Obviously this topic is very subjective, but I thought I'd place a vote for Hostellerie Les Bas-Rupts, near Gerardmer in the Vosges Mountains, between Alsace and Lorraine, in France.

My girlfriend and I had decided to spend Xmas and Millenium Eve on our own on a gourmet getaway. One of the conditions was that we wanted snow, another that we want fine wine and food. We decided on Alsace, and originally set about trying to get bookings at well known restaurants like Au Crocodil and Auberge de L'Il etc. However they were either closed or stupidly expensive for Millenium Eve.

In the end we picked Hostellerie Les Bas-Rupts half board for 3 days over Xmas, Chateau d'Isenbourg half board for 3 days over the Millenium - including a millenium celebration, and we decided to play it by ear over the Route des Vins for a few days in between.

We flew into Stuttgart (stupidly cheap flights on British Midland), picked up a product of the local industry (Mercedes C class) and set off on our travels.

Anyway - we arrived at the hotel on xmas eve, not expecting a great deal of the restaurant, but we could not have been more wrong. I had not realised that the restaurant had a Michelin star, and that our half board included the dégustation menu. The atmosphere was great - a roaring fire in the lounge, different musicians each evening, a small number of tables, attentive and intelligent service. The food was absolutely divine - different on each of the three days - classic french cuisine. Generally some amuse-bouche, a terrine or foie-gras, 2 different fish or seafood dishes, a duck/beef/lamb dish, cheeses, dessert and then petit fours with coffee. The winelist was extensive and very reasonably priced - we got through some fantastic Alsace whites and some lovely red Burgundies. The whole experience was very relaxed - we certainly weren't dressing up for dinner, and we were treated very very well. They even let us open a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem that we had brought along for our own celebrations.

Another very impressive thing was the way they dealt with the storm - at xmas time in 1999, very very strong storms wreaked havoc across the north of France. Around the local area thousands of trees were blown over, and the main passes were closed with trees blocking them - we did go for a drive, but decided to turn around when we started seeing very large trees falling over very near to us. Anyway we lost power on the morning of Boxing day (later I heard it was out for a total of 3 days there) - however the food that evening was still absolutely divine - they still managed to put on the same amazing experience - just with a lot of candles and a by stoking up the fires. (Mind you we had problems checking out the next morning when there was no power for the credit card authorisation machine! Not to mention we were very short of petrol and the nearest petrol station with power was 40 kms away! Anyway, we made it!)

The whole trip was brilliant - Chateau d'Isenbourg was very good, but couldn't quite live up to the Hostellerie Les Bas-Rupts (although Millenium Eve was special). We also had some lovely meals in Colmar, Strasbourg and Riquewihr, along with some of the amazing local wine.

I'd also like to make special mention of another unlikely contender for a very good experience - the restaurant 'Zum Hugenotten' in the Intercontinental in Berlin - we were staying in the hotel, and decided to try out one of the hotel restaurants. Again we weren't expecting much, went down dressed very casually, and were surprised to find a very high quality restaurant. Again we had their gourmet tasting menu, and it was sublime. The wine list was extensive, and the service was exceptional.

I guess I get the most enjoyment out of places were my expectations are exceeded - lat year we made a trip to a restaurant called the Don Alfonso 1890 in Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi, which is a few km from Sorrento, on a headland overlooking the bay of Naples and the Amalfi coast - for an anniversary celebration. It's a 3 Michelin star restaurant - until recently the only one in Italy. Anyway, we stayed in one of their lovely apartments, and they treated us very well - we especially enjoyed the tours of the wine cellars, which seemed to go on for miles and miles down into the rock. The restaurant was very good, but the whole thing seemed a bit sterile - we did not feel relaxed in there, and the whole epxerience was not a patch on the ones described above. I couldn't really fault anything, but it only met my expectations - rather than exceeding them.

Conrad

P.S. I know 99/00 was not the real millennium. However working in the IT industry it was an important date!