Closed
Was #35 (out of 40).) Mak N Ming (Vancouver - 2018)
This is also the first one on this list to have since closed due to the pandemic. Anyway, Mak N Ming was a husband/wife teamed restaurant in Vancouver that served an excellent, if a bit heavy, tasting menu, all with a refined, modern Asian bent. From an excellent Ramen, to a dish they called 'dirt' which looked like a pot filled of dirt that you ate (honestly, forgot exactly what it was), to two excellent tartares. Mak N Ming was a great restaurant with a clear focus. I think it also set a good squeeze between overly fancy, "tweezer" food with just great tasting food. My only one complaint isn't even a fair one in that it was a heavy meal. Then again, they really gave you your moneys worth.
Was #20 (of 35).) Canis (Toronto - 2019, 2020)
The last restaurant on the list to have closed during the pandemic might be the saddest loss of all. Toronto's Canis became a refuge for me a few times when I had flights cancelled returning from Toronto. It was a small tasting-menu only spot with a seven course beautiful meal with Canadian ingredients and inventive preparations. It was proper tasting menu small portions, quick bites, but just incredible presentation. They always started with two amouses, one of which would be a tartare on cracker, then always a small half-pie of duck terrine. The rest of the menu would change, from a couple fish or seafood dishes (they had a great lobster dish) to a couple great meats (honestly, had good lamb and beef, but their best dish was a duck that was braised for two days. Their sauces and consommes were always perfect. They were great in turning what was written as a 6-course meal into 8 with some throw ins. The place truly was special, and I really hate that they had to shut down.
50.) Farmer's Daughters (Melbourne - 2025)
There are more reputed restaurants in Melbourne (including the noted Attica - which I am a bit sad I never got to visit), however for a last minute decision, Farmer's Daughters turned out quite nice. I just wish there were a few more courses, but the venison main was great, and the trout dish may have been the best trout I've ever had. For the price, and the dishes, it was a great deal, and well worth a trip if you are in Melbourne.
49.) Mikla (Istanbul - 2024)
Istanbul has a few great spots, and while I do have one ranked a bit higher, none are as reputed as Mikla. The place has all the trappings of a classic tasting menu spot - white everywhere, impeccable plating, creativity and more than anything graet use of local ingredients. My only complaint, if you can even call it that, is a seafood-forward meal where I was wanting something more hearty, but the quality of the seafood and fish makes up for it anyway. Turkey has a few spots - Mikla is right up there.
I believe Deane House has closed, but at the time it was one of Calgary's top restaurants, and most interestingly when I went had a whole menu featuring various preparations of Alberta's greatest gastronomical contribution: beef. From tartare, to pate, to raviolo's, to just plain great cooked beef. They had a particular view, a particular speciality, and did a great job showcasing it. The setting also, built inside and in the grounds of a house right in the middle of the urban maw that is Calgary, was quite special as well. I'll say this about our friend's up north - there is a lot of great food in Canada.
47.) Actinolite (Toronto - 2024, 2025)
Actinolite is one of my newer favorites in Toronto - everstill on the attempt to find a true replacement for Canis. Actinolite isn't one, but does a few things amazingly well, featuring excellent seasonality including a bunch of great pickled components in winter, and great multi-dish bread courses that show off their creativity as well. I really like the people behind Actinolite, who have built something quite special, down to earth and product forward for Toronto.
46.) Laurel (Budapest - 2024)
Laurel is a classic spot. White tablecloths, white clad waiters. Really sharp, classic dishes with a great refinement. My favorite restaurants probably lean on more the inventive and avant garde type, but Laurel goes more for just having great food. There was no real complaints at all about Laurel - some standouts as well, including an amazing venison dish as the main, easily the best venison dish I've ever had. Also a refined, elevated version of Goulash, with a dish titled catfish paprikash, that was just outstanding. Laurel was a classy establishment that knows it super well - the adults tasting menu for Budapest, if you will. This will make more sense as a comparison when I talk about the other Budapest spot to come.
45.) Firedoor (Sydney - 2025)
Firedoor is not a bad place (obviously, given I rank it here) but probably could be better. They have a central conceit, that every dish features components grilled, singed, roasted, etc., over their large multi-stage open charcoal flame in the back. Some are obvious how - a truly great wagyu steak course to end it, but some you wish could've used the fire more, such as just smoking one element over it which gets a bit lost. Their highs are super high - the steak, a smoked oyster to die for, but the lows are lower than you would like.
44.) Belly of the Beast (Cape Town - 2020, 2022, 2023)
Housed in a warehouse in a area of the town being gentrified. The six course meal is served at a very leisurely pace, with the focus being on the food and its creativity. The dishes were all made with such heart and mixed a lot of interesting components - from ones like a South African take on babaganoush with venison tartare, then three giant mussels with various sauce toppings, then a beautiful chantarelle mushroom dish, a peri-peri dusted flaky hake, and a karoo lamb with a perfect sauce. The desert was even a warm, lovely cake. It wasn't the fanciest, but each dish was impeccably prepared. Pretty soon we'll start getting into restaurants that go more in the gastrology route - but there are some brilliant restaurants that are just 'normal" in a sense that still are worth going out of your way to eat at.
43.) Ahi (Auckland - 2025)
Ahi was not my first choice of spots for my one meal in Auckland, but it was one of the only tasting menu spots open on a Sunday. In the end, I'm glad I went there, as their "A New Zealand Food Story" was an incredible mix of inventive snacks, local produce and New Zealand classics like lamb, venison and local snakes. All of it was so pointed around showcasing all parts of New Zealand. Finally, it had one of the more inventive snacks I've had such as their local fish (pawa) and pork head croquette. At its best, Ahi gets me super excited to try more New Zealand cuisine on an eventual further trip.
42.) Songonguan (Busan - 2024)
Chef Park takes the Japanese Kaiseki type model and fully Korea-fies it showcasing one of the more famous parts of Korean cuisine: the hanwoo beef. Basically Korea's answer to Wagyu. It is excellently marbled, and was the showcase centerpiece of the mains at Songongguan - cuts of tenderloin, rib-eye and then soup cooked for 48 hours. The other dishes were also quite good - from a heavenly rich mushroom soup, to a perfectly crusted Jeju fish, to one of the most stylish deserts in a maple coated chips & ice cream. The only reason Songonguan is not higher is the mains while excellent (the beef), tehy were a bit too simple. Quite a contrast to other courses which were anything but.
41.) Ryunique (Seoul - 2022)
Ryunique is fairly new in the Seoul restaurant scene, and I think it is on the way to being even more seen as a leading restaurant in a leading food city. The food was generally beautiful, the only knocks is there were a few courses that looked better than they tasted, and their main, while excellently cooked, was a bit basic. They had a few standout dishes though, like maybe the best set of desserts that I've had at a tasting menu.
40.) Crudo (Oaxaca - 2025)
I usually don't go for these "let's make our local cuisine into Japanese" but for whatever reason, after watching the Oaxaca episode of Somebody Feed Phil, I fell in love with the idea of Crudo. Luckily, the place lived up to expectations, just a perfect blend of Mexican spices, chilies and fish and Japanese styles. It was a good omakase as ever, even if I'm sure a Japanese Omakase stickler would find fault. The chef's story though is inspiring enough to overcome it - from him being a dishwasher in teh US, kicked out by ice and then deciding to just open a Michelin Star rated restaurant in Oaxaca. Incredible stuff, as is the place.
39.) Oro (Rio de Janeiro - 2025)
The first tasting menu on my Brazil trip didn't disappoint - even if it is the lowest ranked of the four new spots. That says more about the others. Oro was a world class spot, super well conceived. It gave a lot of great snacks - truly elevated Brazilian finger food and even adding some with an Asian bent. Oro always knew what it was, which is serving truly avant-garde version of fairly normal cuisine. Even their mains did the same - showcasing the mushroom, or the beef. It was a place perfectly worth its Michelin Star and price point, if not doing anything to maybe go above and beyond. Really nice spot, but as we'll see, not the best the country has to offer.
38.) Finnjavel (Helsinki - 2024)
Finnjavel I first saw on Somebody Feed Phil, that episode, and that visit to Finnjavel being one of the reasons I wants to go to Helsinki in the first place. The restaurant was excellent too, living up to those expectations. Nothing incredible, but a series of 9/10 dishes. Some were quite great, including their main dish - a cabbage wrapped lamb which was just delicious. Out of any restaurant on my trip, this one probably had the best desserts as well, such as a beautiful play on french toast, and a petit eight of little bites to end it. Maybe it would've ranked higher had their been a bit more playfulness but it was a seriously good meal.
37.) Urko (Quito - 2025)
The funnies part of our trip to Urko was realizing after it that my parents went there in their trip to Ecuador in 2020, right before Covid. They had changed locations in interim, but not changed fundamentally what they were, which was a ode to Ecuadorian ingredients. Much like say Peru, you get the coast, you get the mountains, you get the Amazonia, but maybe more so than Peru, you get the spice and citrus (given Ecuadors very notable proximity to the equator...). If only their main of a pork loin was cooked better and this would've been higher up, but for some of the more inventive snacks I've had, it still retains a spot it thoroughly deserves.
36.) Den (Tokyo - 2023)
I want to write this and not come across to negative, as all in all Den is a fantastic meal with some of teh sharpest flavors and best ingredients you can ask for. But it also astounds me it is so highly rated on Top-50 type lists. Not that it is bad. Their fish in peanut broth is something I still dream about. Their 23-piece salad, each cooked in different ways, is about as stunning as it can get. The ingredients are perfect. And if anything, for Japan it is fairly affordable a Michelin Star spot. All in all a great meal, but I think there are better places of less repute.
35.) Alo (Toronto - 2023, 2024)
I still have longed to find the replacement for Canis in Toronto (still to come on the list), and Alo is the closest I've gotten. By trade it markets itself as French inspired, but if anything the food is more fusion with Japanese influence, and just sublime. Great preparations of tartare, of chawanmushi, of venison, of so much else, with exactness that comes from a dedicated team of chefs that are super interesting to watch up close on their chef's counter. Alo is still not Canis (both in taste and being more expensive) but it is about as good as I've found in The Six.
34.) Alaf (Istanbul - 2024)
I was planning a visit to Alaf before realizing they had a tasting menu option. For my last meal in Turkey I decided to splurge for it, and man was it incredible. They are pushing boundaries - deserts made to look like chilies, takes on innards to be eaten like burgers, their cutesy version of "lamb kebab", and so much else. Not all hit the mark, but man were they showcasing the entirety of Anatolian cuisine, from camel tarts to skullfish. I expect only bigger and better things from this relative newcomer spot in the Istanbul culinary world.
33.) Salt (Budapest - 2024)
And here's the inventive. playful one of Budapest, the place that hit a lot of the right spots. It had the most courses of any spot on my most recent trip - 15. Not all of them worked, but even the ones that didn't fully, I had to admire the pushing of envelopes - such as a first little bit which was jsut a bundle of raw herbs, salt and yeast butter. But when they were on, man were they on. An incredible hen of the woods mushroom dish. Such brilliant uses of various picked ingredients, just adding taht little tartness to each dish. A dynamic bread course with the dip being duck and goose pates. A just brilliant main of pork cheek and beet. Various uses of old time yogurt and curd based desserts. They weren't there to knock you out with refinement, but with vision of a culinary history more deep than you would think.
32.) Sud 777 (Mexico City - 2018)
Sud 777 when I went was expensive but not notably so. It was seen as Mexico's 3rd or 4th best restaurant, and while it still probably is, it is a bit more reputed now moving up rankings for best restaurants in Latin America. Sud 777 is in a far corner of Mexico City in a residential area with the restraurant being set-up in a multi-story house. The menu was veggie forward (though not vegetarian), all sourced from their farm out back. The dishes were all excellent, from a starting pair of amouse bouches, to a brilliant braised watermelon dish (something I very much failed when trying to replicate), a marlin crudo, a beautifully soft beef cheek, and one of the most interesting desserts I've had, which was literally a roasted onion next to an onion sorbet - and it was amazing. I would love to go back to see how they've changed, if any, from their more homey core that they had at the time.
31.) D.O.M. (Sao Paulo - 2025)
D.O.M. is arguably the grand-daddy of Brazilian fine dining - Alex Atala's spot that has claimed high marks for over a decade. It is still great, and really does an incredible job going deep, deep, deep into the depths of Brazilian ingredients and cuisine - from ants to river fish, to so many variations on the cassava / tapioca / tucupi. The main being a bit odd - a dish as much playing vegetables (leafs) with meat - probably keeps this from being five or so spots higher. It still truly was a fantastic experience and probably the best example of how to elevate traditional Brazilian dishes and ingredients - especially things like manioc chips, quail, and a wealth of seafood from the Amazonia.
