Now, more than ever, people will travel for food. Restaurant bookings are becoming almost as integral to trip planning as securing accommodation and transport. We have selected five of the most unique and forward thinking restaurants in the world which are worth planning your journey around.
OSTERIA Francescana, Modena, Italy
Voted as the Word’s Best Restaurant this year by a panel of almost 1,000 gastronomic experts, a dining experience at Osteria Francescana is reason enough to jump on board a long-haul flight to Italy. Head chef Massimo Bottura uses his creativity, passion and fine culinary skills to reinvent traditional Italian food. Signature dishes include the renowned Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano featuring parmesan of five ages and textures as well as his subversive, deconstructed Oops I’ve dropped the lemon tart dessert (pictured). The restaurant itself has three elegant dining rooms decorated with contemporary artworks.
Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark
You’ll find Rene Redzepi’s gastronomic mecca tucked away inside an old whaling warehouse in Copenhagen. It is here that Nordic cuisine has been revived using contemporary cooking methods. Foraged produce is the star of the menu where deceptively simple sounding dishes will blow you away with their incredible textures and flavours. Noma will only remain in its current location until the end of 2016 before the team moves to a new space in the city with room to build an urban farm.
Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA
Housed inside an art deco building, Eleven Madison Park offers a seasonal tasting menu celebrating local ingredients. Diners can expect eight to 10 courses of creative fine dining which puts a New York twist on modern European fare. Co-owners Will Guidara and chef Daniel Humm say their restaurant is about creating amazing experiences for people both through the food and service. Favourites on the menu include the honey and lavender roast duck and butter poached lobster.
El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
The three brothers behind this world-renowned restaurant bring their talents as chef, sommelier and patissier together to create a truly special dining experience. El Celler is off the beaten track in Girona, over an hour out of Barcelona. The custom-built restaurant is a wine lovers dream boasting some 60,000 bottles in the cellar. The cuisine is traditional Catalan with local ingredients combined with molecular gastronomy techniques. Some of the most talked about courses include the amuse bouche which arrives in the form of a Bonsai tree (pictured), langoustine with cocoa bean sauce and a marinated red mullet with figs and prickly pear foam.
Narisawa, Tokyo
Narisawa’s head chef Yoshihiro Narisawa combines classical French techniques with fresh, sustainable Japanese ingredients at his sleek Tokyo restaurant. A set menu comes printed on a small booklet made from rice paper and explains the philosophy behind Narisawa’s food. Some of the restaurant’s creative offerings include Bread of the Forest in which the uncooked bread rises at the table over several courses before being baked tableside in a stone pot. Another unique experience is the Essence of the Forest course (pictured) where the forest floor is created with Japanese herb tempura, the bark is the skin of the Jerusalem artichoke, while the orange is a kumquat.
