Haven't been to Kali, but I'm quite familiar with both Osteria Mozza and Rustic Canyon. They are quite different in character, but I love them both.

Nancy Silverton serves innovative Italian cuisine. Jeremy Fox is known for his creative seasonal farmer's market vegetables-centric dishes. Rustic Canyon is not a vegan or vegetarian restaurant, however, if you don't love vegetables, this is not the place for you. You may want to take a look at his cookbook before deciding on dining there.

To be clear, I have nothing against the food itself - on balance, I felt the meal was delicious and quite well-done. That said, it didn't strike me as having the qualities I would expect of a 1* spot. I would actually say the duck confit was probably my favorite bite of the night I was there.

On a recent rip to Lisbon, we managed to make it out to several M* restaurants all of which were withing about 150m of our apartment. Here's a very brief trip report:

Alma - We manged to get a last minute cancellation here. They have interesting menu and we opted for the degustation that was supposed to be representative of the chef's ethos. While the dishes were executed and presented well, we felt that several were poorly conceived and suffered from editing problems. This was compounded by the fact that some of the dishes were supposed to be evocative of 'traditional' Portuguese fare, but no frame of reference, like a background story from the server, was provided so we were just left scratching our heads regarding the combination of ingredients. I would rate this as a one star meal at best.

Tagide - Portuguese fine dining meets old school in this fairly formal but cozy space. We really enjoyed the menu and, while not particularly modern or product-forward, the dinner was great and the service was very crisp. Hats off to them for a very good wine list as well. One gets the sense they've been doing this for a while and have learned to embrace tradition without getting too stuck in the past. A good slice of Portuguese dining.

Belcanto - A mix of modern and traditional, this was an intriguing menu. We went for the shorter of the tasting menus which was theoretically the more experimental (read - in development) of the two. End to end everything was very well executed and the service was excellent. While the menu was tasty and interesting, we felt that the progression was bit odd, as the serving sizes kept getting larger and larger throughout the meal right up to the two final protein dishes. We left feeling very stuffed which wasn't entirely pleasant. Nonetheless a solid two star experience.

Epur - Okay, Epur has no Michelin starts yet but stay tuned. From the moment we stepped into the cool, clean but cosy space till the visit to the kitchen to meet Chef on the way out, this was a stunning experience. Very product centric, every dish was beautifully conceived, composed and executed with service to match. This was an excellent meal with no flaws of any kind and the wine program is simply outstanding. The best high end meal we had in Lisbon. This place screams two stars and that may well happen in November. Go before that happens and reservations become impossible - you will not regret it. Simply stunning.

Raymond Blanc (2*) at le Manoir aux quat saisons in Oxfordshire. A very competent meal in gorgeous setting. Service was professional and timing was excellent, although it was quite an impersonal experience, especially dining alone.

Quality of produce was very good and dishes presented nicely. Overall I think this is deserving of its two stars but apart from some of the ingredients (Scottish scallops, Cornish lobster and French strawberries, in particular) there was nothing particularly surprising or memorable about the meal. Delicious, competent, very pleasant. 90/100 for me but at 190 euros plus 12.5% service charge this really is very expensive, despite the beautiful settings. Wine markups are insane and I simply had only one glass and then retreated to my room to drink the rest of the bottle of Krug I had brought along :-)

I thought about it for my upcomming trip but found the whole hotel generously priced. 190 GBP (so it�s 210 Euro) is much more than you pay in most compareable restaurants in the UK.

When I was in Los Gatos, we just dropped in at Manresa, tried every which way to call using all kinds of means, to no avail -then the bakery told us we could just go in and eat at the bar- we did that, then they found us a table. Am so glad they did, they even made some special dishes out of their evening menu. Highly recommend it.

Managed to snag a reservations (using a chef's name) at Yamashita. We will have a private visit of his farm then a nice dinner in the garden. Hopefully his tomatoes are still at their prime in the middle of September.


And the special veggie menu at L'Arpege.

Went there for my birthday last year. It had been on my bucket list for some time.
Took my own wine because I had seen the wine list prices. A �50 bottle of wine plus �50 corkage was less than the �200 for an equivalent bottle from the wine list. They put it on ice while we strolled round the gardens for an hour or two.
Agree the food is lovely but not likely to be very memorable long term.

The prices of the hotel rooms are pretty steep, so I didn't stay there.

When are you heading to L'Arpege? Interested to hear a recent review. We will be in town end of Sept. - have a res at AD Plaza Ath�n�e and considering adding this to the list.

I had dinner at Glam, the Venetian restaurant of Enrico Bartolini. It holds one star at guide Michelin.
The restaurant is located at Palazzo Venart, a quite stylish hotel. There is a small garden.

The interior of the restaurant is elegant and I would describe it as "modern Venetian".

We decided to take the tasting menu with the usual adaption. I don�t remember what excactly the dishes were so I left you alone with the pictures.


















The food was good. It was good 1 star level.

Nice looking plates for sure!

End of July. I was not that impressed with AD.

Just had one the best meals ever, the chef and the kitchen were open. Sat on the counter and watched the cooking being done. Had super interesting wines. It was a on star, but the prices were the equivalent, if not more than a 3 star place. Around 800 pp plus wines. The food was so so good that am thinking of canceling Arpege and going there.

I promised my companion never to mention the name of the restaurant to anyone. The chef owner didn't mind. He said he has the clients that he wants.

Uhh... thanks

Hopefully the subsequent inhaled farts were just as sumptuous.

Now we are getting ready for our next meal, and no farts are not involved pre-during or post meal.

De Librije (3*) in Zwolle, Holland. During my second visit (first one was in the 90s when they only had one star) about 9 years ago I rated it highly at 94 points but not near the top. This time was different. This was a truly world-leading 3* meal and the only meals at this level I've had were Ultraviolet (my new favourite), Gagnaire (Paris), Fat Duck (10 years ago) and Arzak (15 years ago) and possibly perhaps a couple of kaiseki meals. Everything was outstanding, special, memorable, beautiful and exciting.
This is really worth a special trip.