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There are those, guide books included, who sneer unjustifiably at the local cuisine, but to be fair the restaurant of Don Alfonso in Sant Agata should be sampled. But take care, rated in the top five restaurants in Italy with three Michelin stars does not come cheap!
Especially with such dishes as a souffle of marrow with mozzarella and anchovy sauce, pheasant with pistachio nuts, or bream cooked inside lemon leaves. All the produce comes from the family’s organic farm. It is possible to stay in one of his five apartments where he will also cook breakfast. Take out a mortgage first!
Outside Sorrento
Bar/restaurant in a lovely converted 1920's French colonial house, with a balcony overlooking the street where you can watch the world go by.
Serves European dishes and a selection of cocktails as well as local beer.
One of the few late-night bars in Hoi An, with good music and pool table, darts, board games and book exchange.
Open 10am–1am.
110 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hoi An
Tel: (0510) 862212
Great restaurant - better to go here and sit in the tiled dining room, with Iberian hams hanging up and lobsters and fish on ice, than to take your chances out on a terrace where you never really know what you're going to get. The fish soup was the best I have tasted, and the grilled fish was fresh and succulent.
Rua Primeiro de Dezembro 103/107
A 'modern' styled Italian restaurant serving very good old style Italian food. Good wine list too. And something unusual ... the restaurant is situated in what was the old Jack Lilley Triumph motorcycle building.
109 High Street, Shepperton TW17 9BL
Tel: (01932) 269006
A short walk up the high street from Shepperton station.
Quality Indian food in a trendily designed restaurant. Their Goan fish curry at £10.50 and the tandoori jheenga sheesh for £11.50 are delicious fishy treats.
216 Cheltenham Road, BS6 5QU;
Tel: 0117 924 0458;
www.ohcalcutta.co.uk
Kinda like an Indian fast food restaurant, only minus the garish interior. It's not the sort of place to have a long protracted meal, but it is great for grabbing a bite to eat. The food is good, and relatively inexpensive for London, although the service can be a little sloppy. Still, this place is always busy, and makes for a nice stop after a hard day's shopping in the West End.
9 Marshall Street, Soho W1F 7EJ; tel: 020 7287 9966;
Also at Earls Court (147 Earls Court Rd, tel: 020 7373 0220 ) and Islington (80 Upper St, tel: 020 7359 3399)
Kitted out in the finest Bollywood kitsch, this restaurant does one thing but does it well - thali. There's live music on Sunday evenings and they operate a tiffin takeout system, which explains why Montpelier residents keep coming and going with insulated take-away towers.
12 York Road, Montpelier BS6 5QE;
tel: 0117 942 6687;
www.onestopthali.co.uk
On our first evening in Berlin, we sought out this restaurant as it had been mentioned in the AA city guide. The name has changed but it is definitely worth a visit. Even though it was only 6.30pm the garden tables in the back were pretty full. Our pinchos (like tapas) were lovely, while the Spanish fish soup was both cheap (£4) and wonderfully fresh with an impressive variety of seafood. My wife's chicken & orange salad was both light and refreshing. The service couldn't be faulted - altogether a very pleasant start to our evening. Well worth going.
Gormannstrasse 22 - just a short walk north west for about 20 minutes from Alexanderplatz;
tel. (030) 285 990 26
Don’t be taken in by the apparent sophistication of Cuba’s beautiful, historic hotels – the restaurants are nearly always a let down. Best to have a pre-dinner cocktail in one of the atmospheric old bars, then go and eat in a paladar, a family-run restaurant inside the homes of ordinary families – a uniquely Cuban phenomenon. Food is homemade and fresh. Leave a big tip as they pay high taxes.
Apart from the famous La Guarida, some of the best are: Cocina de Lilliam (Calle 48 #1311, Miramar, +7 209 6514); Casa de Adela (Calle F #503, Vedado, +7 832 3776); Le Chansonnier (Calle J #257, Vedado, +7 832 1576). Book ahead.
The restaurant scene is very good indeed, choose from traditional Turkish dishes to a wide range of international cuisine. Many restaurants have roof-topped terraces to admire the great views. Prices start to climb the closer to the harbour but it is possible to find very reasonably priced menus. For a truly memorable meal try Obo Terrace.
A fabulous Spanish/tapas restaurant with a great ambience suitable for intimate, romantic one-on-ones through to large parties. Fantastic value for money
16 Royal Parade, Blackheath Village, London SE3 0TL (overlooking the heath);
tel: 020 8297 1880;
Nearest train station: Blackheath, or Lewisham/Greenwich DLR
Widely regarded as the best paladare in Havana (if not Cuba), La Guardia certainly doesn't disappoint. It is a restaurant that is located in a beautiful private home and boasts a fantastic menu. Booking is essential as it is quite small but very popular. We had the receptionist at our hotel (the very nice Sevilla in Old Havana) to call and book us a table. The walls are decorated with photos of previous patrons (not as tacky as it sounds), inlcuding Queen Sofía of Spain, Prince Albert of Monaco, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg and Pedro Almodovar. The chair that Queen Sofia sat on is mounted on the wall.
It is located in central Havana, in a residential area. A taxi there is recommended. On approach to the building you may not think that you are not in the right place as there are no signs. You will walk (or may be escorted by a young boy for a couple of CUC) into a beautiful representation of Cuban shabby chic with huge sweeping marble staircases and wall murals. I think the restaurant is on the second floor. Stunning food, great decor, wonderful staff. Not only the best paladare in Havana, but from my experience the best restaurant. Very highly recommended.
Calle Concordia 418, Between Calles Gervasio and Escobar, Centro Habana;
tel: 537- 624940;
www.laguarida.com (in Spanish, has some photos);
Guardian review: travel.guardian.co.uk/countries/story/0,,1587466,00.html
If you really need a curry and a nice pint you should check out the bar Gibraltar in San Telmo, on the corner of Peru and Estados Unidos.
Perú 895, y Estados Unidos, San Telmo, Buenos Aires;
tel: 54-11-4362-5310
Google map: tinyurl.com/me9tev
Brasilian restaurant just over the road from the Bristol Royal Infirmary. The menu mixes Brasilian and Mediterranean influences to produce good tasting dishes. There's Brahma beer to enjoy out on the terrace at the back overlooking the city centre rooftops. On Monday nights there's live bossa nova & música popular brasileira. Ótimo.
90 Colston Street BS1 5BB
0117 929 1538
www.bocanova.co.uk
This is a restaurant in a newly refurbished hotel, with stunning views of the Kvarner Bay, Rijeka and the mountain of Ucka. Only half an hour’s drive from Rijeka, it offers splendid al fresco dinning on its terrace overlooking the sea.
The food is imaginative and based on the traditional regional cuisine (such as risotto with scampi and asparagus followed by fish baked in salt), deliciously prepared and served with style. The wine list features good quality local wines. Eating here is a memorable experience, but does not come cheap.
Lovranska Draga 1, 51415 Lovran, Croatia
Tel: 385 51 294 166
Fax: 385 51 291 826
Gsm: 385 98 327 093
e-mail hotel@dragadilovrana.hr
www.dragadilovrana.hr
Vrh is a small non pretentious restaurant in the hill village of the same name, about 40 miles from Rijeka in the heart of Istria and the ‘truffle region’.
This is a family run restaurant, which uses local ingredients and offers home-made wine, sparkling wine and all sorts of ‘rakija’ (grappa). We enjoyed locally made cheese (with truffles), prosciutto and home made bread, as well as home-made pastas with truffles filled with cheese, and traditionally prepared roast meat. The meat was the best Sunday roast we ever had! The lunch was completed with a wine and rakija tasting in the owner’s cellar. Good value for money (£10-20 per person, including drinks).
Vrh 2, Buzet, Hrvatska
Tel: 385 (0) 52 667 123
Fax: 385 (0) 52 616 708
restaurant@vrh.hr
www.vrh.hr
Prohibicja is ideally placed on Podwale not far from the Royal Castle and Old Town.
In keeping with its name the restaurant has a mock up of a still above the bar downstairs and the white washed walls are pock marked with fake bullet holes. A suitably theatrical design for somewhere that is owned by four Polish actors.
The menu has both Polish and American influences - including dishes such as Spare Ribs with French Fries and Pike/Perch with Mashed Potatoes, Spinach and Caper Sauce - the food is simple but well cooked and tasty, the service excellent, friendly and efficient.
Podwale 1
www.prohibicja.com.pl
A cozy Lebanese restaurant and cafe. While most Arabic restaurants in Dubai are either cafe-style dens full of screaming teenagers or cliched Arabic restaurants, Layali provides the perfect antidote to the "Disneyland"-style food offerings in Dubai.
First things first: the food is excellent. Authentic and tasty Lebanese food, not too expensive, and their Saj bread (steaming, freshly baked thin Arabic bread) is unforgettable. The sheeshahs are very good, and the staff are excellent.
Very reasonably priced, about AED 80 each (11 pounds) for a very big meal and a sheeshah.
It's located on Sheikh Zayed Road, at the back of Saeed Tower (the building with Pizza Hut and Nando's). Just ask a taxi to take you to "Sheikh Zayed Road, Crowne Plaza side", and count off 12 buildings past the Crowne Plaza. It's open until 2 or 3 every night.
Konoba Dundo Maroje is a tiny restaurant down one of the narrow streets leading north from the main street, Placa. Virtually every restaurant in the old town claims to specialise in fish, but as a seafood fanatic who's travelled to Dubrovnik on a budget in both 2002 and just this summer, Dundo Maroje really made an impression on my tastebuds - four times now.
The grilled squid seem to be twice the size of anywhere else and unbelievably succulent, all beautifully presented and dripping in garlic-infused olive oil. The lobster carpaccio is an unusual dish worth trying there too. What the restaurant lacks in views it certainly makes up for in atmosphere. Sippng an ice-cold Istra bitter (like Campari), your bare feet cooled by the marble pavement, watching people file past is a nice way to start your evening.
Konoba Dundo Maroje - Kovacka, 00 385 20 321 445 (Dinner for 3 with drinks £30)
Certainly the best restaurant in Riga by far, where all the 'important' visitors eat (Prince Charles, Elton John etc!
Not cheap by Latvian standards but brilliant food and service. Great lunchtime menu as well.
19 Elizabetes iela - about 10 minutes walk from the Freedom Monument.
www.restorans.lv/page.php
733-2634
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