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BLACK
INK
BLACK INK
THE ART OF EXTRAORDINARY LIVING
•
FALL/WINTER 2014
FA L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 4
The Centurion
Guide to the
B E S T R E S TA U R A N T S I N T H E W O R L D
BEST RESTAURANTS
IN THE WORLD
INSIDE
EDITOR’S LETTER
10 • Abu Dhabi
• Alicante, Spain
• Antibes, France
• Aruba
• Axpe, Spain
• Auckland, New Zealand
• Bangkok
12 • Barcelona
14 • Bariloche, Argentina
• Beijing
• Berlin
• Bogotá, Columbia
• Brisbane, Australia
15 • Budapest
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Búzios, Brazil
• Cagnes-Sur-Mer, France
• Cape Town, South Africa
18 • Carmelo, Uruguay
• Casablanca, Morocco
• Chicago
20 • Christchurch, New Zealand
• Cocentaina, Spain
22 • Copenhagen, Denmark
• Courchevel, France
• Dallas
24 • Daylesford, Victoria, Australia
• Doha, Qatar
• Dublin, Ireland
• Ensenada, Mexico
26 • Espelho, Bahia, Brazil
• Figueres, Spain
• Foroglio, Switzerland
• Garzón, Uruguay
• Grand Baie, Mauritius
• Grand Lisboa, Macau
28 • Hong Kong
30 • Houston
• Istanbul
• Jämtland, Sweden
• Jerusalem
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• José Ignacio, Uruguay
• La Paz, Bolivia
32 • Lastours, France
• Las Vegas
• La Turbie, France
• Launceston, Tasmania,
Australia
• Lencóis, Bahia, Brazil
• Lewiston, Maine
• Lima, Peru
34 • London
36 • Los Angeles
37 • Lyon, France
38 • Madrid
• Melbourne, Australia
• Mendoza, Argentina
40 • Metairie, Louisiana
• Mexico City
• Miami
42 • Monte Carlo, Monaco
• Moscow
• Mustique, St. Vincent’s and
the Grenadines
• Napa, California
• Naples, Italy
44 • Nashville
• New Delhi
• New York
46 • Ottawa
• Paris
48 • Perth, Australia
• Philadelphia
• Phuket, Thailand
• Pocantico Hills, New York
• Positano, Italy
• Pretoria, South Africa
50 • Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain
• Québec City
• Riga, Latvia
• Rio de Janeiro
52 • Rome
• Roses, Spain
• St. Helena, Napa, California
• St. Petersburg
• Salta, Argentina
54 • San Francisco
56 • San Juan, Puerto Rico
• San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
• San Sebastián, Spain
• Santiago, Chile
• São Paulo, Brazil
58 • Seoul, South Korea
• Shanghai, China
60 • Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Singapore
61• Song Saa, Cambodia
• Stockholm
• Sydney, Australia
62 • Tallinn, Estonia
• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Tokyo
64 • Ubud, Bali
• Viña Matetic, Casablanca Valley,
Chile
• Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
• Zürich, Switzerland
Braised avocado
at Central
in Lima, Peru
6
BLACK INK FALL/WINTER 2014
THIS PAGE: MARCUS NILSSON.
COVER: CULTURA/GETTY IMAGES
8
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Chef Ángel
León of
Barcelona’s
Aponiente with
today’s catch
Richard David Story
Alexander Spacher
Chiu
ART DIRECTOR Marc Davila
ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Cindi Lee
ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Valeria Suasnavas
ASSOCIATE RESEARCH EDITOR Joseph Harper
ASSISTANT RESEARCH EDITOR Janaki Challa
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Lynn Hofher
PRODUCTION MANAGER Glenn Bo
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Heidi Mitchell
DESIGN DIRECTOR
ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR Faye
MANAGING DIRECTOR Deborah
Frank
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER
Steven L. DeLuca
VICE PRESIDENT/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Mark Cooper
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, MARKETING
Yung Moon
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Kathryn Banino Bano
FASHION Ed Cortese
TRAVEL DIRECTOR Lindsey Levine
AUTO, FINANCE, SPIRITS & NEW ENGLAND
Daniel Borchert
JEWELRY & WATCH DIRECTOR Jill
Meltz
Sunn
LAS VEGAS/SOUTHWEST Tricia Baak
MIAMI Jill Stone, Eric Davis
GENEVA Philippe Girardot
HAWAII Liane
F
or those of us who truly relish every bite of a wellcrafted dish, tucking into a dinner that is less than
perfect can induce an existential sigh of regret. As
a black ink reader, you’ve likely eaten at Dinner by
Heston Blumenthal in London. You are probably on
a first-name basis with the head waiter at Eleven
Madison Park in Manhattan. Your palate is as discriminating
as your taste in hotels and clothing. Booking your tables
before boarding a flight is integral to your travel regimen.
Here we’ve collected a highly opinionated, supremely curated
and utterly subjective list of our favorite restaurants from Abu
Dhabi to Zurich. Some require long drives to get to; others
only have one table. Many are passion projects by decorated
chefs; a few are magical experiences helmed by mavericks
who just want to cook great food—occasionally in their own
home. Some may be imperfect in their decor but sublime in
their cuisine, or worth a detour simply to dive into an authentic
scene. All will have you recommending them to friends should
they find themselves in Houston, Lima or Shanghai.
To whittle down the world’s most incredible restaurants to a
mere 287 entries, we consulted not gourmands but our favorite
food insiders—people who eat only what they love and who truly
love to eat. As a result, what you’ll find on the following pages
might not be quite the place for a beef Wellington (indeed, no
menu may be presented at all), but they will be dining experiences
that promise to leave you satiated...and with stories to share.
8
TIME INC.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Joseph
CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Norman
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EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TIME INC. Evelyn
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EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
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EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTS Lynne
Biggar, Colin Bodell,
Teri Everett, Mark Ford, Greg Giangrande,
Lawrence A. Jacobs, Todd Larsen,
Evelyn Webster
BLACK INK® Issue no.31
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ALVARO FERNANDEZ PRIETO
The World on a Plate
B E ST R E STAU R A N T S I N T H E WOR L D • T H E C E N T U R ION GU I DE
A
BU DHABI
Mezlai
Long before the arrival of Paris’s
new Peninsula Hotel, Abu Dhabi’s
Emirates Palace was rumored to
be the world’s first billion-dollar
hotel. For that price, its owners—
Abu Dhabi’s ruling royals—not only got miles
of marble and an unofficial home for visiting
dignitaries, but also Mezlai, which serves the
highest-end example of traditional Emirati food
in all of the UAE. Here, local chef and television
star Ali Salem Edbowa delivers a contemporary
take on a modestly styled cuisine inspired by
the nomadic life of the desert-living Bedouins.
Must-tries include the madfoun, a meatand-rice casserole slow-cooked in a special
oven for up to 12 hours, followed by a bowl of
aseeda, a saffron-and-sugar-spiked pudding,
all served in a palatial dining room anchored
by prime Arabian Sea views. Emirates Palace
Hotel; 97-1/2690-7999; kempinski.com.
ALICANTE, SPAIN
La Taberna del Gourmet
Alicante is sometimes thought of as a poor
relation to its glamorous northern neighbor,
Valencia, but it has its own engaging personality (it’s smaller and more relaxed, for one
thing) and its own cuisine, based on a vast
array of rice dishes—better than Valencia’s
paella, some aficionados say—and a wealth
of bounty from the sea. It is, indeed, seafood
that’s mostly on display at this perpetually
crowded super-tapas bar. Alicante chef-owner
María José San Román and her daughter Geni
Perramón are in charge, and everything from
the tiny, buttery local shrimp called quisquillas to the griddle-seared whole cuttlefish are
transportingly good. Calle San Fernando 10;
34-965/20-42-33; latabernadelgourmet.com.
ANTIBES, FRANCE
Eden-Roc
The Michelin folks don’t like this place, which
means the terrace restaurant at the Hôtel
du Cap-Eden-Roc is even more casual, more
sexy, but no less glam. To be honest, the food
is not going to knock your socks off, but the
setting and crowd make this eternal address a
gorgeous escape, especially as the sun melts
into the Mediterranean. Families have been
coming here for generations, picking a table
and sticking with it for decades, all dining in
their swimsuits and caftans in a somewhat
louche setting that begs anyone (of age, of
course) to indulge in that lunchtime cocktail
and maybe linger a little too long. It’s their
home away from home, and guests are always
welcome. Boulevard JF Kennedy; 33-4/93-6156-63; hotel-du-cap-eden-roc.com.
ARUBA
White Modern Cuisine
One of the reasons Caribbean cuisine is generally so unsatisfying isn’t because of a lack of
authenticity but a lack of authentic ingredients. With most products imported from North
America, Caribbean chefs often turned their
backs on their own native bounty. But not
chef-owner Urvin Croes. His White Modern
menu is a Caribbean rarity, its ingredients
sourced mostly from local farmers along with
a handful of Aruban foragers. While the former
provide staples such as fruits and vegetables,
the latter deliver true Aruban greens like okra
cress, reef bananas and deep-green seida
leaves. They’re all found in Croes’s three- and
five-course tasting menus, where locally scavenged flowers top a buffalo mozzarella tart or
a papaya Creole sauce complements a meaty
grilled mahi mahi. The dishes served are as
picturesquely plated as the azure Caribbean
is just a short stroll away. 95 L.G. Smith Blvd.,
Palm Beach Pl., Unit No. 201 Noord; 297/5861190; whitecuisine.com.
AXPE, SPAIN
since embraced sushi mainstream dining—but
the city’s gourmets know better. CEOs and
foodies gather around the communal table
(no bamboo or vegetable tangles) to try sake
unavailable anywhere else in town. Makoto
Tokuyama plays with rarified contemporary
trends such as foam and savory custard,
riffing on sashimi and tempura with quintessential New Zealand ingredients such as
spanner crab, Ora king salmon and whitebait.
A resplendent eight-course degustation menu
dovetails with Tokuyama’s Japanese ritualistic
refinement. Cocoro offers visitors yet another
way to enjoy this country’s peerless produce.
56 Brown St.; 64-9/360-0927; cocoro.co.nz.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Soul Bar
While this restaurant may have its sit-down,
serious à la carte side during the week, come
Friday and Saturday, it’s the bar that is ready
for its close-up. Tapas-style snacks—tuna tartare, cauliflower fritters—and funky beats lure
the city’s graphic artists, designers and other
assorted creatives to party hard. Think oysters
and Mumm’s Champagne nights, Wine o’Clock
at 5:30 p.m. and fashion shows starring New
Zealand’s top designers, meant to draw even
the most recalcitrant homebodies out for the
night. The cauliflower is a mere precursor to
the chandelier-swinging fun. Viaduct Harbour;
64-9/356-7249; soulbar.co.nz.
Etxebarri
Ask food writers anywhere in the world to
name their very favorite restaurants—the ones
they would return to on their own dime—and
chances are good that Etxebarri, deep in the
sheep-flecked mountains of Spain’s Basque
country, will be on their list. There’s something
about chef Bittor Arguinzoniz’s single-mindedness—to say nothing of his talent—that
astonishes even the most jaded of gourmands.
Arguinzoniz is a virtuoso of fire, designing his
own grills, making his own varieties of charcoal
and preparing every single one of his dishes—
from the caviar to the goose barnacles and
even the butter—over finely tuned flames. In
his hands, smoke becomes an exquisite spice
and an expression of creativity. Plaza de San
Juán 1, Atxondo, Bizkaia; 34-946/583-042;
asadoretxebarri.com.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Cocoro
Peaceful Auckland has its stealth treasures, too,
like this elegant Japanese bijou in Ponsonby.
Like Australians, New Zealanders have long
10
BANGKOK
The Southeast Asian city buzzes with 24-hour
hawker stalls serving up exotic street food and
dining establishments featuring creative chefs.
Bo.Lan
Duangporn “Bo” Songvisava and Australianborn Dylan “Lan” Jones met at David
Thompson’s Nahm outpost in London, and
in many ways Bo.Lan continues Thompson’s
experiment with carefully crafted and soundly
sourced Thai dishes that seem absolutely
fresh while still reaching back in time. The
restaurant has moved from Soi 26 to new
premises in Soi 53, but the atmosphere is
similar: tropical woods, Thai furnishings, a forest vibe and now a small oval swimming pool
in front. Dinner is a set menu that allows the
kitchen to calibrate the delicate harmonies
and balances of a proper Thai meal. Start with
a shot of fiery yadong liqueur served with sour
fruits, then progress through a salad of grilled
banana blossom and chicken, a green curry
of beef and mangosteen and a nahm prik
(chile relish) with an acacia-leaf omelet.
Bo.Lan will immerse you in Thai cuisine that,
even if you do live in Thailand, you likely
haven’t eaten before. 24 Sukhumvit Soi 53;
66-2/260-2961; bolan.co.th.
caviar and grilled Pacific saury with crab
essence and ponzu. It’s one of the few places in
Bangkok where you can eat your agnolotti with
a Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Premier Cru
Volnay while literally rubbing elbows with all the
Thai TV stars whose names you don’t know.
The Grass, Thonglor Soi 12, Sukhumvit 55; 662/714-9292; waterlibrary.com.
dishes that include seafood and meat. This
is a rich and long affair; it’s a good idea
to leave a little siesta time in your schedule
following trademark dishes like squab in
escabèche, served with a pear poached in
red wine. Carrer d’Aribau 58; 34-9/3323-9490;
cincsentits.com.
Moments
Nahm
Aussie chef David Thompson has managed
to impress even the locals with his mastery of
their cuisine through a dedicated study of the
people, history and food of Thailand. His jawdropping grasp of the country’s regions and
their varying ingredients and cooking techniques manifests in the deep layers of flavor
in his food. He never cuts corners, diligently
following traditional recipes through their elongated lists of ingredients and complex stages
of preparation, and it pays off. Look around
and you’ll notice most of your fellow diners are
predominantly (stylish) Thais. 27 S. Sathorn
Rd.; 66-2/625-3388; comohotels.com.
Namsaah Bottling Trust
A collaboration between Iron Chef Ian Kittichai
and Bangkok nightlife entrepreneur Justin
Dunne, Namsaah is arrayed inside a darkpink two-story mansion on tiny, easy-to-miss
Silom Soi 7. Downstairs there’s a bar with a
pink papier-mâché pig’s head and a barman
who will roast a tangerine and grate the peel
into your orange Negroni. Upstairs, there
are two handsome rooms, one papered with
Chinese scroll paintings and the other with
framed vintage erotica. It feels like a private
house—it was once a small bank and before
that a soda company’s bottling depot and
before that the house of a royal aide-de-camp.
Kittichai’s dishes are light and playful versions
of Thai classics: Try the soda-battered shrimps
(namsaah means “soda” in Thai) or the Iron
Chef’s version of pad thai. When it’s not
monsoon and the thermometer hovers below
95 degrees, you can also sit in the beautiful
garden, open until 2 a.m. every day. 401 Silom
Soi 7; 66-2/636-6622; namsaah.com.
Water Library
Downstairs it’s a sleek and well-stocked
cocktail bar and a walk-in wine cellar. Upstairs
it’s an intimate ten-seat restaurant where
diners sit at a single bar and are served a set
menu for less than $400 a head, albeit with
wine pairings. This is Michelin-style international cuisine, with small, compact dishes:
hay-smoked wild wood pigeon with coffee
oil, beurre blanc ice cream served with osetra
BARCELONA
The Catalonian capital is the home of molecular
gastronomy, a city where the food rivals the
outrageous Gaudí architecture.
ABaC
In 2002, at age 24, Catalan chef Jordi Cruz
became the second youngest chef in the world
to gain one of those coveted Michelin stars;
nine years later, his ABaC was named Catalonia’s best restaurant by the Catalan Academy
of Gastronomy. The key, he says, is not settling
for less than excellence in everything from the
flatware to the produce. Five or six dishes on
the tasting menus change monthly in accordance with the seasons and the chef’s whim:
“I want the flavors in my dishes to be pure and
true. You won’t find me serving a chocolate
pastry with garlic.” Avinguda del Tibidabo 1;
34-9/3319-6600; abacbarcelona.com.
Can Culleretes
Can Culleretes is Catalonia’s oldest restaurant (and the second oldest in Spain, according to The Guinness Book of World Records);
food has been served here in the heart of the
city since 1786, and everything from the tile
murals on the walls to the food itself harken
back to bygone centuries. The Agut family,
who has owned the storied place since 1958,
adheres to strict edicts of local cuisine. If you
want to try traditional Catalan food, the basic
building blocks on which today’s cutting-edge
Catalan chefs have built their fanciful creations, this is the spot in which to do it. Don’t
expect modesty, either: Patriarch Montse
Agut Manubens told us his son has perfected
crema catalana, the Catalan version of crème
brulée. Carrer d’en Quintana 5; 34-9/33173022; culleretes.com.
Cinc Sentits
Catalans take their heaviest meal at midday,
and that’s when chef Jordi Artal offers two
abundant gastronomic menus of ten or 15
12
Carme Ruscalleda and her son Raül Balam are
at the helm of Moments in the super-elegant
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, located on one of the
world’s great shopping boulevards, Passeig de
Gràcia. The restaurant garnered two Michelin
stars after the chef had already earned three
for her restaurant Sant Pau on the Costa Brava.
Here Ruscalleda maintains her faithfulness to
local ingredients combined with a flair for the
creative: Note the “antiaging” dishes, developed in partnership with a Barcelona physician
to help stave off wrinkles and memory loss.
Plates like wild flounder with green tomatoes
and eggplant may add years to your life, but
they will also satisfy any youthful desire to
indulge. Passeig de Gràcia 38; 34-9/3151-8781;
mandarinoriental.com.
Els Pescadors
This jewel hidden far from the center of town,
in a transformed late-19th-century tavern
close to the sea, serves the kind of lovingly
prepared fish that provides ample reason
to make the detour. The monkfish is one of
Catalonia’s most beloved staples, and the
kitchen does it justice in a dish called rap
al serrallo, a filet of monkfish flambéed with
a tomato, chopped almonds and jamón
ibérico in olive oil. Since opening in 1980,
Els Pescadors has also specialized in arrossos,
rice dishes that are local variations of paellas.
Lobster lovers rave about the arròs caldós
de llamàntol, rice in lobster broth. It’s filling,
and so very delicious. Plaça de Prim 1; 349/3225-2018; elspescadors.com.
Restaurant L’Angle
This second Jordi Cruz restaurant produces
a menu entirely different from ABaC but no
less original. Located on the sleek second
floor of the Cram Hotel, only a few doors
down from Cinc Sentits, L’Angle stands out
even in this most celebrated of gastronomic
neighborhoods. Here Cruz has carefully
crafted a tasting menu of 30 dishes, with no
room for guest suggestions. “I want them
each to be somewhere between a tapa and a
half ration, and to be sequential. I want them
to be made with ingredients everyone knows
but put together in a way only I do.” Love it or
hate it (though most are smitten), you’ll never
change it. Carrer Aribau 54; 34-9/3216-7777;
restaurantangle.com.
Tickets Bar
Small plates are raised to new heights, with
just the inventiveness you’d expect from
Albert Adrià, the brother and coconspirator of
superstar chef Ferran Adrià. He may be serving
tapas, but these are far from your grandparents’ versions. The you-never-imaginedeating-this-before kinds of small dishes on
offer here, like a pistachio tempura or oysters
with cucumber consommé, perfectly illustrate
the way that the best new Catalan chefs
bring their imaginations to bear on the dishes
coming out of their kitchens. At Tickets, they
must be doing something right: You’ll need to
reserve two months in advance. Avinguda del
Parallel 164; no phone; ticketsbar.es.
BARILOCHE, ARGENTINA
El Refugio
Bariloche’s Arelauquen Lodge ushered
in creature comforts, charity polo games
and challenging golf to Patagonia. During
these more quiet winter months, the lodge’s
guests—and paying punters—are run up by
snowmobile to a cozy mountain cabin near
the property’s 4,300-foot peak. Platters of
venison pâté, smoked boar and local cheeses
are served by candlelight as diners survey the
glittering waters of lakes Nahuel Huapi and
the Gutiérrez and Moreno glaciers amid the
magisterial, ice-carved landscape below. A
more romantic setting could not be imagined.
Ruta Provincial 82, Lago Gutiérrez; 54-294/
447-6154; elrefugioarelauquen.com.ar.
BEIJING
China’s cultural capital offers culinary
experiences in some of the most dramatic
settings anywhere.
but diners are safe in the hands of the chef,
a native of the region. For those who’ve only
previously tried Chinese food abroad, Yunnan
cuisine is always a revelation, from grilled goat
cheese, crumbed chile fish and spicy stir-fried
mushrooms to Crossing the Bridge noodles.
Gulou Dongdajie, 67 Xiaojingchang Hutong,
Dongcheng district; 86-10/8404-1430.
Duck de Chine
There are several Beijing restaurants
renowned for their Peking duck, but Duck
de Chine’s staff is doing something a little
different—and doing it phenomenally well.
There’s a comfortable ambiance here, with the
typical Chinese-style round tables, wooden
floors and warm brick walls. The Peking duck
doesn’t deviate too far from tradition, either—
crisp roast duck with spring onion, cucumber
and a lick of hoisin sauce, all wrapped in
a pancake. Yet Duck de Chine also has some
clever takes on alternative duck dishes,
including a light duck confit and a duck taco
with water chestnut and red peppers in
a fresh pancake. Had enough of the bird?
Order the sour-plum-infused pumpkin and
braised oyster mushroom in tofu skin.
Courtyard 4, 1949 The Hidden City, Gongti
Bei Lu, Chaoyang district; 86-10/6501-8881;
elite-concepts.com.
Temple Restaurant Beijing
This is easily one of the most dramatic
dining venues in the capital. Located near
the Forbidden City in the compound of a
600-year-old Buddhist temple, the restaurant
offers European cuisine, courtesy of Belgian
restaurateur Ignace Lecleir, that skews French,
starting with amuse-bouches, single-bite treats
from the kitchen that include crunchy golden
cheese gougères and bacon-and-cheese
rolls. Noteworthy dishes: pan-fried foie gras
with pureed mushroom, porcini and escargot,
pot-roasted lobster with smoked aubergine
caviar and a stellar suckling pig confit. And the
dessert! The pistachio soufflé with deliciously
bitter chocolate ice cream is a transcendental
meditation on deliciousness. 23 Song Zhu Si,
Beijie, near WuSi DaJie, Dongcheng district;
86-10/8400-2232; trb-cn.com.
Dali Courtyard
You can understand why Dali Courtyard put
its outdoor space in the restaurant’s name:
The candlelit terrace offers one of the best
alfresco dining experiences in the city (not to
mention one of the few places where you can
order great cocktails and imported wine). In
keeping with the laid-back vibe in the southwestern province of Yunnan, there is no menu,
BERLIN
Pauly Saal
Setting an upscale restaurant in the remnants of a former Jewish girls’ school in
Berlin is as adventurous as it is audacious.
But there it is—Pauly Saal, which serves solid
German classics in a converted school built
in 1928 and quickly taken over by the Nazi
regime. Some 80 years later, the stark, industrial-edge space—abandoned for decades
before being repurposed for the 2006 Berlin
Biennale—features a clubby, Deco-inspired
bar, an alfresco terrace and a light-filled
dining room clad in handmade ceramic tiles
and Murano chandeliers and anchored by a
hanging, life-size rocket. As for the food, executive chef Siegfried Danler turns out Prussian
classics like calf-liver terrine with quail eggs
and Pomeranian beef with roasted potatoes
for lunch, and sliced Baltic Sea salmon and
crispy pike perch with leeks for dinner. It’s a
lesson in German cuisine, in a most unusual
space. 11–13 Auguststrasse; 49-30/33006070; paulysaal.com.
BUDAPEST
Onyx
Thirty years ago, a Hungarian restaurant
where white-gloved waiters served goose liver
with sour cherries and roast suckling pig with
smoked tomato would likely have been shuttered as a capitalist abomination. It’s a new
era in Hungary, though, and Budapest—once
called “the Paris of the East”—is regaining
much of its old gilt and glitter. At the elegant
Onyx, one of only two restaurants in the whole
country to earn a Michelin star, Szabina Szulló
and Tamás Széll, chef and sous-chef, respectively, bring back dishes from the city’s storied
past but translate them with a 21st-century
sensibility. Vörösmarty tér 7; 36-30/508-0622;
onyxrestaurant.hu.
BOGOTA, COLUMBIA
Criterión
Jorge Rausch wants you to eat lionfish.
This spiny, venomous Southeast Asian creature, accidentally released into the Caribbean
by a Florida aquarium, can gobble up to 20
smaller fish in 30 minutes. “If we don’t stop
it,” says Rausch, who runs Criterión with his
brother, Mark, “it will be the only species in
these waters.” His solution? Put it into ceviche;
it’s as delicious as it is daunting-looking.
Of course, the Rausches are also happy to
serve their clientele—pretty much everyone
who’s anyone in the Colombian capital—
more conventional fare, from soft-shell crab to
smoked pork chops to Key lime cheesecake.
Calle 69A, No. 5-75, Zona G; 57-1/310-1377;
criterion.com.co.
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
Jellyfish
Big lunches stretch into sunken afternoons at
this riverside gem right on the Brisbane River,
with 180-degree views from Story Bridge all
the way to Kangaroo Point. With fresh fish
delivered right off the trawler and dishes that
customize cooking methods to suit each of
the 14 species served, Jellyfish is prized for
its seafood. But the eclectic, boutique wine
list and location may play a part in the mysterious disappearance of office workers who
never return from their three-martini business
lunches here. On weekends, the local corporate crowd melts away and the place is abuzz
with international travelers and Brisbane
beauties who also know that the best way to
enjoy Jellyfish is to stretch out the meal all
afternoon. 123 Eagle St.; 61-7/3220-2202;
jellyfishrestaurant.com.au.
BUENOS AIRES
An old-world ambiance is complemented
by a maverick class of chefs reinventing Argentinian classics with French and Asian twists.
Chila
Soledad Nardelli was still a young pretender
when she took charge at this chic Puerto
Madero bistro in 2006. Now a much-garlanded
Gourmet Channel regular and mainstay of
Buenos Aires’s GAJO society of chefs, Nardelli
always exceeds expectations with her
French-influenced “new Argentine” seafood
and game. Look out for pop-up, open-kitchen
or collaborative events—particularly those
held in a secluded dining room at Chila’s
rear, where plate-glass windows overlook
the city’s docks. A dinner cooked alongside
Los Angeles’s Suzanne Tracht featured
confit of suckling pig with passion fruit and
potatoes and a teriyaki rib-eye with Sichuan
peppercorns. Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo
1160, Puerto Madero; 54-11/4343-6067;
chilaweb.com.ar.
El Obrero
Rough-and-tumble La Boca’s blue-collar cool
is centered largely on Boca Juniors, the port
district’s star-studded soccer team; beyond
lies little more than a grim urban wasteland.
More surprising, then, that workers’ cantina
El Obrero has enjoyed such unfailing success
through six decades of operation. With authentically peeling paint, chalkboard specials
and brick walls adorned with fútbol-related
scarves, pennants and flags, El Obrero draws
the sophisticated and uncouth alike by offering consistently delicious beef and a raucous,
fun-loving vibe. Agustín Caffarena 64, La Boca;
54-11/4362-9912.
track, backing up Rocka’s flip-flop glam with
snappy execution. Praia Brava 13, Armação
dos Búzios; 55-22/2623-6159; rockafish.com.
CAGNES-SUR-MER, FRANCE
Tarquino
Chef Dante Liporace did his obligatory stint
at El Bulli but returned to South America to
further a native culinary tradition based on the
meats, fish and game of Argentina’s pampas
and cordillera. At Tarquino, named after the
patriarch of Argentinian beef, a Durham Shorthorn bull imported from England around 1836,
he reinvents classic Argentinian dishes such
as suckling pig, duck confit and puchero stew.
On special occasions, he prepares secuencia
de la vaca, his take on nose-to-tail dining:
Starting with the tongue, Liporace serves up
sweetbreads, cheeks and sirloin and then
finishes with a fun take on oxtail, reduced to a
liquid and mixed with Malbec. Rodriguez Peña
1967, Recoleta; 54-11/6091-2160, tarquino
restaurante.com.ar.
Bistrot de la Marine
Jacques Maximin is one of the greatest unsung
French chefs. He’s right up there with Pierre
Gagnaire and Paul Bocuse, but he eschews
fanfare, so he doesn’t get the attention he
deserves. Especially since he spends most of
his time in a hidden enclave near Cannes,
serving $30 prix-fixe lunches in this tiny bistro
decorated with sardine cans. The focus here
is on Mediterranean fish, and Maximin can be
heard banging pots and pans in the kitchen
before beautiful plates of oysters, sole meunière
and lobster salad parade out, dish after fresh
dish, to a small cadre of very lucky patrons.
96 Promenade de la Plage, Cagnes-sur-Mer;
33-4/93-26-43-46; bistrotdelamarine.com.
Unik
If, as with Argentina-born, Paris-based
architect/painter Marcelo Joulia, you’re not
an experienced restaurateur, it helps to have
friends as worldly as Mauro Colagreco, chef
at Michelin two-star Mirazur in Menton,
France. On Colagreco’s advice, Joulia hired
the unassuming Maximiliano Rossi, then a
mere cook at Barcelona’s AbaC. The tip paid
off, as Rossi has evolved into quite the wizard
at the helm of the kitchen here. His slowcooked egg with crispy potatoes, romesco
sauce and ham appetizer is outstanding; it’s a
toss-up for second place between the equally
magisterial Patagonian lamb duet with smoked
quinoa, almonds and Turkish apricots or the
rabbit piled high with homemade bacon,
onions and tubers. Soler 5132, Palermo; 5411/4772-2230; unik.pro.
BUZIOS, BRAZIL
Rocka
Conservative beach bums may still prefer
a freshly macheted coconut or a chunk of the
haloumi-like coalho cheese, sprinkled with
oregano and served on a stick, but Búzios
beach lounge Rocka deserves kudos for
matching “serious” food with a sand-scattered
and breezy oceanfront location. Argentinian
chef Gustavo Rinkevich whips up tasty dishes
like mahi mahi on herb-based croûte or
lobster gratin with roasted banana and white
corn. But it’s co-owner Santiago Bebianno’s
discreet management that keeps things on
14
15
CAPE TOWN
The nearby winelands make pairings
with local seafood and game a truly South
African experience.
Chef Bruce Robertson’s at The Flagship
“It’s a gourmet home, not a restaurant!” says
South African celebrity chef and culinary explorer Bruce Robertson of his latest venture: an
oceanfront guesthouse in Simon’s Town, where
he serves a five-course seafood lunch for up
to 12 guests who have scored a seat at the
table online. Barefoot is his dress code. Those
who get in are treated to an astonishing array
of seafood, much of which he forages himself.
Among the delicacies: gurnard (sea robin fish),
sea snails, sea urchin and seaweed. He makes
his own salt, serves oysters from his own
tank and bottles his own olive oil. “Ninety percent of my food comes from within ten miles
of my own house,” he bellows. “I never rest.”
15 Erica Rd., Simon’s Town; 27-21/786-1700;
chefbrucerobertson.com.
Delaire Graff Estate
Billionaire Brit diamond jeweler and art collector Laurence Graff’s ten-suite wine estate on
a soaring mountain pass in the Cape Winelands would be worth a visit even if it weren’t
for its swanky flagship restaurant. As it is,
chef Michael Deg’s gorgeous art-lined space,
with curvaceous tangerine banquettes by
William Kentridge and stunning valley views,
is the cherry on top. Or, rather, the grape.
Enjoy fun, locally inspired creations such as
the duck liver “granola bar,” Mozambican pink
prawn bisque or Northern Cape lamb neck
with grilled leeks. It’s best to enjoy it with a
bottle of Delaire’s own vintages, perhaps the
Botmaskop 2013, a Bordeaux-style red blend.
R310, Helshoogte Pass, Stellenbosch; 2721/885-8160; delaire.co.za.
Equus Dine at Cavalli
Horses, gardens, art, whiskey, wine, fine food…
this sprawling estate, opened in 2013, brings
a California-like style and confidence to the
hitherto sedate Somerset West winelands. The
70-seat restaurant, with a polished cement
deck overlooking a small dam, is just one part
of a state-of-the-art, geothermal-powered
green building that houses a gallery, a fashion
boutique, a wedding venue and a whiskey
room. Talented local chef Henrico Grobbelaar’s
contemporary-classic locavore menu—guinea
fowl chicken parfait with pickled kombu;
smoked BBQ pork belly with peas and truffled
jus—would go down well in Napa, as would his
kitchen’s use of the heirloom gardens on the
grounds for their herbs and vegetables. Cavalli
Wine & Stud Estate, R44, Somerset West;
27-21/855-3218; cavallistud.com.
Mondiall Kitchen & Bar
As executive chef of a collection of five
Relais & Châteaux hotel restaurants in South
Africa, Peter Tempelhoff has his hands full.
Still, no reason not to add his own restaurant
to an already stellar portfolio. Occupying a
scenic quay-side berth on the V&A Waterfront,
the warehouse-sized Mondiall, opened in late
2013, oozes New York–style glamour, from
the soaring, box-lit ceilings hung with metal
chandeliers to the glamorous designer-clad
clientele streaming in for brunch (try the eggs
Benedict) through to late-night cocktails.
For all its modish touches, it’s actually a historic culinary tribute. Every dish on the menu
features the year and city of its provenance:
Crispy Duck Confit—Circa 13th Century
France. Those eggs Benedict? New York City,
circa 1894, as it happens. Alfred Mall, Quay
Four, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town; 27-21/4183003; mondiall.co.za.
Overture at Hidden Valley
Accessed via a rugged mountain road, this rustic-chic wood, stone and glass eatery hovering
on the craggy slopes of Hidden Valley wine
farm near Stellenbosch is the culinary shrine
of chef Bertus Basson—at 35, the dashing wild
man of South African cooking. Blue-eyed and
black-haired, Basson is the locavore’s locavore,
changing his menu daily and deciding what to
cook based on whatever local ingredients—
springbok, quail—his farmer and fisherman
friends have delivered that morning. The result
is astonishing: perfectly balanced flavors with
oddball flourishes like spicy octopus with
avocado puree or a chilled zucchini soup with
olive ice cream. Hidden Valley Wines, T4 Rt., off
Annandale Rd., R44, Stellenbosch; 27-21/8802721; dineatoverture.co.za.
Pierneef à La Motte
Named in honor of iconic 1920s painter Jacob
Hendrik Pierneef (the artist’s portrait with his
daughter is embossed on each high-backed
chair inside), the restaurant of the sumptuous
wine farm of opera singer Hanneli RupertKoegelenberg is a tribute to Cape Winelands
cuisine dating back to the first Dutch settlers
here 350 years ago. Continuing the tradition of
mentor Chris Erasmus, chef Michelle Theron
uses old techniques such as cooking with
bone marrow instead of butter to create sweet,
fruit-rich meat dishes popular among the early
settlers. Try the slow-cooked beef cheek with
preserved lemon in rosemary juice. Hanneli is
the sister of billionaire luxury goods tycoon Johann Rupert, whose gorgeous L’Ormarins wine
estate down the road is worth a visit. La Motte,
R45 Main Rd., Franschhoek Valley; 27-21/8768000; la-motte.com.
The Pool Room at Oak Valley
Farm-to-fork takes on new meaning at the
Pool Room, the alfresco poolside restaurant
of historic Oak Valley Estate in Elgin, an
hour’s drive east of Cape Town. Pigs roam
freely in the century-old English oak forests on
the grounds, and acorn-fed, slow-roasted pork
belly appears regularly on the menu. Grass-fed
beef from the farm’s large herd of Simmentaler
cattle is used in the restaurant’s cured meats
and burgers, and when a full-blooded Wagyu
herd currently being raised on the farm is big
enough, you will get to taste marbled Japanese steak. All that—plus superb wines, such
as the 2009 Oak Valley Mountain Reserve, a
Semillon blend with floral notes and hints of
oyster. Dine poolside or ask staff to prepare
you a picnic to be enjoyed on the oak-shaded
grounds. Oak Valley Estate, Oak Ave., Elgin;
27-21/859-4111; oakvalley.co.za.
Springfontein Eats
Many of South Africa’s best restaurants are in
remote areas. Springfontein Eats, for example,
sits literally down a gravel road on a wine
16
farm outside rural Stanford, 100 miles southeast of Cape Town. It was here that Michelinstarred German chef Jürgen Schneider ended
up in 2013, turning local diners more used
to meat on a grill wide-eyed with wonder at
the sight of foams, jellies and smudges. The
open-plan kitchen of the rustic converted
farmhouse lets Schneider talk to diners as
he cooks, and while the three- to six-course
tasting menu options seem simple on the
printed page—beef, beans, marrow; olive oil
moose and gooseberries—they ooze the style
and sophistication of a Fat Duck or an Alinea.
Springfontein winemaker Tariro Masayiti’s
award-winning Jonathan’s Ridge Pinotage
is outstanding. Springfontein Wine Estate,
Springfontein Rd. 8, Stanford; 27-28/341-0651;
springfontein.co.za.
The Tasting Room at Le Quartier
Français
A decade ago, when most South African chefs
were making fussy nouvelle cuisine, Dutch
transplant Margot Janse was already using
seasonal local ingredients—Cape mountain
herbs, Atlantic seafood, and grass-fed lamb—
to produce a new Cape cuisine with molecular
twists. Voilà, a revolution. Janse has inspired
dozens of other South African chefs to go
locavore and has helped turn the scenic winelands village of Franschhoek into a billionaires’
playground and gourmet capital. Her hushed,
clean-lined dining room can seem like a shrine,
but her five- and eight-course tasting menus
featuring roast Cape wildebeest, smoked
West Coast oysters and ice cream sprinkled
with the powdery fruit of the baobab tree
are astonishing gastronomic safaris. Le Quartier
Français, 16 Huguenot Rd., Franschhoek;
27-21/876-2151; lqf.co.za.
The Test Kitchen
This cozy, 65-seat wood-floor spot, located
in an old mill in Cape Town’s shabby-chic
Woodstock, earned its rank as the hottest
restaurant in all of Africa. Chalk that up to
Brit chef-owner Luke Dale-Roberts’s colorful,
artfully presented twists on Cape, French
and Asian cuisine. (He spent five years traveling and opening restaurants in Asia before
settling in South Africa.) Signature dishes
such as pork belly with wild-rosemary-infused
honey or grilled scallops on miso toast are
served on handmade plates or stone boards,
their ingredients resembling a work of art at
MoMA. A favorite haunt of supermodels,
with a cocktail hot spot upstairs in the chef’s
small-plates bar, Pot Luck Club. The Old
Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Rd., Woodstock; 2721/447-2337; thetestkitchen.co.za.
Grant Achatz masquerades as producer and director. A small campfire
set on a platter reveals lit Japanese
binchōtan and kombu seaweed “logs”
stuffed with pork belly and parsnips.
A Jackson Pollock–inspired piece
painted tableside turns out to be
a milk chocolate tart splattered with
sauces and crumbles. Nothing is offlimits, from riffs on lowbrow state-fair
fare to sophisticated, fantastic creations that could’ve come only from
the mind of Achatz—or perhaps Willy
Wonka. What you can count on: endless surprises followed by instructions,
instructions, instructions, since
there’s nothing obvious about this
affair. 1723 N. Halsted; 312-867-0110;
alinearestaurant.com.
Narbona
Chef
Daniel
Boulud
The king
of contemporary
French cuisine
has been busy
opening outposts in Boston
and D.C., which
has inspired
his most recent
list of top
dining spots.
BREAD FURST
Washington, D.C.
Great coffee, the
finest bread and
anything baked.
JOSE ANDRES
Washington, D.C.
All of his places.
2941
Washington, D.C.
Chef Bertrand
Chemel is a Daniel
alum from
the early days.
LA PIQUETTE
Washington, D.C.
Chef-owner
Francis Layrle is
one of my oldest
friends in D.C.
O YA
Boston
When my daughter
left for Tufts
University, the
move-in meal was
at O Ya, which The
New York Times
had declared the
country’s best new
restaurant in 2008.
MENTON
Boston
Barbara Lynch’s
fine-dining
restaurant was the
location for the
graduation meal.
It took an outsider to spot potential
in once-crumbling Finca Narbona,
Uruguay’s oldest vineyard. With a little
care—and a lot of slick packaging—
canny Argentinian Eduardo Cantón
transformed the Río de la Plata winery
into a sepia-tinted, heritage-style rural
empire encompassing farm, dairy,
deli, two restaurants and a Relais &
Châteaux–badged hotel. Narbona’s
food is a locavore’s delight: Orchardgrown fruit and vegetables go straight
to the kitchens, as do estate-bottled
olive oil, provoleta and brie from the
dairy and tannat from the vineyard.
Even the organic beef comes from
cattle that range free over the estate’s
grassy hills. Ruta 21, km. 268; 5984540-4778; narbona.com.uy.
CASABLANCA, MOROCCO
Restaurant du Port de Pêche
A few blocks from Rick’s Café—not
the fictional Bogart original, of course,
but a recent re-creation—in this fabled
but seldom-visited city (it lacks any
real tourist attractions), the Restaurant du Port de Pêche lives up to its
name as the fishing-port restaurant.
At ground level, local fishermen eat
cheaply from a blackboard menu written in Arabic. Upstairs, in a big, bright,
always-crowded dining room, local
lads attack seafood-laden paella with
big bottles of Coke on the side while
French expatriates tuck into heaping
platters of Oualidia oysters and bright
red langoustines as big as turkey legs
while sipping tart Moroccan rosés.
Le Port du Pêche; 212-522/318-561.
Originally a European wine bar, Paul
Kahan’s perennially packed juggernaut quickly moved toward food with
Kahan pushing out eclectic small
plates through the cedar-wrapped,
cozy corridor of the restaurant.
Thankfully, straddling the line remains
the magic at Avec, where a tight
Danish Modern design pops from
the gritty West Loop, and where
dishes like chorizo-stuffed Medjool
dates and wood-oven paella with
tangerine aioli (Kahan’s favorite) still
compete with the 130-bottle wine list.
Regulars swear by the unpretentious,
food-loving vibe; feel it when you dine
shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone
from college kids to sports car aficionados. For more intimacy, follow the
stainless-steel bar to where two seats
meet the galley kitchen—the unofficial
chef’s table. 615 W. Randolph; 312-3772002; avecrestaurant.com.
Brindille
CHICAGO
It’s dinner as theater here: Chefowners put as much attention to detail
in their dishes as their dining rooms.
TORO
Boston
Just before opening Bar Boulud
here, I took the
entire team out to
dinner at Toro
and had a great
meal, courtesy of
chef Ken Oringer.
Avec
Alinea
Peculiar presentation and theater-onthe-plate are de rigueur at this edible
mind trip, where things are rarely what
they seem and culinary magician
A taste of Paris comes without
pretense at Brindille (pronounced
“Brawn-dee”), the latest from the
Nahabedian family—namely, chef
Carrie and her cousin Michael (both of
Naha). Beautiful things in the intimate,
jewel-box-styled boîte are deliberate, like fine china and French linens,
punchy amber lights and throw pillows
lining the backs of espresso-hued
banquettes. But it’s all understated
against the eye-popping, sexy and
always complex French cuisine.
Warm-cold oysters with creamy eggs
18
brouilles and caviar, roast guinea fowl
in a thick vin jaune reduction, whole
Maine lobster with pink grapefruit,
sugar flumes housing chocolate
mousse, pound cake and soufflé. You’ll
want it all, plus the private, six-seat
circular booth, an old-world wine from
a French-leaning list and a reason to
take someone special. 34 N. Clark St.;
312-595-1616; brindille-chicago.com.
David Burke’s Primehouse
David Burke was the first chef to
own his own bull, his contemporary
American steakhouse borne from
his patented dry-aging technique.
Power brokers pack the buzzy, dimly
lit room on weeknights, but by the
weekend, couples, bar-hopping
groups and out-of-towners staying
at the neighboring James Hotel
Chicago bring a more festive atmosphere. Ask for table 108 (hidden for
uninhibited people-watching) and
then a private tour of the dry-aging
room tiled with 250-million-year-old
Himalayan salt. What you really come
for, though, is the highly marbled
salt-brick beef in 28-, 40-, 55- and
75-day rib-eye configurations (the
last packing a blue cheese punch
and ringing in at $79 a serving). They
are perfectly paired with accompaniments like lobster scrambled eggs,
black-peppery ricotta gnudi and
pours of rare vintage wines extracted
by Coravin. 616 N. Rush St.; 312-6606000; davidburkesprimehouse.com.
42 Grams
Storytelling matters at this 18-seat
Uptown sophisticate. Inspired by the
belief that two souls united equal 42
grams, the name itself nods to the
story of the husband-wife team, chef
Jake Bickelhaupt (formerly of Charlie
Trotter’s) and Alexa Welsh. Like Alinea
and Next, the prix-fixe experience is
by ticketed reservation, but 42 Grams
is more open-book, intimate and BYO,
with über-specific wine pairing suggestions e-mailed to you in advance.
Arrive to a room filled with family
heirlooms, art and Bickelhaupt’s own
rock playlist, plus a warm greeting
by Welsh (who pours your wine into
beautiful stemware). Then, host turns
captivating storyteller, describing the
elements and inspiration behind each
of his gorgeous creations and adding
ANDREA DI LORENZO/IMAGEBRIEF.COM. ALL ILLUSTRATIONS BY MATT COLLINS
CARMELO, URUGUAY
Chef Albert
Adrià at
Tickets Bar in
Barcelona
unforgettable dimension—and conversation—
to the meal. 4662 N. Broadway; no phone;
42gramschicago.com.
Girl & the Goat
You have to get the pig face when you dine
at Stephanie Izard’s hot spot, the indisputable
nexus of Restaurant Row. The oven-roasted
patties set on crisp potato sticks are christened with a lush, runny egg on top. Keep your
eyes peeled for special meals (beyond the already hyperlocal menu)—we’ve seen a tailgating version and a farm-to-fork-driven Sunday
supper. Winner of season 4 of Top Chef, Izard
is also the queen of atypical surf and turf. Case
in point: pan-seared diver scallops with Cubano pork, apple mojo and pepper-raisin relish.
Even though it’s been open for more than four
years, reservations still take months. Here’s the
workaround: Nab cancellations 48 hours in advance or walk in, aiming for bar seating for two
with full views of the kitchen. 809 W. Randolph
St.; 312-492-6262; girlandthegoat.com.
Longman & Eagle
Dress down and head beyond downtown to
Logan Square’s Longman & Eagle, Jared
Wentworth’s Wild West, punk-rock-playing
saloon, where you’ll find one of the best bourbon and whiskey collections in the country.
Reservations are not accepted, but you want
the bar anyway, if only for access to low-key
bartenders who know their stuff. Go for the
braised rabbit or the wild boar sloppy joe
with pickled jalapeño and crunchy sage. The
300-strong spirits collection offers excellent
flights covering everything from the smoky to
the obscure (including a Knob Creek bourbon
bottled exclusively for L&E). Note, the Manhattan is one of the smoothest we’ve ever tasted.
You can also stay the night upstairs at the arty
six-room inn (from $76). 2657 N. Kedzie Ave.;
773-276-7110; longmanandeagle.com.
Next
The hottest and increasingly more expensive
ticket in town (up to $500 a person), Grant
Achatz and Nick Kokonas’s wildly inventive,
less-formal sibling to Alinea sparks debate
among the food-enthused. Polarizing dishes
often elicit a WTF response; couple that with
the constantly changing concept—which suits
the banal, dark dining room—and Next is unlike any other culinary experience anywhere.
Every few months the entire restaurant—
menu, music, look, service—shifts gears. Past
themes like Paris 1906 and Childhood
have transported diners to countries, moments
in time and, recently, an iconic, erstwhile
restaurant (Trio). At The Hunt, earthy,
ground-fermented carrots were upstaged
by fresh-pressed squab brain encased in a
reconstructed skull, eyes still gazing up at you.
Tip: Book the semiprivate Kitchen Table for
views of the kitchen and the chance to score
a course other diners won’t. 953 W. Fulton
Market; 312-226-0858; nextrestaurant.com.
countryside and the winery’s equally elegantly
black interiors and wine labels. Bifold doors
open up to vast views of the vineyard as delicious pickle and pork rillettes, fennel salami,
regional cheeses, venison and house-smoked
Akaroa salmon is served with newly certified
organic wine. 614 Omihi Rd.; 64-3/314-6085;
blackestate.co.nz.
Sixteen
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND
Everything is beautiful at Thomas Lent’s palace of a restaurant on the 16th floor of Trump
Tower. Soaring ceilings under a twinkling
Swarovski chandelier open up to panoramic
views that do better than the skyline (it seems
as if you can touch the Wrigley Clock Tower).
Esoteric, themed menus inspired by celestial
bodies or the tide might come off as precious,
but really, the escalating spectacle is just
Lent’s thought-provoking attention to detail.
See it everywhere, from whimsical, diminutive
plates prepared by deft hands to impeccably
choreographed—and friendly—service. Don’t
dismiss the young-looking sommelier and
wine director, Dan Pilkey: This guy will surprise
you with wines from unexpected places like
Hungary. 401 N. Wabash Ave.; 312-588-8030;
sixteenchicago.com.
Brick Farm
Christchurch denizens adore this wee restaurant—first because it has taken over one of
the last remaining stone buildings left after the
recent earthquake, but also because it grants
the over-30 gourmet crowd a female-friendly
haven in a very male-centric town. Pristine
NZ produce shines in chef Johnny Moore’s
short-and-sweet European-style bistro menu,
anchored in a satisfying pasta, fish or red-meat
dish and a fine risotto. It’s high-quality food
served in a casual environment, a fabulous
spot for a date night in a city with, one could
argue, a few too many masculine offerings.
172 High St.; 64-3/366-5369; facebook.com
/brickfarmnz.
Spiaggia
Still jaw-dropping after 30 years, only now more
up-to-date and come-as-you-are since the
May refresh (the jacket requirement, for one,
is no longer), Tony Mantuano’s tiered dining
room remains in the top slot among tables citywide—and not just the Italian ones. Between
the colossal marble columns, the new 30-seat
lounge is the place for stuzzi (snack) and
twisted Negroni cocktails. Salty ricotta rolls and
holdout dishes like gnocchi swathed in ricotta
cream and topped with black-truffle sauce
are now joined by skillfully plated à la carte
dishes. Unobstructed views through a threestory glass wall over Oak Street Beach and
Lake Michigan still command the room, and
everything from the bar to the tables has been
repositioned toward that view. 980 N. Michigan
Ave.; 312-280-2750; spiaggiarestaurant.com.
Black Estate Tasting Room
Black Estate is a family-run vineyard set
among the clay and limestone hills of Waipara
Valley, North Canterbury—a lovely drive out
of Christchurch. The architecturally designed
tasting room and restaurant are housed
in a long, sleek modernist version of a rural
shed—emblematic of the surrounding
20
Shop Eight
Love your locavore? Shop Eight’s sustainable
street cred is impeccable right down to its
recycled timber fittings, salvaged from this
plucky city’s earthquake-damaged buildings.
The menu is downright neighborly, devised
exclusively from produce grown or reared in
the Canterbury region, with daily dishes that
echo that day’s farm deliveries. Sit at a monastic table upstairs for nose-to-tail favorites:
sweetbreads, kidney, gamey venison with pine
puree, terrines. Or keep it freewheeling at the
wine bar downstairs and drink in the coolclimate purity of a Waipara Valley Sauvignon
Blanc and the charming eccentricity of the
local kiwi accent. 8 New Regent St.; 64-3/3900199; shopeight.co.nz.
COCENTAINA, SPAIN
L’Escaleta
L’Escaleta is one of the great secrets of modern Spanish cuisine. Located far from pretty
much anything (it’s in a little textile-producing
town about 25 miles north of Alicante and 50
or so south of Valencia), it somehow manages
to offer sophisticated, intelligent contemporary
cuisine, an immense international wine list
and a level of service that’s hard to find even
COPENHAGEN
New Nordic cuisine plus chef René Redzepi and
his disciples dominate the culinary scene
with radical interpretations of local ingredients.
Marchal
Studio
When the Hotel d’Angleterre reopened in
2013, it introduced the world to Marchal,
and the response was a resounding “Wow!”
Chef Ronny Emborg was the executive
chef at AOC when it earned a Michelin star,
and he also trained at El Bulli’s temple of molecular gastronomy, but here he leans slightly
more French in his à la carte menu, with
the option of two-person dishes like lobster
or Chateaubriand. Emborg doesn’t shirk
the lessons he learned in the molecular
kitchens of Spain; but he also nods respectfully to classic cuisine, ensuring that every
dish is easy on the eyes and delightful to
the palette. 34 Kongens Nytorv; 45-33/120094; marchal.dk.
Another restaurant created by Noma acolytes.
This one comes straight from the source,
courtesy of Noma co-owner Claus Meyer and
Torsten Vildgaard, who slaved away for seven
years with René Redzepi, and it’s worth trying
if only to see what the graduates are up to.
Vildgaard cooks at an open kitchen, so grab a
seat near the heat and marvel at the creativity
and energy that make this small dining
room work. Some of his spectacular dishes:
a grilled reindeer heart with a wood sorrel
emulsion, and a tartare of razor clams and
dill with mussel-marinated stem celery. The
Standard, Havnegade 44; 45-72/148-808;
thestandardcph.dk.
COURCHEVEL, FRANCE
Noma
AOC
AOC’s elegant vaulted dining room is in
the cellar of a 17th-century mansion—a fitting
location for a restaurant where the wine is
given the same status as the food. Søren Selin,
the new man behind the stove, has remained
faithful to the restaurant’s New Nordic traditions, showcasing ultrafresh ingredients harvested from the mountains, valleys and waters
of Scandinavia. He presents his guests with
starkly beautiful and eloquent dishes that give
full expression to the fabulous produce and
pure tastes. A choice of menus (five-, sevenor ten-course) change with the season but
could include lamb with yellow beetroot and
a pickled-onion-and-smoked-marrow sauce,
or razor clams with tomato, dried scallop roe
and mussel “snow.” Dronningens Tværgade 2;
45-33/111-145; restaurantaoc.dk.
Geranium
Rasmus Kofoed has been at the forefront
of New Nordic cuisine since it first hit the
foodie radar, and he continues to be inspired
by terroir and seasonality to the extreme.
Here, quite unusually, vegetables are given
equal billing alongside heavier-hitting meats
and seafood, but no matter which you prefer,
dishes are light, with stunning presentations
that incorporate natural materials such as
twisted branches and stone—lest you forget
that the meal in front of you is a gift from
Mother Nature. The tasting menu often
highlights hyperlocal ingredients, like cloudberries, venison, sea buckthorn and pickled
ramson. The whole experience is a weird,
wild voyage through the mind of a culinary
genius. Just tread slowly; there are upward of
23 courses on this journey. Per Henrik Lings
Allé 4; 45-69/960-020; geranium.dk.
Line fish with
baby marrow
flower, fish tartare,
pickled potato and
tarragon at Delaire
Graff Estate in
South Africa’s
Cape Winelands
Your parents would have cooked the food
chef René Redzepi routinely puts on a plate
only if they were starving, but that just shows
how far people have strayed from eating
what grows locally. Set in a former warehouse, Noma turns foraging from the sea and
forest into an art form and is often credited
with turning “locally sourced” into a mantra
for food lovers. The interior is done in that
cool, sparse Scandinavian style that seems
to prompt you to reconsider your approach
to food and its origins. The menu is best
described as a new interpretation of Nordic
cuisine: Think moss and porcini, beef tartare
and ants (you read that right) and shrimp with
goosefoot leaves. You have to try it to believe
us, but it is, unquestionably good. Strandgade
93; 45-32/963-297; noma.dk.
Relæ
It’s tempting to think of Relæ as the sort of
place Noma would be if Noma were a cozy
bistro you could drop by once a week. Though
its chef, Christian Puglisi, will probably always
have the words “former sous-chef at…” attached
to his name, he is a visionary in his own right.
After years of working at Noma, he opened
Relæ in a sketchy neighborhood and not only
won a Michelin star for his efforts, but also
sparked a creative outpouring that turned the
area into Copenhagen’s hottest neighborhood.
Identifiably Nordic in its emphasis on pristine
local ingredients, Puglisi’s cooking is heavy on
the vegetables and light on the manipulation:
Offerings include sunchoke tempura and dried
zucchini with bitter leaves. But in his inventiveness and his ability to coax a deep deliciousness from seemingly simple products, he is
every bit his own chef. Jægersborggade 41;
45-36/966-609; restaurant-relae.dk.
22
Le 1947
Very few people know it yet, but the ultraglamorous French Alpine station of Courchevel
has become just as fine a destination for
anyone whose idea of a good workout is two
hours at the table with a knife and fork as it is
for serious skiers. To wit, there are an amazing
six Michelin two-star restaurants in a village
that really puts the haute in haute cuisine,
and the one that’s worth a trip on its own is
chef Yannick Alléno’s luxury igloo of a dining
room at the Cheval Blanc Hotel. Think fluffy
white sheepskins draped over white Corian
tub chairs and a dazzling, delicate but potent
cuisine fit for a snow queen (or king). Dishes
like a vegetarian boudin noir (blood sausage)
made with finely cubed beets and black rice,
garnished with pickled Iranian garlic and caramelized apples, and a tagliatelle made from
dried egg yolks in a sauce of chicken fat and
black truffles are as light as they are luxurious
and dazzlingly original. Le Cheval Blanc
Hotel, Le Jardin Alpin; 33-4/79-23-14-00;
chevalblanc.com.
DALLAS
The food scene here is as much about
local celebrity spotting as it is
about reinvented down-home cooking.
CBD Provisions
The sassy downtown restaurant is owned
by Dallas billionaire Tim Headington, who
spared not a nickel on food costs: It’s all made
from scratch and sourced from regional
COURTESY DELAIRE GRAFF ESTATE
in Madrid or Paris. Kiko Moya is the young chef
in charge of the kitchen, and he performs feats
of wizardry, turning salt cod and red pepper
salad into crackers, for instance, or transforming the local nougat, turrón, into a sauce for
curry-infused raw tuna. None of this tastes
like a gimmick; it just tastes really, really good.
Cami Estacio del Nord 205; 34-965/59-21-00;
lescaleta.com.
Fearing’s Restaurant
Dean Fearing’s elevated American cuisine—
a blend of ranch cooking, barbecue, classic
Southern and Tex-Mex—should be listed in an
upscale what-to-do-in-Dallas guide. The larger-than-life chef works the room and seems
to know almost every diner by name. Texas
game meats such as quail, rabbit, antelope
and buffalo plated with innovative sides like
jalapeño grits and butternut squash taquitos
are superb. There are two bars: the Live Oak
Bar outside, with a huge brick fireplace surrounded by private conversation pits, and the
sexy Rattlesnake Bar inside, which starts rocking around 10 p.m. Grab a potent handmade
margarita and watch the courtship rituals
begin. Ritz-Carlton Dallas, 2121 McKinney Ave.;
214-922-4848; fearingsrestaurant.com.
Knife Dallas
Noted chef John Tesar’s modern all-thingsmeat menu showcases the $30,000 worth of
beef he houses in a dry-aging room. The star
is a 240-day dry-aged rib-eye priced at $80
an inch. Less exotic but equally satisfying is
the Japanese-style Akaushi rib-eye, a steal
at $95 for two. Instead of the usual California
Cabernet, Tesar dares you to leave your comfort zone and pair the marbled meat with an
old-world Burgundy like Puligny-Montrachet.
The exquisite match is not trendy or chic, it’s
radical. 5680 N. Central Expy.; 214-443-9339;
knifedallas.com.
Neighborhood Services
This 90-seat restaurant is rapidly becoming
Dallas’s worst-, best-kept secret. It’s almost
impossible to get a table unless you know
someone or have an assistant with excellent
dialing skills. Affable chef-owner Nick Badovinus has created a space where customers
like T. Boone Pickens are seated next to local
athletes and celebrities. They all vie for the
coveted power booth (number 55) in back.
The menu features a brilliant cheeseburger
and sophisticated yet simple seafood and
meat specials. Go early for cocktails and stay
late to catch the end of an NBA game on the
television above the bar, and perhaps a player
himself. 5027 W. Lovers Ln.; 214-350-5027;
nhstheoriginal.com.
ambiance; Wolf-Tasker’s fabulous va-va-voom
does the rest. 4 King St.; 61-3/5348-3329;
lakehouse.com.au.
DOHA, QATAR
Idam
Nonna
The beauty of Nonna doesn’t come from the
subtle, almost ordinary interior; it shows up
in bowls and plates of gorgeous handmade
pasta. Chef Julian Barsotti produces at least
ten different pastas each day. Most of the meat
and seafood dishes are baked or braised in a
wood-burning oven, and the all-Italian wine list
will even satisfy patrons with vacation homes
in Italy. The small restaurant sits on the border
of Highland Park, the 75205 zip code full of
many-gabled mansions. The boldface names
of Dallas dine here regularly, and chances are
good you’ll spot hometown newsman Bob
Schieffer or a former president of these United
States. 4115 Lomo Alto Dr.; 214-521-1800;
nonnadallas.com.
Imagine interiors dreamed up by Philippe Starck
and placed inside a superb Islamic art museum
designed by I.M. Pei. Imagine soaring ceilings
and a panoramic skyline viewed through
acres of glass windows, and cuisine under the
direction of star chef Alain Ducasse that blends
French and Middle Eastern accents, offering an
only-in-Doha maximalism (the signature dish is
long-cooked, tender camel meat). Now imagine
that there is no wine list, no alcohol of any kind.
This may seem like a disconnect, but the overall
experience is so intoxicating that you might
not even notice. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
Harbor; 974/4422-4488; alain-ducasse.com.
DUBLIN, IRELAND
Chapter One
Stampede 66
Chef-owner Stephan Pyles has been a fixture
on the Dallas dining scene for more than
30 years. The fifth-generation Texan’s menu
at this restaurant is an homage to his roots,
and it features updated versions of honeyfried chicken, smoked-pork-belly tacos and
chicken-fried buffalo steak. The atmosphere
is trippy: Longhorns hang over the bar,
sculpted steel-wire horses line one wall and
a neon rattlesnake curves around a large
banquette. The list of tequilas is long, and a
prickly-pear-cactus margarita mixed tableside
and frozen with liquid nitrogen is worth
ordering for the theatrics if not for the shot
of tequila. 1717 McKinney Ave.; 214-550-6966;
stampede66.com.
DAYLESFORD, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
Lake House
Regional gourmands and epicurean pleasureseekers make the 90-minute pilgrimage to
haute boho Daylesford to pay homage at this
foodie temple. Culinary director and owner
Alla Wolf-Tasker is the matriarchal powerhouse
who single-handedly revived this colonial
spa town, creating a six-acre rural idyll where
ducks march through manicured gardens
and posh Melbourne comes to unwind.
The Lake House culture of spending a spa
weekend meandering through the menu and
10,000-strong wine list is as delicious as the
foraged produce. Lake views flood in to add
24
Cork-born chef-owner Ross Lewis has rethought the old joke that a seven-course Irish
dinner consists of a potato and six pints of
Guinness. At this Michelin-starred establishment in the basement of the Dublin Writers
Museum, he cooks first-rate contemporary European fare based on the best Irish raw materials. His seven-course feast includes the likes
of poached Atlantic lobster with tomato jelly
and salted blood peach and pig’s tail stuffed
with Fingal Ferguson’s bacon and Dublin Bay
prawns. There’s Guinness if you insist, but
the wine list is full of French rarities and other
treasures. 18–19 Parnell Sq. N.; 353-1/873-2266;
chapteronerestaurant.com.
ENSENADA, MEXICO
Manzanilla
This isn’t your typical Mexican restaurant—
in its original location, a legend painted on
the half-curtained windows outside read:
“Fine Wine, Live Abalone, Rare Mezcal.” The
restaurant has since moved to a new portside location, but the formidably moustachioed
Benito Molina (who once worked for Todd
English) and his beautiful wife and co-chef,
Solange Muris, still deliver on the promised
specialties from years ago. Only now they go
far beyond: Ensenada, about 50 miles southeast of notorious Tijuana in Baja California,
is a commercial fishing port, and this rollicking
gastro-tavern does magical things with local
oysters, clams, fresh tuna and, of course, that
MEI-CHUN JAU
farmers and ranchers who produce small
quantities just for Headington’s restaurants.
The Texas brasserie menu offers everything
from a classic bowl of chili to a showy whole
Berkshire pig’s head, snout and all. After dinner,
hang in the bar or head downstairs to Midnight
Rambler, a new subterranean speakeasy
where guests of the adjoining boutique Joule
Hotel mingle with sophisticated downtown
denizens over craft-made cocktails. It’s a
secret hideaway for the don’t-want-to-seeor-be-seen crowd. 1530 Main St.; 214-2614500; cbdprovisions.com.
Preparing for
the dinner
rush at CBD
Provisions in
Dallas
Chef José
Andrés
José Andrés
introduced
molecular gastronomy to the
States with his
six-seat Minibar
in 2003. It has
since gone on to
become a proper
restaurant—and
the hottest seat
in D.C. But he
doesn’t always
dine on his “exploding olives.”
Here’s where he
likes to eat, from
Spain to Tokyo.
CASA BALBINO
Cádiz, Spain
Casa Balbino has
the best tortillas
de camarones
[shrimp fritters]—
the ultimate
fried tapa. It’s just
perfect.
EL CAPRICHO
León, Spain
The owner, José
Gordón, is a
“beef whisperer,”
because he understands beef like
no one else. José
allows his animals
to grow up to
15 years, and the
result is meat
that has an astonishing bold and
silky texture.
No other beef
comes close to it.
TEN-SHIN
Tokyo, Japan
Ten-Shin is
a small secret
spot that all the
locals love and
that I was lucky
to discover. If you
go around July,
you must have the
ayu tempura,
an astonishing
fresh fish that’s in
season only
a short time.
ESPELHO, BAHIA, BRAZIL
Restaurante da Silvinha
Backed by dense stands of Atlantic
forest, two-hut hamlet Praia do Espelho
sits on the southern Bahia shoreline,
a 45-minute drive down sandy lanes
from rustic Trancoso. Little disturbs
the quiet but the breeze; the chief
mode of transport is the mule. Paulista
transplant Senhora Silvinha took a fisherman’s cottage, roofed it with wood
and banana leaves, equipped it with
hammocks and scattered cushions
in bright azure and lime throughout.
(She left the sides open to the tropical
clime.) Silvinha has two tables that
overlook the beach and a fixed menu
that begins and ends with whatever
the boats brought in that morning,
grilled over embers or whipped into a
coriander-scented moqueca stew.
Praia do Espelho; 55-73/9985-4157.
FIGUERES, SPAIN
El Motel
When the Roca brothers (whose
El Celler de Can Roca is nearby), the
legendary Ferran Adrià and most of the
other groundbreaking chefs in Catalonia want to kick back with their families
and eat simply cooked food, both traditional and updated, they come to the
1960s-modern dining room called El
Motel (the name is a long story). Here
they let the urbane, soft-spoken Jaume
Subirós fill them with food and stories.
Wild mushrooms, in season, are a particular draw here, as are just-the-rightsize baby squid sautéed with garlic and
parsley. Deep-fried anchovy spines are
the essential appetizer. Avda. Salvador
Dalí i Domènech 170, Apt. Correus, 32 ;
34-972/50-93-58; hotelemporda.com.
FOROGLIO, SWITZERLAND
Grotto La Froda
Mountain culture meets culinary
culture at Grotto La Froda in the tiny
hamlet of Foroglio, in Switzerland’s
Italian-speaking Alps. There is
nothing particularly new about La
Froda, but that’s the point. Familyrun and inhabiting the same country
tavern since the late 1920s, the
restaurant has long served titans of
industry, art and style who appreciate
its fuss-free ambiance and prime
position facing a pristine waterfall.
Unsurprisingly, La Froda’s food steers
comfortable and classic: polentas and
pastas, prosciutti and Prosecco, rich
local cheeses and game all sourced
from regional farmers, with menus
timed to the seasons. An antidote
to the Alps’ typical après-ski arena,
Grotto La Froda remains an undiscovered gem in this over-discovered
era. Foroglio 6690 Val Bavona Ticino;
41-91/754-1181; lafroda.ch.
GARZON, URUGUAY
Restaurante Garzón
Francis Mallmann’s string of hit
restaurants run from Patagonia Sur
(Buenos Aires) and Patagonia West
(Westhampton Beach, New York)
to Siete Fuegos, his latest venture,
in Argentina. Mallmann’s heart,
however, lies in Pueblo Garzón,
where he retooled a 160-year-old
general store as a rustic country
kitchen and threw up a five-room
hotel almost as an afterthought. As
ever, Mallmann fine-tunes Río de
la Plata classics—lentil stew, roast
piglet, rib-eye steak with chimichurri
sauce—in his trademark infiernillo,
an Inca-inspired home-made oven.
Camino a la Capilla; 598/4410-2811;
restaurantegarzon.com.
GARZON, URUGUAY
Restaurant Lucifer
Seasons flow at a languid pace in this
sleepy hamlet: Sheep graze unpaved
streets, and wood rails scuttle in the
verge. After nine years as an apprentice to South American superchef
Francis Mallmann, self-effacing cook
Lucía Soria adopted the Uruguayans’
knack for inspired improvisation and
knocked together a kitchen of sorts
in her own cottage garden. Scattering pastel-painted chairs and lapacho
tables beneath the fruit trees, Soria
coaxes unexpected flavors from the
natural produce of Uruguay’s dune-
26
backed Atlantic shore and gently
rolling grasslands: crisp sweetbreads,
grilled baby cuttlefish, sage-andpumpkin ravioli. Expect few frills, just
a genuinely rural idyll and delicious
dishes crafted with something approaching love. Camino a la Estación
Custiel s/n; 598/9925-5249; restaurant
lucifer.com.
GRAND BAIE, MAURITIUS
Flat Island at 20 Degrees Sud
Mauritius’s first boutique hotel, set on
the exquisite white sands of Grand
Baie, has three restaurants, the most
dramatic of which is Flat Island: a
handful of simple tables set in the ruins of a 19th-century fort on the island
of that name, a one-and-a-half-hour
sail away on the hotel’s luxe catamaran. Staff overseen by chef Sanjeev
Purahoo grill lobster, lamb kebabs and
fresh fish (babonne, red wrasse, coryphène sea bream) right on the beach,
serving it to you at tables placed
beneath umbrellas in the shadows of
the ruins. Let the sea breeze coming
off the waves be your air-con. Pointe
Malartic Coastal Rd., North Mauritius;
23-02/635-000; 20degressud.com.
GRAND LISBOA, MACAU
Robuchon au Dôme
With its panoramic views on top of
Macau’s tallest casino (a building
that looks like a moored spaceship),
its extravagant chandelier plunging
like a crystal waterfall from the top of
the glass dome and its scaled-down
models of Bordeaux estate mansions,
Joël Robuchon’s Michelin three-star
temple benefits from Lisboa owner
Stanley Ho’s obsession with fine wine
(the Hong Kong real estate billionaire
is perhaps Asia’s foremost collector).
The food is predictably extraordinary,
but the wine list more than matches
it. If you ask the sommelier nicely, he
might tell you tales of what lies below
in the cellars beneath the gaming
floors: There are bottles of Riesling
with Nazi-era labels, rare Pomérols
that would be hard to find in Paris and
$38,000 bottles of Chinese sorghum
wine called Moutai from Kweichow
Moutai. The vintage? 1928. Grand Lisboa Casino, 43/F Avenida de Lisboa;
85-3/8803-7878; grandlisboa.com.
BARRY MCCALL
abalone—best served Manzanillastyle with smoked tomato epazote
and olives. And, naturally, a few shots
of that aforementioned mezcal. Teniente Azueta 139, Recinto Portuario;
52-646/175-7073; rmanzanilla.com.
The tomato plate
with smoked
mozzarella and
yuzu salt at Chapter
One in Dublin
HONG KONG
No alcohol tax means rare vintages paired
with traditional dishes at multigenerational,
family-run establishments.
Amber
Sea urchin is now ubiquitous on high-endrestaurant menus throughout Hong Kong, but
the original and the best is undoubtedly prepared by chef Richard Ekkebus at Amber. Case
in point: His Hokkaido sea urchin in a lobster
“Jell-O” with cauliflower, caviar and crispy seaweed waffles is served in a custom-made china
“shell” commissioned by Ekkebus rather than
the crustacean case itself (which is de rigueur
from here to Hawaii). While Ekkebus’s menu is
a mix of East and West, the service is obviously
polished French. Everything from the pretty
array of olive oil bottles to the sommelier’s
spot-on suggestions are reminiscent of Paris
standards—minus the snootiness. 7th fl., The
Landmark Mandarin Oriental, 15 Queen’s Rd.;
85-2/2132-0066; amberhongkong.com.
Bo Innovation
Hong Kong’s newest Michelin-three-star recipient is based on the second level (careful with
those stilettos on the walkway decking) on
Ship Street, which itself has become a foodie
destination in otherwise seedy Wan Chai. If you
can get over the “X-treme Chinese Cuisine”
moniker, you’re in for a treat. Alvin Leung has
created a fun and delicious menu that takes
Chinese classics into the 21st century with
dishes like Molecular Xiaolongbao, a gelatinous
ball that tastes, but doesn’t look or feel, like a
soup dumpling. For dinner and a show, book
the chef’s table, where you can watch the
dishes being assembled. 2nd fl., 60 Johnston
Rd. (entrance 18 Ship St.); 85-2/2850-8371;
boinnovation.com.
The China Club
Take the elevator to the top of the former
Bank of China building and you’ll walk into a
delightful Art Deco–meets–chinoiserie private
members club (any good concierge can get
you in). Come for the Saturday brunch, where
a constant stream of freshly prepared Chinese
dishes is served buffet-style (no food left for
hours under hot plates here). Don’t arrive
fashionably late or stand on ceremony: Once
something runs out, it’s not repeated, and even
the grandmas have sharp elbows. Request
a table in the main dining room, near the
window. The flamboyant owner, Sir David Tang,
is frequently seen dining here. 13th fl., Old Bank
of China Building, Bank St.; 85-2/2521-8888.
8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana
Umberto Bombana could have been a star chef
anywhere, but he chose to settle in Asia and
make his name here, first at the old Ritz-Carlton
Hotel’s Toscana and now with his very personal
ristorante. Exploring his Northern Italian roots
with a fresh contemporary approach, he is,
quite rightly, the godfather of Italian cuisine
in Hong Kong. In appreciation of Bombana’s
skill in presentation, panache in technique
and elegance in flavors, Michelin gave his spot
three stars—the first in Hong Kong and the
only Italian restaurant outside Italy to achieve
such status. During white truffle season,
tables are even more in demand; big-spending
gourmands trust him to turn their expensive
fungus into refined plates of risotto. Shop 202,
Landmark Alexandra, 18 Chater Rd.; 85-2/25378859; ottoemezzobombana.com.
Fook Lam Moon
The number of Rolls-Royces parked out front
tells you exactly the kind of place this is: a
legendary canteen for tycoons that’s been
around more than 40 years and is still run by
the third-generation Chui family. The grandfather, in fact, began cooking for Qing Dynasty
nobles and was later the house chef for one
of Hong Kong’s most prominent families, and
that history can be tasted in every bite. The
kitchen remains focused on the fundamentals
of top-shelf Cantonese, with a highly regarded
reputation for rarified ingredients like bird’snest soup, abalone and shark’s fin. But the
Chuis also do street food proper; the chicken
feet with wine sauce is killer. 43–45 Johnston
Rd.; 85-2/2866-0663; fooklammoon-grp.com.
Kenjo
This sushi place is so good and so discreet,
the owners actually eschew any publicity.
They get enough business from the rich, the
famous and those in the know for their refined
take on sashimi. Kenjo-san has been at the
end of Minden’s dumpy cul-de-sac for years,
and though his former apprentices may wow
the trendy crowd, this chef has no interest
in self-promotion. His only concession to the
pleading masses was to open an outlet a block
away; that’s where he sends newcomers. His
established clients are coddled at the original
location. Should you be lucky enough to get in,
let alone score a seat in front of Kenjo at the
fish counter, just order the omakase and let the
chef decide. 30 Minden Ave.; 85-2/2369-8307.
28
Kimberley Chinese Restaurant
Off the tourist map, the Kimberley is fantastic
for dim sum and Cantonese banquets, but
the reason to come is for the city’s best oldschool roast suckling pig. To make it, a whole
deboned piglet is stuffed full of glutinous
rice and slow cooked whole. The result?
Golden and crispy skin and heaps of rice
infused with all that fat and flavor. This traditional method is much more labor-intensive
than what you’ll find at other establishments,
but one taste and you’ll know it’s worth the
trouble. Glorious and impressive, one little
piglet easily feeds half a dozen. Preordering and a deposit are required. Mezzanine fl.,
Kimberley Hotel, 28 Kimberley Rd.; 85-2/23698212; kimberley.hk.
Lung King Heen
Chef Chan Yan Tak creates the finest Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong. The Four Seasons
Hotel cleverly lured him out of retirement, and
he promptly racked up three Michelin stars
for Lung King Heen—unprecedented for a
Chinese restaurant. Every detail has been carefully vetted; even Tak’s XO sauce is renowned.
The proof of authenticity in his creations can
be seen in the number of locals eating here,
especially large family groups celebrating over
exquisite dim sum on the weekend. Windowside tables overlook Victoria Harbour, but to
really impress, book the private dining room.
4th fl., Four Seasons Hotel, 8 Finance St.; 852/3196-8888; fourseasons.com.
Summer Palace at Island Shangri-La
The richly decorated red-and-gold room
is sumptuous and traditional, the service as
perfect as it gets; no doubt Summer Palace
is one of the world’s greatest hotel restaurants.
Try the chilled crystal ham, the century egg
with sour ginger, the double-boiled “Buddha
jumps over the wall” abalone or the Peking
duck, which is one of the best in southern
China, with optimally fresh pancakes. To
be truly decadent, pair it all with a 1996 Krug
vintage or a bottle of 1994 Cheval Blanc:
Since Hong Kong abolished alcohol taxes,
Summer Palace has become not just a
gourmet’s but also an oenophile’s paradise.
5th fl., Pacific Place, Supreme Court Rd.; 852/2820-8552; shangrila.com.
Yin Yang Coastal
For a truly unique, non-gimmicky dining experience, take a 40-minute car ride from central
Hong Kong to beachside Ting Kau to find Yin
Yang Coastal. Chef-owner Margaret Xu pioneered the farm-to-table ethos in Hong Kong,
HOUSTON
Pondicheri
Pondicheri turns out inventive Indian food
in a swank setting, which already seems rather
out-there for Houston. What’s more unusual
is the best breakfast in town is served here—
a meal for which most Americans wouldn’t
generally consider going Indian. Order the
saag paneer omelet or the stone-ground
yellow grits with cauliflower, peanuts, yogurt
and cilantro and be transported to some
super-authentic rickshaw stop in the British
Raj (in your mind, at least—the surroundings
here are considerably more upscale). We’re
also smitten with the Tuesday fried chicken,
done with a not-so-subtle Thai influence.
2800 Kirby Dr., Ste. B132; 713-522-2022;
pondichericafe.com.
ISTANBUL
Çiya Sofrasi
Take the ferry across the Bosphorus to
Kadikoy to understand how utterly transporting Turkish peasant food can be. Chef Musa
Dağdeviren is like a Turkish Dan Barber, a man
devoted to seasonality, authentic flavors and
the cooking of his homeland. He’s searched
the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire
for ancient recipes, which he re-creates in a
rather humble kitchen, then lets diners come
up to the counter and plate what they want.
You never really know what you might find in
the brass pots simmering on the stove: staple
dishes like stuffed eggplants or caramelized
onions placed atop lamb kebab. Load up a
platter, then grab a seat outside and watch
the locals settle in for a Turkish coffee and
a chat after a day’s work. Güneşli Bahçe
Sokak No. 43; 90-216/330-3190; ciya.com.tr.
ISTANBUL
Nar
In certain parts of Istanbul, you can’t walk
two steps without being importuned by a rug
merchant, and the city’s famous Grand Bazaar,
with its more than 3,000 shops, is simply
overwhelming. Armaggan offers a more refined
shopping experience, selling a skillfully curated
collection of artisanal arts and crafts—and, as
a bonus, has this fifth-floor restaurant, serving
vividly flavored interpretations of traditional
Turkish and Ottoman dishes prepared under
the supervision of Vedat Başaran, an expert
in his country’s culture in every variation. Go
for lunch and choose from the buffet of cold
salads and vegetable dishes, then head downstairs to purchase a memento for back home.
Nuruosmaniye Cad. 65; 90-212/522-2800;
narlokantasi.com.
JAMTLAND, SWEDEN
Fäviken
Chef Magnus Nilsson is a Swedish version of
a mountain man, all flowing locks and uncanny
ability with rifles and fishing gear. Yet despite
Nilsson’s rugged appearance, his cooking is
decidedly sophisticated, making dinner at the
remote Fäviken, six hours north of Stockholm
in west-central Sweden, with its char-dark
beams and hanging animal-skin coats, feel
like a meal in a fairy tale. And, indeed, each
course—the sweet, smoky scallops from cold
Norwegian waters, the redolent beef from a
properly aged cow that Nilsson butchered himself—is introduced by the chef, so that stories
come interwoven with each bite. Aficionados
know to arrive early—the better to sweat up
an appetite in the attached inn’s sauna—and
to stay for the spectacular breakfast served
the next morning. Fäviken Magasinet, Järpen;
46-647/40177; favikenmagasinet.se.
JERUSALEM
Machneyuda
Jerusalem’s bazaar-like Mahane Yehuda
Market is a warren of alleys and stalls stocking
everything from produce to pastries, spirits to
spices. While the falafel and shwarma stands
have lured snackers for decades, the arrival
of Machneyuda transformed the market into
a serious dining destination. Manned by a trio
of Israel’s top toques—Assaf Granit, Yosi Elad
and Uri Navon—this split-level restaurant’s
Levantine menu is inspired and sourced from
the market itself. Book early to score a seat
at the kitchen-front bar for set tasting menus
highlighting signature seasonal dishes like red
tuna carpaccio with plums and flying fish roe,
black risotto flecked with pumpkin and salmon
and fresh seafood cooked in arrack (a regional
spirit)—followed by a traditional semolina
cake with fresh fruit and tahini ice cream
inspired by Elad’s mom. Expect music, culinary
30
theatrics and arrack-fueled sessions of
tabletop dancing. 10 Beit Ya’akov St.; 97-2/2533-3442; machneyuda.co.il.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Five Hundred at the Saxon Hotel
The Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg’s upscale
Sandhurst suburb became famous as
the place Nelson Mandela retreated to finish
writing Long Walk to Freedom. Today it’s
renowned for the astonishing dining experience at its flagship restaurant, Five Hundred,
which occupies the hotel’s former Presidential
Suite. Superstar executive chef David Higgs,
a transplant from the Cape Winelands,
has brought the locavore concept to even this
urban setting, using handpicked seasonal
ingredients from an organic vegetable
garden on the hotel grounds that he personally brought back to life. Some dishes, such
as steamed yellow marrow with pine-nut
chutney, gem squash yogurt and butternut
brûlée, come entirely from the garden.
Higgs appears on the floor to discuss each
individual dish on the four- and six-course
menus, and at the end of the meal you arrive
as you came: chauffeured to your car in
the hotel’s BMW. 36 Saxon Rd., Sandhurst;
27-11/292-6000; saxon.co.za.
JOSE IGNACIO, URUGUAY
Parador La Caracola
Celebrity caprices are shunned at Uruguay’s
back-to-basics beach settlements. Even in the
sought-after summer enclave of José Ignacio,
showiness is out, modesty is in. Seeking to
elude prying eyes, those in the know hit up
local restaurateur Guzmán Artagaveytia for
one of 30 invitations to La Caracola, a private,
summer-only lunch club aimed at those who,
says Artagaveytia, “appreciate the luxury of
being alone in immense nature.” The club
is housed in an artfully decorated wooden
shack on an isolated, sandy isthmus. Guests
are rowed out across a lagoon, where potent
caipirinhas, freshly grilled drum fish and a
womb-like seascape bring on a trance that
endures until the boatman calls time for home.
Ruta 10 km. 189, Rambla Costanera El Caracol;
598/9422-3015; paradorlacaracola.com.
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
Restaurant Gustu
Claus Meyer’s Noma may have helped re-brand
Copenhagen as a hot spot for globe-trotting
foodies, but the Dane’s attraction to La Paz
MARCUS NILSSON
and at this latest location for her private-dining
concept, she sources produce from her own
farm in the New Territories. With all that good
will comes some stern rules: Bookings must be
made in advance, deposits are required and
all diners must choose the ingredients of their
meal 48 hours ahead—from which Xu devises
a menu to order. Meeting the charismatic Xu is
all part of the experience. House 117, Ting Kau
Beach; 85-2/2866-0868; yinyang.hk.
A coffee-andcacao star cookie
with an emulsion
of egg yolk
and achiote at
Central in Lima
was quite different. Meyer was looking for a
poor yet biodiverse country whose natural
riches were not reflected in its national cuisine.
Bolivia, with its Amazonian fish, exotic lowland
fruit and 1,200 varieties of potato, fit the bill.
Despite the challenge of cooking at 12,000 feet
above sea level, Meyer tasked a group of trainee
cooks with kitchen management; working only
with endemic products—typical ingredients
include amaranto, a long-lost Inca grain; pacay,
a five-foot bean pod with lychee-like flesh; and
cochayuyo, an alga from small lakes located in
Potosí—he successfully turned high-altitude ingredients into high-end cuisine. Calle 10 No. 300,
Calacoto; 591-2/211-7491; restaurantgustu.com.
LASTOURS, FRANCE
it’s that it reminds them of childhood vacations in the South of France, when life was
carefree and everything was orchestrated for
them. Whatever the reason, it’s become
a pilgrimage spot. The haute Riviera cuisine,
courtesy of chef Bruno Cirino, leans heavily
on French classicism, and his obsessive commitment to market-fresh produce is the stuff
of utopian dreams. Cirino’s wife, Marion, was
a harpist and is now an incredible sommelier;
perhaps all those complex musical compositions informed her understanding of subtle
notes and blends essential to great wine.
Should the food affect you profoundly, you
needn’t travel far to sleep it off; there are
a few rooms above the restaurant. 20 Rue du
Comté de Cessole; 33-4/92-41-51-5;
hostelleriejerome.com.
Le Puits du Trésor
Devotees of this labor of love feel their way
down a winding road to find it. Food critics,
however, are not among them. Which is a
shame, because Jean Marc Boyer was trained
by Bernard Pacaud (of L’Ambrosia, in Paris),
and his sole purpose in cooking is to keep
the standards high. The place is a bit austere,
but that minimalism only serves to highlight
Boyer’s disarming sincerity. Most who make
the trek to this South of France gastro-retreat
overdo it in the wine category, which isn’t a
problem, since there’s an on-site guestroom
for just $125. Route des 21 Châteaux; 33-4/6877-50-24; lepuitsdutresor.fr.
LAS VEGAS
Lotus of Siam
Set in a down-at-the-heels shopping center
filled with karaoke parlors and swingers clubs,
Lotus of Siam serves what may be the best
Thai food in America. The menu is lengthy,
offering an array of regional dishes that go
well beyond pad thai and tom yum. Those
classics are available, of course, but why tuck
into a massaman curry when you can get a
pretty decent rendition when you order in at
home? Do what the locals do and have your
waiter choose your platters for you instead,
perhaps the sai oua sausage, stuffed with basil
and other aromatics, and the soupy Northern
rad na with seafood. He’ll select a wonderful
Riesling to go with all, too. 953 E. Sahara Ave.,
Ste. A5; 702-735-3033; saipinchutima.com.
LA TURBIE, FRANCE
L’Hostellerie Jérôme
It’s hard to pinpoint what people love about
this inn perched above Monte Carlo. Perhaps
LAUNCESTON, TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA
Black Cow
“Happy beef” that has lived the life of Riley
is a culinary ideal—and it doesn’t get better
than the grass-fed Wagyu at Black Cow,
sourced from cattle that frolic all day on
Robbins Island, off the northern coastline
of Tasmania, Australia’s southern island
state. Date-night couples, local suits and
casual weekenders alike loyally return to this
upmarket steakhouse in the historic northern
hub of Launceston for swoonworthy, velvety
beef that tastes all the more succulent with
the signature truffled béarnaise sauce. This
converted butcher shop in a chic riverside
town is one of myriad rewards for making your
way to one of the most pristine environments
on earth. 70 George St.; 61-3/6331-9333; blackcowbistro.com.au.
LENCOIS, BAHIA, BRAZIL
Cozinha Aberta
Brazil’s Chapada Diamantina—the Diamond
Highlands of Bahia—exude a Lost World feel.
Encircled by cliffs, 270 miles from the nearest
beach, this diamond-fever nexus is now a
forested natural refuge. Slow-food disciple
Deborah Doitschinoff stumbled on the region
in 2002 and stayed on to craft precise, flavorrich dishes from forest ingredients. Thus,
eggplant is matched with cashew and spicedguava sauce, ricotta-and-walnut tortellini
with achiote-seed powder; her cardamom ice
cream is the creamiest we’ve tasted. Far from
global currents and cosmopolitan concerns,
Doitschinoff’s cooking is largely unsung, yet
her restaurant’s very remoteness only deepens
its draw. Av. Rui Barbosa 42; 55-75/3334-1321;
cozinhaaberta.com.br.
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LEWISTON, MAINE
Fuel
Fuel is, rather unlikely, a contemporary bistro
specializing in rustic French food enhanced by
an ever-changing list of plats du jour (escargot
with bone marrow and diver scallops over
chorizo and creamed corn). The restaurant may
be located in a town only your GPS can find, but
somehow Fuel and its wine list have been consistently awarded top accolades, and so has its
deliberately intense spirits program: Bartender
Rachel Jalbert makes all her own infusions and
mixers and keeps fresh herbs on the bar for
whatever new cocktail concoction might form in
her mad scientist’s mind. The bar, in fact, is the
place to sit, and its menu changes every Friday,
when the place is packed with weekender home
owners and in-the-know out-of-towners. It’s
first come, first served there, so for a romantic
interlude, book a table—number 99, in fact. It’s
in the back of the restaurant, with three walls
and a sheer curtain that can be drawn for a special anniversary or a proposal—of which there
have been many. 49 Lisbon St.; 207/333-3835;
fuelmaine.com.
LIMA
Pure, fresh seafood and the world’s best
ceviches served in casual, laid-back environments is what you’ll find most here.
Astrid y Gastón
After overcoming a half-millennium cultural cringe—colonial Spaniards obliged their
charges to spurn Andean crops and Pacific
seafood in favor of “noble” European foodstuffs
such as the turnip—Gastón Acurio has
become something of a conquistador himself,
conquering global taste buds with his vibrant
model of Peruvian national cuisine. At his flagship Lima restaurant, newly located in a grand
San Isidro hacienda, Acurio produces bold,
memorable dishes such as suckling pig with
tacu tacu, a twist on rice and beans. Skip the
labored tasting menus: The 29-course Memories of My Land lasts two-and-a-half hours.
Av. Paz Soldán 290, San Isidro; 51-1/442-2775;
astridygaston.com.
Central
We’re not usually fans of places that take
longer to explain a dish than it takes to actually
eat it. But Virgilio Martinez’s Lima restaurant
Chez Wong
Situated behind an inconspicuous door in a
rather edgy part of Lima, Chez Wong has only
ten tables. And no menu. You simply turn up
and watch Javier Wong, a small Chifa master,
turn the freshest sole into a ceviche that
makes guests gasp with delight. Just salt, lime
juice and chiles are added, but the flavors zing
across the tongue. And as there’s no menu,
there are no prices either. Wong charges what
he thinks you can pay. So take our advice and
bring a Liman with you. Whatever the final
cost, this is one lunch that you’ll remember
forever. Calle Enrique Leon Garcia 114, San
Isidro; 51-1/470-6217.
Maido
It was Nobu Matsuhira who brought Nikkei
food, that wonderful blend of Peruvian
and Japanese, to the world’s attention. But
Mitsuharoi Tsumaura’s Lima restaurant goes
way beyond even Nobu-san’s achievements.
You’ll find ceviches, sushi, sashimi and tiraditos
made from fish so fresh they’re still gasping.
Flavors are clean and pure, technique is faultless. Don’t miss the meltingly meaty magic of
the 50-hour-cooked thick ribs. It will likely be
the best meal you’ll eat in Lima, which is some
accolade, considering that this is a city where
good eating is an absolute given. Calle San
Martin 399, Miraflores; 51-1/446-2512; maido.pe.
El Mercado
Casual and low-key, and sitting in the heart of
Lima’s up-and-coming Miraflores district, chef
Rafael Osterling’s ceviche and seafood restaurant is ever reliable. It celebrates the piscine
perfection of the Peruvian coast, serving up
dozens of varieties of ceviche, as well as sumptuous tiraditos and dishes such as raw scallops
done three ways. The wine list is well priced
and interesting, and the cocktails (especially
the Coca sour) well mixed, too. It might seem
relaxed, but the high quality of the food is
anything but. Hipolito Unanue 203, Miraflores;
51-1/221-1322; rafaelosterling.pe.
LONDON
Variety abounds, from jacket-required
fine dining to cheerful gastropubs to buzzy
power spots. Not to mention legendary Indian,
Scottish offal and Irish beef.
Barrafina-Covent Garden
No booking. No tablecloths, either. And you’re
seated on a thin bar stool, with a paper menu
as your placemat. But this modern tapas spot,
with its long, L-shaped marble bar, Josper oven
and sparkling array of spanking-fresh seafood
awaiting the grill on glittering ice, serves up
some of the best Spanish tapas you’ll ever eat,
anywhere. The charcoal-grilled lambs’ kidneys
are superlative, along with deep-fried ortiguillas (sea anemones), oozing tortillas, suckling
pig and Iberian pork ribs. All of London eats
here, and you’re just as likely to find yourself
perched next to Keira Knightley as you are to
the cream of London culinary society. These
are certainly the hottest bar stools in town.
10 Adelaide St., WC2N 4HZ; barrafina.co.uk.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
It might be Heston’s name above the door,
and the great chef is still as involved as ever
in menu development, but it’s his executive
chef, the very talented Ashley Palmer-Watts,
who runs the show here. Dishes are inspired by
historic English favorites, from salmagundi (a
medieval salad) to Rice and Flesh, and, as you’d
expect, both are technically brilliant and a joy
to eat. Take the restaurant’s famed Meat Fruit:
The most silken of chicken liver and foie gras
parfaits is shaped into a small ball and coated
with a mandarin orange jelly. The result? It looks
like a fruit but tastes like heaven. Flavors sing
and textures thrill. Make sure you book one of
the window tables, where the view of Hyde Park
is every bit as inspiring as the food. Mandarin
Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, SW1X
7LA; 44-207/201-3833; dinnerbyheston.com.
Le Gavroche
One of the last places left in London where
a jacket is still very much required, but it’s worth
dressing up to eat at Le Gavroche. Service is
flawlessly old-fashioned, never intrusive, but
utterly immaculate. And chef-owner Michel
Roux Jr.’s food is traditional French haute
cuisine with a resolutely modern touch. So you’ll
find blissfully rich old-school offerings such as
Soufflé Suissesse alongside king crab salad with
Asian dressing. In an old dish or new creation,
the cooking is precise, clean and very grown up.
34
Ask for one of the small booths at the side of
the room and spend some quality time with the
wine list; it’s a work of art. 43 Upper Brook St.,
W1K 7QR; 44-207/408-0881; le-gavroche.co.uk.
Gymkhana
London is known for its Indian restaurants, but
they tend to split into old-fashioned, EnglishIndian curry houses or high-end, modern
subcontinental cooking. Gymkhana is different.
Not only does it master a whole range of classic
regional Indian dishes (suckling pig vindaloo,
wood pigeon pepper fry, wild rabbit nihari),
using exceptional ingredients and exceptionally
assured technique, but this Mayfair dining room
is beautifully decorated in the style of a colonial
sports club (hence the name)—paneled walls,
massive ceiling fans, antique cricket photos
and the rest. The only trouble is that this newly
opened restaurant is still hotter than a fistful of
Kashmiri chiles; but if you do bag a table (and
upstairs is best), you’ll realize that for once the
hype is entirely justified. 42 Albemarle St., W1S
4JH; 44-203/011-5900; gymkhanalondon.com.
Hawksmoor Seven Dials
There’s steak. Then there’s Hawksmoor
steak—British, rare-breed, grass-fed, dry-aged
meaty magnificence that’s cooked simply over
coals. You’ll find at least six different cuts, from
fillet and bone-in prime rib to porterhouse and
55-day-aged D rump on the menu, and with
each, the flavor is spectacular: rich, minerally
and ridiculously juicy, with serious bovine
heft. Should meat not be enough, dig into the
sides, from creamed spinach to triple-cooked
chips. The wine list makes excellent reading
(and drinking), and the cocktails are among
the best in town. 11 Langley St., WC2H 9JG;
44-207/420-9390; thehawksmoor.com.
J Sheekey
Nobody does it better—fish, that is—than
J Sheekey, a theater-land institution that has
seen more great actors, actresses, directors,
playwrights and producers walk through its
doors than even The Beverly Wilshire. You can
either sit in the restaurant proper, under the
watchful eye of thespians past and present,
or retire to a bar stool and order whole crab, a
dozen native oysters and Sheekey’s fish pie. It’s
open late, too—perfect for that essential posttheatrical debrief. 32 St. Martin’s Ct., WC2N
4AL; 44-207/240-2565; j-sheekey.co.uk.
The Ledbury
Chef-owner Brett Graham has the looks of a
laid-back surfer dude but the cooking ability of a
true star. It’s not for nothing that his Notting Hill
MING TANG-EVANS
is quite simply worth the wait. The 17-course
set menu offers an edible explanation of Peru’s
hugely diverse regions, all based on the distance from sea level. Sounds pretentious, but
one taste of the Sixty Mile Fish (squid, hurango
and clam), Extreme Altitude (a potato dish) or
Dry Andes (sweet, rich, edible mud!) and you’ll
want more. This is world-class cooking. And
we’re not alone in our adoration, so make your
reservations before booking your flight. Calle
Santa Isabel 376, Miraflores; 51-1/242-8515;
centralrestaurante.com.pe.
The coffee
and tea bar
at Lyle’s in
Shoreditch,
London
restaurant has two Michelin stars. Yet Graham is
all about taste. Though there is the occasional
smear or oddly shaped plate, mostly the food is
the dazzler, and Graham is able to tease flavors
out of each and every ingredient to create
dishes that wow. It’s good all year, but in the fall,
when his beloved game come into season, prepare to be rendered speechless. 127 Ledbury Rd.,
W11 2AQ; 44-207/792-9090; theledbury.com.
Lyle’s
Everything about Lyle’s, a small restaurant in
the heart of Shoreditch, is discreet, pared down
and unself-consciously modern. The walls are
blank, the floor is poured concrete, and the
kitchen is very much open. Head chef and
co-owner James Lowe was formerly head chef
at St. John Bread and Wine, and the Fergus
Henderson influence is obvious: utilitarian
menu prose and an interest in the more humble
parts of the beast. But this is no mere St. John
clone. Lowe looks as much to Japan as he
does to Britain, with dishes such as smoked eel
broth, and puffball, egg and onion, possessing a
stunning clarity of flavor. There’s no fuss or pretense, just modern British cooking of the very
highest order. Tea Bldg., 56 Shoreditch High St.,
E1 6JJ; 44-203/011-5911; lyleslondon.com.
The Restaurant at the Ritz London Hotel
Why The Ritz dining room isn’t garlanded
with Michelin stars, we’ll never know. Because
seated in this ornate, gloriously over-the-top
room, surrounded by gilded statues and pretty
painted frescoes, you feel like you’re in a different age. Waiters clad in immaculate tails still
coordinate the lifting of the gleaming silver
cloches. There’s a sense of ceremony and
occasion here that’s so often lacking in the
capital. True, as at Le Gavroche, you have to
sausage into suit and tie to even get in. But executive chef John Williams is a cook of the old
school, a man who cuts no corners to achieve
haute cuisine magnificence. 150 Piccadilly,
W1J 9BR; 44-207/493-8181; theritzlondon.com.
the only star at St. John, perhaps the most
influential London restaurant of the last quarter century. 26 St. John St., EC1M 4AY;
44-207/251-0848; stjohngroup.uk.com.
Tramshed
A specially commissioned Damien Hirst
sculpture takes center stage at restaurateur
Mark Hix’s cavernous Shoreditch dining
room. It’s a vast cow in formaldehyde, with a
chicken perched on its back—which is fitting,
as Tramshed specializes in two things: roast
chicken and steak. The art might seem abrupt,
brutal even, if it weren’t for the sheer quality
of the raw ingredients. Reg Johnson’s glorious
Goosnargh chickens, packed with serious
heft, are roasted whole and served with the
feet still attached. Peter Hannan’s Himalayan
salt-cave-aged Northern Irish beef is served in
great charred slabs. You’ll find most of the contemporary art world in here, plus various East
London arty types. Like the art that surrounds
the patrons, Tramshed’s is a simple concept
but one executed with utter confidence and
élan. 32 Rivington St., Shoreditch, EC2A 3LX;
44-207/749-0478; chickenandsteak.co.uk.
The Wolseley
The Wolseley is not only about the food. Sure,
there’s the coq au vin and the Arnold Bennett
omelet with smoked haddock, Parmesan and
cream. But here at this eternally popular Piccadilly power spot, the atmosphere is every
bit the equal of the kitchen. The place hums,
buzzes and throbs with gossip and deal-making Masters of the Universe overdoing it on
off-menu burgers and oysters while planning
their next takeover bid. And it’s not just the
moneymen but movie stars and supermodels,
überagents and blue-chip artists, all thriving in
this magnificent room. The inner circle, at the
front, is the place to sit but the entire place is
magic. 160 Piccadilly, W1J 9EB; 44-207/4996996; thewolseley.com.
St. John Bar and Restaurant
Twenty-one years on, and St. John is still
rocking. Fergus Henderson, the co-owner and
culinary maestro, may no longer be behind the
stoves—he’s now seen as more nose-to-tail
titan than mere pan shaker—but this is one
of London’s legendary restaurants, a room
dedicated to the serious pleasures of British
succor, good cheer and a long lunch or dinner.
Ingredients are always seasonal and the very
best, be they asparagus and gulls’ eggs in
spring or roast grouse and teal in the fall. Offal
plays a leading role in the menu, but it’s not
LOS ANGELES
Here it’s about the see-and-be-seen tables to
book and California ingredients used in everything from French to Italian to Japanese dishes.
Alma
File under “a bit of Brooklyn in downtown L.A.”
In a spare, loud and slightly slapdash industrial
space just steps from the new Ace Hotel
and decked out with cookbooks and a Chez
Panisse poster, servers include a 15-year-old
line cook and a skinny-trouser-clad sommelier
offering wine made from a Portuguese grape
that nearly went extinct. Chef Ari Taymor, 28,
haunts farmers’ markets and his own herb
garden in Venice to create micro-seasonal
eight-course tastings that are as bold, precious
and sometimes brash (frozen duck liver with
coffee granola, anyone?) as his young, fashionforward following. For dining—and a neighborhood—that can be a little rough around the
edges, Alma bestows serious next-big-thing
bragging rights. 952 S. Broadway; 213-2441422; alma-la.com.
Chi Spacca
Sandwiched between Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Nancy Silverton’s Mozza restaurants,
Chi Spacca is a small but beefy part of their
Melrose Avenue Italian empire. At this dark and
clubby grill, chef Chad Colby has established
L.A.’s first dry-curing salumeria featuring housemade terrines, fennel-pollen salami, duck pancetta and a Lambrusco-washed culatello that’s
aged for 15 months. Hearty and rustic, the menu
offers sweetbreads and amberjack spiedino for
dainty diners, but the carnivore crowd goes for
Tomahawk pork chops and a $210 porterhouse
that weighs 50 ounces. Vegetarian? Not a problem. Take a seat with the walk-ins at the counter
and watch the fireworks as Colby blisters your
Little Gem lettuces and tosses whole cauliflower
heads into a roaring wood oven to serve with
crushed lemon bagna cauda. 6610 Melrose Ave.;
323-297-1133; chispacca.com.
Lucques
Smack-dab in the center of the city’s best
district for fashion and decor, the ivy-covered
Lucques seduces midday passers-by with
the scent of burning maple, walnut and citrus
wood. Step into the brick-walled 1920s carriage house that once belonged to the silentfilm star Harold Lloyd and was transformed
with a relaxed refinement by designer Barbara
Barry, and enjoy lunch among designers
and moviemakers in the garden or one of
the semicircular olive-green booths. Named
for the Rolls-Royce of olives that graces the
tables, the 16-year-old Lucques is beloved for
chef Suzanne Goin’s market-fresh Californiacasual approach to American comfort food
and European classics like s’mores cake and
Spanish grilled cheese. Book well in advance
for the $45 prix-fixe Sunday suppers, which
launched Goin’s 2005 James Beard award–
winning cookbook—and a devoted following
with standing reservations. 8474 Melrose Ave.;
323-655-6277; lucques.com.
Melisse
Saam at The Bazaar by José Andrés
It’s all about you in this Paris-chic, dusky violet
Santa Monica dining room, where Champagne
trolleys and cheese carts waltz silently past
the elevated leather booths, and footstools
are provided for mesdames’ Birkins. Meals are
four-, ten- or 16-course tastings (from $135),
“but of course, we are happy to make adjustments,” says table captain Douglas Delancey,
who serves booths 6, 7 and 8 with leading-man
savoir-faire. Sommelier Brian Kalliel can read
you like a book, saving you from consulting
theirs: a hefty 1,200-vintage volume lush with
rare five-figure Burgundies. Stick around long
enough to commend charismatic, roundsmaking chef Josiah Citrin for his signature egg
caviar appetizer, chocolate soufflé (presented
with a syringe of injectable molten Valrhona)
and everything in between. 1104 Wilshire Blvd.;
Santa Monica; 310-395-0881; melisse.com.
Picture a dining car in the Orient Express
as outfitted by Hermès, with luggage racks
stocked with books and Baccarat crystal.
Such is the vibe that designer Philippe Starck
created in the SLS Beverly Hills’ private dining
room, which seats no more than 20 just three
nights a week. Saam’s $150-per-person tasting
menu offers some two-dozen savories and
sweets, expertly delivered and explained by an
attentive and attractive waitstaff. Envisioned
as a testing ground for dishes that might make
the menu for the hotel’s popular but more
clamorous restaurant, The Bazaar, Saam gives
mad scientist and molecular gastronomist
José Andrés, a disciple of El Bulli’s Ferran
Adrià, the opportunity to perfect food fantasies. Among them: thermo-whipped passion
fruit espuma for cocktails, Peking duck in a
cotton candy dumpling, spherical cheeses and
vegetable gnocchi that explode in your mouth
and liquid-nitrogen-treated crispy bites such
as Dragon’s Breath, which, when you chew it,
sends vapor through your nostrils and pretty
much blows your mind. 465 S. La Cienega
Blvd.; 310-246-5555; thebazaar.com.
Mo-Chica
Made from pomace brandy with a tincture of
cinnamon, this modernist Peruvian cantina’s
pisco sour—the best in L.A., devised by
mixologist Deysi Alvarez—will set you up right
for ceviches, tiraditos and stews enlivened with
the fire and tang of aji amarillo, the jalapeño
of Peru. Lima-born and London-trained at
the Japanese restaurant Zuma, chef Ricardo
Zarate plates native recipes with a sushi sensei
flair at his newer West Side restaurants, Picca
and Paiche, but Mo-Chica, launched in a food
court and housed in an arty industrial space
in downtown L.A.’s new restaurant row since
2012, is the originator and the hippest—with
walls tagged by local graffito Kozem and
weekend prix fixes from $35. 514 W. Seventh
St.; 213-622-3744; mo-chica.com.
Providence
Presentation is paramount at this consistent
best-of-list topper near Hollywood’s Paramount Studios. Chef Michael Cimarusti’s wild
Santa Barbara spot prawns arrive buried in
roasted salt, Wagyu beef stogies are served in
cigar boxes, and grilled New Zealand abalone
nestles in a tabletop rock garden with seaweed
shrubbery. In summer 2014, Providence added
four tasting menus (from $100 to $220) and
tapped designer Tamara Kaye-Honey to update the interiors as an undersea fantasia with
groovy Rorschach-blot wallpaper and plush
blue velvet seating. Popular corner tables 5, 10
and 20 can be booked out a month in advance
on weekends but are easier to snag after 9 p.m.
Or swing by on Friday, the only day Providence
does lunch. 5955 Melrose Ave.; 323-460-4170;
providencela.com.
Spago
Since opening in 1982 just above the Sunset
Strip, Spago has been the unofficial Hollywood
canteen and the linchpin of Wolfgang Puck’s
empire. Now ensconced in Beverly Hills, the
restaurant famous for its industry power
lunches, seasonal California tasting dinner
menus and 30,000-bottle wine cellar got a
stellar redesign by Waldo Fernandez in 2012.
Known for his masculine style and A-list
actor clients, Fernandez installed a dark and
sexy yet gentlemanly bar—and a skylightilluminated dining room with artwork by Ed
Ruscha and John Baldessari. The most
popular see-and-be-seen spot is the brick
patio with potted olive trees and two enormous architectural fireplaces. Tables P5 and
P8 bask in the glow of the burning logs; those
requiring more privacy request P1 in the corner. And though Spago attracts a well-heeled
crowd, the code is come as you are and leave
utterly satisfied. 176 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills;
310-385-0880; wolfgangpuck.com.
Trois Mec
With his sleeve-tattooed arms, Gallic scowl and
love for French rap as a soundtrack, Ludovic
Lefebvre seems un peu formidable. But if you
can score online tickets (released every two
weeks with around 50 offered, Monday through
Friday only), sit at the counter of the pop-up
king’s first brick-and-mortar—a former pizza
36
37
shack in an anonymous Hollywood strip mall.
By evening’s end, this bad boy of modern bistronomy will regale you with tales of the slightly
sketchy neighborhood in a thick French accent
as delicious as his potato with brown butter
and bonito flakes. Catapulted to the top of local
and national best-new-restaurant lists in 2013,
Trois Mec offers the first four courses without
cutlery “for you to explore like a child,” Lefebvre
says. But demand a fork and spoon for the
truffle grilled cheese with campfire ice cream.
716 N. Highland Ave.; troismec.com.
Urasawa
Abandon all autonomy, ye who enter here. Hidden above Beverly Hills’ Via Rodeo, Hiroyuki
Urasawa’s kingdom of kaiseki—located in the
space once occupied by his mentor, Masa
Takayama—has the air of a tiny private club.
There are but ten seats around a simple
maple bar (sit on the short end to watch chef
Hiro’s heroics), and though it costs $180 for
a 20-course tasting, you must play by the master’s rules: Reservations require a credit-card
deposit; there is no photographing the food;
and the fresh sushi dishes must be consumed
within ten seconds of serving. Though Urasawa has developed a less savory reputation as a
stern taskmaster with his staff, he is nonetheless acknowledged as a purist—his soy sauce
and even the salt are housemade—with an
artist’s touch, topping an already glorious egg
custard with sea urchin, Japanese chive gelée,
caviar and flakes of gold. 218 Via N. Rodeo Dr.,
Beverly Hills; 310-247-8939.
LYON, FRANCE
Paul Bocuse’s L’Auberge du
Pont Collonges
France’s longest-running Michelin-three-star
table—it’s held the ultimate Gallic accolade
nonstop since 1965—surprises many by its
look: At first glance, it is unexpectedly mid’70s ugly. Add to that its culinary mastermind
is the charming 88-year-old chef-owner Paul
Bocuse, and it’s reasonable to wonder if this
place may be way past its prime. It’s not.
Bocuse’s brilliant restaurant is a living museum
in the best sense of the concept, since the
tastes and textures of dishes like his black
truffle soup—which comes to the table under
a golden cap of flaky brioche dough and
releases a head-spinningly sensuous vapor of
the precious funky tubers and the world’s best
beef bouillon when pierced with a spoon—are
those of the gastronomic glory days of prewar
France. So go now, before anything changes.
40 Rue de la Plage, Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or;
33-4/72-42-90-90; bocuse.fr.
Sacha’s
Chef Wylie
Dufresne
The man who
launched
molecular gastronomy in the
U.S. with WD-50
in New York,
now cooking
at Alder, offers
his dining
picks around
the world.
BIG G’S DELI
Winslow, Maine
This is a sandwich
shop near where
I went to college.
Even at my 20year anniversary
we couldn’t resist
ordering up a
half-dozen Miles
Standwiches
(turkey, stuffing,
cranberry, Swiss).
SIA KEE
DUCK RICE
Singapore
The duck rice
is unbelievable,
probably on par
with the greatest
duck confit
the French have
ever made.
DANI GARCIA
RESTAURANTE
Marbella, Spain
Michelin-twostar chef Dani
García’s restaurant
in the Puento
Romano Beach
Resort serves
delicious food that
is unbelievably
creative.
ASADOR
RESTAURANTE
PORTUETXE
San Sebastián,
Spain
Don’t miss
the baby squid
with caramelized
onions in this
400-year-old
farmhouse.
The most important thing the
diner has to know about this jaunty
Madrileño bistro is that it isn’t where
you think it’s going to be. Find the
street address and then look in vain
for the restaurant. The trick? Head
around the back of the building and
down a manicured alley—and walk
into a warm, noisy, dimly lit haven
full of antique furnishings and acres
of crisp white linen. Here notables
from the worlds of Spanish politics,
business and art eat Alejandro Sacha
Hormaechea’s fried oysters, sea urchin
lasagna and veal-and-artichoke stew,
all of it dependably savory. Calle de
Juan Hurtado de Mendoza 11; 3491/345-59-52.
MELBOURNE
Australian delicacies like kangaroo, wallaby and barramundi, and the new ways
in which they’re being presented, have
put this city on the food lover’s map.
Attica
Even in a city of the food-obsessed,
Attica stands apart. This pared-down
darkened stage of a room has placed
spotlights over each table, and such
theatrics are warranted: Over the
course of a meal, you might tuck into
kangaroo and walnut puree served
in its own shell and all manor of
foodstuffs you’ve never heard of and
didn’t know you needed to try—but
clearly have been missing out on.
Even the humble potato, this most
nondescript of vegetables, is somehow transformed into the sine qua
non of food itself in the incomparable
hands of chef Ben Shewry, who may
just invite you mid-meal to visit his
garden, where he grows many of the
things you’ve eaten. 74 Glen Eira Rd.;
61-3/9530-0111; attica.com.au.
Cumulus Inc.
Since it opened in 2008, chef Andrew
McConnell’s casual restaurant has
been serious about its food and wine,
capturing what many feel is the spirit
of Melbourne at a point in history
when the city is having quite the
foodie moment (in its laid-back Aussie
way, of course). He serves breakfast,
lunch and dinner in an airy, high-ceilinged room where light floods through
massive windows. The menu features
items made to share—and what
better way to get a chance to sample
favorites, like fried cauliflower with
spiced salt and whole slow-roasted
lamb shoulder, or fun oddities such as
pig’s-head croquettes? 45 Flinders Ln.;
61-3/9650-1445; cumulusinc.com.au.
Flower Drum
A stalwart on the Melbourne dining scene (it’s been in business for
39 years), this classic Cantonese
restaurant serves simple, delicious
food in a traditional Chinese setting
of lacquered wood, red carpets and
Asian art. Try Flower Drum’s perfect
rendition of Peking duck with plum
sauce or sample an Australian standby like wallaby tail soup, for example,
or wild barramundi fillet. (We suggest
finishing with deep-fried ice cream.)
Oenophiles will appreciate the wideranging wine list, which concentrates
mostly on Australian and French
bottles, but everyone will enjoy the
service: Waitstaff here dress in formal
attire like old-school servers and act
like them, too, unfailingly helpful and
deferential. 17 Market Ln.; 61-3/96623655; flower-drum.com.
Pei Modern
This casual bistro in the courtyard
of the Sofitel, named after I.M. Pei
(who designed the atrium roof under
which the restaurant is located), has
quickly become a local favorite. With
a quirky wine list and distinctive takes
on menu staples (the burrata dish
includes artichoke and kingfish, for
example), Mark Best’s foray into the
Melbourne dining scene uses marketfresh seasonal ingredients in inventive
ways. The interior is stripped-down, all
wood and glass, and subdued tones
can be heard wafting from the open
kitchen, where chef Florent Geradin
is hard at work. The proximity to the
Parliament House means you may
spy well-heeled suits sharing a power
breakfast or working lunch; nighttime
gives way to locals and foodies from
near and far. 45 Collins St.; 61-3/96548545; peimodern.com.au.
38
Rockpool Bar & Grill
If well-known chef Neil Perry’s
Instagram is to be trusted,
he rarely encounters anything but
beautifully plated dishes as he
moves through his days. This
respected author of eight cookbooks
(with seven restaurants under his
belt) opened Rockpool Bar & Grill,
a study in streamlined Art Deco
opulence, in 2006, and it’s still
going strong. A steakhouse par
excellence, Rockpool proffers beef
of every stripe, vintage dishes
like mac and cheese and smartly
choreographed sides (try the woodfire-grilled broccoli with anchovy
dressing and macadamia nuts).
Many, of course, come not for the
big meals but for the sweet finishes:
There are far too many desserts to
name here, but suffice to say, the
dark-chocolate-mousse cake with
a soft caramel center is worth every
calorie. Crown Complex, 8 Whiteman
St.; 61-3/8648-1900; rockpool.com.
MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
Siete Fuegos at the Vines
Mendoza Resort & Spa
This new venture by perhaps the
most celebrated chef in South
America, Francis Mallmann, is based
entirely on his techniques for cooking
over open fires, a skill he learned
from the local gauchos. And because
his head chef, Diego Irrera, has access
to the fecund Uco Valley and all the
wondrous bounty here at The Vines of
Mendoza resort and co-op vineyard,
he can craft inspired regional dishes
that highlight Argentina’s prized beef,
the expansive resort gardens and
whatever else roams wild on the surrounding lands flanked by the Andes.
Savor the rustic, fiery flavors of specialties like nine-hour slow-grilled ribeye, cast-iron-baked, salt-encrusted
salmon, even fire-grilled seasonal
fruits. Siete Fuegos, or “seven fires,”
evolves by season, in tune with nature.
What doesn’t change are the wine
pairings—ideally grown right on the
vines striping the landscape beyond
Mallmann’s seven flickering fires.
Ruta Provincial 94, km. 11 Tunuyan,
Uco Valley; 54-261/461-3910;
vinesresortandspa.com.
BRIAN FINKE
MADRID
Those famous
crab legs at
Joe’s Stone
Crab in Miami
R&O’s
First, a lesson: A po’boy is a New Orleans
staple that consists of two slices of crunchy,
pillowy bread overstuffed with, well, anything
you like. But here at R&O’s out in Metairie, the
chopped roast beef version—heavily doused
with rich gravy, delicately topped with tomatoes and shredded lettuce, served alongside
sliced pickles—has reached legendary status.
Restaurant critics and longshoremen alike
make the trek to Lake Pontchartrain just
to scratch their po’boy itch, wisely skipping
breakfast and filling up on the packed-tothe-gullets, seeded-loaf version. It ain’t fancy
(watch that dripping juice!), but it’s a meal you
will talk about, and crave, for months on end.
216 Metairie-Hammond Hwy.; 504-831-1248.
MEXICO CITY
Merotoro
Like his friend Benito Molina at Ensenada’s
Manzanilla, chef Jair Téllez was a pioneer of
what has been called Baja Mediterranean cuisine, with his Laja in the Valle de Guadalupe—
Mexico’s prime wine country. Now, with this
bustling bistro in the trendy Colonía Condesa
district, he has partnered with Gabriela Cámara
(whose own Contramar specializes in superfresh seafood) to bring the flavors and relaxed
lifestyle of Baja to the landlocked Mexican
capital. The restaurant’s name combines the
Spanish for grouper and bull, and both seafood
and meat (though not necessarily toro) are
prepared here with originality and flair. Calle
Amsterdam 204, Cuauhtémoc, Hipódromo
Condesa; 52-55/5564-7799; merotoro.mx.
MIAMI
Restaurants—set on the sand, under tents,
by the river and in areas on the verge—
define this city’s eclectic food traditions.
Joe’s Stone Crab
Few restaurants can claim they’ve maintained
their stellar reputation for a century, but Joe’s
Stone Crab can. When he opened his fish
counter in 1913, the original Joe discovered
that stone crabs from the bay were edible (and
delicious) and began serving them steamed
and cracked with hash browns and coleslaw
for 75 cents. The presentation is still the same
(though prices have gone up), and patrons
come as much for those crustaceans as for the
famous Key lime pie, sweet and tart and with a
sinful graham-cracker crust. It’s a Miami institution with serious staying power. 11 Washington Ave.; 305-673-0365; joesstonecrab.com.
Mandolin Aegean Bistro
Most ethnic cuisine in Miami derives its flavor
from Latin countries, but Anastasia Koutsioukis and Ahmet Erkaya’s Design District
restaurant’s dishes hail from more distant
shores. Their Mandolin Aegean Bistro takes
what would be considered peasant food back
in their homeland of Turkey, places it in the
requisite blue-and-white setting that is its
natural habitat, then somehow enhances it
with—could it be love? Those slices of housemade feta, that grilled whole fish that is equally
lemony and buttery, those kefte that are so far
removed from the familiar street-stall version
as to seem a different substance altogether,
are all so simple and yet so remarkable; they
could only have been infused with the tenderness that comes from nurturing something
from seedling to adulthood, or, in this case,
from the next-door garden to what you see
on your plate. 4312 NE Second Ave.; 305-7499140; mandolinmiami.com.
Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink
Michael Schwartz opened his bistro,
Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, back in
2006, just before everything else in Miami
came to a screeching halt. Perhaps because
he stuck to his approach—farm-to-table,
pared-down food—rather than the high-flying
dining happening at other area establishments,
he persevered and emerged as something
of a pioneer in the heretofore scruffy Design
District. Offering house-cured heritage meats
and produce delivered by an on-the-books
forager, Schwartz’s slow-cooking refuge
became the anchor to what has become home
to some major A-listers (Prada and Cartier,
to name just two). His loyal followers come
not for the shopping but for the reliably
good food and lack of pretension—a rarity
in a city where high heels and a bikini are
appropriate attire for lunch. 130 NE 40th St.;
305-573-5550; michaelsgenuine.com.
Mr. Chow
When the W South Beach opened here in
2009, it brought with it Hollywood’s (and New
York’s and London’s) perennially star-studded
Chinese restaurant, Mr. Chow. Only here it’s
set in a double-height, sleek space with blacklacquer walls and a towering Swarovski chandelier, plus a sexy tented outdoor space. Chef
40
Hou Lam “Dicky” Fung crafts his own noodles
for the menu, which is best served prix fixe for
the whole table, though there are plenty of à
la carte options: chicken satay, Beijing duck,
sweet-and-sour pork, those famous Mr. Chow
noodles. Come late for the bar scene that
rollicks well past reasonable dining hours. 2201
Collins Ave.; 305-695-1695; mrchow.com.
Prime 112
Many a society fixture has juice-fasted for
five days after a night at Prime 112. The food
is so good, so hearty, so filling, you honestly
feel like you’ve eaten enough for a week after
a night here. Start with the oysters Rockefeller
and the truffled deviled eggs with caviar,
then move on to one of the ten salads (an
iceberg wedge with bacon and thousand
island, perhaps?). Next up: meat, dry-aged
for at least three weeks, salty and crisp
on the outside and tender and pink within.
(The nine sauces are delicious, but really
they’re just gilding the lily.) Of course you
must have sides, like rum-baked sweet
plantains and creamed spinach. But don’t
overstuff just yet. There’s still those ridiculously decadent deconstructed peanut
butter and chocolate s’mores with vanilla ice
cream to come. 112 Ocean Dr.; 305-532-8112;
mylesrestaurantgroup.com.
Seasalt and Pepper
What was once a barren wasteland near the
Miami River has been reborn as a social hot
spot with a party vibe and rare water views
in this city by the sea. Exotic cars fill the two
nearby parking lots as everyone from Jay-Z to
Real Housewives come to this Lummus Park
seafood brasserie for wood-fired casseroles
and luxe surf and turf. But the real appeal
is the scene. On the wooden deck, revelers
imbibe cleverly crafted caipirinhas and dance
to the sounds of a DJ as yachts dock
right up against the tables. Only in Miami.
422 NW North River Dr.; 305-440-4200;
seasaltandpepper.com.
Zuma
Miami residents also arrive by boat to this
downtown dining spot where brunch is the
hot ticket. They dock at the EPIC Marina, then
dig into main courses like rice hot pot for the
table, maki rolls and branzino with pickled fennel. Take a seat on the terrace for impeccable
views of the Miami River, or look inside toward
the kitchen, where owner Rainer Becker
oversees a team of majordomos turning out
sweet-hot rock shrimp tempura and seared
scallops in a pickled plum sauce. Desserts at
FRANCESCO TONELLI
METAIRIE, LOUISIANA
Foie gras crème
brûlée with berries
and pickled beets at
New York’s Eleven
Madison Park
Chef Paul
Pairet
The maestro
behind
theatrical-dining
phenomenon
Ultraviolet in
Shanghai
reveals his favorite restaurants,
based on his
recent travels.
TIPPLING CLUB
Singapore
Ryan Clift is one
of the brightest
young chefs on
the avant-garde
food scene in Asia.
L’ARPEGE
Paris
Alain Passard continues to inspire
and create.
LE BARATIN
Paris
Chef Raquel
Carena has
certainly
influenced the
whole French
bistronomy,
from wine to food.
L’AUBERGE DU
VIEUX PUITS
Fontjoncouse,
France
Gilles Goujon is
about bold and
very good taste,
complemented
by a delicate
technique.
this buzzy space fluttering with paper
lanterns are a highlight, especially the
chawan mushi with exotic fruits—but
it’s the parade of beautiful people that
really sweetens the whole experience.
270 Biscayne Blvd. Way; 305-5770277; zumarestaurant.com.
MONTE CARLO, MONACO
Elsa
Elsa is the restaurant at the MonteCarlo Beach Hotel, and it also happens
to be the first 100-percent organic
restaurant to receive a Michelin star.
A creative and eclectic seasonal
menu created by chef Paolo Sari is
available during the warmer months
(March through October), and of
its 20 dishes, every last one sings with
the zing of fresh-plucked goodness.
One of our favorites is the vegetarian
risotto, a rich and savory dish that
marries Italian and French influences
with the distinctive flavors of poivrade
(Provençal artichoke), Parmesan and
fresh borage flowers. Other standout
dishes include a pan-seared sea bass
with tomato essence served with eggplant, sweet peppers, courgettes and
snow peas. If he could pack any more
local flavors in, he would, but the balance on this one is just right. Ave.
Princesse Grace; 37-7/98-06-50-05;
montecarlosbm.com.
party for his daughter. Downstairs is
the old laboratory, the ultimate space
for a romantic rendezvous. Upstairs,
it’s all haute cuisine. Waitstaff are
outfitted in vintage servants’ frock
coats, and, in a quest for authenticity, the menus are written in Old
Church Slavonic (you may request an
English version). So, yes, Pushkin can
feel a little gimmicky, but few dining
establishments can claim to transport
diners so fully, so sensually. (And the
Stroganoff isn’t bad, either.) Tverskoy
Bulvar 26A; 7-495/739-0033; cafepushkin.ru.
Selfie
This little sister to White Rabbit (see
below) is run by chef Anatoly Kazakov,
and his hard-to-go-wrong menu adheres to the latest gastronomy trends.
Settle into the sounds of lounge music
and watch the showmanship in the
open kitchen. There, a team of cooks
turns out tangy sea scallops with
cauliflower, raisins and morel sauce;
lamb rib roast with quinoa, raisins and
Port sauce; and a famous Pozharski
cutlet with cucumber ketchup and
crispy potato. Dessert is a highlight; try the sorrel panna cotta with
smetana ice cream and tonic jelly.
Novinsky Bulvar 31; 7-495/99-58-503;
selfiemoscow.com.
White Rabbit
MOSCOW
Old-world aristocracy, romance
and revolution set the scene
for progressive interpretations of
classic Russian dishes.
Pushkin Café
To step through the doors of this
15-year-old place is like stepping back
into pre-revolutionary Russia, right
into the pages of a Tolstoy novel. In
the ground-floor café, aristocratic
cuisine is served 24-7 in a space
reminiscent of a 19th-century chemist.
(Many agree it’s the best breakfast in
town.) Look for the secret door in the
corner that leads into the Rimsky-Korsakov mansion’s fireplace room, where
a CEO might be holding a birthday
A separate elevator whisks diners
to this Moscow hot spot located
in a rooftop conservatory high atop
Smolensky Passazh. And such
a rarified entrance is fitting; once
the doors open, a buzzing room of
oligarchs and opera stars is revealed,
kitted out with antique wooden
tables, 19th-century settees and
hardwood floors. Within that oldmoney atmosphere, star chef Vladimir
Muhin turns out the most progressive
reinventions of Russian classics.
Best to put yourself in his deft
hands and go with the seven-course
tasting menu, which brims with figs,
young goat cheese, stone crab and,
quite frequently, foie gras. It’s a Russian Wonderland, in the form of a
decadent restaurant—with easily the
best city views around. Smolenskaya
Sq. 3, 16th fl.; 7-495/66-33-999;
whiterabbitmoscow.com.
42
MUSTIQUE, ST. VINCENT’S AND
THE GRENADINES
Beach Café at The Cotton House
Tristan Welch, who recently joined
The Cotton House as head chef, is
a well-known culinary figure in the
United Kingdom as former head
of Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus at The
Berkeley. In the Caribbean, Welch has
the added advantage of a killer location on Endeavour Bay, where he can
pluck spiny lobster, conch, snapper,
jacks and any other sea creatures
and plant foods straight from the sea
and transform them into dishes such
as spiny lobster risotto, fish cake with
wilted callaloo in a ginger, lime and
butter sauce or a simple Caribbean
carpaccio. His aim is to complement
the culture and location of the island
by intermingling local staples with
the exotic flavors of this tiny resort
island, then preparing them in
traditional yet highly creative styles.
Cheltenham, St. Vincent & Grenadines;
855-261-1316; cottonhouse.net.
NAPA, CALIFORNIA
Ad Hoc
Why go to the French Laundry
when you can eat the same food
that the chefs there do? Ad Hoc was
opened in 2006 by chef Thomas
Keller as a temporary restaurant
until his team of wizards conjured
the Next Big Idea in dining. But it
clicked with Napa regulars, and the
concept stuck. Now the temporary
spot is fully established, turning out
daily-changing four-course dinners
for $52 in a much more casual
setting than its sister. Fried chicken
and pot roasts are served familystyle, so you get to chatting with
local vintners or Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs or ladies out on girls’
wine-tasting weekends. Better yet,
Ad Hoc is all very casual; getting
a reservation is almost easy. 6476
Washington St., Yountville; 707-9442487; adhocrestaurant.com.
NAPLES, ITALY
Da Dora
You could pass Da Dora, a beloved
Neapolitan fish restaurant, without
even noticing it was there. The two
rooms are small and rather simple, the walls
covered with pictures of celebrities, from Sophia Loren to Julio Iglesias. There is no pomp
or arrogance here, just the best, freshest fish.
Yes, it comes at a price. But the shrimp crudo
and the spaghetti alle vongole are as good
as these dishes get. In the latter, the pasta
is the star, cooked al dente, slick with tangy
olive oil, scattered with parsley and studded
with dozens of the sweetest of clams. Stick
to the local Campania whites and, rather than
rushing, sit back, eat well and revel in your
discovery. Via Palasciano, 30; 39-81/680-519;
ristorantedora.it.
NASHVILLE
Rolf & Daughters
Chef Philip Krajeck is the strongest talent
in this restaurant boomtown, and he excels
at pasta—crazy-shaped, wily pasta in an
infinite array of sauces, formats and sizes.
His goal was to create an everyday sort
of place where the bread was baked
fresh, the meat was butchered whole and
Germantown dwellers could stroll over
for a quick bite. He exceeded that straight
out of the gate, causing quite a stir with his
unbelievable tree-nut ragout tangled
in housemade pasta, and other non-carb
dishes, like the simple, succulent, flat-roasted
chicken. As the website says, “Walk-ins
encouraged.” 700 Taylor St.; 615-866-9897;
rolfanddaughters.com.
NEW DELHI
Varq
Forget everything you know about the
Indian palette and replace it with the refined,
ambrosial creations found on Varq’s Modern
Indian menu. Housed in the peaceful marble
cocoon of the Taj Hotel, where local women
draped in jewel-toned saris crisscross
the lobby on the way to a special occasion,
Varq’s sleek contemporary decor is your
first clue that this is no ordinary Indian
restaurant. The subcontinent’s spices and
flavors are reimagined with such finesse
that the vegetarian dishes alone would
blow away the most dedicated carnivore.
Fried spinach leaves are covered in
beaten gold; spiced Varqui crab rests on
filo pastry towers; sugarcane chicken
kebab comes in a shot glass. Cultural
riches and splendor meet futurist creativity
here; it’s like an arranged match made
in foodie heaven. The Taj Mahal Hotel,
Taj Mansingh Hotel Rd.; 91-11/6656-6162;
tajhotels.com.
NEW YORK
From Manhattan to Brooklyn, the ultimate
dining experiences involve chef’s tables, prixfixe tasting menus and celebrity cooks.
Ducasse alum. He has not only perfected Le
Bilboquet classics like the Cajun chicken but
also does a roster of daily specials that show
cases of his individual style. (Ask your waiter
to list them; service can be spotty and he
might gloss over it.) Snobby? To be sure, but
so deserving of its superiority complex. 20 E.
60th St.; 212-751-3036; lebilboquetny.com.
Barbuto
Brushstroke
Flanked by glass garage doors that swivel
open in summer, Barbuto is the consummate West Village restaurant: a star-studded
crowd, boisterous brunches and dishes with
rustic Italian influences that feel as fresh
and airy as the restaurant’s surroundings.
The real find here is the Chef’s Table, which
needs to be reserved well in advance and
sits a solid gathering of your closest friends.
Plunked right in the middle of the action,
diners are treated to an ever-changing menu
of seasonal bites from a doting staff who whiz
by while manning the vegetable station and
wood-burning oven. 775 Washington St.;
212-924-9700; barbutonyc.com.
You wouldn’t expect a Yankee chef in New
York City to match the outstanding kaiseki
on offer in Japan, but somehow David Bouley
manages to pull it off. Brushstroke is the result
of more than a decade of planning between
the chef and the mastermind behind the Tsuji
Culinary Institute in Osaka; Bouley and Tsujisan wanted a restaurant that could showcase
the talents of the school’s graduates while
adhering to the performance-art and healthyeating ethos of the traditional kaiseki. Now
the wood-lined room and vaulted ceilings play
host to TriBeCa locals and food pilgrims, who
venture downtown for an ever-changing menu
that always features sashimi, rice, chawan
mushi (an egg custard dish) and whatever is
fresh from the farmers’ markets that day. 30
Hudson St.; 212-791-3771; davidbouley.com.
Le Bernardin
When Maguy Le Coze and her brother Gilbert
moved from their native Brittany to open a
modest fish bistro on the Left Bank of Paris
in 1972, they had little experience and less
money. But they had one fierce ideal—that
the creatures of the sea demanded respect.
Each one had an identity, a self, which must be
preserved when it was prepared to be eaten.
Parisians were enraptured by the purity of Le
Bernardin. The Le Cozes brought their ideal
to New York in 1986 on a grand scale. Gilbert
died in 1994, but Maguy and chef Eric Ripert
carry on his vision. 155 W. 51st St.; 212-554-1515;
le-bernardin.com.
Le Bilboquet
Philippe Delgrange is the palm to grease if
you want a spot at Le Bilboquet—lately the
only address for the power set uptown. You
can try, but if you’re even lucky enough to
get a human on the line, chances are there
won’t be much in the way of openings. (Insider
tip: Stop by in person at 11:30 or 3:30, before or
after the lunch rush, and ask Philippe nicely for
a table.) If you do have the option to choose,
the place to be is in the front of the house; the
area is reminiscent of Le Bilboquet’s original
location, on East 63rd Street, where it catered
to the pearl-and-sweater set for 27 years (but,
sadly, closed in 2012). Newly relocated a few
blocks down, the restaurant also has a new
chef in Julien Jouhannaud, a longtime Alain
Daniel
One serious eater’s favorite dish in the world,
lièvre à la royale—a spectacular construction of European wild hare, foie gras, boletus
mushrooms, truffles and a sauce based on the
hare’s blood—is essentially impossible to find
anymore anywhere, even in the few remaining
palace restaurants of France. The labor and
precision required are beyond the reach of
a contemporary kitchen, relics of the age of
Escoffier. But when that foodie wanted to treat
a dear friend to the most memorable meal of
his life, he asked Daniel Boulud if it might, just
might be possible. It was. Insiders also know
about the private Bellecour dining room, where
a sommelier will take up to 90 diners through a
multicourse dinner and all its requisite pairings.
60 E. 65th St.; 212-288-0033; danielnyc.com.
Eleven Madison Park
Young chefs clamor to intern here; peer into
the kitchen, in fact, and you’ll see more staff
than patrons, placing clean, contemporary food
on extra-large plates. New York’s finest outpost
of up-to-the-minute offerings is part theater,
part gastronomy and always impressive. It put
the neighborhood on the map (Eataly and A
Voce came after its opening, way back in 1998)
and is still the preferred downtown power
lunch for media and the creative class. And
bankers. And mothers out for refined meals
with their daughters. And out-of-towners. Its
vaulted ceilings (the linen-covered tables
are set on the ground floor of the former Met
Life Building) and broad windows lend an
only–in–New York attitude, and the menu,
unencumbered by choice, leaves little room for
error. Just turn up on time, have the bartender
concoct something of his choosing off-menu
and let platter after platter of New York
produce (sturgeon, razor clams, rib-eye) arrive
at your table in procession, one more simple
yet provocative than the next. 11 Madison Ave.;
212-889-0905; elevenmadisonpark.com.
Jean-Georges
“Greatness” in restaurant food still too often
comes freighted with a certain ponderousness—diners weighing each taste with solemn
gravity. Jean-Georges is undeniably among
the great restaurants of the world, but it
achieves its dazzle with lightness, wit and
gaiety. The room is at its most beautiful at
lunchtime, with the shifting light of Central
Park flooding in through the walls of glass (and
the prix fixe is but $38 in the adjacent, equally
as good Nougatine). The food is daring but
always graceful, as in the yellowfin tuna ribbons with avocado and spicy radish in a ginger
marinade. 1 Central Park West; 212-299-3900;
jean-georgesrestaurant.com.
The Lambs Club
Restaurateur and Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian
began his career at the side of a master, Daniel
Boulud, when both worked in the original
kitchen at Le Cirque. Since then Zakarian has
gone on to fame and glory and so many stars
we can’t keep track of them all. There was
his time at the Royalton on West 44th Street,
and who can forget Town and later, Country.
His restaurant of the moment is The Lambs
Club on West 44th between Sixth Avenue
and Broadway. Of course, dinner is a natural—
before or after theater—but it’s really The
Lambs’ position as the jewel in the midtown
lunch crown that has given it star power. One
large clubby room, rimmed with red leather
banquettes—Vogue’s Anna Wintour holds
court in the first of them to the right as one
enters—and festooned with celebrity caricatures, harkens back to the grand old days of
air-kissing and three-martini lunches. And the
food? Sublime—whether it be an appetizer
of Richard’s Soup, the Spanish octopus à la
plancha or yellowfin tuna tartare or the main
lunch offerings like the chicken Cobb salad,
Nova Scotia lobster roll or lamb gyro with
house-made pita. 132 W. 44th St.; 212-9975262; thelambsclub.com.
Maialino
NoMad
It was a given that this romantic retreat
tucked into the ground floor of Gramercy
Park Hotel would be a sensation, but chef
Nick Anderer has elevated the institution to
something more. Or maybe less. Because,
although one bite of the skewers of chicken
heart or crispy suckling pig face will erase
any apprehension about snout-to-tail dining,
and restaurateur par excellence Danny Meyer
is the moneyman behind the operation, this
is also the sort of unpretentious restaurant
where hotel guests can pop in for a breakfast
of ricotta pancakes or soft scrambled eggs
with pecorino; Gramercy denizens stop by
for coffee to go; and the three-course lunch
is just $35. Dinner is a must here, but come
any time for fantastic food and an authentic
neighborhood vibe. 2 Lexington Ave.;
212-777-2410; maialinonyc.com.
The decor at NoMad’s aptly named Atrium
restaurant can feel a bit contentious because
the design scheme falls somewhere between
swank lobby lounge and velveteen bordello.
No one, however, has contradictory opinions about the food. Handcrafted loaves of
bread start the meal off right (the ingredients
change every day: olive, Parmesan, etc.). The
chicken smothered in foie gras and truffle
(served for two) is the signature dish, but
we prefer the revolving array of white fish,
usually accompanied by a farm-fresh green.
Whatever you order, don’t skip dessert; the
deconstructed sweets look like a kindergartner’s art project but have just the right
sweet-to-salty ratio. 1170 Broadway; 212-7961500; thenomadhotel.com.
Masa
Prix fixe, $450? You read that right. But if
you can compare a gustatory experience to
a visual one, imagine a gorgeously protracted
sunset, with every wash of gold or orange
or purple lasting only an instant. When
it’s finally over, you know you’ve experienced
something exalted—in fact, the best sushi
in America—but now it’s vanished, done.
Even devotees complain that, while the dishes
are exquisite, they are undeniably small.
Luckily, the Carnegie Deli is only four blocks
away, with an overstuffed pastrami sandwich
for a mere $20. 10 Columbus Cir.; 212-8239800; masanyc.com.
Per Se
Restaurant as theater? As marathon? In any
case, prepare to have both your palate and
your wallet exhausted. The chef’s tasting menu
will set you back around $300. And that’s
just the bare-bones version (nine courses or
so). Add caviar, $75 more. Add foie gras, $40.
Little nip of Wagyu beef, a hundred bucks.
But every dish is breathtakingly beautiful, and
some are memorably exquisite (plus, service is
included). Don’t forget to ask the sommelier to
match your dishes—a pairings menu is likely
to include not just wines but some outlandish
beer, rare sake and perhaps something you’ve
never heard of. 10 Columbus Cir.; 212-8239335; perseny.com.
ll Posto Accanto
Momofuku Ko
David Chang was a game-changer when
he opened his tiny Momofuku Noodle Bar in
2004, creating the craze for ramen and putting Korean food in the culinary constellation.
Today his empire includes a host of exciting
restaurants around the world, but the flagship
is tiny Ko, his third restaurant, opened in
2008, with just a dozen highly coveted seats
(reservations available only online) in a
darkly lit space. You sit at a kitchen counter
and are served a ten-course meal by the
cooks themselves, who are affable enough
to take the time to explain the provenance
of the pork or the pungency of the sauce.
Like all the Momofuku restaurants, Ko (meaning “son of”) uses local, seasonal ingredients
and changes its menu frequently, based on
market availability. If you can score a slot,
we promise you’ll be back again (and P.S.,
lunch is 16 courses and easier to secure).
163 First Ave.; 212-500-0831; momofuku.com.
44
45
Friends of chef-owner Beatrice Tosti di
Valminuta know to ask for The Gricia—an
off-menu pasta dish with pecorino, cracked
black pepper and, the kicker, guanciale, or
cured pork jowl. There’s also the popular
(and off-menu) grilled fresh calamari, potatoand-spinach gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce,
hand-cut Bolognese sauce over fresh pasta
of your choosing and, for dessert, spicy
cantaloupe gelato. In fact, nearly everything
about this tiny labor of love feels special,
like you were invited into a friend’s home
for dinner. As if in keeping with that theme,
there are no reservations, and regulars agree
that the best spot is at the head of the communal table. (Though really, any free table is
a good one.) Come around 7 p.m. for a decent
chance at snagging a seat, or roll in on
Sunday, when Beatrice’s husband, Julio, will
lead you to a table and serve their Italian
version of brunch. 190 E. Second St.;
212-228-3562; ilpostoaccantonyc.com.
Sant Ambroeus Soho
The first Sant Ambroeus actually dates back to
1930s Milan, where it was the stomping ground
of Italy’s intelligentsia. It came to Madison
Avenue, followed by Southampton, then the
West Village, and has remained a mainstay for
sunglass-clad celebrities, fashion designers,
financiers and media types taking meetings
in the discreet back area, or local residents
dropping in for lunch at the polished-wood bar.
Somehow, in fickle New York, its quiet reputation has only grown with age, and a fourth
outpost was introduced about a year ago in
SoHo. Here owners Gherardo Guarducci and
Dimitri Pauli beautifully orchestrate a balance
of see-and-be-seen ambiance with traditional
Milanese cuisine, like seared octopus and burrata with hazelnuts and figs. Just don’t linger
for too long on the leggy blonde at a nearby
booth; she already knows you know who she is,
and you don’t want to seem impolite. 265 Lafayette St.; 212-966-2770; santambroeus.com.
...MEANWHILE, OVER IN BROOKLYN
Blanca
of chef César Ramírez; the dishes change
every night, and you’ll be served 20 or so small
plates of seafood in succession at his discretion. 200 Schermerhorn St.; 718-243-0050;
brooklynfare.com.
Peter Luger Steak House
Walking into Luger’s feels like entering an old
club—a gentlemen’s club, to be sure, full of
Wall Street wallets and gallons of testosterone.
The meat-laden menu that the bow-tie-clad
waiter will hand you does nothing to erase the
mirage. Of course, there is salmon and sole,
but you’re a fool to come all the way across the
Williamsburg Bridge for anything other than
the dry-aged porterhouse for two (or three, or
four). Picture gorgeously caramelized steak
with a salty crust and an ever-so-slightly gamey-aged flavor. It’s a steak that will redefine the
genre for you and, sadly, spoil your palette for
all others. Order like the boys do, with a wedge
salad topped with bacon and blue cheese;
end the meal like their girlfriends and wives
do, with a dessert piled high with housemade
whipped cream. 178 Broadway; 718-387-7400;
peterluger.com.
Everybody loves Roberta’s, a Brooklyn pizza
phenomenon, but most haven’t even heard
about Blanca, the secret restaurant housed
in the little stainless-steel kitchen building
out back. Denim-clad pizza eaters watch with
puzzlement as well-heeled travelers from
Manhattan scuttle past, through the garden
surrounded by shipping crates and tents, to sit
at a counter for just 12. There they watch as
chef Carlo Mirarchi produces a mad-scientist
prix-fixe meal in a buzzy atmosphere (it was
once a Bushwick auto-body shop), in course
after course after course. He’s no pushover,
however: There are only two seatings and no
special requests, no matter how famous or
allergy-ridden you are. Defer to his whim and
you’re rewarded with 27 tiny plates that might
include sea urchin cooked in a crab shell and
one transcendent raviolo stuffed with sausage.
261 Moore St.; 347-799-2807; blancanyc.com.
Talde
Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare
Few New Yorkers wander out to DUMBO for
dinner, much less to Vinegar Hill, its lessdeveloped neighbor to the north, surrounded
on its other sides by an industrial stretch
of the East River, the Navy Yard and the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. But when word
got out about this place, the foodie flocking
began. Now devotees fill the sidewalk with talk
of seasonal American comfort food, especially
the brined, butter-basted red wattle country
pork chop, which comes (if you’re lucky and it’s
wintertime) with seriously rich sides like cheddar grits. The other must-order dish on every-
This teeny tiny spot started out as a few stools
alongside an upscale market and quickly became the most exclusive dining establishment
in the borough, and the only one with three
Michelin stars. It’s on an unassuming block of
Boerum Hill on the edge of still-gentrifying
downtown Brooklyn, but you’ll find it easily by
the town cars that line up every night. Just
don’t think you can study the menu in advance, like you would with other restaurants of
this caliber. Instead, put yourself in the hands
Dale Talde, a Top Chef alum most famous for
his temper, makes good on his TV notoriety
with a neighborhood hangout filled with playful
takes on Asian fare. Start with the pork-andchive-filled pretzel dumplings with spicy tahini
or the flavorsome Kung Pao chicken wings,
followed by the house specialty: a truly elegant
take on hot and spicy Korean-style fried
chicken that comes with a cool kimchi spiked
yogurt sauce. Better yet, come at brunch
and have your Korean fried chicken served
over waffles, or order the Breakfast Ramen:
buttered-toast-flavored broth (yes, really)
studded with honey-glazed bacon and topped
with a soft-boiled egg. 369 Seventh Ave.;
347-916-0031; taldebrooklyn.com.
Vinegar Hill House
one’s list: the cast-iron-pan-seared chicken
glazed, appropriately, with a tangy sherry wine
vinegar sauce. 72 Hudson Ave.; 718-522-1018;
vinegarhillhouse.com.
OTTAWA
Atelier
Chef Marc Lepine’s Atelier has become the
veritable Meryl Streep of Canadian cooking awards ever since it opened in 2008: It’s
earned the Canadian Culinary Championship;
its wine expert won Ontario’s top sommelier
award; and it’s placed twice on the country’s top-five restaurant list since it opened.
Lepine’s kitchen is a laboratory, of sorts, with
nary an oven in sight: It’s all about molecular
gastronomy, with an unwavering dedication to
fresh local bites and artistic presentation. The
12-course set menu changes frequently and
will play with your conventional conceptions of
cuisine, but Lepine doesn’t take it all too seriously—some of his dishes have been named
Yolko Uno and The Codfather. 540 Rochester
St.; 613-321-3537; atelierrestaurant.ca.
PARIS
Small, out-of-the-way boîtes in outlying
arrondissements are taking this city’s food
scene to new levels of French fare.
L’Astrance
Getting a table at chef Pascal Barbot’s restaurant on a cobbled side street in the 16th
Arrondissement takes persistence, but we
promise it’s worth it. That’s because Barbot’s
style is brilliantly witty and deeply imaginative, approaching French haute cuisine in a
very 21st-century, unshowy manner. Layered
foie gras with raw button mushrooms and
hazelnut oil and lemon confit, for example, is
a beautiful display, but simple nonetheless;
his hollowed-out eggshell cups filled with
jasmine-infused eggnog is a roundabout take
on a French fine-dining classic. There’s no
menu as such; just decide on the number of
courses and let the chef work his wonders.
4 Rue Beethoven, 16th arr.; 33-1/40-50-84-40;
astrancerestaurant.com.
Le Cherche Midi
This packed-out Left Bank trattoria is where
multistarred chefs, including Eric Fréchon
(of Le Bristol Hotel), Thierry Marx (of the
Mandarin Oriental), Christian Constant (of
Le Violin d’Ingres) and Yannick Alléno (of Le
Pavillon Ledoyen), come to dine when they’re
off-duty. They’re not alone: Laetitia Casta,
Scarlett Johansson and Isabelle Adjani are also
fans of the restaurant’s homemade pasta
and market-driven menu. Specialties include
spaghetti alla bottarga, fettucine al tartufo,
artisanally made cured meats such as mortadella with truffles and the bufflone mozzarella,
which is made twice weekly in Italy and flown
to Paris the next morning. Don’t expect pizza—
there is none. 22 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th arr.;
33-1/45-48-27-44; lecherchemidi.fr.
American wife. Now he’s back—with a zen,
blond-wood duplex restaurant of his very
own that opened in December 2013 on a
side street on the Left Bank. And he’s better
than ever. Spectacularly creative and hugely
experienced—he’s cooked with everyone
from Alain Passard in Paris to Andoni Luis
Aduriz of Mugaritz in Spain—Toutain has a
style that seesaws between a bucolic love of
fruits and vegetables and the jaw-dropping
thrill of sensually seditious mixtures of new
tastes and textures, like seared duck foie gras
in baked-potato bouillon with black truffles.
29 Rue Surcouf, 7th arr.; 33-1/45-50-11-10;
davidtoutain.com.
Chez Georges
You don’t get more Parisian than Chez
Georges—the quintessential bistro with whiteaproned waitresses, a daily menu scrawled in
lilac ink and shared bowls of rillettes, smoked
herring and champignons à la grecques. You’ll
find grandes dames clad in vintage Chanel
picking at plates of turbot grille swathed in
sauce béarnaise sitting beside road sweepers
making light work of steak au poivre. People
worry that culinary standards are dropping in
Paris. But lunch or dinner at Chez Georges will
restore your faith in French regional cooking.
1 Rue du Mail; 33-1/42-60-07-11.
Le Cigale Récamier
Le Duc
Don’t be misled by the breezy, slightly dated
yachtsman’s decor. For close to half a century,
Le Duc has steered clear of the trends in
favor of quietly cultivating a reputation as a
prestigious port of call for high-flying seafood
lovers. Parisian powerbrokers, politicians,
well-heeled locals and anyone else who’s
fastidious about seafood and shellfish come
here for ultrafresh, locally sourced and impeccably prepared dishes, from carpaccios and
tartares (the scallop version is worth a detour
alone) to moules marnières, turbot and
langoustine royale. 243 Bd. Raspail, 14th arr.;
33-1/43-20-96-30.
The soufflés are light as air; the clientele is
the crème de la crème: Le Cigale Récamier
was a Left Bank haunt for Le Tout-Paris well
before Michelle Obama brought her daughters and mother here for lunch (Laura Bush
was a loyal fan, too). Located beside a little
garden on a dead-end street a block from
Le Bon Marché department store, this familyrun restaurant serves up perfect renditions of
soufflés but also excels in unexpected alternatives such as scallop and ginger, or carrot à
l’orange. Its off-menu specialty, discretion, has
earned Le Cigale the gratitude of the famous,
powerful and adulterous; disrupt anyone
else’s meal and you’re blacklisted for life. The
best tables are on the veranda; of these, table
100 is reserved for ultra-elite, from heads of
state to movie icons. 4 Rue Récamier, 7th arr.;
33-1/45-48-86-58.
Ferdi
David Toutain
La Fontaine de Mars
After dazzling Paris with contemporary
French cooking at the cramped railroadcar-sized L’Agapé Substance restaurant in
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, young chef David
Toutain, 32, astonished everyone by bolting
off on a yearlong round-the-world tasting
trip in December 2012 with his Vietnamese
This quaint little bistro with wicker chairs and
checkered tablecloths was a neighborhood
favorite for a century before the Obamas’ visit
catapulted it into the spotlight and made it
harder to score a table. No matter: The faithful
keep coming, and they don’t seem to mind
being surrounded by English-speaking clients
Don’t even try to get a table here during
Fashion Week; this pocket-sized restaurant
is beyond trendy. And no wonder: The
Venezuelan chef, Alicia Fontanier, is the sister
of fashion doyenne Maria Luisa Poumaillou,
and although she is entirely self-taught, many
believe she serves up the best burger in Paris
(she also gets high marks for her ceviche and
empanadas). Her husband, Jacques, who runs
the front of the house and mans the bar, has
developed a reputation for his mojitos and a
house cocktail dubbed Le Pompadour (with
wild strawberries and vodka). A secondhandchic decor and warm ambiance keep a highwattage international crowd coming back
for dinner, the only meal served. 32 Rue
du Mont Thabor, 1st arr.; 33-1/42-60-82-52.
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47
(if you seek quiet, reserve upstairs). Run by the
personable patronne Christiane, the restaurant
specializes mainly in southwestern comfort
dishes such as magret de canard, foie gras and
cassoulet, and excellent wines, predominantly
from Bordeaux. There are some fish dishes,
too, but it’s better to go ahead and indulge.
129 Rue St. Dominique, 7th. arr.; 33-1/47-05-4644; fontainedemars.com.
Kunitoraya 2
This comparatively recent entry on the
Paris gourmet scene is considered by many
to be the best Japanese restaurant in the
French capital (some contend it’s the best in
Europe). Fashionable yet laid-back, it occupies a white-tiled, turn-of-the-century-style
bistro near the Palais Royal and specializes
in housemade udon. Chef-owner Masafumi
Nomoto has a stellar reputation for surprising
even jaded gastronomes, whether it’s with his
heavenly noodles, unbelievably light tempura
and bonito tataki or more recherché dishes
such as poached oysters with caviar and
grilled scallops with algae butter and truffles.
A newer, family-style cantina called Kunitoraya 1, just down the street, is popular among
trendsetters. 5 Rue Villedo, 1st. arr.; 33-1/4703-07-74; kunitoraya.com.
Septime
Most of the heat in the Parisian food scene is
emanating from the up-and-coming doubledigit arrondissements on the east side of
town, and first among these is Septime (even
Beyoncé and Jay-Z made the trek). A must-get
table from the minute it opened two years ago,
the restaurant takes its name from a character
played by the beloved late comic actor Louis
de Funès. Its owner, chef Bertrand Grébaut,
delivers on that promise of good humor with
highly inventive, generous market-driven
dishes: If they’re on the menu, don’t miss the
line-caught tuna and razor clams. The decor is
pleasingly pared-back—think industrial meets
rustic Scandinavian—and the atmosphere
relaxed so that the focus is squarely on what’s
on your plate. The $75 tasting menu is one of
the best deals in town, and reservations are de
rigueur. 80 Rue de Charonne, 11th arr.; 33-1/4367-38-29; septime-charonne.fr.
Le Stresa
Think of it as Paris’s answer to Harry’s Bar in
Venice: Favored by the media, artistic, political
and cinema elite, this velvet-banquette-lined
Italian joint has remained virtually unchanged
since opening in 1951. Owned and run by
the six Faiola brothers, the place owes its
renown to regulars including Alain Delon and
Jean-Paul Belmondo, each of whom received
a signature pasta dish in their honor (the
Trenette and a spaghetti with a little kick,
respectively). The youngest Faiola, Marco,
specializes in market-driven fare and is particularly prized for his way with white truffles
from Alba (from now through Christmas).
7 Rue Chambiges, 8th arr.; 33-1/47-23-51-62;
lestresa.com.
Le 21
If you didn’t know what to look for, you’d walk
right by this unprepossessing black façade
in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Prized by highvisibility habitués such as designers Marc
Newson and Victoire de Castellane, Le 21 has
a private-club vibe that makes it a go-to for
discreetly chic dinners among friends. Chef
Paul Minchelli, the man credited with teaching
the French to love raw fish back in the ’70s,
offers up outstanding seafood and a menu that
varies depending on the day’s catch. When
pressed, owner-sommelier Didier Granier cites
the line-caught meagre with tomatoes and
basil as the menu’s star, but there are plenty
who rave about the “handmade” (deboned and
marinated) herring, spicy squid and housesmoked salmon. Save room for the baba au
rhum for dessert. 21 Rue Mazarine, 6th arr.;
33-1/46-33-76-90.
Le Voltaire
A relic of a bygone era, the chic and diminutive
Le Voltaire reliably draws the city’s top tastemakers (Yves Saint Laurent was a regular).
Located in the building where the famous
French philosopher breathed his last, this Parisian institution par excellence faces the Seine
and remains family-run, so it stands to reason
that its clientele returns again and again—despite the steep prices—because they feel like
part of the family, too. Famously, the house
oeuf mayonnaise has been featured on the
menu at its original prewar price (at $1.27, it’s
the cheapest starter in town). Other favorites
include salmon with béarnaise sauce, perch au
beurre blanc, superb steaks with crispy fries,
tarte Tatin and a much-noted wine list. 27 quai
Voltaire, 7th arr.; 33-1/42-61-17-49.
PERTH, AUSTRALIA
Print Hall
Western Australia’s boom-time mining
economy has brought new life to a Perth, previously a corporate ghost town. Government
grants lure young entrepreneurs back as gritty
industrial spaces and heritage buildings come
alive again as reimagined leisure precincts.
Print Hall is the canary in the coal mine of
Perth’s resurgence, a lavish multitiered venue
in the former Newspaper House. This veritable
pleasure emporium houses enough bar stools
and dining variety to bring patrons back, even
from Sydney. The bar is named in honor of
Australia’s favorite, rowdiest prime minister,
who with true Aussie larrikin spirit gave the
nation the day off when Australia won the
America’s Cup. Imbibe at Bob’s Bar accordingly.
Brookfield Pl., ground fl., 125 St. Georges Terr.;
61-8/6282-0000; printhall.com.au.
PHILADELPHIA
Serpico
David Chang alums are now planting their
own flags across the country, but Serpico is
the best from the acolytes. In a South Street
stunner, former Momofuku Man Friday Peter
Serpico, along with partner-restaurateur
Stephen Starr, offers Philadelphians a revolutionary—and revelatory—dining experience.
The menu is contemporary American with an
Asian influence, but Serpico brings a global
arsenal of tips, tricks and techniques. If they’re
on the menu, try the grilled beef pho sandwich
with jalapeños or the deep-fried duck leg with
housemade Sriracha, both crispy and juicy and
served as sandwiches alongside pickled cucumbers. Ask for a seat at the chef’s counter,
overlooking the open kitchen. 604 South St.;
215-925-3001; serpicoonsouth.com.
PHUKET, THAILAND
Aziamendi
Iniala, a villa-only resort located about half
an hour north of Phuket in quieter (and more
beautiful) Phang Nga, is one of Thailand’s
most luxurious and private hotels. The
property is designed around collections of
contemporary art (check out the Warhols),
and its restaurant, Aziamendi, is no exception. Helmed by young Basque chef Eneko
Atxa, this ultramodern kitchen turns out
what could be called tropical renditions of
molecular Basque cuisine: If you’re lucky, the
chef might lead you out to the garden, where
bonsai trees are laden with artfully placed
cherry tomatoes (guests are encouraged to
pluck them off and pop them in their mouths).
You can watch truffled eggs being made in
the kitchen, then served on tiny silver spoons,
and who could forget the deliciously strange
foie gras encrusted with ash or the mango
fettucine served with salted chocolate? 40/41
Moo 6 Baan Natai T. Khokkloi A. Takuathung;
66-093/779-2312; aziamendi.com.
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POCANTICO HILLS, NEW YORK
Blue Hill at Stone Barns
King of the locavores Dan Barber raises most
everything he serves in the surrounding notfor-profit Stone Barns Center (everything else
comes from more than 40 nearby farms)—and
fashions individual meals for each patron. Scientists, farmers, breeders and Ph.D. students all get
in on the action to raise heritage breeds and divine the most flavorsome carrot possible. Repeat
guests know to arrive early to check out the
farm, whether that means taking a formal tour,
ambling through the fields and woods or just
having a cocktail on the terrace if the weather is
right. Afterward, diners aren’t given a menu but
instead are led through a series of courses that
graze and wander from the Rockefeller Estate’s
dairy shed to the kitchen, outdoors and, finally,
the barn. In 30 courses, chef Barber attempts to
tell the story of the earth through its food. 630
Bedford Rd.; 914-366-9600; bluehillfarm.com.
POSITANO, ITALY
Da Adolfo
Da Adolfo, a short boat trip from Positano’s
harbor (look for the free taxi boat with the big
red wooden fish atop the mast), is a classic:
Local families indulge in vast bowls of tomatospiked zuppa di cozze. Billionaires, their gin
palaces parked out to sea, tuck into grilled
mozzarella served on lemon leaves. And sunhoneyed youth, from New York, London, Rome
and Paris, sip local wine and while away a
blissful afternoon. Once the eating’s done, just
find a warm rock, lie in the sun and relax. Via
Laurito, 40; 39-089/875-022; daadolfo.com.
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
Mosaic at the Orient
Part of the Kasbah-like Orient Boutique Hotel
on a wildlife conservancy outside Pretoria,
close to Johannesburg, Mosaic is a hit with
the diplo and business set. The first thing you
notice is the decor—stained glass windows,
lavish oil paintings, plush booth seating—in
the Art Nouveau look of early 1900s Paris,
a style chef Chantel Dartnall fell in love with
while working in Michelin-starred restaurants
in Europe. Next is the food. SA’s 2009 chef of
the year, Dartnall uses earthy seasonal local
ingredients to create a rich, bold, cosmopolitan
cuisine: sautéed forest mushrooms with black
truffle foam; quail tempura in tamarind sauce,
and a French “steak tartare” hamburger. Orient
Boutique Hotel, Elandsfontein, Crocodile River
Valley; 27-12/371-2902; restaurantmosaic.com.
Aponiente
Even in a country well-known for its imaginative
chefs, Angel León’s inventiveness stands out.
Aponiente may be located in an uninspiring
coastal town not far from Spain’s sherry-making
center, but the things that León does there
with seafood are nothing short of wondrous.
This, after all, is the man who figured out a way
to thicken sauces using the gel in fish eyeballs,
who created a tasting menu that reimagined
the marine food chain and who devised a
method to cultivate plankton—the better to
serve it, often in an unadorned spoonful, a
sensation not like mainlining the sea. Yet the
true wizardry lies in his ability to make all these
experiments taste fantastically good, even
while they function as subtle lessons in sustaining the world’s oceans. Calle Puerto Escondido,
6; 34-956/851-870; aponiente.com.
QUEBEC CITY
of the Riga Dome Cathedral and the Daugava
River. Dome Hotel & Spa, 4 Miesnieku St.; 371/6755-9884; zivjurestorans.lv.
RIGA, LATVIA
Vincents
Rumor has it that when Queen Elizabeth II
arrived in the Baltic, she ate lunch at Vincents
and then promptly refused to eat anywhere
else during the rest of her stay. And the
royal seal of approval is definitely warranted;
Vincents is quite literally the restaurant that
started Riga’s haute cuisine movement after
the dark ages of Soviet pork and potatoes
(its URL even means “the restaurant”). Chef
Martins Ritins championed the farm-totable movement long before the chefs in the
neighboring Nordic countries were collecting
their global accolades, and one day—when
Michelin discovers Latvia—Vincents will undoubtedly be awarded a constellation of stars.
19 Elizabetes Iela; 37-1/6733-2830; restorans.lv.
Aux Anciens Canadiens
If there is one restaurant that deserves to be
called wild, then it’s this Québec City favorite
that’s been serving game dishes with a French
twist since 1966; bison cooked in a creamy
blueberry-wine sauce is but one of the dazzling entrées that will awe game lovers. Just
a short walk from the iconic Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Hotel, the restaurant is hard
to overlook: Keep an eye out for a diminutive
white house with red trim built in 1675. Inside
is rustic decor with wainscoting and recessed
cupboards that retain the lovingly worn look
of those early days. 34 Rue Saint-Louis;
418-692-1627; auxancienscanadiens.qc.ca.
RIGA, LATVIA
Le Dome
Chef Māris Astičs is an experienced hunter, and
his passion for paleo is revealed in his seasonal
menus: wild boar and just-caught rabbit often
take center stage in the best dishes, enhanced
by freshly delivered chanterelles, wild strawberries, cloudberries and juniper. Latvian eel, plaice,
sturgeon, sander and other catches of the day
regularly arrive from Latvian lakes and rivers
and the Baltic Sea, where their fresh flavors are
enhanced by the environment—a 16th-century
private home as the setting, live piano (on
weekends) as the soundtrack and photographs
of fishermen fighting the cold, stormy waters
of the Northern sea as a backdrop. It’s moody,
to be sure, but for a more delicate pas de deux,
take a seat on the rooftop terrace during summer months and soak up magnificent views
RIO DE JANEIRO
The best eateries here are found off the
beaten path with commanding views that
induce long, leisurely meals.
laid-back tapas bar aimed at shoppers on the
go, and Mira!, a spry start-up in art collector
Ruth Schmidheiny’s Casa Daros Rio museum.
Ciasca’s original, Miam Miam, combines cool
attitude and colorful vintage decor with warm
service. Shaven-headed, tattooed waitstaff
sashay amid Formica-topped tables and
unapologetic quantities of chrome, vinyl and
acrylic, serving grilled grouper with sweet
potato and cauliflower and prawns matched
with hearts of pupunha (peach palm). Rua
General Góes Monteiro 34, Botafogo; 5521/2244-0125; miammiam.com.br.
Restaurante Aprazível
For an oceanfront city, it’s odd that Rio’s hippest district should be a hilly enclave some
distance from the sea. Artists’ quarter Santa
Teresa is filled with quaint, serpentine streets
and imposing—if slightly shabby—mansions.
Ana Castilho was a pioneer when she opened
Aprazível in 1997 in her former home. Her jackfruit and mango trees now tower over a labyrinth of patios, terraces and verandas in what
were once the house gardens. Castilho favors
artful takes on recipes from the state of Minas
Gerais: Goat is served with yam and tropical sea
fish with cashew-and-coconut rice and baked
plantain. Tables on the Barroco terrace afford
commanding views of glittering Guanabara
Bay far below. Rua Aprazível 62, Santa Teresa;
55-21/2508-9174; aprazivel.com.br.
Roberta Sudbrack
Espírito Santa
Natacha Fink’s creative take on Amazonian
cuisine appears as exotic to Brazilians as to
most foreigners. Fink has made the tambaqui
river fish her stock-in-trade, promoting the
lesser-known namorado fish as a worthy
alternative. Conservative diners are offered
meat-based family favorites such as feijoada
de rolo (rice rolls filled with black beans and
pork), here given a piquant touch, but Fink
returns to the Amazon for desserts based on
cupuaçu, a fruit so closely resembling cacao
that mothers feed it to their children as if it
were chocolate. Shaded by a soaring Tahitian
apple tree, the rear terrace overhangs a steep
hillside, providing an excellent spot to while
away a sultry Rio afternoon. Rua Almirante
Alexandrino 264, Santa Teresa; 55-21/25074840; espiritosanta.com.br.
Miam Miam
Le Cordon Bleu–trained Roberta Ciasca is fast
turning Rio’s bayside Botafogo district into
an up-and-coming culinary hot spot. Openings in the past five years include Oui Oui, a
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Incredibly, the self-taught Sudbrack learned to
find her way around a kitchen so deftly that she
wound up as personal chef to former Brazilian
president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Since
shimmying free of public service, Sudbrack now
fronts an eponymously named restaurant in
the Jardim Botânico district, where she mixes
up ingredients and culinary traditions like an
alchemist. She cooks what’s fresh and what
takes her fancy—on our last visit, that was
a deceptively simple slow-cooked lamb with
chervil and potatoes. There is little wiggle room
between tables on the ground floor; upstairs,
there’s less bustle and more space. Av. Lineu
de Paula Machado 916, Jardim Botânico; 5521/3874-0139; robertasudbrack.com.br.
Rubaiyat
A herd of home-bred Brangus—an intriguing
bovine mix of Indian Brahman and Aberdeen
Angus—lies at the heart of Galician immigrant
Belarmino Fernández Iglesias’s success in
building an international chophouse chain with
outlets in Lima, Madrid and Mexico City. Grazing freely on Mato Grosso do Sul farmland,
ALANNA HALE
PUERTO DE SANTA MARIA, SPAIN
The highly
stylized
dining room at
Saison in San
Francisco
the cattle yield standout cuts such as picanha
(from the rump) and bife de tira (cross-cut
short ribs). Rubaiyat’s Rio outlet, set above the
racetrack at the city’s Jockey Club, comes with
a swoon-inducing view of the outstretched
arms of Heitor da Silva Costa’s Art Deco statue
of Christ the Redeemer on Mount Corcovado.
Rua Jardim Botânico 971, Jardim Botânico;
55-21/3204-9999; rubaiyat.com.br.
ROME
Salumeria Roscioli
Many a favorite pasta preparation—carbonara, amatriciana, cacio e pepe—are Roman
in origin, and nobody does them better than
this combination food shop, wine store and
restaurant near Rome’s celebrated Campo de’
Fiori. Brothers Alessandro and Pierluigi Roscioli
converted their family’s grocery store into an
instant culinary institution about a dozen years
ago, placing emphasis not just on classic local
fare but on the integrity of their raw materials.
(“Before cooking” is their motto—meaning that
that’s where the quality starts.) The breads,
produced in the family bakery, which dates
back to the 1830s, are definitely worth the
carbs. Via dei Giubbonari 21/22; 39-06/6875287; salumeriaroscioli.com.
ROSES, SPAIN
Rafa’s
This legendary hole-in-the-wall in the Costa
Brava resort town of Roses is the simplest restaurant imaginable: There’s a woman waiting
on tables and a man—Rafael Cantero, known
to everyone as Rafa—behind the counter. He
is armed with only a griddle, a spatula and a
pair of tongs; his larder consists of olive oil and
salt. A refrigerated case is filled with maybe
15 kinds of seafood, so fresh some of it is still
moving. You make your choice, Rafa sears it on
the griddle and you eat the best, most vividly
flavorful fish and shellfish of your life. When he
can’t get the quality of seafood he wants, or
when he runs out of the best of it, Rafa closes
up shop. Carrer de Sant Sebastià 56, Roses;
34-972/25-40-03.
ST. HELENA, NAPA, CALIFORNIA
The Restaurant at Meadowood
Chef Christopher Kostow is undoubtedly
a wunderkind, even though his talents are
often overshadowed by the various Thomas
Keller enterprises nearby (which are much
harder to get into). Many say this is the French
Laundry for the 21st century, a wine-country
resort restaurant with no menu, no real rules
about where to sit (bar, rotunda, private dining
room, chef’s counter) and no absentee chef
with a rarified title off building an empire. The
dialogue between guest and restaurant begins
the moment a reservation (essential) is made.
Bookers will ask your likes, dislikes, allergies
and aversions, as well as the type of experience
you wish to have. After that, a specific menu
is created by the chef himself for each table.
For planning ahead, you might get the honor
of sampling potatoes cooked in beeswax with
assorted sorrel, or a whole meal designed for
your pescatarian partner. Of course, the best
table is the chef’s counter in the kitchen, where
Kostow and his team often serve the dishes
to you themselves and explain the flavors
exploding on your tongue. After dinner, the 44
guests often repair to the rotunda for digestifs,
play chess and hang out until someone says,
“Last call.” 900 Meadowood Ln.; 707-967-1205;
therestaurantatmeadowood.com.
ST. PETERSBURG
Il Lago dei Cigni Where else would a restaurant exist with
the sole purpose of weaving Russian folklore
and the tale of the restaurant’s namesake,
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, than on the idyllic
setting of Krestovsky Island? Luxurious interiors by Hirsch Bedner Associates and a wine
collection of more than 600 bottles (including
a 1965 Barbaresco and a Barolo from 1989)
attract oil tycoons and Russian oligarchs to
this whimsical concept of an Italian restaurant. But the food keeps them coming back:
Carpaccio is made from the tentacles of giant
squid; Japanese marbled beef is prepared
in front of the guests on volcanic rocks of
pink salt. Once the music starts playing in the
dining rooms and the lights begin to twinkle
on the terrace, Swan Lake murmurs to the beat
of lively conversation. 21 Krestovsky Prospect;
7-812/602-0707; illago.ru.
ST. PETERSBURG
Percorso
Contemporary Italian to the core, Percorso
combines magnificent interiors courtesy of
Japan’s Spin Design with serious Italian food.
From the drama of the crystal chandeliers
to the dark woods and a roaring fire, everything oozes a refined theatricality, a perfect
antidote to the gray, snowy weather outside.
Guests can choose tables with views onto the
kitchen, beside that fire in the Amber room or
overlooking St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Once they’re
comfortable, the show begins, starting with a
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basketful of artisanal bread accompanied by
housemade butter, two types of salt and small
dishes of a fruity, peppery olive oil for dipping.
Next comes fresh seafood, burrata, delicate
meats, handmade pastas and anything else
divined from Italy and jazzed up by chef Andrea
Accordi—the first chef in Eastern Europe to be
awarded a Michelin star. Four Seasons Hotel
Lion Palace St. Petersburg, Voznesensky Prospect 1; 7-812/339-8044; fourseasons.com.
ST. PETERSBURG
PMI Bar
Headed by young Russian chef Ivan Berezutskiy, PMI Bar on the Moyka River delivers on
(the relatively new idea of) contemporary
Russian cuisine. Gourmands from Moscow come
for Berezutskiy’s creative tasting menu with
precise wine pairings, which has become one of
the most exciting dining experiences in Russia.
Murmansk crab served with wild herbs and
smelt caviar, White Sea mussels with laminaria
sticks and elder sorbet with sorrel sauce are
only a small part of the gastronomic spectacle,
where presentation is no less important than the
inherent taste of the local ingredients—in fact,
each porcelain plate printed with regional herbs
is a collaboration between chef Berezutskiy
and renowned Russian artists. Moyka River 7;
7-812/907-0710; pmibar.com.
SALTA, ARGENTINA
La Casona del Molino
In the remote high-altitude valleys of northwest Argentina, Spain’s colonial legacy lives on
in the form of well-preserved churches, municipal buildings and rambling adobe ranches
such as La Casona del Molino. The former
lodge for Bolivia-bound muleteers now houses
a restaurant and peña, a free-for-all fiesta of
folk music and dance, in which half-drunk
gaucho musicians sway and stagger from one
courtyard to another. Spicy tamales (beef,
chili and corn meal, wrapped in a corn husk),
tangy humitas (caked sweet corn) and locro
stew, all best eaten with a tannic Malbec from
the nearby Cafayate vineyards, make a fine
alfresco accompaniment to the coarse country
melodies. Luis Burela 1; 54-387/434-2835;
facebook.com/lacasonadelmolino.
SALTA, ARGENTINA
El Manantial del Silencio
Indigenous beliefs intermingle with Spanish
colonial culture in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a multihued, 100-mile gorge that
slices violently through Argentina’s arid north.
Among Purmamarca’s simple adobe houses,
far indeed from global concerns, Sergio
Latorre made a new home after abandoning
a World Bank career and falling in love with a
local girl. The life-changing move saw Latorre
take over the kitchen at baronial country hotel
El Manantial del Silencio, where he turned
his mother-in-law’s traditional Quebrada
recipes—heavy with goat cheese, maize and
prodigious quantities of llama steak—into
gastronomic set pieces. Ruta Nacional 52,
km. 3.5, Purmamarca; 54-388/490-8080;
hotelmanantialdelsilencio.com.
La Ciccia
Everyone’s tasted great Italian, but somehow
Sardinian cuisine—bold, rustic and pungent,
with a strong Spanish influence—is still under
the radar. And that’s a good thing for fans of
La Ciccia, which, though hard to get into, isn’t
totally impossible. Devotees scale the streets
of Noe Valley to revisit chef Massimiliano
Conti’s beloved spaghetti con bottarga (fish
roe pasta) and for calamari that is exactly as
delicate and tender as nature intended. Ask his
wife, Lorella, for recommendations on the wine
list, 180 labels strong. 291 30th St.; 415-5508114; laciccia.com.
Coi
SAN FRANCISCO
Remember when this town was the center of
the universe back in the ’80s? Well, it’s slowly
reclaiming its spot as California’s food capital.
Aziza
Moroccan cuisine is among the world’s greatest, but the received wisdom is that you cannot get it in a restaurant—even in Morocco.
Only private homes, with scowling grannies
or the finest family chefs, produce the true
thing, and good luck getting invited. Mourad
Lahlou doesn’t worry about authenticity,
though his olfactory memory is an encyclopedia of his childhood in Marrakech. Rather
than struggle, and fail, to re-create what he
remembers, he embraces the equally potent
scents of northern California. To the two he
applies his singular power: imagination. What
emerges is not a synthesis but something
entirely new. 5800 Geary Blvd.; 415-752-2222;
aziza-sf.com.
Burma Superstar
Burma Superstar has racked up a helluva
lot of karma points for its community initiatives (funding schools and animal shelters,
to name two). But we come here for the
food. The tea leaf salad—an aromatic
blend of greens and spices imported from
Myanmar—just might change your life. The
mishmash of items found in a typical
Myanmar garden is one of those don’ttry-this-at-home dishes that’s best served
by the superstar waitstaff, who churn the
produce right before your eyes. Start with
that, then move on to creamy curries
that double as the ideal dipping sauce
to the naan-like bread. 309 Clement St.;
415-387-2147; burmasuperstar.com.
Daniel Patterson goes into a forest in search
of a certain lichen. He spends hours cleaning,
boiling and dehydrating it. Then he grinds it
into powder, encrusts it on a little bitty piece
of beef—likely the only meat you’ll get in your
11-course meal. Everything is going to be so
zen that you’re really going to have to give
it some thought. Coconut mochi bun with
kiwi and shiso? California bowl of snow-cone
plum ice, black lime, sturgeon caviar, smoked
egg yolk, crème fraîche and chives? There
are raucous strip joints outside, but here all is
calm, triple weird and fantastic. 373 Broadway;
415-393-9000; coirestaurant.com.
Gary Danko
Intimate, mood-lit and tranquil, with an ultrapolished white-tablecloth service and perfectly
plated contemporary California cuisine to
match, Gary Danko has long been one of the
city’s top picks for special occasions. But few
know that you can also sit at the 11-seat bar
and order a world-class dinner at the last
minute and à la carte (the dining room is
multicourse only)—or that there’s a very small
private room that’s just right for exclusive
meetings, or guests that want to raise decibel
levels along with their glasses. Classics reign
here, which means the caviar service with
buckwheat blini, cheese cart and tableside
flambé are musts. (Sorry—there’s no flambé
at the bar.) 800 N. Point St.; 415-749-2060;
garydanko.com.
Keiko à Nob Hill
Only in San Francisco would a chef opt to
reduce the number of covers to increase the
quality of the crop. But such is the case of
this Nob Hill izakaya, where, since February,
chef Keiko Takahashi offers her 13-pluscourse menu to just 25 diners each night.
Takahashi now flies all her fish in fresh from
the Tsukiji Market, all her beef is authentic
54
Wagyu and every diner gets personal attention (though no special requests, please).
Fortunately some things never change: The
vintage wine collection is still available, with
elegantly aged Bordeaux to go with your
single-hook-caught baby bonito and wild
cherry trout. 1250 Jones St.; 415-829-7141;
keikoanobhill.com.
Quince
Lindsay Tusk has an astonishing eye for
Venetian glass, which made Quince one of the
prettiest restaurants on earth. Her husband
Michael, the chef, has an equally refined palate
in the kitchen. The duo launched the restaurant in modest quarters in 2003, and its latest
incarnation—not modest—is their moon shot.
The menu now offers only two nine-course
menus (one is vegetarian), both ever-changing:
With exceptions for allergies and absolute distastes, you put yourself in Michael Tusk’s hands
and trust that all shall be well. 470 Pacific Ave.;
415-775-8500; quincerestaurant.com.
Saison
At San Francisco’s most expensive and
highly touted restaurant of the moment, the
dining room and kitchen have no division,
multicourse dinners start at $248 per person
and the vibe in the converted warehouse
echoes the edgy-yet-refined modern California cooking of Joshua Skenes. A study in
culinary creativity, the revolving menu, backed
by a mind-boggling, two-volume wine list,
is a perpetual parade of bite-sized masterpieces that nod to Skenes’s passion for
“fire cooking.” Request a table closest to the
kitchen for the best ringside view. Better
yet, reserve one of the eight spots for the
exclusive, wine-paired test-kitchen dinner,
to be escorted to a nearby location for a
behind-the-scenes taste of chef Skenes’s latest experiments before they hit the menu. 178
Townsend St.; 415-828-7990; saisonsf.com.
State Bird Provisions
Believe the hype. The inventive, internationally influenced small plates wheeled around
à la dim sum carts are worth the hurdles that
must be cleared to get a reservation. And not
just because chef couple Stuart Brioza and
Nicole Krasinski won a James Beard award
immediately after opening. This spot, edging
the grittier section of Fillmore Street, embodies
San Francisco—casual, unpretentious and
diverse right down to the clientele and the fare
coming out of the shoebox-sized open kitchen.
(If the yuba noodles are offered, don’t miss
them.) If you can’t be bothered with reserva-
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
José Enrique
The most intriguing example of the revitalization around La Placita market is José Enrique,
which has emerged as the city’s most coveted
booking. Its location could not be more unassuming: a simple, smallish, ’50s-style bungalow
in the heart of the arty barrio of Santurce. Fiery
mojitos and rich sangria are sipped on the
terrace as guests wait for one of the sturdy
wooden tables in the restaurant that bears its
chef’s name; they’re set in an airy dining room
or on low-lit terraces where waiters present
the evening’s menu scrawled on a dry-erase
board. The food is ultra-local, with a focus on
fresh produce and seafood sourced from the
nearby market. While the dishes vary, staples
include hearty meat stew paired with rice and
tostones, a juicy churrasco with chimichurri
sauce or crispy whole-fried fish followed by
tembleque—a classic Puerto Rican coconut
pudding spiked with crispy biscuits. Arrive
early (reservations are not accepted) or dine
at José Enrique’s new outpost in the recently
debuted El Blok Hotel on the tiny nearby islet
of Vieques. 176 Calle Duffaut, Santurce; 787725-3518; joseenriquepr.com.
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
Restaurant 1919
December finally sees the reopening of the
Vanderbilt Condado Hotel—a Spanish-revival
landmark built by the namesake family back
in 1919. Already open for more than a year,
however, is the aptly named Restaurant
1919, where local-boy-made-good Juan José
Cuevas oversees the formal dining room
and power-dining lounge bar. Cuevas spent
decades on the mainland—studying at the
CIA before training under New York greats
like Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, Christian Delouvrier at Lespinasse and Dan Barber
at Blue Hill. Now back home, Cuevas has
reimagined 1919 as Puerto Rico’s first mostly
organic and locally sourced restaurant,
where dishes such as duck with pastel de
arroz, peppercorn-spiked ricotta ravioli and
chayote salad with avocado are comprised
of ingredients he personally discovers from
small-scale farmers island-wide. Vanderbilt
Condado Hotel, 1055 Ashford Ave.; 787-7241919; 1919restaurant.com.
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO
SAO PAULO
Moxi
Enrique Olvera—whose 300-day mole and
baby corncobs dusted with powdered ants
have helped make his Pujol in Mexico City an
international sensation—has gotten lots of
press lately for braving New York City with his
new Cosme. Before opening that, though, he
installed this impeccable dining room at the
Hotel Matilda, this colorful art colony’s only
contemporary-style lodgings. San Miguel’s
large American expatriate community considers Moxi a little too pricey, but food-loving
visitors, even those not staying at the Matilda,
consider it essential. Try the huitlacoche
(corn fungus) enchiladas with guacamole and
Oaxacan cheese and you’ll know why. Aldama
53; 52-415/152-1015; moxi.com.mx.
SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN
A Fuego Negro
In San Sebastián, gastronomic capital of
Spain’s Basque country, tapas—and especially the toothpick-skewered varieties known
as pintxos—are about as traditional as food
gets. Except at A Fuego Negro (The Black
Fire), the city’s hippest tapas bar (with black
walls, dim lighting, a clock set to midnight),
where the whole concept of these little
plates has been reinvented. The results range
from Kobe beef sliders in ketchup-flavored
buns to a parfait of tomato puree, baby mussels, béchamel foam, pork cracklings and
toasted bread crumbs. Tasting menus at
$45 and $65, respectively, are the way to go.
Calle 31 de Agosto 31; 34-650/13-53-73;
afuegonegro.com.
SANTIAGO, CHILE
Boragó
Peers praise Rodolfo Guzmán for artistic
compositions, but there’s wariness as
well: “Among the best in the world,” says
a fellow Santiago chef, “but the guy’s a little
nuts.” By his own admission, Guzmán is
obsessive. He frets about Chilean soil
and its produce, traveling to the farthest
reaches of a long, thin country to forage
bark, flowers, fungi and moss. Most of his
finds are unique to Chile and esoteric
in the extreme: berries from high-altitude
Andean peaks or seeds from Atacama
flowers that seldom bloom. A believer in
total dedication, Guzmán crafts some
300 new dishes a year; each is a work
of sublime art. Av. Nueva Costanera 3467,
Vitacura; 56-2/2953-8893; borago.cl.
56
In this sprawling, crowded, business-minded
city, it’s difficult to stand out. But three restaurants have made themselves very well known.
D.O.M.
It’s hard to imagine a more complete metamorphosis. Alex Atala was a tattooed, part-time
DJ on a road to nowhere, yet an aimless drift
through European backpackers’ hostels illuminated the São Paulo native’s true vocation.
From odd jobs in darkened French kitchens,
Atala soon catapulted himself to the high end
of Brazilian gastronomy. Finding inspiration and
new ingredients in the Amazon basin, he’s put
his native land’s vast biodiversity to work and
has introduced innovative dishes to Brazilian menus: baru nuts, tambaqui river fish and
desserts fashioned from bacuri, a yellow fruit
favored for its sweet, gummy pulp. Rua Barão
de Capanema 549, Jardins; 55-11/3088-0761;
domrestaurante.com.br.
Epice
Chef Alberto Landgraf was born in southern
Brazil, went to culinary school in London and
apprenticed with Gordon Ramsay and Pierre
Gagnaire before ending up in Brazil’s gastronomic capital. The famous name in town is Alex
Atala, whose D.O.M. is consistently rated among
the world’s best places to eat—but in this stylish
restaurant (whose name is French for “spice”),
the 33-year-old Landgraf creates a cosmopolitan cuisine very much his own, using everything
from pickled melon and Creole celery to foie
gras and Angus beef. The long, narrow, warmly
lit dining room is always packed with upscale
Paulistanos. Rua Haddock Lobo 1002, Jardins;
55-11/3062-0866; epicerestaurante.com.br.
Mocotó
In the mid-1970s, when José Oliveira de
Almeida migrated south to peddle starchy soul
food and cachaça in a humble bar outside São
Paulo, Vila Medeiros was little more than a
pastoral country settlement. Today, the village
has succumbed to urban sprawl, yet Almeida’s
once-lowly bar now ranks among Brazil’s top
eating spots. Blessed with natural culinary
spark, José’s son, Rodrigo, retooled the hearty
recipes of his father’s native Pernambuco state,
turning home-style favorites such as cheese
pasties, rice and beans and jerked beef with
creamed manioc into delicately balanced, edible gems. Av. Nossa Senhora do Loreto 1100,
Vila Medeiros; 55-11/2951-3056; mocoto.com.br.
COURTESY THE RESTAURANT AT MEADOWOOD
tions, drop by a few hours before you want
to eat, put your name on the walk-ins list and
grab cocktails on Fillmore. 1529 Fillmore St.;
415-795-1272; statebirdsf.com.
A custard made
with foraged morels
and greens
created by chef
Christopher Kostow
at Meadowood
in Napa Valley,
California
Bicena
Chef Jenn
Louis
The executive
chef and coowner of Lincoln
and Sunshine
Tavern, both in
Portland, Oregon,
takes us
on a culinary
world tour.
ISRAEL
Israel’s rich,
deep flavors are
intense and speak
volumes. The best
bagel is at Abulafia Bakery in Tel
Aviv and the best
falafel is on the
way to the Dead
Sea on the side of
the highway.
MAINE, USA
Lobster dinner,
fresh blueberry
pie and clam
bakes are a part
of everyday dining
here. My favorite
spot for lobster is
the Lobster Shack
at Two Lights in
Cape Elizabeth.
ROME
I love the story
of the Vatican and
nobility getting
the prime cuts
and the rest of the
city perfecting the
use of offal. But
there’s so much
more! My go-to
pizza is at Pizzarium; fried fish
at Dar Filettaro
a Santa Barbara;
and gelato at
Punto Gelato.
OAXACA,
MEXICO
Oaxaca cheeses,
mezcal, tamales,
breads and moles
are a strong and
complex tradition.
At Itanoní in
Colonia Reforma,
be sure to try
the tetela: a
triangular masa
pocket filled with
delicious things.
It’s easy to find chile- and garlicflecked joy all over Seoul, as well
as endless barbecue, bibimbap and
bulgogi. And there’s no end of highend, kaiseki-style places to choose
from, too. But what Bicena does is
celebrate the great regional and
historic food of Korea, modernizing
it without ever losing its soul. The
restaurant is slick and comfortably
contemporary, and the kitchen
highly skilled. And it’s cool without
ever being arrogant. The porkback ribs are a classic, as is the redpepper-paste stew. What you get is
uncompromising, authentic Korean
cooking of the very highest order,
all in the most civilized of settings.
2F, 267 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu;
140-893/027-496-795; bicena.com.
SHANGHAI
On the Bund and beyond,
the city’s gastronomy shines on a
global scale—from Taiwanese to
Spanish to Italian to French.
Art Salon Restaurant
Located on (comparatively) sleepy
Nanchang Lu, this restaurant is loved
as much for its decor as its cuisine.
It has beautifully worn wooden floors
recycled from razed lane houses,
as well as a collection of period pieces
like antique sewing machines and
refrigerators. Owner Xie Chengcheng
is also an avid art fan, and beneath
the space’s high ceilings and chandeliers are large oil paintings, all for
sale. Art Salon serves predominantly
Shanghainese food, with some other
Chinese favorites thrown in, such
as spicy Sichuan dishes and those
cunningly camouflaged mock meat
dishes. 164 Nanchang Rd., Huangpu
district: 86-21/5306-5462.
The Commune Social
Former Gordon Ramsay protégé
Jason Atherton (who was also the
first British chef to complete an apprenticeship at the dearly departed
El Bulli) serves tapas-sized plates
at this narrow two-story space in an
unpretentious Jing’an neighborhood.
Atherton first came to Shanghai
to helm Table No. 1 at the hotel
Waterhouse at South Bund, and at the
Commune Social he has continued
to develop dishes that help redeem
Britain’s boiled and battered culinary
reputation. Offerings are listed under
headings such as Eggs and Grill and
include baked smoked bone marrow
and braised pork belly. Kim Melvin is
in charge of an excellent dessert bar,
where the PB&J—peanut ice cream,
salted peanut caramel, berries and
jam—is a staple for regulars. The restaurant does not take reservations, so
come early. 511 Jiangning Rd., Jing’an
district; 86-21/6047-7638; communesocial.com.
Crystal Jade
The heritage is a little confusing,
perhaps, but the most famous
Cantonese dim sum destination in
Shanghai is run by a Singaporean
company. There are several locations
in the city, but the best of them
is the Xintiandi flagship. It’s situated
on the second floor of a shopping
mall, just a stone’s throw from the
beautiful old gray brick shikumen
houses. Among the top plates
are crispy pork belly, shrimp dumplings, pulled noodles, mango
pudding and, yes, xiaolongbao,
the Shanghainese soup dumplings
done so well by Singaporeans
(and Taiwanese—see Din Tai
Fung). The decor is Chinese
opulence, all red wood and
maroon carpets, with a selection
of different table types to suit
whatever company is joining
you. 2nd fl., Bldg. 6-7, Xintiandi
South Block, 123 Xingye Rd.,
Huangpu district; 86-21/63858752; crystaljade.com.
Din Tai Fung
It would seem like sacrilege to recommend ordering Shanghai’s most iconic
dish at a Taiwanese restaurant—had
Din Tai Fung not so consistently
served up some of the city’s best
xiaolongbao. These soup dumplings,
each sealed with exactly 18 folds, are
traditionally filled with pork or pork
and crab meat, but here there’s a
longer list of ingredients, including
58
black truffle, chicken and goose liver
varieties. Great complements to the
dumplings are the chopped wild
vegetable and bean curd, and the
black fungus in vinegar sauce. For an
authentic contemporary Shanghai
experience—dining in one of the city’s
cathedral-esque shopping malls—try
Din Tai Fung’s latest Shanghai location
at IAPM. IAPM Mall, 3rd fl, 999 Huaihai
M. Rd., Xuhui district; 86-21/5466-8191;
dintaifung-china.com.cn.
El Efante
Spanish transplant Willy Trullas
Moreno’s celebrated bastion of “sexy
cooking” has a long-legged Mediterranean menu featuring almost
100 items, including an epic list of
imported cheeses and charcuterie,
plus stews, seafood and tapas. Try
the Italian burrata salad (mozzarella,
rocket, green cherry tomatoes and
pine nuts), the huevos fritos with
three-year-old jamón ibérico and a
croque-monsieur made with fontina,
mortadella sausage, truffle and piadina bread shells. Then again, don’t
miss the pork belly, quite possibly
the best in Shanghai, and the lobster
paella. Generous jugs of sangria
make an ideal accompaniment. When
the weather permits, ask for a table
on the patio outside. 20 Donghu Rd.,
Xuhui district; 86-21/5404-8085;
el-efante.com
Chef Julien
Royer at Jaan
in Singapore
Franck Bistrot
Franck Pecol studied cooking in
Marseilles, spent two decades working around the globe and finally
settled in China in 2004. He founded
his bistro, Franck, in 2007, situating
it on Ferguson Lane, a former French
Concession lane repurposed as a
hub of design stores. (Ferguson Lane
is home to the city’s best bakery,
Farine, also opened by Pecol, which
bakes the restaurant’s bread.) The
decor is traditional, with a chalkboard
menu and Art Deco armchairs, and
the dishes are similarly on point.
Appetizers include terrine de campagne, charcuterie and fresh oysters,
while signature mains might be the
côte de boeuf or the poulet rôti.
Dessert is a don’t-miss—get the
crème brûlée or a fruit sorbet. 376
Wukang Rd., Xuhui district; 86/1582167-6767; franck.com.cn.
COURTESY JAAN AT SWISSÔTEL THE STAMFORD
SEOUL
Mercato
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s stylish Italian
restaurant has been a hit ever since it opened,
with the housemade ricotta with strawberry
jam on sourdough becoming an instant icon.
A wood-fired brick oven at the heart of the
kitchen sends out pizzas with thin, well-charred
crusts with toppings such as garlic, chile and
tomato; classic prosciutto and four cheeses;
and the impressive broccolini and spicy salami.
The sea bass in an almost weightless batter
with summer peas is another fabulous choice.
The interior, by celebrated local design team
Neri & Hu, features a forest of exposed wood
and low incandescent lighting. 6th fl., Three on
the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Rd., Huangpu
district; 86-21/6321-9922; threeonthebund.com.
Mr. & Mrs. Bund
Buzzing the door of what looks like a chic
Shanghai apartment is the way into this
fantastic French bistro on the Bund. It’s not
chef Paul Pairet’s most elaborate offering—
for a high-tech cinematic experience visit
Ultraviolet—but it still reveals plenty of surprises, including a spectacular tuna foam
served in a tin, a dish that symbolizes Pairet’s
philosophy of fantastic food minus the pretension. (The waitstaff here wear Converse
sneakers, of course.) The meunière truffle
bread may be Pairet’s greatest invention to
date, and the long-short rib is as delicious
as it is huge. One of the best desserts is
the lemon-and-lemon tart, a lemon sorbet
served in candied lemon peel. Those in the
know turn up for late-night two- and threecourse menus served until 2 a.m., Thursday
to Saturday, or make a night of it at the ironically hip bingo nights. 6th fl., 18 Zhongshan
Dong Yi Rd., Huangpu district; 86-21/63239898; mmbund.com.
Scarpetta Trattoria
Californian John Liu didn’t have any experience in restaurants before he opened
Scarpetta, but he did have a background
as an investment banker that made him
an obsessive analyst. He researched 1,400
recipes before creating the menu here, laying
it out only after reading a Ph.D. thesis on
menu design. The results of his investigations are impressive. Dough goes through a
four-stage leavening process before it enters
the imported pizza oven, emerging with wide
bubbling crusts cooked to a smoky char.
Other nice details include fried whitebait in
the Caesar salad, and a squid ink aioli and cod
roe served with calamari fritti. Best of all is the
orecchiette alla Bolognese, ear-shaped pasta
topped with Bolognese, surrounding a fat
upright bone filled with creamy roast marrow.
33 Mengzi Rd., Huangpu district; 86-21/33768223; scarpetta.cn.
Ultraviolet
Cooking doesn’t get more meticulous than
this. There are just ten seats in Ultraviolet,
where a 20-course multi-sensory meal is
produced by Paul Pairet. Curating diners’
“psycho taste” for each dish, Pairet makes
precisely timed changes to the room’s audio,
visuals and even the scent, thanks to four
dry-smell projectors concealed in the ceiling.
You smell the ocean before the oysters arrive.
You see chickens being spit-roasted on the
walls and hear the fat crackling before the
chicken with foie gras and grapevine smoke is
served. The dishes surprise as well as dazzle,
and we don’t want to give too much away,
other than this: Book months in advance for
a chance to travel to an undisclosed location
and succumb to Pairet’s whims. Meet at
Mr. & Mrs. Bund, 6th fl., 18 Zhongshan Dong
Yi Lu, near Nanjing Dong Lu, Huangpu
district; uvbypp.cc.
toque at Siem Reap’s historic Hotel de la Paix
before opening Wat Damnak in 2011. Since
then, Rivière’s refined take on classic Khmer
dishes—a brothy nom ban chok with steamed
lobster; a seared beef tenderloin with housemade oyster sauce and wild mango kernels;
braised pork with star anise and caramelized
palm sugar and fresh coconut tree heart—
have lured travelers from their former hotel
comfort zones. At barely $35 for a meal, it’s
hard to imagine Wat Damnak can turn a profit;
nonetheless, there’s enough left over to fund
Rivière’s second passion, the Sala Baï Hotel
and Restaurant School, which trains young
locals in the hospitality and culinary arts. Wat
Damnak Market St., Sala Kamreuk Commune;
85-5/77- 347-762; cuisinewatdamnak.com.
SINGAPORE
A culinary crossroads, Singapore is
perhaps best known for its street fare.
But its burgeoning fine-dining scene
is more than worth the attention.
Yong Foo Elite
This staggeringly beautiful, Spanish-style
villa began as a grand home and later served
as the consulates for the United Kingdom,
the Soviet Union and Vietnam. Colorful silks
draped from the building set off its lush,
dark wood. In keeping with the historic
architecture, Yong Foo Elite is crammed full
of furniture and curios from the Qing Dynasty
and the early 20th century, before war and
communism put the breaks on Shanghai’s
roaring hedonism. In the tranquil garden,
magnolia trees tower over carp ponds and
dinner dishes such as smoked codfish in
Qimen black tea and braised duck with
mushrooms are delivered with requisite pomp.
While the food is well above par, the real
star is the building itself, worth a visit even
if it’s just for a coffee or a cocktail. 200
Yongfu Rd., Xuhui district; 86-21/5466-2727;
yongfooelite.com.
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
Cuisine Wat Damnak
First there’s its location: a trio of contemporary-designed dining rooms set in a traditional Khmer home and gardens about five
minutes from the city center and the iconic
ruins at Angkor Wat. Then there’s Joannès
Rivière, who comes from a family of Loire
chefs and farmers and made his name as top
Gunther’s
Gunther Hubrechsen doesn’t get as much glory
as the showier chefs in Singapore, which is a
travesty because his contemporary European
food is superb and his eponymous restaurant
makes a refreshing change from all the shopping mall and hotel setups in the Lion City.
Instead, Gunther’s is based in a converted shop
house on a historic side street. A tiny but cute
Belle Époque–styled bar leads to a surprisingly
modern dining area. This being Asia, there are
three private rooms, crucial for a power meeting;
the local tycoons’ favorite is room number 2—
the most intimate, and complete with chandelier. Cold angel hair pasta in truffle jus topped
with osetra caviar and a wafer-thin apple tart
are signatures, but wait until you’re shown the
ingredients of the day in raw form—which may
include Wagyu beef, lobster, king crab legs and
Spanish ham—before deciding. Alternatively,
Hubrechsen will create a custom tasting menu
for you around an agreed-upon budget; for that,
each course promises to be a surprise. 36 Purvis
St.; 65-6/338-8955; gunthers.com.sg.
Jaan
Restaurants with a knockout view usually
don’t bode well on the food front, but that’s
not the case with Jaan. All the tables at this
compact 70th-floor restaurant are cleverly
set up to take advantage of the twinkling
city lights, but the very best is number 11,
peering onto the river, marina and beyond
to the Singapore Straits. At dinnertime, it’s
tasting-menu-only, with an emphasis on
high-end French dishes done up with enough
contemporary trickery to elicit lots of admiring “aahs.” From the canapés such as smoked
unagi with pickled apple and kombu jelly, to
a rosemary-smoked egg that comes to the
table shrouded in mist, then is cracked and
poured into a dish in front of you, the food
is a magical complement to the location.
Swissotel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Rd.,
Level 70; 65-6/837-3322; jaan.com.sg.
Sky on 57
You’ll need to contend with an army of tourists in the Marina Bay Sands hotel elevators
to reach the 57th floor, but Justin Quek’s
cooking is worth the jostling. Local enfant
terrible Quek trained with some of the best
chefs in France and now mixes Singaporean
Chinese flavors with traditional French techniques, and vice versa. A particular triumph
is JQ’s beef broth with braised tendon, ribs
and slices of Wagyu beef. The chef says
it’s inspired by Singaporeans eating beef
noodles at hawker stalls at the end of a night
out to avoid a hangover the next day. Level
57, Sands Skypark Tower 1; 65-6/688-8888;
marinabaysands.com.
SONG SAA, CAMBODIA
Vista at Song Saa Private
Island Resort
Song Saa island lies a 35-minute privateboat ride from the port of Sihanoukville, within
a string of lost-feeling, barely inhabited islands.
It’s a unique ecoresort: No money is used; you
pay everything in advance. Chef Neil Wager
has been brought in to make your meals—
either in your room, on a remote beach or at
the Vista restaurant over the water. Wager
knows Cambodia and its often-overlooked
produce inside and out. Should you come
all this way, don’t miss his broth made from
the slightly salty coastal green coconuts and
served with yellowtail or green peppers from
Kampot on the mainland near Kep (it’s excellent with crab). There’s a wood-fired pizza
oven on a separate little beach on the island
for a change of pace. The resort staff can also
set up a beach dinner on one of the uninhabited islands nearby, which takes the surreality
to the next level. You can walk around Song
Saa in about ten minutes, but the ocean lends
the place a feeling of wild immensity that
makes its faultless luxury seem less obtrusive.
85-5/236-860-360; songsaa.com.
STOCKHOLM
SYDNEY
The last decade has seen a food revolution in
Sweden, with cooking that transcends tradition.
Witness the following three restaurants.
Two neighborhoods in particular, Potts Point
and Bondi, feature a variety of adventurous
dishes with equally stimulating scenery.
Matbaren
The Apollo
Matbaren (“the food bar”) is the more casual of
Mathias Dahlgren’s two restaurants in the Grand
Hôtel, and though it shares an entrance with the
high-end Matsalen, the similarities end there. In
his bistro, Dahlgren delivers unfussy food with
precise and clean flavors. Simple, über-Swedish
ingredients like smoked herring make regular
appearances in sophisticated dishes, while
deceptively simple desserts reveal intense, complex tastes—sea salt and olive oil are woven into
a perfectly smooth mandarin orange sorbet, for
example. It may be an informal place to eat, but
meals here are meant to last. So come early for
lunch (the better for snagging a seat) and let the
afternoon unfold as it will. Södra Blasieholmshamnen 6; 46-8/679-3584; mathiasdahlgren.com.
Australia may be firmly rooted within the Pacific
Rim, but Greek immigrants have had as much
impact on the nation’s cuisine as newcomers from across Asia. Case in point: Sydney’s
The Apollo—a modern take on the taverna
in the city’s Potts Point waterfront district.
Manned by the Greek Australian duo Jonathan
Barthelmess and Sam Christie, with spare
concrete and marble interiors by fellow Greek
Australian George Livissianis, The Apollo has
an expansive à la carte menu that heaves with
Hellenic crowd-pleasers—from sumac-spiked
grilled calamari to lemony lamb shoulder laden
with Greek yogurt. But the restaurant’s best option is its Full Greek menu: Eight courses, from
olives to entrées, arrive with theatrical aplomb
and range from briny taramasalata and hearty
Greek salad to walnut phyllo pastry stuffed with
coffee cream. 44 Macleay St.; 61-2/8354-0888;
theapollo.com.au.
Matsalen
Cooking with the best seasonal Swedish
and European ingredients, chef Mathias
Dahlgren has made his haute cuisine haven into
a modern adventure in a city that reveres tradition. There is a five-course menu designed daily
to introduce even regulars to new flavor combinations that dazzle and delight, and the select
offerings have been quite a success (note the
two Michelin stars). Dahlgren isn’t just trying to
elevate Swedish cooking at his modestly named
“dining room”; in the Ilse Crawford–designed
restaurant, he’s giving it a whole new identity.
Södra Blasieholmshamnen 6; 46-8/679-3584;
mathiasdahlgren.com.
Oaxen Krog & Slip
Good news for all citizens of Stockholm:
Oaxen, the beautiful restaurant located in the
southern tip of Sweden’s archipelago, has just
reopened in the capital proper in what was
once a shipyard. Now with two distinct dining
experiences—the “krog” and the “slip”—chef
Magnus Ek and his wife, Agneta Green, offer
guests everything one could ever want in a
restaurant. Have a boisterous night out with
modified bar bites and come back the following evening for a New Nordic meal that rivals
its Copenhagen brethren in farm-sourced fare
with flair. If you’re wavering between meat and
fish, go for the seafood—you’re sitting right
along the water, after all. Beckholmsvägen 26;
46-8/551-531-05; oaxen.com.
60
61
Cho Cho San
Bijou neighborhood Potts Point grabs the brass
ring with white-hot, minimalist cocoon Cho Cho
San, named after Madame Butterfly’s heroine,
but with the promise of a much happier ending.
Inspired by Japan’s after-dark watering-hole
izakayas, where sake and beer become the
grace notes to delicious small plates, Asia
Australian head chef Nicholas Wong adds a
modern spin, frying chicken in rice-bubble
batter and reimagining miso in an eggplant dip.
His king crab omelet with Japanese curry and
soy-glazed Wagyu beef are new power players;
young Sydney is flocking to the monastic,
cooler-than-thou space that equally shrugs off
Japanese clichés. 73 Macleay St.; 61-2/93316601; chochosan.com.au.
Fratelli Paradiso
The people-watching in Potts Point percolates
on Challis Avenue, where Fratelli Paradiso
reigns supreme with straightforward yet superb
osteria food and old-school career waiters who
flit like hummingbird’s wings. With the inky
intimacy of dark wood interiors and doors that
open out to the street, this Italian haven is the
ideal perch for both gossipy inside lunches and
peering through oversized shades at the passersby. Don’t worry about being boring when you
Mr. Moustache
When Sydney’s beach culture swings into
summer (christened “silly season” locally) no
one’s going anywhere; after all, tossing down
cocktails is never easier than in a locally designed, billowing caftan. With its hip, edgy take
on Mexican street fare, this Bondi bolt-hole is
attracting after-work partiers, food bloggers,
beach bunnies and the gents who adore them.
How can you not love warm corn esquites
topped with mayonnaise in a jar, raw tuna
tostadas, unusual mezcals, pisco or tequila
cocktails and gimmicks (we’re serious: latex
gloves for your braised-pork sandwich and,
yes, electric-shock therapy), all with an oddly
classy twist? 75–79 Hall St.; 61-2/9300-8892;
mr-moustache.com.au.
courses, best enjoyed over an afternoon watching the hypnotic surf roll in. 270 Campbell Pde.;
61-2/9365-4924; seanspanaroma.com.au.
TALLINN, ESTONIA
Tchaikovsky Beneath the glass ceiling and an opulent chandelier, diners are serenaded by the sounds of
classical music, including pieces by the restaurant’s namesake. It could be surmised that each
dish here is like one of Tchaikovsky’s compositions: both inventive and captivating while also
traditional in the style of the Russian and French
greats. Start with a blini served with whitefish
roe, followed by Salmon Ballotine with lobster,
cucumber and horseradish cream or roast lamb
fillet and lamb neck confit with onion and juniper
sauce. Tallinn doesn’t have any Michelin-starred
restaurants (yet), but romantic Tchaikovsky
is the nearest a visitor can get in this town to
experiencing a similar culinary indulgence. Vene
9; 37-2/600-0610; telegraafhotel.com.
Quay
The sense of occasion begins with Quay’s
blue-ribbon setting at The Rocks, the convictbuilt heritage neighborhood and Sydney’s first
harborside settlement. Yes, the views over
Australia’s iconic jewel, the Sydney Opera
House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, are
spectacular. But executive (and celebrity) chef
Peter Gilmore is famous for never resting on
these laurels. A knowing artifice is coupled
with edible botanicals in his world-class
creations: The humble chestnut is as prized as
a rarified miniature fairy rose. Go on, order the
iconic snow egg dessert—after all, you waited
six months for a table. And watch Sydney’s hoi
polloi celebrate; whether signing a billion-dollar
mining contract or celebrating an anniversary.
Upper level, Overseas Passenger Terminal 5,
Hickson Rd.; 61-2/9251-5600; quay.com.au.
Sean’s Panaroma
Nothing warms the cockles of a Sydneysider’s
heart like harborside and coastal locales—
water views are the gold standard here. Sean
Moran’s added value: You’ll feel at home in this
stunningly located Bondi institution overlooking Australia’s most famous sandy horseshoe.
The Bondi beautifuls—models, photographers,
surfers and beach-enhanced youth—shake
the sand from their hair and float in for Modern
Australian dishes crafted with seasonal produce
straight off Moran’s farm in the hinterland. Postsurf Sunday lunch with housemade lemonade
is a ritual. Juicy roasts, fresh seafood and
herb-flecked vegetables add heart and soul to
a chef’s degustation with five wine-matched
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
Catit
Tel Aviv’s restaurant scene may be small,
but it’s notoriously fickle. Which makes the
decade-long success of Catit all the more
remarkable. Now set in its third home—a bijou
dining room next to its more casual sister
eatery, Mizlala—Catit’s newest incarnation
builds upon chef Meir Adoni’s mastery of
rigorously sourced local ingredients and global
flare. Adoni’s style mixes and mashes genres:
The milk-fed veal with cocoa sponge and foie
gras parfait has a dash of molecular gastronomy, while the charcoal-grilled lamb with
goat yogurt crème and okra chips celebrates
Israel’s neo-Levantine cuisine. Three-, four- or
five-course menus are on offer; and Catit’s polished, polyglot clientele is, perhaps, the most
stylish and sophisticated in town. 57 Nahalat
Binyamin; 972-3/510-7001; catit.co.il.
TOKYO
From the world’s largest fish market to high atop
the Park Hyatt Hotel, the Japanese
capital offers every kind of dining experience.
Den
There’s something truly unique going on at
Den, one of Tokyo’s current It establishments.
Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa is taking the country’s
62
coveted kaiseki cuisine and flipping it on its
head by reinventing classic dishes and playing with their appearance. In a way, his meals
are the ultimate embodiment of the city itself:
relentlessly traditional yet always pushing the
limits of modernity. Hasegawa very seriously
considers the happiness of his customers
and endeavors to instill certain bespoke
elements throughout the evening, from the
use of pottery crafted by local artisans
to carving out diners’ initials in fresh-picked
vegetables. 2-2-32 Jimbocho; 81-3/32223978; jimbochoden.com.
Ginza Enji
Ginza is a trove for great food, especially great
sushi. But sometimes one wants something a
little different. Enji sits on the ground floor of
the Juno Building, discreet, luxurious, intimate,
a small restaurant arrayed around a fabulous
whiskey bar. Many items served here come
from the strange, European-style ski resort
town of Karuizawa in Nagano, and much of it
is smoked. Smoked bacon, smoked cheeses,
smoked takuan pickles, smoked fish, all of it
served with exquisite precision. With this connection to that small town, Ginza Enji is a prime
example of the Japanese fetish for locality and
terroir; the menu has an intense coherence and
integrity. This is why you have to call ahead
for a table and bring a well-stocked wallet. We
recommend getting eight or nine small dishes
and pairing them with different world-famous
Japanese whiskeys. It doesn’t get more artisanal than this, even in Tokyo. Juno Building,
1st fl., 8-7-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 81-3-5537-5300;
kazenoshiwaza.com/enji.
Kozue
Ever since Scarlett Johansson’s ingenue
with a serious case of ennui karaoke-ed her
way across the screen in Sofia Coppola’s
Lost in Translation, the tip-top of the Park
Hyatt Tokyo hotel has been known for two
things: smoky jazz and really good steaks.
Most people, however, don’t realize that an
incredible kaiseki restaurant sits a few floors
below. Same views, same stark interiors, but
at Kozue you’ll be treated to a multicourse
menu that samples some of the strongest
culinary traditions in Japan. The resident chef
Kenichiro Ooe, originally from Yamagata, is
an ardent supporter of the rehabilitation
of the north and uses certified produce from
the Fukushima region for special occasions.
3-7-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku; 81-3/5323-3460;
tokyo.park.hyatt.com.
MAGNUS SKOGLOF
inevitably order the lasagna along with the political, business and fashion glitterati. It’s divine,
and the street theater is exciting enough. 12–16
Challis Ave.; 61-2/9357-1744; fratelliparadiso.com.
One of chef Mathias
Dahlgren’s signature
dishes—a smoked-pork
bun—at Matbaren
in Stockholm
Kyorakutei
Quiet Kyorakutei is hidden down the
backstreets of Kagurazaka—it’s practically
impossible not to imagine the brilliant geisha
robes catching the wind as they swished by
so many years ago. The restaurant’s simple
concept holds quite true to the common
mistranslation of its name: The “music box”
is a wee little thing, and when you open it up,
there’s a delightful surprise inside. But rather
than a tiny dancer and some saccharinesweet music, Kyorakutei presents bowls of
delicious soba. Japan’s almighty buckwheat
noodle is cooked to perfection here and
served both hot and cold with a variety of
dipping and marinating sauces. Bring a local
friend—English speakers are pretty thin on
the ground. 3-6 Kagurazaka; 81-3/3269-3233;
kyourakutei.com.
Nakamura
The Japanese take their online reviews very
seriously. Rarely does a discerning diner
award an establishment with favor. So when
you surf the virtual pages of Tabelog, the
country’s version of Yelp, and an establishment soars beyond a four-star rating, it’s
worth taking note. This 10-seat restaurant
ranks among Tabelog’s best spots for sushi in
Tokyo—the tuna, sourced from two locations,
and the uni are of particular interest here.
The added bonus? Nakamura is nonsmoking,
a welcome change from most of the city’s
dining establishments, which haven’t caught
up to the rest of the world when it comes to
indoor cigarette laws. 7-17-16 Roppongi;
81-3/3746-0856.
Sushi Dai, Tsukiji
Tsukiji Market is one of those tourist attractions that are actually deserving of the
hype. The biggest fish market in the world
wakes up before the crack of dawn to move
thousands of pounds of seafood throughout
Japan and beyond. Bidding wars ignite on
the loading docks for those precious slices
of blubbery tuna; then everyone retreats to
the adjacent restaurants for their breakfast
of champions: fresher-than-fresh slices of
practically flapping fish served omakase
(chef’s choice). Search for the green door
under wavy noren (curtains), but you’ll likely
stumble upon the long lineup first. Don’t
leave without trying the chu toro (fatty tuna).
5-2-1 Tsukiji-Shijo; 81-3/3547-6797.
Tempura Tsunahachi
An address on most travelers’ must-try list,
Tsunahachi has two floors that are filled with
a welcome mishmash of patrons—mostly
Japanese businessmen and gaijin (foreigners) who waft competing plumes of cigarette
smoke at one another. Go for the bar seating
(there’s plenty of it throughout) and watch as
your chef practices the delicate art of tempura
with a variety of vegetables and shrimp. Stick
to the set menus and pair your order with a
frosty local beer. Tsunahachi’s success has
spawned a few offshoot locations, but for the
full experience, we recommend hitting up the
mothership, though at peak eating hours you’ll
have to wait in line outside. 3-31-8 Shinjuku;
81-3/3352-1012; tunahachi.co.jp.
Chardonnay and mineral-rich Syrah garner
awards and accolades in equal measure.
Equilibrio, a restaurant at the Valle del Rosario
vineyard, is open to the public; we prefer to eat
more privately in La Casona, the property’s patrician guesthouse, where chef Matías Bustos
is on hand to explain just why he matches giant Chilean scallops with the buttery white and
pairs a ginger-marinated duck with Matetic’s
star varietal, the Syrah. Fundo El Rosario,
Lagunillas; 56-2/2611-1501; matetic.com.
VILA NOVA DE GAIA, PORTUGAL
The Yeatman
Tonki
Tonki must be doing something right: 75
years strong and not a single thing has
changed on the menu. In fact, it doesn’t
look like the decor’s changed either—the
wallpaper is gently crinkling, and the wooden
seating is undeniably creaky. It’s got all the
trappings of a hole-in-the-wall, but the delicate slices of famous tonkatsu have turned
the place into more of a meat mecca than
a den of iniquity. And there’s another uncanny
phenomenon at play beyond the delicious
plates of breaded pork: The waitstaff has an
incredible ability to memorize exactly who
among the throngs of diners is due for the
next table, without a pencil or paper to be
seen. 1-1-2 Shimo-Meguro; 81-3/3491-9928.
UBUD, BALI
Naughty Nuri
Bali’s enchanting spiritual culture, gentle
people and jungle topography all come together in the lush streets of Ubud. You’ll eat,
pray and eat some more at Nuri’s streetside
tables with her legendary barbecue pork ribs
and Javanese home cooking. The martinis?
Not so gentle. The assorted expats and intrepid travelers who make Indonesia’s Hindu
hideaway home may come for the (excellent)
oxtail soup, but they’ll stay to party. And
if you’ve come for a life-changing religious
experience, Nuri’s BBQ sauce may just be
it. Jl. Raya Sangginan; 62-361/977-547; naughtynurisbali.com.
VIÑA MATETIC, CASABLANCA
VALLEY, CHILE
La Casona
A decade ago, aficionados scoffed when
Matetic Vineyards and other trailblazers
began to plant vines near Chile’s Pacific shore.
Today, the vineyard’s fresh, fruit-laden
64
The Yeatman is a luxury wine spa in the town
where the world’s most famous dessert wine—
Port—is aged. The property is owned by the
Taylor Fladgate Port house, in fact, and is
where the company entertains the international wine-buying community in high style.
Happily, the place is also open to anyone else
who likes good modern European fare—thus
this formal dining room with its blue-chip
menu (think lobster carpaccio with razor
clams and caviar sauce). The real draw here,
though, is—no surprise—the wine, especially
the exquisite Portuguese vintages made from
grapes with mysterious names (Loureira,
Arinto, Fernão Pires…). The charming female
wine stewards help diners make sense of it all.
Rua do Choupelo 88, Vila Nova de Guia; 35122/013-3100; the-yeatman-hotel.com.
Z
URICH, SWITZERLAND
The Restaurant at the
Dolder Grand
The views over Zürichsee are
enough to inspire awe, not
to mention the fairy tale castle,
circa 1899, that has been majorly updated by Foster + Partners. But then
comes the meal: course after course
of meticulously composed set pieces crafted
by chef Heiko Nieder, presented in a room
so gilded it seems to shimmer. Unlike so
much of the clockwork meals one comes to
expect in this Swiss town, the Restaurant
Dolder Grande bucks tradition to grand
effect. A course of tuna comes with cucumber, apple and wasabi granita. Langoustines,
those sweet and rich crustaceans, are paired
with acidic vinegar-infused strawberries.
Finish with a plum and beetroot potpourri
drenched in Port wine and lavender, then
retreat to the terrace and watch the city
sparkle beneath you. Kurhausstrasse 65;
41-44/456-6000; thedoldergrand.com

black ink - Atelier Restaurant

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