Had the tasting menu at Blacbird (1*, Chicago) and The Musket Room (1*, NYC) recently. Both phenomenal, I wouldn't bat an eye if Blackbird were upgraded to 2 stars. I feel they are right on the cusp. The Musket Room was lovely, in particular the 50 day dry-aged beef was one of the best preparations I've had.

I'm finally dining at Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare this week. I'll report back.

I ended up going with the following in addition:

-Domaine de Chateauvieux (2 stars, Geneva)
-Le Pont de Brent (2 stars, near Lausanne)
-Berton Al Lago (1 star, near Como, Italy)

Unfortunately all of Zermatt's starred restaurants are closed in the summertime... :(

Most recent starred dinner was at Gramercy Tavern - excellent as always.

Enjoy!

We will try 2* Ecco in Zurich in Oct. Can't wait. (First time in Switzerland.)

Definitely one of my faves. Excellent as always is the truth!

Went back to Gramercy Tavern today (the benefits of being a 10-minute walk away) but for lunch in the Tavern Room. Enjoyed the duck meatballs, romano bean salad with lobster and pesto (that was a real surprise), and a Danish aged black IPA brewed with coffee from the cellar. ^

Daniel **
 

We had a lovely celebration dinner at Daniel (NYC) for my gf's 30th birthday. Used to be *** now just ** Michelin stars.

We ordered the 4-course "prix fixe" menu at $151 with 1 glass of Champagne and 1 glass of white wine each.

Excellent service and wonderful food in a beautiful setting.

Amuse-bouche: 3 variations of tomato dishes (gazpacho, tomato with basil, shrimp with sundried tomato)
1st course: carrot soup with crab (me) / scallop ceviche (her)
2nd course: vodka-flambé-ed foie gras (me) --- this is a must order, and it quite a show as the server finishes the dish in front of you on a burner / bar with basil sauce (delicious!)
3rd course: wagyu beef with chanterelles, sauce bordelaise (I loved it!) / cochon de lait (sucking pig)
4 course: "peche melba" deconstructed / "peru" chocolate dessert

They brought another dessert (sour-cherry cheesecake with chocolate mousse) for the candle.

After the desser(s), they offered some freshly-baked madeleines and some chocolates, as well as 2 boxed 'canellé" cakes to take-away.

Finally, our waiter brought us printed copies of the menu with mention of my gf's birthday.

Our waiter Giovanni provided a phenomenal service. A great dining experience for a special occasion.

****************

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Amuse-bouche



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Scallop ceviche



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Chaud! Show!



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Flambé-ed foie-gras



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Bar (seabass, basil purée)




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Wagyu, chanterelles, sauce Bordelaise




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Revisited "Peche Melba"


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"Peru"

I'm going to San Francisco in September. I got a reservation at The French Laundry, which I've wanted to visit for several years. I was looking to visit another top restaurant in SF, but I find it very hard to choose. Saison was fully booked during my stay, but I managed to get reservations to Benu and Quince - although I'll probably cancel one reservation - too much Michelin is taxing :).

Which restaurant do you guys recommend in SF? Benu vs Quince vs ??? (not Saison)

If you are in Rome (italy), locals spend the summer or its weekends in beach towns around it, Santa Marinella being the nicest of them, and totally out of the beaten track . 30 mins train ride from st.Peter's station in Roma.
Excellent seafood and sun terrace at Molo21.com , and in Civitavecchia (the port city where all cruises depart from) Mastrotitta Oltremare is an excellent pizza place where all locals go.

Thank you for your recommendations! Benu it is then (too bad Saison wasn't available). French Laundry is more a bucket list tick for me since it's such an American classic. Being a Swedish foodie who travels the world for food - French Laundry was a must, just as much as a singapore sling at Raffles in Singapore also was a must :)

You've been warned: Meadowood is MUCH better now than French Laundry. Your bucket list is outdated, my friend. :p

How was your experience at Brooklyn Fare?

Had a meal at Scarlett in Bangkok last night where 2* Parisian chef Manuel Martinez is visiting for a few days. Food was *superb*, especially the scallops and the prawn souffle.

Will get some photos up over the next several days (on the road again this weekend), but a quick summary of my Michelin-starred meals:

-Le Chat-Botte (1 star, Geneva): convenient location and gorgeous summertime views over Lac Leman in the evening. The food is pretty good as well, although it was the weakest of the Michelin-starred restaurants we were at the entire trip. Still well-deserved IMO.
-Domaine de Chateauvieux (2 stars, on outskirts of Geneva): another dinner on an outside terrace, this time overlooking the vineyard on premises. Great views over the countryside / farmland outside of Geneva. The food here was phenomenal. If you love cheese, the selection is stupendously large. Wine was excellent.
-Le Pont de Brent (2 stars, in the hills above Montreux): my wife liked this dinner the best. More traditionally French and supremely well-executed, especially for a summer seasonal menu. The least 'accessible' as a tourist - very little English is spoken here - but perhaps results in a more 'authentic' experience as a result.
-Berton al Lago (1 star, ~20 minutes north of Como): what a setting for dinner. It's in Il Serene, which is a (very) upscale, modern hotel on Lake Como. You don't get sunset views unless you sit on the bar level outside, but I was a huge fan of the ambiance. Lots of Americans staying here, so no language issues. Modern Italian cuisine that was really well-done. The wines here were a cut above the options (at least by the glass) that we had in Switzerland - perhaps not a huge surprise, especially since I intentionally stayed with local Swiss wines at the other places. Also the cheapest...the pricing discrepancy between Switzerland and Italy is very noticeable.

Paste in Bangkok, 1 star. High-end Thai which I often find disappointing but this was excellent. Definitely worth a star.
Also a pleasant restaurant with professional service (hard to find in Thai restaurants).

An even more fantastic dinner at 3* Benu (and 1* Mourad)
 

3* BENU:

My foodie friends and I met at Benu for dinner this past Friday night, my second time (in 3 years) and their first time dining here. Truly, this is about as good as it gets when it comes to Asian style fine dining outside of Asia.

Compared with my dinner 3 years ago, this dinner seemed even more refined and far more Asian in every way. Much less French influence than I recall, and the wine pairings in particular were more akin to those I've enjoyed while in Asia's top restaurants.

The dinner was absolutely sublime--and the wine pairings REALLY took it over the top. These were some of the most incredible wine pairings I've ever enjoyed. I daresay I even enjoyed dinner here a bit more than our dinner in July at Saison. There was an easy simplicity and flow to the overall dinner, despite there being so many intriguing and distinct flavor and texture combinations.

Service was flawless, and we enjoyed a few casual conversations and even joking around a bit with the sommelier and other members of the staff. They even invited us back to the kitchen to meet Chef Lee--who was most gracious and friendly and spent quite a few minutes catching up with us, surprisingly.

The dining room was, as I remembered, lovely in its clean simplicity--reflecting the menu quite well, in fact. We even ended up in conversation and trading information with a lovely couple seated next to us, not something that often happens in a 3 star restaurant!

My final bill was about $650. A very fair price for what was an incredibly enjoyable and very comfortable dining experience.

No question, Benu is one of the most exciting restaurants in the USA and clearly is among the best in the world. Easily deserving of its 3 Michelin stars and world ranking. I'd say it's now my favorite in SF.

1* MOURAD:

My friends and I decided to dine again at Mourad, even as I'd just been here (and had an incredible dinner with my husband) in July.

Dinner again was fantastic. Service was wonderful. The sommelier suggested a great wine to pair with all our dishes.

We were seated in the rear dining room on the second floor, which I didn't enjoy as much as the main dining room. That being said, it likely was a bit more quiet. So choose accordingly!

This also has become one of my favorites in San Francisco. That I dined the night before at amazing Benu and still loved Mourad says a lot, I think.

Apparently Paste doesn't want single diners to order their tasting menu - both lunch and dinner tasting menus say minimum or 2 people (and the a la carte doesn't list prices :( )

If you're in the Union Square area of San Francisco, I highly recommend Kin Khao. One star, Thai food. The blood rice sausage in bamboo leaf is a must-have if it's available.

Oh I hate it when I do that (especially as I often travel/dine alone). Always annoys the hell out of me in Japan when they won't even take your reservatio (a la carte or set menu) for one person.

(Their a la carte prices are very reasonable by the way)

A note about Japan - I found many restaurants wouldn't accept res for one person online but when I asked the hotel concierge to do it they were able to secure reservation(s) for me ;)

Just got back from an eventful trip to Japan. The Tokyo part started off with amazing meals, two favorites were Harutaka (1*) and Ginza Kojyu (2*). IMO Harutaka should be at least 2* if not 3. We opted for a mix of warm starters and nigiri, and every course was flawlessly prepared. Ginza Kojyu was simply fantastic, all my favorite ingredients were present, hairy crab, awabi, a5 wagyu, uni, conger eel, etc. I highly recommend both places! (A side note: on our flight back to JFK on ANA the Japanese cuisine was also curated by chef Okuda of Kojyu.)

I had two spots booked in Sapporo at the end of the trip, Hanakoji Sawada (3*) and Sushisai Wakichi (2*), however the big earthquake wiped out power on the entire island for a couple of days, and the reservations had to be cancelled. We were safe in Sapporo, but ppl near the epicenter suffered great losses. Here's to hoping they will recover quickly without any major aftershocks.

Anniversary dinner tomorrow night at Aska (2 stars) in Brooklyn...the pictures online make it look quite good!

Hope you have a great meal there! My husband and I went there last year around this time for our anniversary as well, and we really enjoyed it. They have a very interesting wine list!

This year's anniversary (next weekend) we are trying out Atomix. It's new and not yet Michelin rated, curious to see if it'll be a strong contender.

Looking at my trip at the end of the year...do folks have any suggestions for the below?

1) Dinner in Ghent - I see 3-4 1-star Michelins in the area...wasn't sure if folks had a strong opinion on which one would be best to eat at
2) Dinner spots in Tokyo that would be open on December 30, 31, or January 1 (probably a steep task) that are NOT sushi restaurants

Don't know if they're open those dates but highly recommend Le Sputnik Tokyo!

+1 for sure

When we visited Singapore, there were two hawker stalls that had a Michelin star. We wrote about one of them in another thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sing...eal-world.html

We wanted to try the second one as well, but they had ran out of food by the time we got there.

We also went to the Pavilion rouge, a proper michelin starred restaurant, where we had the taster menu. It was really good and delicious food. High quality ingredients and good flavours. But comparing it to some of the michelin restaurants we went to in Europe, the quality isn't the same.

Jan Van den Bon and Horseele are rather classic, what you expect from a 1-2 *
Publiek is much more accessible and eccentric. 20% of tables can be reserved by phone on the day only, could be a good option if you can't get a table somewhere else.
There are some good restaurants that do not have a *: I recommend Volta and Vrijmoed.
3* Hof Van Cleve is 30 minutes drive, different league (also price wise...), one of the best in the world.

Hi, I'm new to the forum but for the past 3 or so years I've been travelling a fair based purely on restaurants where I can get reservations. In that time, I've managed to eat at restaurants with a combined total of around 70 stars (which is just about all poor wallet could take!) including restaurants like Osteria Francescana, Noma (both original and 2.0).

As this is my first post here I thought I'd just do a quick little comparison of the 3* restaurants in San Sebastian (unfortunately, I was unable to get reservations at Mugaritz, Extebarri, Elkano or Ibai for this trip - ah well, maybe another time!). These were from a trip I took towards the tail end of 2016

Azurmendi - Whimsical, fun cooking, especially at the beginning of the meal when you are led into a greenhouse where amouse bouches are disguised to look like natural objects

Martin Berasategui - Excellent cooking, and in terms of pure flavour probably my favourite, with

Arzak - despite the , I was rather underwhelmed by the meal I had here. The cooking was just competent, and lacked a certain 'wow' factor

Akelare - possibly the worst 3* meal I have ever had, disappointing flavours, and rather lacklustre service, something I don't expect to see in a 3* restaurant.

Not a michelin starred restaurant, but I had the best steak and best spanish omelette I have ever had at Bar Nestor (a friend of mine who had managed to go to Extebarri also preferred the steak at Nestor). The omelette, slightly gooey in the middle is well worth the queue to pre-order.

If anyone wants particular pictures I can see if I can dig them out

We ate at Dill in Reykjavik last week, the country's sole starred restaurant (1*). Opted for the 7 course tasting menu (no substitutions) at 13,900 kroner (about $140), without wine pairings (an extra 11,900 kr). My apologies for the way the photos have gotten out of order... the meal went snacks, potatoes, sunchokes, beetroot, cabbage, chicken, dessert 1, and then dessert 2. They also included a little "to go" baggie signed by the entire staff which included sundry petit fours.

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Sunchokes with skyr (Icelandic cheese/yogurt) and dill. This dish featured sunchokes several different ways, including roasted, pickled, and as you can see on top, dried. Really nice mix of flavors and textures.
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Beetroot with crowberries & goat cheese. The beetroot was very well-prepared (one of several beet dishes I've had recently which was, and I don't even like beets), and the crowberries a nice tartness to offset the earthy beet. Needed a bit more cheese, though, which seemed an afterthought.
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Snacks, course #2 . Veggies include rutabaga, celeriac, and radish & carrot. Continued the generous champagne pour from the first snacks course.
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Dessert #2 : Rhubarb with cream and strawberries.
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Potatoes, apples, and sea truffles. This was a tasty dish which balanced textures (creamy, soft, and firm) and flavors.
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Main course: Barley with chicken & grass. This was the only "miss" for me in the dishes of the evening; there wasn't anything special about the chicken, and crispy chicken skin is fine, but not as tasty as pork or duck. The barley was tasty and was what my wife ate (as they didn't have a vegetarian/pescatarian option). The chicken was a bit fatty & gristly; all-in-all, it seemed an odd dish that didn't go with the rest of the menu.
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Snacks, course #1 . I think these are, from left to right: rye with horse mussel; leek & goose; and cod & roasted onion. Paired with a glass of Christophe Mignon Brut Nature (extra 3000 kr).
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Cabbage, onion, and butter. This was a fantastic course and made me wonder why I don't cook with cabbage more often. The presentation isn't all that, but the flavors just popped.
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Dessert course #1 : "Cookie" with thyme ice cream. There was also a marscapone or skyr cream cheese of some sort in the disk. The green is a syrup prepared from, if I heard correctly, grass; it had a spruce-like flavor and worked very well to balance the dish. It was a great dessert!

I also really enjoyed Dill - it was one of the meal highlights of our trip to Iceland.

And, since we were staying at the Hotel 101, it was a short stagger across the street to get home for the night.

Interesting to the the first report about Dill here at Flyertalk (as far as I know).

We also visited Matur og Drykkur, a Bib Gourmand restaurant in Reykjavik, although we went for the tasting menus vs. the "bargain" meals. I'll post some photos & descriptions in a bit. Overall, the high-end places in Iceland were pretty good, all things considered, and on a per-kroner basis, were a better value than most of the regular restaurants. I'd rather pay $100-$130 for a great multi-course dinner of interesting dishes than $50 for a lackluster lunch of burgers & fries or lamb stew or fish & chips, etc. Our most expensive lunch was at Brewdog, which just opened recently, though half the price ($80) was the beer we had; the food was not unreasonable, I suppose, and at least wasn't just normal pub grub at wildly-inflated prices.

Not officially "Michelin" but I'll be going to Pujol in Mexico City for their lunch and dinner menus next week!

I went to Tickets Bar last weekend, Albert Adria's Michelin starred "Tapas Bar". My expectations were high the overall experience exceeded them. The food (while not my style) consistently tasted strong and amazing. Service was excellent and most importantly the whole thing was just a lot of fun.

We gave the restaurant carte blanche which meant a whole load of tapas and a very well selected list of ultra-rare Spanish wines to match. I'd definitely recommend doing this if you're going to go. Given the venue, the wine matching was relatively conservative - no vermouths, cocktails or beer, which was a bit of a surprise given current trends.

I don't want to go into too much detail or post any food photos as I think you'll get the most out of the venue if you don't over-analyse it beforehand. Definitely recommended and well worth its star.

He's featured in the new season of Chef's Table on Netflix!