If you haven’t read Sadie on a Plate yet, I highly recommend you go pick that up right now! I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to Best Served Hot. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me. Reasons (with spoilers) below.

First - what I liked:
- the restaurant and food descriptions. Even reading with a full stomach it made me want to eat.
- the attempts to cover some deeper topics

What I didn’t:
- I didn’t really ever get the romance which is what I was here for. It was SO much description of the food that the romance felt very secondary. It was also sloooooow burn. And when they finally got together at 80% in - I found myself wishing it had been closed door. I usually prefer open but did not enjoy the sex scene at all. It just had me cringing.
- a third act breakup around miscommunication and someone running away instead of having one conversation is one of my LEAST favorite things. And then the “explanation” of how she misunderstood felt super lame to me - he retyped the reasons he didn’t believe in that someone else suggested and printed it out so he could think about it?? No.
- everything Emerson Lee - from her locking them in the printer room to her suddenly recognizing her privilege and getting Julie back her job. No.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

This is not a book to eat when hungry! I truly wish I could I could read Julie and Bennett's reviews in real life and visit all the tasty restaurants they go to. "Best Served Hot" is a really fun read with a charming protagonist and a great love interest. I loved the evolution of Julie's character through the story as she becomes more confident in herself and her capabilities while also broadening her sense of the others around her. The dynamic between Julie and Bennett was also really great and I was really rooting for them to finally get together. Overall, it was a really enjoyable read and I definitely recommend to those looking for a cute romance.

I started this one off thinking I would be really into a story about a NYC foodie instagrammer butting heads with a privileged establishment restaurant critic, but unfortunately it ended up falling flat for me. Julie is a PA to a retired NBC-esque exec by day, and runs her Instagram page, JulieZeeEatsNYC by night. After an altercation with the new restaurant critic at The Scroll newspaper, Bennett at a food truck festival, the newspaper decides to have the two team up and do joint reviews to increase their social media presence. They visit several restaurants together, but have almost zero chemistry with each other, despite eventually getting together. There was an attempt at enemies to lovers, but they didn't stay enemies for long, and a miscommunication subplot that was also resolved fairly quickly. The best part of this story for me was all of the food descriptions and it made me want to venture into the city to try similar restaurants. As far as a romance story though, it didn't quite do it for me.

right off the bat, i want to say that while i enjoyed my time reading this book, i do not think it will be for everyone. our main character, julie, is quick-tempered in the way that sometimes she speaks before she thinks, and i can see where people wouldn’t enjoy that about her. for me, yes she was chaotic and messy, but she did try to do right by people and when she took the time to sit with her actions, she was able to recognize her missteps. just from the setup and the situational humor in the story, i could 100% see this as a movie, my jaw was hitting the floor at some of the silly things that happen. the banter and natural comfortable vibe between julie and bennett in the initial stages of their acquaintance/friendship situation made me want to root for them. bennett was a sweet cinnamon roll man, so i loved learning more about him throughout the story. also the descriptions of food had my mouth watering. overall i thought this was solid and cute! i'm not sure if it’ll be super memorable down the line, but i enjoyed it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you, thank you, thank you to @amandapanitch @berittalksbooks and @berkleypub for my complimentary e-copy and the opportunity to buddy read this gem!

Pro tip: DO NOT READ THIS WHILE HUNGRY!!

Happy belated Mardi Gras, and happy belated pub day to BEST SERVED HOT by @amandapanitch !! I wanted to combine my love for Mardi Gras and New Orleans with my love of this gem of a foodie romcom, and I hope this reel does both justice! I also meant to post this yesterday, but I ended up subbing for a fourth grade class instead 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was a huge fan of Amanda’s debut novel, Sadie On A Plate, so when I learned of her second foodie romcom, I was immediately onboard, and I was not disappointed!

In this enemies-to-lovers romance, we follow Julie Zimmerman. By day, she is an executive assistant to a wealthy businessman, but at night and on the weekends, she’s @JulieZeeEatsNYC , an up-and-coming restaurant and food reviewer with over fifty thousand followers on Instagram. While she loves the freedom and independence of her side hustle, Julie yearns for the stability (and expense account) of a critic at a major publication, like The New York Times or the New York Scroll. Unfortunately, despite Julie’s stellar application, that job went to uppity Bennett Richard Macalester Wright, another wealthy white male critic who claims he doesn’t really believe in social media.

When Julie and Bennett bump into each other at the Central Park Food Festival, chaos and hijinks ensue, leading to a very public yelling match and a subsequent video that happens to launch both Julie's and The Scroll's follower counts. Clearly, teaming up for a few reviews could be mutually beneficial, but will these two be able to handle the heat (both from the spicy food and otherwise?)

Friends, it's hard to say what I loved most about this book. The detailed food descriptions had my mouth watering and sent me down multiple Google rabbit holes as I searched for more information about the delectable dishes Julie and Bennett sampled; the strong support system of Alice, Kelsey, Marcus, and Jada that always had Julie's back was heartwarming and also helped provide some great banter; the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers evolution of Julie and Bennett was sweet; and boy, did Emerson Leigh absolutely steal the show! She cracked me up multiple times, and in the end, her character growth impressed me the most.

My only critique? The romance between Julie and Bennett never really sold me, and at times, I felt like the pacing was a little slow/stilted. Don't get me wrong; Bennett definitely grew on me as the book progressed, and I did like both Julie and Bennett as characters, but for me, it went from Julie being jealous of him for a long time to almost insta-love. That did not detract from me loving this book, though! The secondary characters made up for anything I felt was lacking between Julie and Bennett, I adored that Julie was an influencer doing reviews on her own time and dime (like so many of us Bookstagrammers!), and again, those food descriptions!

If you liked Sadie On A Plate, I will say this is different from that book, but in a wonderful and fun way! Grab this one ASAP!

Dueling food critics heat things up in this fun NYC enemies to lovers story. Cute premise and adorably awkward main character.

Unfortunately, I did not care for this book. Being a foodie, I appreciated the tastey descriptions of the food, however, the story was lacking. I was bored the whole time and kept waiting for things to get interesting.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the digital ARC.

This book was an easy one to breeze through. That said, I found the writing too clichéd at times and the descriptions of the interactions could be painfully uncomfortable, Once the romance between the main characters picked, up the book fell flat.

Unfortunately, I did not love "Best Served Hot" like I did Amanda Elliot's "Sadie on a Plate" It was not as engaging and I didn't feel the Jewish representation as much. I appreciated Sadie's cameo because she's my baby—secretly wishing she was in it more. Despite all that, I think the food descriptions were well written, making me very hungry a lot of the time. The story is still cute overall, but it lacked something I can't put my finger on.

I found this very enjoyable! it wasn't as memorable as I wanted it to be, but it kept me reading and I had a fun time doing so.

I previously read Sadie On A Plate and my immediate thoughts were "man I love the plot of the cooking aspect for this book, but I wish there was more story to the romance". Now with Best Served Hot I felt the complete opposite. Amanda definitely heated up the romance aspect with this book. Sadie is mentioned in this book, but I don't feel it's a true companion novel, just happens to be in the same world.

In Best Served Hot, I do think sometimes the food descriptions took away from the plot of Julie being a food reviewer/writer. I loved the behind-the-scenes aspects of how her job worked and I would have loved even more of it. I think her little friend group was great as well and could definitely lead to more stories featuring them. Julie and Bennett being food critics/reviewers in different ways was a fun twist to their meet cute/forced interactions. I enjoyed their relationship a lot, even though I wish we could have gotten to know Bennett just a little bit more throughout the book. this book was also a little bit steamier than her previous work.

I love everything food related. I have had a food blog for many years now. So reading a book about food reviews was a lot of fun. They are rivals, one at a newspaper, which is a dying industry and one an influencer that is up and coming. The chemistry was good and I really liked the characters. I really don't like miscommunication breakups. One where one won't talk to the other to see what the real deal is...That's my reason for 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, a really fun read!

I love a book that talks about food and this did it in all the best ways. It left me wanting to try new dishes and fully experience the food. I loved Julie and Bennetts banter and how they started off. While I did not like how their “problem” was resolved it was a cute romance. I also loved how Julie was able to grow and learn through the experience not only personally but professionally.

This book will make you hungry, not joking! I don't read many "foodie" romances for this reason, but overall, it was an enjoyable, slow burn and I loved this title!

This was an adorable and fast-paced rom-com about two feuding food critics had me wanting to learn how to cook.

I enjoyed Julie and Bennet as they move from her instant dislike to him and her belief that he's looking down at her to their happily ever after. Their shared love of food is a strong basis for their attraction but their approach to reviewing, he traditional paper and her blogging, put them a bit at odds.

A lot of time was spent describing their meals which was interesting but made me realize how NOT adventurous I am as an eater. I also didn't find the characters or the story gripping in a "can't put it down way".

While I'm not raving about the book, it was an entertaining way to spend a few hours.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Before staring this book make sure to grab some snacks and cozy up! Trust me, you will need them.

I thought this was a really fun easy read and I rate it 3.5 /5. Julie is a foodie who enjoys reviewing different restaurants on her social media. She struggles to balance her current full time job & her passion for critiquing food. I feel like I saw a lot of myself in Julie and this helped me connect with her character. There were times were I found her character to be annoying but overall I enjoyed it. The author did an amazing job at describing all the different dishes featured on this book. I was seriously hungry the whole time! Hence the suggestion of keeping snacks close by! The book also has some rivals to friend to lovers action going on which I always love. However,
this is a rom-com but to me it felt like the romance portion of the book was lacking. Full disclosure… I am a hopeless romantic and love drama. So, if you don’t enjoy when there is a lot of drama in a book (sometimes people refer to is as “unnecessary”) then this might me the perfect book for you! Overall, I did find myself laughing out loud and had an easy time reading it.

Julie is a food influencer who works as executive assistant to a wealthy businessman. She applies to become the restaurant critic for the New York Scroll newspaper but someone called Bennett Richard Macalester Wright scores her dream job. How could she ever compete with a guy like this from a privileged background with connections – he’s even friends with her boss’ daughter.
When Julie spots Bennett at a food festival, she sees red and sends him off on a wild goose chase to find a famous chef and a video of their bitter exchange goes viral. However, the rivals soon realise that partnering up for dual reviews will benefit them both.
I am not a foodie in any sense so was attracted to this title more for the competitive characters and the clash between social and traditional media, rather than the mouth-watering food scenes. However, the author did a fine job in dishing these up and they weren’t over-done at all. If you are looking for a sweet rom-com, this may well satisfy your cravings.

The best part of this book was all the food descriptions, the conversations around social media vs. traditional publishing, and the validity of each form. I really enjoyed those two aspects of this book. Elliot is great at making food jump off the page and I want a fully curated meal delivered for each chapter of this book, thank you.

However, at times the writing was so uncomfortably cheesy (sometimes just acceptably cheesy) and once the "romance" was introduced the scale was tipped into too much for me.

At the halfway mark is where I completely lost the book. This is where the characters are just barely dipping their toes into friendship and we get the line, "the way he squeezed my hand. Reassuringly, as if to say 'this is the way I'd squeeze your nipple.'" I just could not anymore. This was so out of left field and cringey. I am not convinced Elliot's writing talent lies in "sexy" writing and would have been better off writing a clean, no-steam, closed-door romance.

Really sad. I thoroughly enjoyed Sadie on a Plate and the foodie vibe but this did not work at all for me.

This one was a fun read but some parts of it weren't for me. The relationship between Julie and her best friend seemed off at times. We were introduced to characters that didn't feel integral to the story.

I'm not sure why I'm reading these books that make me so hungry but this one did too. The descriptions of food were so detailed I really wanted to try some.

I would recommend this one to people who enjoy a food element to their rom coms and very light on the spice.

Basically- a food influencer and a food critic meet and decide to review the same restaurants to see the differences in review techniques.

Thank you to @letstalkbookspromo and @berkleyromance for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.