I really enjoyed Mourad too. Exceeded my expectations in every dimension.

My new 'go to' recommendation for people visiting SFO that want an M* experience but not necessarily at M* prices.

Sorry to hear that. I've been 5 or so times. The worst was "very good," a couple of times were exceptional, and service has always been pleasant to excellent. I wonder if he's stretching himself too thin. I haven't been since second star awarded.

Just finished my weekend of eating in Chicago --

Oriole -- service was great, but food was really disappointing. Portions are incredibly tiny to the point my husband and I were contemplating getting a burger at Au Cheval afterwards. Most dishes tasted over salted. 2nd course was a nigiri sushi with a uni gunkan, and the rice base used tasted like undercooked uncle Ben's with no vinegar flavor whatsoever. Another memorably bad course was a piece of king crab leg the size of a thumbnail, accompanied with a dollop of super salty hoisin sauce. Maybe it was an off night? I just can't imagine how this place got 2 michelin stars.

Alinea -- went in with relatively low expectations and were blown away! Easily top 5 best meals of all time. It was definitely fun and gimmicky, but the gimmicks did not take away from the quality of the ingredients and cooking. Great service and wine selections as well. Would definitely go back again next time we're in Chicago.

Roister -- solid spot for bunch! Really enjoyed the fried chicken sandwich, very juicy crispy and flavorful.

A rating is always subjective, that´s someting you can´t change. So I believe they try to fade out the service. But we all know how hard it is to sort out if a restaurant is a good 2 star or 3 star. And in such a situation I can imagin that food in a restaurant with good service simply tastes a notch better or you mention minimal failures with bad service. It´s something I can´t proof but for me it´s plausible.

I was very surprised too! We actually had higher hope for Oriole than Alinea after reading reviews, and we generally like the style of food served at Oriole. Our menu was about 13-14 courses total, with 4 of them being desserts, and the rest were mostly 1-2 biters. The ingredients used were definitely very high quality, but we thought they were mostly poorly executed compared to restaurants of similar caliber.

Another sign that there wasn't enough food -- everyone around us who got the wine pairing was leaving behind about half of each pour untouched!

Casa Coppelle in Rome
 

Last week, we had dinner at Casa Coppelle, 1-Michelin star in Rome.
Food & service were solid. Highlights were the rack of lamb and the deconstructed tiramisu.
https://www.instagram.com/casacoppelle/?hl=en

Some pictures below:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9216c174ea.jpg

Menu

---
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bf0a956eba.jpg

Dining room in the back

---
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1186ee7a0a.jpg

Cod "chaud froid" served with aubergines caviar, pesto cream, mediterranean jelly & cherry tomatoes air

---
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e42b78144b.jpg

-Pecorino crusted sea bass filet with zucchini cream on beetroot nage -Mix smoked herbs flavoured lamb carré and vegetables panaché -Ratatouille

---
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...13db0a7f8b.jpg

Tiramisù Casa Coppelle style

I'm sure I'm forgetting some good meals, but these are the ones jumping out at me at the moment -- (in the general category of fine dining) Chef's table @ BF, Rokkan (tokyo), Kashiwaya (osaka), Elkano, Pierluigi, Gui Yu Shan Fang (hangzhou), Passage 53, Tickets, Alinea. These were all very memorable, and I'd return to all of them in a heartbeat.

Awesome list [MENTION=680784]bhrubin[/MENTION]! It's been too long since I've eaten on the west coast, planning a visit to SF/Napa Valley next spring, both Saison and Benu are definitely on my list! And likely also Auberge and Meadowood?

On a side note -- Seems like Tokyo's dining scene has gotten crazy hot since my last visit. Tried to book Yoshitake, Sawada, and Arai for either lunch or dinner over a couple of days, and were told they have all been booked up the day the seats were released. Slow dialers at the Pen concierge haha! Although even the non-starred sushiyas are superb, so I'm not terribly sad, but wow it was never this tough before.

Interesting on Oriole. I haven't been there and now am thinking I'll save the money.

I'm not surprised at all that Alinea is in your top 5. Regardless of where a restaurant or chef is ranked, I was convinced after meeting Grant and Nick that they would close down before they ever let the quality of the food or experience slip.

Very lucky! Pen concierge called on July 1st when the Aug seats were released and had no luck. Ah well what can you do. We're heading up to Sapporo after, and were able to get a seating at Hanakoji Sawada (3* kaiseki), and pending a res at Miyakawa (newly minted 3* sushiya). :)

Went to 2* Bon Bon outside Brussels last week, guest chef was Ana Ros who is in charge of Hisa Franko in Slovenia and has hit the Worlds 50 best and won best female chef a couple of years back. I'm always a bit suspicious about these one offs as it is an unfamiliar kitchen and brigade and presumably a load of stuff needs to be shipped in. Tasting menu (no choice on the night) was a combination of her dishes and Hardiquest's (chef at Bon Bon):

Smoked eel, sweet sour cherry shisho condiment, puffed rice
Mackerel with Kriek Cantillon
Apricot, fermented cottage cheese, lily flowers
Tete de veau en tortue
Tripe cooked in wild game jus, fermented cheese, wild mushrooms, nettles
Haddock and lobster, ginger mousseline
Bear, trout, honey, berries
Peach, sweetwoodruff milk, local saffron
Smoked white chocolate, red beet tartar, puffed rice

This was, until the end, a solid 1.5 to 2 star meal for me. Wine pairing was serviceable but didn't make any of us go "ooh what on earth is that" at any point. The tripe dish was by far the best tripe dish I've ever had, cut through with cheese it was delicious and was the dish of the night and I don't even really like tripe. The mackerel, cottage cheese and tete de veau were up there as well. Unfortunately it all fell apart at the end when they ran out of smoked white chocolate and served us a beetroot salad as our final dessert, which at that stage with no sweetness was a disaster. I wondered about this, surely it would have been better not to serve it as at all and either replace (maybe they couldn't because they didn't have anything else or because they were already cleaning down the kitchen) or make some other concession. We also missed out on mignardise which other tables were served and then had an extra dinner added to the bill which had to be sorted out.

It was a shame because it was good until then and the menu as a whole was well balanced and fun to eat...but ending like that really made the €400 bill stick in the throat. Noone there seemed to particularly care that we'd had a substandard experience relative to the other diners and I guess that's what really did the damage. A shame and more grist to the mill for my suspicions regarding these one off guest chef affairs.

Visiting Japan in late May 2019.
I'll be spending a few days in Tokyo at the end but I have total freedom for the rest of the trip.
Was thinking of maybe heading up to Sapporo to see if I can catch the last of the blossom and maybe south to Osaka, Himeji, Hiroshima.
During my only other trip to Japan a few years ago I ate in M* most nights in Tokyo and Kyoto, so I'm interested to explore a few options outside.
I can make a special trip if necessary :)
There are a few options discussed above, but I thought a focused question might gather a more coherent set of recommendations from you knowledgeable crew.

Anyone have thoughts on Switzerland-based Michelin starred restaurants that are near Geneva, Montreux, Zermatt, or Lugano? Spending 2 weeks there next month and need to get my reservations lined up! The only one I have booked so far is Le Chat Botte (1 star) in Geneva.

Ishikawa in Tokyo (3*) a couple of weeks ago. Very good, bordering on excellent.
Kikunoi honten (3*) in Kyoto - at 10K yen for lunch and 8 courses, this was incredible value. 3 out of 8 dishes were amazing, truly great, 3 were very good and 2 were so-so. The private room and service were excellent.

Joel Robuchon passed away at age 73. Left behind a huge legacy, as evidenced by all the stars piled up by his restaurants.

I second Kikunoi Honten - amazing meal and ambience...and a resident raccoon made an appearance (came out of bamboos to the window of our private dining room)...we will be in Kyoto in a year (maybe when PH opens there - I hear it'll be better than FS or RC) and definitely planning to revisit

Or wait for the new Aman to open :-)

Tokyo last week:
Eneko by 3* chef from Basque country Atxa Eneko (https://eneko.tokyo/en/?bcd=)
Great concept, great service (lots of Spaniards!), good food but not particularly memorable. I'd say very good but no more. Still would recommend as prices are very reasonable (including the excellent wine pairing).

Inua: just opened, Thomas Frebel (ex Noma) his new place was FANTASTIC. This deserves 3 stars. The closest comparison would be Blumenthal's original restaurant (never been to Noma!). Great service, great wine pairing, great, memorable food. Really a wonderful experience. Get in while you still can. https://eneko.tokyo/en/?bcd=

Butagumi tonkatsu: the orignal branch. Not a huge fan of tonkatsu but this was easily the best I've ever had (I chose the 4800 yen premium cut from Gifu). Really enjoyed it.

Around 1990, Patricia Wells, who was the restaurant critic for the Herald Tribune. She went in Robuchon's restaurant in Paris, which she said she thought was the best in the world, and with his help wrote a cookbook of some of his recipes. We attended a book signing she was carrying out in DC and bought an autographed copy of the book. One of the recipes in it was those mashed potatoes. I still remember making them. They have a huge amount of butter in them. But what I really remember was to make them smooth, pushing them through a fine sieve, think window screen, multiple times. With a wooded mallet. I thought my arms were going to fall off. Rest in peace and fair sailing to Joel Robuchon.

For those following along at home, the correct link for Inua is here.

Thanks for the reviews!

Had 2 return visits to Le Sputnik - Tokyo. Still totally amazing, but the new servers (2 men) were not quite as good as the old ones (2 women), apparently the women have moved on ;( What I really appreciate (and can't understand) is their NOT repeating any of the dishes I had 5 days ago (or last year) - with the exception of 2 repeats I requested.

Osaka - ajikitcho bunbuan 1* - had the lowest price dinner (80k). Have to say my least favorite choice. It was good and presentation nice, but really didn't feel that either the quality of sashimi or other dishes was significantly special, and the sashimi I bought to go (cheaply) at Tsukiji when I was in Tokyo was better. Of course the service and atmosphere was far superior at the restaurant, but still not a choice I'd make again.

La Cime - 2* AMAZING - lunch is a wonderful deal and food and presentation are fantastic. This, too, is a place where if I returned they said the menu would not repeat. Sadly, even tho I wanted to return there were no reservations available during my stay. It is also a Japanese/french style (and was recommended by the chef at Le Sputnik when I asked for Osaka recs)

Fujiya 1935 (now 2* was 3*) Wonderful - lunch also amazing and I didn't realize how lucky I was to get a reservation when I saw how small the restaurant is. Even with the small number of tables available they allowed reservation for 1 (both myself an another table) which many restaurants will not! In addition they were very respectful of my stated foods I don't eat and even substituted at the last minute - I don't particularly like cheese (sad I know) and there was a cheese and fruit course so I asked if they could do something else. They were very gracious and came up with something pretty amazing (an additional) dessert at the last minute. When I saw the cheese course, however, I was a little sad b/c it wasn't "cheese" it was a beautiful cheese "cake" - an elaborate preparation that far exceeded what I thought would be a slice of really good cheese - serves me right!
My neighbor asked about how often they change the menu and this restaurant changes every few months - so he was told if he came back in a week or so it would be the same menu. BTW they are famous for their corn "bubble" bread - which is truly amazing and I've searched trying to find a recipe or clue about how they produce this but I can't find anything - if anyone has a clue how to make it please let me know (DM would be good ;) )

Some general comments - when something is in season (a type of fish or eel or.....) it tends to be featured at many restaurants at this level - but the preparations are different and it is usually only one or two course out of 9 or more. If you'd like to eat at great places but are watching your budget lunch is often a little more than half the price of dinner (tasting menu) but only has 3 or 4 fewer courses (and you'll be stuffed and maybe grateful that there aren't more courses - YMMV) and they are the same items you'd get at dinner, just fewer.

I guess it's a good thing I don't live in Japan b/c I'm afraid I'd weigh a ton with all the excellent restaurants (and not only at the Michelin level) VBG

Great tips for Tokyo, thanks for that. Le Sputnik was a favourite of mine - went twice. I liked the ladies, pity they've moved on!

Thanks for this. Thought about all 4 during my last visit but didn´t visit one of them. 3 of them sound more or less disappointing.

That looks like some long weekend! Your reviews have been noted and the Paris To Do list grows a few more entries.

Props to you for managing to get all of those reservations. I would need some serious gym time after all of that!

Not just the US.

I'm currently on the waitlist for El Celler de Can Roca and that's for next June! Hopefully it will be similar to my recent visit to Aticca where we cleared the waitlist just before our trip.

Way too much traveling this summer but luckily managed to sneak in a bunch of meals in HK, Kyoto, NYC and Italy. Not a big fan of Michelin stars and don't really pick restaurants on this basis. My best meals turns out to be at famous but non-starred restaurants

Mizuki sushi (1* but for the tempura part), RC Kyoto, Kyoto
- lunch here after several long flights. Pretty decent meal but as far as sushi goes, Kyoto is really not the place for it. Tons of places in Tokyo would be better

Ifuki (2*), Kyoto
- very enjoyable meal especially their grilled torigai. Can still remember the smokiness from charcoal and the fresh salty seafood taste. The fish (think it was kinki or akamutsu) cooked two ways with crispy scales and grilled meat was also excellent

Hirasansou, Kyoto
- easily best meal my whole summer! Different types of ayu prepared 3 different ways! Ayu is supposed to taste bitter but didn't realize it can be so sweet at the same time. This will forever be the benchmark of Ayu for me

Yosuke Yamaji, Kyoto
- been trying different French restaurants in Kyoto and this one was OK. No complains but nothing is memorable either. Still like Yonemura the best out of the ones I have tried so far

Gaddi's Chef's Table (plate), Peninsula Hotel, HK
- This is their special experience where your table is inside the kitchen near the pass and you get to see all the chefs cooking and the plating of dishes. My experience here may not be representative of the general restaurant and there is only one chef table per meal. Haven't been back for over 10 years but always have fond memories of this experience. Started with a kitchen tour and the new chocolate room looks and smells great! Food was more traditional last time but with a new chef, things have changed and now updated to be much more modern with incorporation of Japanese ingredients and beautiful plating. Not a bad course throughout the 10-course meal and the hamachi carpaccio with poppy seeds and lime, duck liver with cherry and almonds, snails with slow cooked eggs and French melon carpaccio with muscat jelly and yoghurt sorbet are all stand-outs! Langoustine ravioli was too salty for my taste but I do find many dishes too salty in restaurants these days especially in Italy

Gensui, Hong Kong
- easily my favorite Japanese in town and this was their special sake dinner night. Nice to see that they are trying new things such as uni on a mini ice-cream cone. Think French Laundry salmon cornet with a swap from salmon to uni! Akamutsu rice is my favorite here especially with the slightly sweet soy sauce that they used to grill the fish. I can easily have this every night!

Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare (3*), NYC
- am a big fan of omakase menu with counter dining and have tried Atera, Momofuku Ko and Blanca. Never got around to Brooklyn Fare in their old location and this is my first time here. It was an enjoyable meal but have to say I was a little disappointed. First few dishes were quite acidic and this was even more so than heavily vinegared sushi rice. While I appreciate the use of acid to balance the fattiness or oil in a dish, this was just too much. As the meal progresses, it also becomes more and more of a Japanese fusion meal to me with heavy use of Japanese seafood to be followed by some type of Wagyu as the meat course. This was similar to Gaddi's and to be honest, I could have had this meal anywhere in the world at you-name-it fancy restaurant and even compared to my recent experiences, Gaddi's did it better. This is also a game that these restaurants can't win since the Japanese restaurants are going to be able to do it better with proximity to source, relationship with suppliers, years of experience and great execution capability. Why are all these fancy places trying to be something they can't be the best at? Do they really think the best Japanese beef or crab are being reserved for export instead of a Japanese restaurant with long-standing relationship or the guy standing at the fishing port with cash while the fishing boats are coming in?

Blue Hill at Stone Barns (sister restaurant in NYC has 1*), Tarrytown
- This is the mother ship of Blue Hill and have always wanted to try it. Reminds me of Hirasansou that I got to tried a few weeks before. Both excellent restaurants with no Michelin stars and located a few hours from a major city. Took some effort to get to these places but oh so worth it! Also an adventure that is to be remembered. Started with 9 different kinds of raw vegetables and tomatoes from their garden and some are so delicious! Flavor profiles are more simple to allow the ingredients to shine and they do taste great! To me, this is the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Brooklyn Fare and the end that I much prefer. The raw vegetables were the stand]-outs for me and frankly, no one else can really replicate this unless they are prepared to build their own farm (which Uwe in HK is doing)!

Blanca (2*), NYC
- my fav counter style omakase restaurant in NYC so far and remains so! Haven't been to Aska yet and will have to wait till my next trip. There were some Japanese ingredients mixed in but it wasn't four in a row like Brooklyn Fare with nothing else to show. House cured slice of pancetta is still there and so heavenly! I still dream about the after taste of that lard in my mouth! Sungold tomato, Maitake with asian pear and their fresh bread were also excellent!

Salumeria Riscioli, Rome
- excellent burrata and mortadella. Cacio e pepe looks a bit like instant noodles but was too salty for me

Armando Al Pantheon (plate), Rome
- small restaurant near Pantheon so be sure to book ahead. The two daily special antipasti were ok but pasta were excellent. Tried the Spaghetti alla Griscia which is basically a non-egg version of carbonara and also the spaghetti with black truffle.

Rosselini (1*), Palazzo Avino, Ravello
- Fantastic view from some of the best vantage points on the Amalfi coast! Loved how they moved the aperitif and amuse to the al fresco viewing deck. Cuttle fish 5 ways and the pasta with pistachio were standouts and would gladly stay and eat here again. If you are staying at this hotel, make sure to check out their beach club

Aroma (1*), Palazzo Manfredi, Rome
- what a disaster and the worst meal I have had some time! Food was ok though not up to 1 star standard but the service was atrocious. Picked this restaurant for the view and that is the only good part! Come here for a drink but I cannot recommend anyone to dine here. Took us almost 1.5 hours after sitting down to order the meal since they are so short-staffed. Captain then forgot what we order and have to come back and check. Bottle of wine was sitting on table for 15 minutes before being opened. Charged me an exorbitant Eur 60 for 3 scoops of ice cream for kids while a first course pasta dish cost Eur 40. Avoid this place like the plague!

Probably too late now, but I enjoyed Bayview at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva. Nice views by the lake. Wasn't hard to get a reservation.