Luang Prabang is arguably the most remote, random place I've traveled to, but even in the heart of this two road town is a beautiful little restaurant, open air with a pond of lotus flowers that all the tables are situated around. Their "tasting menu" as it were comes as three courses with multiple dishes, all being quite good, from a great spiced chicken leg, to their take on a samosa, to fried fish, to so much else. The best may have been their banana four ways dessert. All of it was a great night in Laos.
20.) Ravintola Muru (Helsinki - 2024)
Muru serves a simple 4-dish set menu that is executed with exacting precision. Nothing overly tweezery, nothing that a lay person won't understand (e.g. some ingredient unearthed from under a cave). No, they just serve great food. From smoked whitefish with pickled asparagus, to a perfect preparation of elk, to one of the better risotto's I've ever had. Again, nothing of that was so crazy - I could make versions of each (well, maybe not the smoked whipped whitefish) but they won't be a patch on the great produce and great preparation.
19.) Robin Square (Montreal - 2018, 2019)
To my knowledge, this is the only restaurant on this list to have closed. It's a shame really, but not too surprising since the place was completely family run, with dad being the chef, mom being the maitre'd, and kids being waiters and cooks (they had non-family employees as well). The food was great, from a truly excellent pork belly I had when we went on my friends bachelor party, to one of the great desserts I've ever had at a restaurant. My only qualm was their lunch menu was a set of sandwhiches, which while good, paled in comparison to their food for dinner.
18.) Tavaci Recep Usta (Izmir - 2024)
If you like lamb, this is the place for you. White table cloths, great service, and dozens and dozens of preparations of lamb. From full lambs, to braised lamb over rice, to glorious lamb stews with teh weirdest, spiciest curry, to of course kebabs. Tavaci Recep Usta has their lane - serve great lamb in every conceivable way, and they do it super well. The place also has a fantastic wine menu, great little amuse bouches of grape leaves and kibbeh, and so much else to make it great. But really, it is the amazing lamb.
17.) Espiritu Santu (Valparaiso - 2018)
Valparaiso is a town on the Pacific Coast of Chile, and high up in the hills is Espiritu Santo, often ranked highly on the list of best seafood restaurants in Chile. Seafood isn't all they serve but it basically is and was all great, from cured tuna with chilean chiles, to a great octopus and fish play on a ceviche, to so much else. In totality, Espiritu Santo more than lived up to its billing, with the only real downside being a more expensive menu than maybe it should be.
16.) Hilda (Budapest - 2024)
It's always hard to judge places on this list because they have fairly sizable menus and I pick just a couple things. But for Hilda, what I did order was great, as was the tile-based yellow and blue striking, lively decor. The place was so lively. The dishes were a lovely white asparagus and pork jowl dish (something I went on faith given the waitress couldn't translate that effectively), and of course, a lovely goulash with a perfectly velvety stew consistency, the consistency I dream of. Hilda is a lovely example of refined, but still super approachable, Hungarian cooking.
15.) Murver (Istanbul - 2024)
Deep in the heart of central Istanbul lies Murver, on the top floor of the Novotel. Get past the "hotel restaurant" stigma and you get a super cool spot with just a great menu of smaller bites and mains. It takes a truly modern view of traditional Turkish ingredients, such as a great preparation of celeriac (a very popular vegetable in Turkey), an insane beef cheek and beets main, great use of things like Tahini, persimmon and much more. Add to it slate black tables and a great view of the Bosphorus and you get so much more then just the food with a great atmosphere as well.
14.) Avenio (Avignon - 2018)
Avenio was a classical french restaurant that served, as I would come to learn is fairly standard, set 3/4-course meals, at a relatively high fare and great level. The main dish I remember is an exquisite duck preparation, and their dessert was fantastic with a take on a lime pie. I would like to go back to Provence to try more of their great food; Avenio was a nice appetizer in that sense.
13.) A Terra (Ponta Delgada - 2019)
We went to the restaurant in a hotel in a corner of beach-front in Ponta Delgada a bit dismayed taht it was fairly empty (mostly because it was pouring outside). But luckily we stayed, and it was amazing. We ordered about six dishes that were all great, the best being their take on Leitao, which while it wasn't the full pig, was just all the best parts. They also had great fish and squid to go with it, and even some good veggie dishes. The setting was lovely, the food even better - to me by far the best food we had in Ponta Delgada and the Azores.
12.) Restaurante Olde Hansa (Tallinn - 2024)
I thought long and hard how high to rank what is, in many ways, a gimmick restaurant. Set to look like an old middle ages restaurant, it leans in to that with the way the waiters dress, with old timey music being played live, with beer served in giant earthenware steins. All of it. But you know what: the chef worked at Michelin star restaurants, and makes sure that the food tastes damn good and is presented well. I got a giant appetizer platter with rabbit, elk, bear and various pates and the like - all of it from game aroudn in the middle ages and all so well spiced. Same with the spiced beer, and the trio of elk, deer and boar filets. The place is a gimmick, but with very serious food.
11.) Pirouette (Paris - 2018)
More than maybe any restaurant on this list (other than maybe the one at #2) this place had all the trappings of a tasting menu spot, from the preparation, to the setting (right in the heart of Paris). We had enough people that we ordered enough (seven dishes) that it almost served like a tasting menu. The best dishes might have been the perfectly cooked elk (with the sauce in a shape of elk antlers) to a really nice play on a stuffed pumpkin, a dish I've tried and failed to emulate since. Often I find French haute cuisne to be just a little bit too much, but in this case it was all excellent.
10.) La Tagliata (Positano - 2019)
The only issue of this family meal style place high up on the hills of Positano was that they didn't tell us ahead of time how many courses they were preparing, so we all gorged a bit too much on the grilled vegetables, char-grilled meat starters and delicious pastas which didn't allow us to enjoy the really well cooked meats and fishes at the end. The place is family run, with a boisterous, brilliant chef heading the family and the place. It all works. It might be a bit pricey, but it is about as good a "family meal" as you can possibly have.
9.) Miller's Thumb (Cape Town - 2018, 2020, 2022)
It was the #1 restaurant on Tripadvisor in Cape Town when I frst went to the city in 2013. It's maintained a super high ranking ever since, and done so by just doing what it is - a mom & pop shop serving incredible, fresh, local fish in myriad styles with great starters (mussels are always my go-to), and a charm that is diametrically opposite to its garish green and orange decor. Miller's Thumb has remained just a brilliant stronghold in the Cape Town cuisine, despite never once feeling the pressure to change from just serving combinations of 8 different fish over and over and over again.
8.) La Calma by Fredes (Santiago - 2024)
Seafood in every form is the name of the game at La Calma, from the normal (all types of fish, all immaculately cooked) to the abnormal but brilliance (limpets and snails). All of it was so well done, including a lovely starter of just a shit ton of various seafood in a spicy lech de tigre broth. Even the main, of a garlic rubbed fish, was so perfectly cooked. The seaweed and algae side was even better. Chile has some weird (read: good) seafood options, and maybe no restaurant does a better job, at least certainly any that I went to, than La Calma.
7.) Eucalyptus (Jerusalem - 2018)
Eucalyptus has a tasting menu, but its mostly a sampling of menu items at a smaller size. Instead since I went with my parents on our trip to the Holy Land, we ordered our own sampling of the menu to share, which were all fantastic. They were plated well, seasoned well, prepared well, from a duck pastilla which was excellent to fish kibbeh to my favorite dish which was their mansaf - essentially their take on lamb biryani. The restaurant was also in a lovely setting down a wide, green alley near the Jaffa Gate, a perfect scene for a great Christmas Dinner.
6.) JusteUne (Gyeongju - 2024)
I struggled not putting this in the tasting menu category, since I got a 6-course chef's tasting. But the tasting is just modified selection of the alacarte. JusteUne is such a gem, helmed by a fairly young chef and his apprentice (I really only saw the two of them) just churning out amazing food from taht kitchen. The conceit is French cuisine with Korean flavors and ingredients, but I think French is just code for Western and refined, and it was that to every degree. Dishes like snail shaped pasta with shrimp paste sauce americaine and fried strings of chicken skin crisps - things that could be at any top restaurant in the world, cooked by this genius in a tertiary Korean city. Just magical.
5.) Noir: Dining in the Dark (Ho Chi Minh City - 2019, 2022)
No picture for this one, because that is the point. This restaurant has great food, but also a better story. Noir puts diners in a completely black room, a level of black and darkness that seems impossible. Your given feed that you don't know what it is, but are told to eat and experience it with your sense other than sight. What really makes the mark, though, is the food itself is excellent and might have been on this list. Sadly I don't have pictures, but remember it being a mix of Vietnamese and Thai, from great little bowls of red curry, to galangal soup, to great beef preparations. Even the desserts were great, with maybe my favorite asian dessert I've ever had, with a dragon-fruit pannacotta. For the great idea, the excellent execution, and better food than you would expect from what is openly a fairly gimmicky concept, Noir was a full success.
4.) Olam (Santiago - 2024)
The chef worked at El Bulli, and brings that style, maybe amps it down one degree below the $400/menu molecular gastronomy El Bulli is known for, and it works perfectly. Mixing in asian flavors, weird combinations (my favorite dish being a kombu, chilean fish dumpling in coconut broth with aju verde - just the weirdly best combination of words), and so much more. Olam probably could convert itself into a 10-course tasting menu one day. And it is very much like the Chilean version of the two restaurants to come - probably best enjoyed with a group of six people where you can share 8-10 dishes from their collection. If I go back to Chile, I can't wait to go back to Olam, probably get those dumplings again (they were that good) and try more - even if I could get say the salmon tataki again as well.
3.) Hiroo Onogi (Tokyo - 2023)
This is about as good as you can get in Japan without spending hundreds of dollars. A trendy bistro spot with just amazing food, including a smorgasboard appraoch to the way they serve dishes. From an incredible, to a ridiculous combination wagyu and maitake mushroom sukiyaki, to lobster fried rice, all of it perfectly elevated versions of what otherwise are traditiona dishes. All with incredible sake pairings and highballs and the rest. The best version of a fancy Izakaya I geuss, as the key still is to just have a great time with great food. Hiroo Onogi was basically 10% less than a tasting menu spot, for about 50% less price and basically as good an overall experience.
2.) The Pot Luck Club (Cape Town - 2016, 2018, 2022, 2023)
So damn good each time, and with a cosntantly changing menu of say 12-15 different tapas-sized brilliant options, you can easily keep going back. Some of my favorites over the years was a malay-style caulifower (seriously), a lamb ras el hanout with aubergine caviar, a lamb belly and berry tartine, and any of their deserts over the years. Given that The Test Kitchen (a sister restaurant, tasting menu style) has closed, the fact that Luke Dale Robert's culinary soul lives on with this brilliant place is all the more special. Given it's South Africa as well, it isn't all that pricey (even if The Test Kitchen was a fairly standard priced tasting menu). Secure a reservation early though, they understandably get booked up really quick.
1.) Don Julio Parilla (Buenos Aires - 2023)
When you have a restaurant that is really high up the Top 50 Restuarants list and is not a tasting menu place, you know it has to be great. Of course I had ridiculously high expectations given that, but Don Julio blew it away. The steak truly was just that well cooked, perfectly medium rare, perfectly charred on the outside, perfectly fatty in the right places. The starter I had which was a coiled fennel sausage was about as good, as was the "ember potatoes" which were incredibly smokey and sweet. Probably helps that we ordered a wine far more expensive than we thought we were getting which was just an amazing Malbec. The whole experience was something amazing - again one of the rare places that somehow, someway, exceeds every bit of hype you can possibly put against it.
