine list.

Save space for the exquisite desserts, which include lime syllabub and chocolate truffle torte.

If you have to spend three hours making an exquisite dessert, no one says anything.

The Ritz-Carlton has a mahogany-paneled dining room called the Club Grill, 850-808, overlooking the water, that serves crispy cornmeal ravioli stuffed with shallots and artichokes and exquisite desserts, including pears filled with tequila cream and rolled in poppy seeds.