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 Your bucket list is outdated, my friend.

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).

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!