Indeed, the gigantic stone structure, lit up appears like a castle in the sky. It is best viewed from the restaurant El Huerto de Juan Ranas, or the adjacent plaza Mirador de san Nicolas (free). 100€ for two buys admission to dinner with a view. We made reservations day-of and got ledge-side seats for coming a bit early. The food was delicious. Begin with a refreshing Gazpacho, a traditional Spanish dish originating out of Andalusia to offset its hot summers. This one dish would make several reprises over the week. Then silky foie gras wrapped with melon and topped with torched caramel. A raunchy lamb tagine is a little too chewy at times. For dessert, a few chocolate truffles, a molten chocolate cake and a scoop of basil. The restaurant reverberates the qualities of fine food, like the butterfly wings drawn in mango and strawberry syrup in the dessert. And while the food comes slowly, the darkness settles in, showing the Moorish fort in a new light.

A perfect spot is the Villa Guadalupe hotel and Amador restaurant inside. The room and meal are cheap but the taxi to town costs about 15€ and the trip to the airport is 25€. The views of suburban Spain and the Mediterranean are spectacular from this mountain-top resort. The meal begins with an unexpected serving of Gyoza, dipped in a light vinegary sauce. Then lush greens on creamy avocado and slices of pork. Then, as is a specialty in these parts, a skin-on seabass on potatos, taziki spread and poached tomatoes. Surprisingly, the fish was not the freshest, perhaps because it was a Monday. 60€ for 2 people.

But the real reason to enter the Basque country is for the food. This culinary hotspot that essentially invented molecular gastronomy punches much above its weight on every guide and ranking. 20 minutes outside of Bilbao (30€ taxi; bus requires some walking and planning) is Azurmendi, which translates literally to azure mountain. There isn’t much blue but this modernistic, mountain-top restaurant is surrounded by gardens and greenhouses. And that is where the culinary adventure begins. A chef, uniform and all, leads guests up to the seemingly magical greenhouse, where delectable amuse-bouches ‘grow’ alongside the plants that bore them. Crunchy Jerusalem artichoke chips are disguised as tree bark; vinegar-soaked carrots are planted in test tubes; orange, pomelo, hisbiscus form a citrusy juice in a corked vial; exploding skinned tomatoes go back on the vine; avocado is reconstituted to look like the pit. 

Back in the main hall, a picnic basket is served with a glass of white wine. Start with a jar of salty sardines. Then a pizza pocket filled with unctuous pork fat and topped with a piece of Jamón. Finally, a ball that bursts in Caipirinha flavor. The adventure continues in the huge kitchen staffed by 18 chefs. It’s as large as the dining room, it seems. At the front is head chef Eneko Atxa, working on his new menu to be introduced the following week. I notice I had met him before at the entrance, but didn’t think much because of his earrings. Here, a few more amuse-bouches are given: a black pudding croquette and a viscous red bean soup. The ones served inside did not inspire the taste buds or the imagination, as did the ones served in the green house. Yet as we finally sat down at our table, it was already 2pm, we were impressed, yet the menu had not even started.

The options are 135€ for 10 courses or 160€ for 13. Substitutions are encouraged so choose the smaller course but pick the best things from either. There is also a wine pairing option (40-65€) but a cheap and cheery bottle of wine (22€) is the better option.

First, a trio of re-imagined nuts in molecular style. The best is hazelnut – made with foie gras shaped with dark chocolate. The flavor is intense, and keeps the intended nuttiness. To go with the nuts, the earthy flavor of mushrooms form the leaf (a maple leaf, might I add). Next is a signature Azurmendi dish: an egg yolk with insides replaced with truffle. A slight jostle and it bursts into delightful full-bodied flavours. This style of spherification is the poster child of molecular gastronomy. It was first started at elBulli (see Tickets and Bodego 1900 from Barcelona guide) and now seems to be everywhere around the world. Here, it’s an egg; at tickets, it’s an olive; at Gaggan, halfway around the world in Bangkok, it’s a yogurt lassi. Still firmly in amuse-bouche territory, I must say I am terribly amused. Next, an explosion of tomato flavor, provided by either skinned, crisped or puréed tomatoes. You might expect it to taste like a capresse salad with the cheese and basil. But the Idiazábal milk cheese is runny, much like a yogurt. It glues all the tomato components together. But why there are two of these, side by side, I do not know. Perhaps it each represents a hemisphere of the tomato. Finally, the Idiazábal milk cheese comes back in ice cream form. Think of it as the best frozen yogurt you’ve ever tasted. It’s hearty despite being cold, and not at all sweet.

The lobster on chive emulsion and oil is perfectly cooked, retaining a bounce without being too tough. Cutting through this wonderful piece, let alone eating it, is quite the experience. But the dish begins with an odd Te Maki (a hand roll) of lobster tartare that was a bit salty and didn’t seem very fine, nor did it complement the rest of the dish. Squid noodles that are only identifiable by its wrinkles have the texture of pasta. They’re made by freezing and slicing, and finally coating with a sweet squid reduction. The first off-dish was the Duck Royal “à l’orange”, a beautiful terrine of duck covered with duck sauce and foie gras coated with orange jelly with a spray of orange blossom perfume, tableside. The duck, stuck laboriously in a terrine, fails to be eventful. In a normal duck à l’orange, the heaviness of the sauce is balanced out by the medium-rare juices of the duck. Here, the duck takes a confit texture with not enough orange to bring out its oily flavours. The foie gras seemed gratuitous and made this weighty plate heavier. Then, slimy Kokotxas, or fish throat, with pommes soufflés, fails to make an impression. The recovery is the pigeon on deuxelle and truffle. This is what the duck à l’orange should have tasted more like. The pigeon was blushing pink with a crispy crust that soaked up the glimmering pigeon jus. Puréed and quartered mushrooms added some varied texture. Delicious. But the side salad of mushroom, truffles and cress was disappointing. It was flavourless except the copious amount of salt that made it a bit of an appetite killer.

Finally, some dessert. The first is a beautiful rose-themed strawberry dish. Tiny hearts of strawberry lie on strawberry sorbet and then on mushroom. The liquid nitrogen, another nouveau-cuisine fave, was added fanfare for no benefit in taste. A rose petal jutting out is beautiful but made the dish difficult to cut through. Yet it was still an excellent ode to the strawberry. Then, on a reflective black glass lay a beautiful arrangement of “egg and dairy products”. It included milk ice cream, butter toffee, exploding eggs with caramel, milk skin and jelly of yogurt. It was a fun plate that you can stuff in your mouth in whatever order and always get a different sensation, though still centered around the sweet and buttery main ingredients. It is a bit like Nomad’s famous milk and honey (see America Restaurant Guide section) and perhaps struggles to meet it. The petit fours are a cool assemblage of sweets, some placed in a box filled with chocolate crumbs. Some were rich and delicious. The balls filled with lime or lemon filling were a little too sweet and too sour. The meal ends with paying the 135€ ransom, meeting the chef (who passed on his regards for the restaurateurs of Arzak, see below) and receiving the personalized menu stamped with an Azurmendi seal.

In the final analysis, the meal is worth its weight in gold (about 165€ all in). Perhaps moreso in the experience (e.g. the garden tour; the immaculate service) but maybe not entirely in the food, which had some highlights but some disappointments as well. Especially on the first pass, it is an essential place to dine at for its beauty and philosophy. Does it need to be revisited at the going price, probably not.

Azurmendi, near Bilbao, 3 stars, 26th best restaurant in the world

Hazelnut, peanut, almond and mushroom leaf

Egg from our hens, cooked inside out and truffled
Tomato, cheese and basil tartlet

Roasted lobster out of the shell on oil herbs and sweet chives

Roasted squid on its juice and its ink sponge [originally Traditional fisherman style charcoal-grilled rice]

Duck Royal “a l’orange” and orange blossom aroma

“Kokotxas” with tomatoes

Pigeon, deuxelle and truffle

Strawberry and roses

Egg and dairy products; Farmhouse milk ice cream, butter toffee, “homemade Eggs”, milk skin and gelée of yogurt

Petits fours

135€

The lowly “tapas” style of eating that has given rise to potato bravas (i.e. Spanish poutine) take on foodie status. In fact, they even have a different name. In these parts, they’re called pintxos. The best is La Cuchara de San Telmo, a narrow eatery that doesn’t have a phone number. Some star dishes are the perfectly al dente orzo mushroom risotto with a dash of goat cheese, the gargantuan slice of seared foie gras on apple compote and a beautifully pink slice of rib-eye. With drinks, it comes out to 20€. Only in San Sebastian.

The next day, in an affront to Raphael’s code, we went to Arzak. It is the most notable of all of San Sebastian’s three-stars, of which there are four. It is largely responsible for bringing Spain into the foodie spotlight, as the first restaurant to earn three stars from the French guide. Now Spain is at the forefront. Going to two three-star restaurants two days in a row might be categorized as excessive behaviour. But purpose was juxtaposition. Compared to Azurmendi, Arzak is an ugly hole in the wall. It is cramped, service is slow, there is no show-and-tell. The price is much higher at 189€, though that hasn’t stopped people from filling the restaurant completely. “Everyone in San Sebastian has been here,” proclaimed head chef Juan Mari Arzak, who runs the family affair with his daughter Elena Arzak Espina who came out to greet us.

The menu is a four-hour hostage situation, so loose belts and scarce plans are a good idea. The amuse bouches are rather anti-climactic, especially against Azurmendi’s selection. Some similarities are noticeable: thin marinated carrots with ssamjang and jamon on a stick. The jamon corks a gazpacho, though the raspberry and apple make the fruity difference. The most visually spectacular dish is the chorizo wrapped in mango soaked in citrus “tonic”. It sits in the dimpled contour on the bottom of a crushed Schweppes can. Cool. But in taste, all reliably unmemorable. The real food begins with the famous beet-dyed apple paper over foie gras. The filmy and soft apple is still texturally responsive against the creamy foie gras. Strips of orchid flower on a light pimento sauce accentuate the clever balance. Foie gras comes back indulgently in stone-shaped pockets of tea and coffee flavored caramelized onion, shaped by manioc hydrated with huitlacoche. It manages not to be over-powering. A nicely cooked lobster wears a star crepe as a crown while dipping in a pool of tomato seeds. This is Arzak at its best: the sauce is deceptively simple but works in a citrusy edge into the lobster.  The next dish is probably the highlight of the meal. It’s designed to look like tomorrow’s breakfast. But the egg is slow-poached, oozing in flavor. More importantly, gargonzola is disguised as ham, and pairs with egg just as well. The fish is confidently cooked, with resplendent paper-thin veggies as sides. Even a stray pistachio packs a popping flavor. The sea bass is playfully served on a video of the sea, though it might be considered frivolous. The ribeye is especially tasty, its own fatty sweets accentuated by the paper thin caramelized vegetables and rainbow coloured couscous. The pigeon is perfectly cooked, paired with an abrasive puréed grape seeds that ran slow on the tongue. Of course, a playful stack of “seeds” lie in the background.

The dessert begins with the anticipated “big truffle”; the name is a good start. A giant asteroid-like object arrives, only to be deformed by hot chocolate poured atop tableside. The chocolate disintegrates slowly. The planned result is achieved: pieces of chocolate truffle in all sorts of sizes, lying in a puddle of syrup. This is the best chocolate dish I’ve had. To balance the sweet, a black lemon shell reveals a creamy lime-green innards – a kinder surprise in San Sebastian. Some anti-climactic, half-melted chocolate and basil ice creams are served.  Thankfully, the meal is saved by some bolts and nuts of sweets organized in a “ferreteria,” a hardware store. So the most expensive meal (225€ all in) ends with a weighty bill of honour. Was it worth it?

The food, indeed, was exceptional. Unlike Azurmendi, there were no missteps. However, any exceptional moments were also rare. The taste was rarely influenced by the molecular gastronomy that has iconized Basque cuisine.  Any flourishes seem to have been isolated to presentation: the range of colours, the video of the sea. Indeed, the price tag is too much for what was essentially a very tasty tasting menu. Go to Azurmendi for the experience. Or better yet, go to Narisawa in Tokyo.

Arzak, San Sebastian

Scorpion fish mousse with kataifi

Chorizo with tonic [mango]

Marinated anchovy and strawberry

Bitter raspberry [tomato, apple; corked by melon and hamon]

“Gilda” of carrots and ssamjang

Beet root blood apple. Apple injected with beetroot accompanied by creamy foie gras and potato “Mother of pearl”

“Cromlech” Onion coffee tea manoic

Lobster “Sea and Garden”. Grilled lobster with a crispy star shaped crepe and fresh greens [crispy cucuma]

Light ovolacto. Poached egg cooked at low temperature served with crispy milk and sacha inchi [gargonzola]

Red mullet. [miss print]

Fish steak with potatoes. Fillet of seabass lightly marinated with gin and served with several flavours of potatoes

Pigeon and seeds. Breast over a selection of dried fruits accompanied by an elaboration of seeds like pumpkin, grape or sunflower

Lamb with plaster and Jerusalem artichoke. Lamb served with roasted and plastered Jerusalem artichoke, fried manioc, and their joice

The Big Truffle. Large cocoa and sugar truffle with a creamy chocolate and carob filling

Black lemon. Crispy black lemon image with a sweet citrus cream interior sprinkled with the same fruit

Ice-cream assortment

189€

It is easy to eat cheaply in San Sebastian. Bodegón Alejandro, a subterranean eatery, serves a three-course meal with wine and water for 16€ a person. It’s reliably good with a touch of fine-cuisine, like squid in murky squid ink, and streaks of strawberry reduction with yogurt and brownie chunks.

At Sebastian, a seaside restaurant recommended by Raphael, fresh fish and prawns are simply cooked and adorned with lemon (~20€ each).

For more pintxos, go to the grimy Astelena  (Calle de Iñigo 1, cheap) and bite into piping hot pistachio croqueta or slurp foie gras flavoured risotto.

Bodega 1900 is supposed to be time travel back to the turn of the century, following the Spanish tradition of sipping vermouth before a real meal. From a corner seat, I stare at the ceremonial Jamón carving station. Beside that is where much of the food is prepared. The menu is a simple one pager, but the best things are off-menu. Choose the carte-blanche option where the server brings you troves of food until you say stop. Most competent are the veggies, like the pudgy white asparagus or the leeks in vinegar. They are deceptively simple dishes that accentuate the core flavour of the vegetable. Tuna roe comes pressed and pickled, making for a salty sashimi that breaks on contact. The fish roe returns with garlic; this time the sweet garlic is the operative ingredient. But the most redeeming dish is the white vermouth soaked melon. It looks like a hami-melon but where the white flesh has turned into a translucent lime green. It is soaked in dill-infused vermouth, giving it a fresh and aromatic quality. Melon has never been so refreshing.

Crispy seaweed

White asparagus

Pickle

Small leek in vinegar

Tuna egg

Smoked Mackerel

Fish roe and garlic

Sliced beef

Small meat pie

Spicy squid’s “mollete”

Melon infused with White Vermouth

80€ including drinks

Again, following the circus ringleader’s advice, I returned the next day to Tickets at 2pm. In an unprecedented turn of luck, I was alone and another singleton had cancelled. I was let in. I had won the lottery. The restaurant is an odd one, glowing in red and adorned with odd knick-knacks, like waving Buddha cats. Several stations around the perimeter supply the endless stream of food that comes out. At times, a wistful ice cream trolley is pushed around, with bells ringing.

Again, the best thing to do is to give the chef a carte blanche. As is customary in these post-elBulli establishments, the meal begins with a spherified olive. It looks and tastes like an olive, but yet is not an olive. Then, anchovy is served on two slices of tomato over bread so it takes the shape of a camel back, perfect for two bites. The tomato is exclusively the seedy, watery part, and so bursts on each bite, neutralizing the saltiness of the anchovy. Of all the anchovies served up in Spain, this one wins. An oyster lies in a mojito mix, a perfect palate cleanser after going through the oyster. The octopus, eaten with tweezers, is gummy and fun to chew through. Mushroom is shred to make spaghetti, lying in a mushroom sauce. It’s a king oyster mushroom overload. The beef cheek sandwich looks like it could have been bought off the street. It looks like a breakfast sandwich. But a bite into the soft, sweet and chewy beef allays all reservations. For dessert a halved wine bottle is loaded with wood chunks and holds two corks – one edible and another inedible. The edible one is a cylinder of dark chocolate mousse wrapped with pastry. For 60€, elBulli ingenuity has never been so affordable. Fine food has never been so accessible to the general public, the ones that can get a reservation anyway. 

~60€ with drinks

Solid cocktail with watermelon infused in sangria

Ticket’s Pizza

Tempura of pistachios

Tickets’ olive-S

Bread, olive oil, anchovy, tomato

Tuna in a nori seaweed cone, piparra jus and tomato seeds

Mojito oyster

Octopus with ginchi sauce

“King oyster mushrooms” spaghetti with porcini pil pil sauce

Beef cheek sandwich

Nori seaweed jelly, mango, marshmallow

Chocolate shaped like a cork

An affordable Michelin-star experience presents itself at Gaig, a white tablecloth restaurant in the l’exempli district, known for its bougie shopping and dining options.  At lunch, 32€ affords you a 3-course tasting menu. Most memorable is the hearty cacao e pepe, a welcomed carbo explosion after a string of fine dining. A block of moulded lamb breaks apart effortlessly and melds well with mash and sweet sauce. The dessert was a block of egg tart, though it tasted like Chinese moon cake, according to one commentator.

Dine like an oligarch at White Rabbit, a top 100 restaurant. The greenhouse dome and comfy couches adorned with stuffed rabbits is pure luxury. At night, it is fashionably expensive; at lunch, a set can be had for only 900 RUB ($30 a person). Start with a blue-cheese arugula salad, then have a creamy green nettle soup, and a perfectly cooked trout in a white wine sauce. There’s nothing Russian about this restaurant, except the dressed up maids that clean after you in the washroom, but the best restaurants in Russia are rarely Russian.

A favorite in these parts is Strelka Bar, for both food and drinks ($40 a person with drinks).

Food anywhere in Russia, as it is anywhere in ex-communist Europe, is bad. One local place that bucks the trend is Kvartira 44, which has gooey mushroom soup in cored Borodinski Black Bread, though the mixed meat dish is disappointing ($85 for two people with drinks).

If the next day is a Sunday, go to L’Europe for an over the top champagne brunch (4900 RUB). With all the orange juice and alcohol you could ever want and a whole range of meats at the carvery, chocolate fountains, and of course, caviar. The atmosphere is indicative of Russia: fully suited servers that suggest wines to pair whatever you’re eating, and live music that draws from well-known oldies – the Four Seasons included. The only thing missing are oysters and lobster, which are kind of expected at this price.

Atelier Amaro recently received a Michelin star, the first to do so in Poland. If you can’t get reservations there, go to the convivial U Kucharzy. This popular place is known for its tableside steak tartare, which isn’t entirely good. Go for the duck instead. The food feels like a Sunday dinner: the duck is slow-roasted, disassembled, and topped with fruity condiments, all cooking in different pots. It’s like home.

Close to the castle, is the seemingly insignificant restaurant Pod Baranem. Surprisingly it has delicious skin-seared duck in a textured apple cinnamon sauce and a soft espresso-flavoured Gingerbread.

Barley soup Krakow style 14 zł

Dumplings Russian style (with cheese) 24 zł

Duck breast in apple cinnamon sauce 33 zł

Gingerbread 16 zł

At night, join the convivial masses in the Jewish quarter, the Kazimierz. A good restaurant there is Pierozki U Vincenta, where surrounded by colourful sunflower art, delicious pierogies are served.

In style, they are diametrically opposite. Germanium is from the Michelin school, a two-star, white table cloth establishment with a long tasting menu and laughable prices (950 DKK for the most economical lunch menu). On the other hand Relae is a relaxing, bougie, “no fuss” place where cutlery is stored in a drawer in the table. But they, along with a good list of other restaurants, are united in serving ridiculously good food.

By now, after San Sebastian, my taste buds have acclimated to an onslaught of modernist cuisine. An exploding egg-shaped object is second nature. An egg yolk that doesn’t taste like egg is expected. At Geranium, these comparisons are particularly poignant. Pretty much everything, I have already seen. The first exploding spheres of candied carrot juice filled with sea buckthorn foam are like those at Azurmendi, and the charred stones below remind of the calamari at Narisawa. One of the most spectacular dishes pair with the candies: a tarty soft cheese in fermented carrot juice, slurped delightfully. The next display is like modern art itself – aluminum shaped liked the crevices of the brain. On top is what matters, a tiny piece of pickled pear, expertly sliced, interlaced with some pine shoots. Next, similarly extravagant display of nature has only a ‘branch’ of reconstituted Jerusalem artichoke (yes, we’ve seen that before), dipped in a walnut filled with mayonnaise. Then we have a pocket of dried apples and flower. It looks too delicate to eat, and doesn’t have any punch of flavor. It reminds of the spiced nuts in an edible bag at Gaggan. Next is sphere of potato, painted black with squid ink, resting on stones inside a larger black sphere. Of course, this reminds of Narisawa’s signature dish. A spoonful of decorated sheep milk butter makes the potato heavenly. Probably the most spectacular dish of the set is sour egg yolk in mushroom soup – a perfect counterbalance between the gooey quail egg, acidic vinegar and tarty mushrooms. To end off the snacks, a celeriac root painted with squid ink to give the appearance of seaweed. The practice of dipping into some creamy sauce seems at the heart of Geranium cuisine – and it continues here with added oomph, this time in skyr, an Icelandic yogurt sauce and fish roe.

Now begins the actual courses. We begin with a gazpacho, which in appearance looks like the clarified soup of Le Mout, Taiwan, fully decorated with flowers. It’s more complex, mainly from the gluttonous “jellied ham” that sits at the bottom inconspicuously. Here also begins the juice pairings, which cost a cruel 350 kr more. But it’s a novelty, so a splurge was justified. The first was just a standard apple juice, which arguably went well with the ‘tomato juice’. The next course was quite special – it looked like little balls of green tea matcha sitting on stones. Instead they held a jelly of dill, dipped in a spread made of mackerel, horseradish and an ice-cold granita of pickled cucumber. The pickling tradition, seen before in the pear, and later with the onions is a notable accent of Danish cuisine. To pair, another apple juice, a little more potent, but now I’m questioning the wisdom of the pairings. Clearly the Danes like their apples.

One of the most delightful dishes is the assortment of onions – some fully cooked, others pickled, still others a half raw. It is a highly ambitious dish that tries to elevate the rather peasantly vegetable to two-Michelin-star status. It almost does, bouncing the sweetness of the onions off of the vinegary sauce. Some of the onions would have benefited from a little more cooking. But the concept is still appreciated. The weakest dish was the langoustine, itself the largest and most eye-watering part of the meal. But it lacked texture and the beats and cherries added little to no flavor. It’s pared with a lingonberry drink that is similarly flavourless. In general, light juices are great; this one was in the realm of watery. The lamb dish was well executed, hidden by foliage and a wonderful dollop of liquid herbs. The pickled strawberries were not particularly noticeable. The best pairing of the meal was the black current infused with tannins from beechwood so that it would taste like red wine. Splendid!

Dessert was special. The icy granita returns as a white chocolate that is never watery – it only adds texture, coolness, and sweetness to the dish. It is masterly. Beneath is the most wonderful crème brule of woodruff and sorrel that manages to be sweet without the feeling of guilt. In the chef’s kitchen, and from behind the three Bocuse d'Or statues, the last dish is served - a cylinder of frozen yogurt adorned with red branches and sorrel. Both desserts show the ability to create full-bodied desserts with a stomach-pleasing lightness. A bursting chocolate egg later and some tetrahedronal black current candies, and you’re out the door. Looking back, you wonder if you should have gone with the 3-hr meal (1350 DKK), just so you could have stayed longer. If you have an extra 350 DKK to spend, don’t get the juice pairing – do the 3-hr sitting instead, and experience more of the mastery of Ramsus.

Geranium (950 kr)

Crispy Grains from Kornly

Milk, Fermented Juice from Carrot & Sea Buckthorn

Pickled Pear, Lemon Verbena & Pine Shoots

Jerusalem Artichoke, Rye & Walnut

Dried Flowers & Dried Apples

“Chared Potato” & Lightly Smoked Sheep Milk Butter

Cep Soup & Egg Yolk in Vinegar

Celeriac with Seaweed Powder, Skyr & Fish Roe

Tomato Water, Herbs & Jellied Ham

“Dillstone”, Mackerel, Horseradish & Granita from Pickled Cucumber

Bread with Emmer & Spelt

Onions & Chamomile Flower Vinegar

Grilled Langustine in Juniper Aroma and Red Elements

Lamb, Herbs & Pickled Strawberries

“Forest Floor in July”, Wood Sorrel, Beech leaves            & woodruff

Yoghurt with “Red Branches” & Dried Red Sorrel

Green Egg with Pine

Black Currant Bonbon with Liquorice

Drinks (350 kr)

Green Apple

Ingrid Marie Apple & Chamomile

Lingonberries

Black Current & Beech Wood

Gooseberries & Elderflower

Next, Relae, the working man’s interpretation of Danish fine food. The choice is between an omnivore and a herbivore four-course meal, both 450 kr. The omnivore version begins with a venison tartare. Like modern art, it is grimy and to the point – composed half with peas and half with the pulverized meat. Its simplicity is applauded; it suffers from the same fault as the second course – a chef that seems immune to lemon juice. Like the creamy sunflower seed risotto, it is too sour, though still edible. The real mastery is shown with the beautifully pink piece of pork, served with rhubarb. The star ingredient is the boudin noir paste underneath, which amplifies the dish with a starchy coarseness. The dessert is also spectacular – it’s like an ice cream but with the consistency of butter. It is presented like some geological formation. It reflects Danish design at its best. In contrast to Geranium, this esteemed restaurant is worlds apart, but still motivated by the same creed - to serve interesting and noteworthy food.

Relae (450 kr)

Venison, peas and mint

Sunflower seeds, kornly and truffle

Pork from Hindsholm, pickled rhubarb

Vanilla, dried raspberry and caramelized mustard

The pervasive nature of new Danish cuisine can be noticed at Kodbyens Fishbar. It’s situated in an old butchery in the meat packing district. It looks like a rundown bar, or at most an after-work place to imbibe. But the lobster comes as if it is from some 3-star restaurant, filled to the brim with emulsions, flowers, and chunks of lobster. It gets better, with scallops and a deep-fried “pig head”, amidst more foliage and emulsions.  The real combination here is the oily pig head with the light but textured scallops. It seems like this kind of pretentious foodie culture is not so pretentious in Denmark.

The finest food is at Forrettabarinn, where both duck and foal are lusciously pink and adorned with the tastiest condiments (~2000 a course). This restaurant could easily make the top 100 list.

Then, for some ethically problematic but culturally sacrosanct dining, have horse and whale at Grillmarkadurinn (~2000 a starter, ~5000 for main).

Afternoon tea, 6.50£. 

It is hopelessly expensive but such a treasure of London. Beer is served in tin cans (like the tins used the baristas to steam milk). A server behind the counter adds the condiments and cleans up after you. The fish and chips are rather dull but the caramel pudding is amazing, and is food-coma inducing. Go for an interesting, posh-British and undoubtedly banker-ish experience.

Crab Bisque 7

Haddock Fillet 16.5

Puddings 6

Another French owned restaurant in London, this one is far from city-centre, in the borough of Brixton. Foodies venture far to find this restaurant literally upstairs, the only sign being a tiny label on the doorbell. After being granted entry and ascending, you are surprised to find it bursting with eclectic people, served by the accented French. It isn’t too different from Derrière, an edgy restaurant in Paris, where people sit on beds and other odd things. The food is particularly interesting: beef tartar stuffed with fruits, herbs, leaves, croutons and most importantly, mushroom. It is light and airy, as tartar should be. The main is eye candy. Big chunks of duck, with crispy skin, is paired with chunks of mango with fruity sauce drizzled all over. It gets a little tiresome but the idea is there.

FOUR COURSES WITH CHEESE  £42.00

Beef tartare, mushrooms, apple

Duck, turnip, mango

Chocolate Cake

Cheese

Deep in residential London, this sign-less corner-store could be on privet drive. It’s run by French people, like lots of English restaurants, though you couldn’t tell by the grey wood and country-inspired décor. Cool drinks like homemade ginger beer come free with the 10£ lunch – today it’s a cheesy, hearty soufflé.

10£ lunch. Includes wine and a main course (soufflé)

The bone marrow at St. John’s is probably the tastiest thing I’ve ever had. It is glorified fat on a stick; it tastes better than it sounds. Frenzied diners scoop mountainous fatty globules from the inner compartment of the bone onto toast. The fat is spread like butter and accompanied by a fresh parsley salad. The restaurant is somehow refined despite the strained grey floorboards and deliberately austere walls. A cafeteria style dining area is wrapped around the formal restaurant; both apparently serve the same menu and a selection of local beers.

Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad 7.50

Duck Hearts ~7

Chocolate Terrine & Creme Fraiche 7.50

Bouchery is often noted as Brussels's best restaurant. It is, at its core, a French restaurant. To start, a playful amuse-bouche of pulverized cauliflower. Next, seared mackerel still mostly raw accentuated by a curiously sweet stalk of salsify. Another fish and a dessert, both decent but nothing to write home about, finish the meal. But it is a restaurant worth going to, if only to escape the tourists for a bit. It is half-an-hour away from city centre and has a cozy cottage feel and its own garden.

29€ Lunch, 4 courses

For traditional Belgian fare, try Les Brassins. The slow cooked rabbit is ever so tender in a gravy that is thick but never heavy. 

Rabbit in cherry beer sauce (1 leg)            € 13,00

No credit cards

The drinking scene is exceptional. Delirium pub has thousands of beers, and an extensive list of domestic and international ones on tap. They aren’t as affordable as expected but cheap nonetheless.

For something more provocative, there is a converted Bohemian Brothel called Goupil le Fol, where they serve a delicious fruit wine. Behold posters of naked women and a Sylvia Plath room. It is filled with friendly international students who speak enough languages to make you feel illiterate.

Address: Rue de la Violette 22, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Phone: +32 2 511 13 96

In Amsterdam, most notable is Temple Doeloe. It serves spicy food and charges for water, a vicious cycle for the wallet but deliciously satisfying. A lamb chop is covered in a potent and course sauce that is delectably sweet. This is followed with six tapas-style dishes in butter-bowls. Each of the meats, the chicken, beef and lamb, were interesting on their own accord and did not fall into the Asian trap of redundancy. The vegetables were a bit soggy but were a decent complement to the main attraction.

35€ menu, 3 courses

Closed Sunday

Charges for water

This secluded restaurant was a homey affair run by one chef and a waiter half-serving as a plating chef. To start was a colourful fan of vegetables on a fine liver pâté. Veal followed with kale, some steamy, some crispy. The crispy kale was wonderfully delicate and well-seasoned but the softer kale reminded of an Anne Frank quotation: “It's incredible how kale that is probably a few years old can stink!”  But overall, an excellent fine dining experience.

37€ menu, 4 courses

Closed Monday

For some Michelin stars, Cinc Sentortis presents an unending parade of food for a decent price. It also relies on the traditions of Catalan: the ham, peppers, tomato bread and pork, but treats them with imaginative transformation. Take, for example, the Spanish poutine. Instead, a sweet potato is cut in half, its centre holed out, and replaced with perfectly boiled eggs and accompanied by a richly sweet sauce.

59€ Menu, "4 courses" but many more in actuality

The definitive style of cuisine is tapas, the sharing of small plates of traditional Spanish food. There is a welcomed focus on seafood and cold-cuts. For a bustling, inexpensive, group-oriented evening, go to Cerveseria Catalana if you can stand the hour-long wait. It serves an impressive list of beers and wines and an extensive menu of guilt-inducing tapas like Huevos Rotos, a Spanish poutine with eggs in place of gravy, or deep-fried artichokes and Patatas Bravas (potatoes with a spicy and garlic sauce).

Dishes 4-8€, 2-3 dishes per person

For a less sensationalized tapas bar, Tapas, 24 is a subterranean hole-in-the-wall that has a platoon (they were dressed in some uniform) of amicable waiters that translate menus patiently, charge your phone, and even speak to nasty, monolingual telecom companies for you. From the bar, a curious eye wonders past the pyramids of fresh, local ingredients to the chefs who meticulously tinker with bite-sized portions.

Dishes 8-12€, 2-3 dishes per person

Between the tiring gallivants, traditional Italian fare is readily available For cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper), a simple pasta in egg yolk with cheese and pepper, consider Roma Sparita. It is in the old village of Trastevere, where young Italians congregate at night. It has a bustling line of bars and restaurants to fit any mood.

12€ Cacio e Pepe

7€ Artichoke

6€ Anchovy Salad

Reservations necessary

For something more adventurous, leave the comfort of touristy Rome and venture to the outskirts where Betto e Mary, from an unnoticeable folk restaurant with an open-fire oven, serve a sextet of ox parts. The food is mediocre but the atmosphere is not. Betto (presumably, that is his name), wearing a sports jacket and track pants, sits down beside guests to construct a suitable menu impromptu. His sons with similar sartorial prowess serve the food.

61€ for two

For lunch, an acclaimed restaurant called Giulio Pane e Ojo, a bit out of the way, serves a two-course meal and wine for 10€ a person. 

10€ lunch

For flawless porchetta, I Porchettoni der Pigneto has a suckling pig in the window and indoor picnic tables to eat from. The owner can only speak Italian, but it isn’t difficult to order when you can just point at the pig. It is a delightful treat to go with perky antipasto (zucchini, eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes) and a pint of beer. Walls are decorated with photographs of the allied bombing of that exact street (1943, Italian Campaign).

10€ antipasto

4.5€ pint of beer

2€ per 100g of porchetta

Like the style at the Marché at Brookfield Place, an original concept restaurant owned by Swiss hotelier and restaurateur Mövenpick (which also makes the best ice cream in Europe, near the Opera House), self-serve is in. In Zurich, Hiltl and its less refined offspring, Tibits, both have an unassailable selection of vegetarian food priced by weight. An average brunch might cost 20 CHF (10 CHF at Tibits), a bottom-low price by Swiss standards. Hiltl is chic and pristine; it is luxury at its fullest without the pretentious customs of old. A palette of differently coloured vegetable curries is delicious and healthful and go along well with pappadum, a lightweight value-maximizer. And in a city of expensive cocktails, the refreshing 500mL homemade ice tea is a steal at 8 CHF. If this is too exuberant, then Sterner Grill sells excellent bratwursts (7 CHF) and beer (4 CHF) while Brasserie Louis Take-out has mediocre steak sandwiches (10.50 CHF).

20 CHF lunch (but weight) 

The real gem of Zurich is in the West, in the 4th and 5th districts. Start with the Markethall Im Viadukt in the 5th, a market with an easygoing restaurant in the back. Generous portions of rustic cooking – salad, omlette, polenta and sausage – are easy to eat and come out to 50 CHF (for two). 

50 CHF for two

North of the river, a stone-throw from Temple Bar, is a cozy new-Irish restaurant called Winding Stairs with its own bookstore (an Irish novelty) on the ground floor. Walking up a narrow staircase, the rustic dining hall is planked with dark floors and decorated with scribbles on chalkboards and clipboard menus. The prix-fixe goes for 26€ is two-courses; add 5€ for dessert and 4€ for a glass of wine. To start, traditional black pudding is coated in a crispy skin and smothered in sweet applesauce. The salad is aromatic in herbs and topped with crispy pig ears. To follow, perfectly cooked beef liver is not a mushy mess but instead lusciously smooth in a potent beet sauce.

26€, two courses

Décor (on Augartenstraße) has a 7€ lunch menu, this time a clean-tasting pan-fried fish in a buttery sauce with potatoes; 

7€ Lunch

Naschmarkt and are cheap, tasty and altogether formulaic. Instead, opt for the claustrophobic Urbanek, where a chatty epicure proudly shows his memorabilia of Anthony Bourdain and Wolfgang Puck and then shaves varieties of cold cuts for you to sample. With famous Austrian white wine (some say the best in the world) and cheese, it comes to 19€.

19€ for wine, cheese and cold cuts

At Borkonyha. 6000 HUF ($27) gets you wine, dinner and dessert at a top gastronomical institution. The chicken breast is a juicy delight, sitting in a bed of lentils and al-dente zucchini so thin they resemble bamboo stalks. A few crunch falafel-esque pieces composes a rare interlude. The yellowy orange reflects off the bloody grapefruit; chocolate comes in crumbles or smoothly in the mouse or embedded as little rocks between the bread.

Farm raised chicken oyster and breast with lentils and baby zucchini 3,150 Ft

Chocolate dessert 1,300 Ft

 At Bandol sur Mer, French price tags don’t translate to French food. The lemon sorbet, a good idea, was too sweet for the delicate salmon. The foie gras was soft so it could’ve used crunch instead of the chewy root vegetable and slightly soggy bread.

50€ a person, conservatively

Address: Rudi-Dutschke-Straße 26, 10969 Berlin, Germany

Phone:+49 30 25937930

At U Medvidku, there is a perfectly cooked duck breast for 250 CZK ($13). They also have the “world’s strongest beer,” X-33, which is a sugar and malt explosion worth trying and regretting. (“33” represents the “degrees” of the beer and is equivalent to 7/4 times the ABV percentage.) 

To eat, Le Duo is “cheap and cheerful” option for lunch, as one commentator described.

Address: 20 Rue des Bouchers, 59000 Lille, France

Phone:+33 6 33 73 25 42

The food is overly expensive. So the cheaper offsprings of notable restaurants present a compelling compromise between price and quality. Michelin approved good-value restaurant Oro Bar (offspring of former 1-star Oro) is modern-chic with bar-like tables from which well-to-do patrons casually drink overpriced wine. The bread is served with some extension of the yellowy Swedish sauce with hints of curry; it is to die for. The cauliflower soup adorned by shaves of chorizo had a muted bitterness that delivered full body.

300 NOK, 3 course lunch

At Lille B (offspring of Bagatelle), DIY combinations included one of tuna and saffron risotto. The risotto is rich and colourful. Further inspection revealed a piece of shrimp hidden in the middle, a happy lagniappe. Four thickly sliced medallions of tuna on arugula justifies the 200 NOK ($36) price tag if it's taste is not intolerable. The idea is to make a sour vinaigrette for the arugula which would soak the tuna in citrusy goodness but the result is a bland mush. 

200 NOK for tuna & saffron risotto

The food in Stockholm is a far leap from the dollar breakfasts at IKEA. The meatballs at Pelikan (180 SEK) are fifteen times more expensive but are a juicy delight to chew through. Go early, lest wait an hour for the table. For something more formal, Ulla Winbladh is a cottage-like signpost on Djurgården island that serves traditional Swedish fare with an innovative spin (2 courses at 335 SEK).  To start sashimi bass in a beautifully light and tangy mayo; on top, crispy bacon, herbs and fish roe. Then, veal medallions on a red wine vinegar reduction. The results are fine but the bass is a bit salty (like many things in these parts).

180 SEK for meatballs

Beside greenhouses with exotic plants is one filled with picnic tables. A healthy layout of desserts is a splendid sight after much weary trekking. A small kitchen serves hearty fare to a predominantly Swedish clientele.

200 SEK for main and dessert

Ulla Winbladh is a cottage-like signpost on Djurgården island that serves traditional Swedish fare with an innovative spin (2 courses at 335 SEK).  To start sashimi bass in a beautifully light and tangy mayo; on top, crispy bacon, herbs and fish roe. Then, veal medallions on a red wine vinegar reduction.

335 SEK for 2 courses

A weary venture out to the suburbs has a Michelin star hidden for 25€ (La Cape).

Address: 9 Allée la Morlette, 33150 Cenon, France

Phone:+33 5 57 80 24 25

The search for Michelin stars takes us to Provence for a reasonably priced three-courses at the restaurant of the Japanese Chef of the French School, Keisuke Matsushima, who comes out to receive you after the meal. The patronage is a largely oriental and often Japanese speaking. The purée in urchin shell is a sight to behold, and easy to swallow.  The risotto in a buttery cream had crispy thin-cut leeks and a ring of pea juice that is incredibly fun to clean up. The fish was a bit oppressed by the olive juice and had an uncertain bitterness that dulled the senses. The puff pastry shattered on contact and only repaired by the soft lob of caramel ice cream. By culinary standards, it was a reasonable if formulaic. But slow and forgetful service failed to live up the Michelin standard as proudly alluded to in its bathroom decorations.

43€, 3 courses

Risotto
Ombrine grillé, artichauts épneux sautée à cru, riquettes, olives noir de Taggiasca, jus de diable (Umbrine)

Mille feuille

Address: 22Ter Rue de France, 06000 Nice, France

Phone:+33 4 93 82 26 06

A small chunk of lamb is so tasty it requires the utmost rationing. Thankfully, there is a most delightful mushed eggplant topped with chickpeas and raisins. This favourite vegetable of the Italians is pulverized beyond recognition to act as sauce together with a laddle with a sweet marsala that runs capriciously through the contours of the eggplant.

28€, main and some snacks

Selle d’Agneau du Quercy laqué au tandoori / Aubergine au feu de bois /

Pressé d’épaule aux herbes fraîches / Jus corsé au masala (lamb, eggplant, herbs, marsala)

This tiny, dark restaurant in the old part of Nice is run by some wonderfully charismatic and hilarious restaurateurs. It takes us on a trip of its own. The Italian influences are sublime: the dish of small fish resembled the poignant salads of Rome. The generous cuts of tuna soaked up the lentil and olive oil for a definitively Niçoise dish. And finally, deliciously rich fois gras on toast is as French as it gets.

10€ for appetizers, 20€ for mains

Michelin starred chef Jacques Maximin retires in Cagnes-sur-Mer at a seaside restaurant a a few minutes outside of Nice. The patio is sunny and great for people watching (namely beach-loving pedestrians). The food is ridiculously overpriced because the normal 25€ formule was unavailable. That the French can put a cheap menu on a website and not have it is tantamount to a bait-and-switch, especially when the restaurant is as out of the way as this one. Admittedly, the fish is resoundingly fresh. But in a bouillabaisse, the flavours aren’t as salient.

45€, three courses

Food is cheap and tasty. At Il Latini, patrons line up for the 7:30pm seating. They are quickly ushered in to tables already loaded with bread and wine. The wine is charged per glass, estimated by a scribbling bean-counter based on the volume remaining in the glass. Perfectly salted prosciutto-on-melon fly out of the cold-cut station (6€). A cylinder of salami is ominously large. Pastas (8€) come immediately, hearty and fully flavoured. The cheap prices and sociable waiters let customers lose themselves in the food. All pretentions are dissolved at the door; go to Il Latini to let your guard down. The total bill came to 35€ for two. It was the most fun dining experience of exchange.

Address: Via dei Palchetti, 6R, 50123 Florence, Italy

Phone:+39 055 210916

At Ristorante Buca San Giovanni, an underground wine-cellar come restaurant, fresh half-balls of buffalo mozzarella and lightly cooked tomato garnish an eggplant strudel (11€). Gnocchi in a slightly sour sauce is 9€.

Da Ramano, the risotto aficionado that welcomes such artsy-folk as Matisse and Hemingway. The crayfish risotto, caviar black from the ink, is a perfectly flowing al-dente with a sweet tingle. It is the best risotto.

32€, risotto for two person

The go-to brand is Hofbräu, perhaps guzzled at the festive beer hall downtown, accompanied by a serenade of live traditional German music. The dunkels are a delicate balance lathery and crispy. They are lightly carbonated, as all good beers are, so that downing a litre is no work at all. With some Bavarian sausages (the white ones) in mustard or a slab of crisp suckling pig, the beers become a gastronomical statement. 

Redemption came at Tasca da Esquina, the multi-coursed outfit of celebrity chef Vitor Sobral. A mix of squid, calamari and goodies from the sea stays classy amidst the generous dole of mushrooms and a mouth-filling eggplant puree. Four courses require no contemplation at 18€.

Taberna Moderna had the best covert despite being free: an exploding impaled diced tomato covered with salt and herbs. Iberian ham (14€) is topped with potatoes and red peppers in grimy, home-cooked goodness; it is reminiscent of the forward flavours of Barcelona, though the Portugese chefs would never admit it.