According to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Noma is the best restaurant in the world in 2010. I love Noma and I am glad I went there last year as now it will be impossible to get a reservation! Having said that I don’t understand what Le Chateaubriand is…

One word could describe Comerç 24 (C/ Comerç, 2408003 Barcelona, Spain 933 192 102) – “overhyped”. The dishes sounded better on the menu (“pizza-sashimi”) than they were in reality and even if I really enjoyed some dishes like tuna tartare, some were disappointing. I don’t say that the dinner at…

Inopia (C/ Tamarit, 104, 08015 Barcelona, Spain,93 424 52 31) is run by Alberto Adria, the younger brother of Ferran Adria (no need for introductions). It’s a lively, funky place with loud music (one of the songs played was Sade’s “Smooth Operator”) and great energy. The extensive menu includes regional…

From all the tapas restaurants in Barcelona I’ve been (posts to come), Cal Pep (Plaça de les Olles 8 Barcelona, Spain,34-93-310-7961) is the most seafood oriented. Clams, shrimps, cuttlefish, tuna is masterfully prepared according to the Catalonian tradition. Like most of the good tapas places, Cal Pep is crowded during…

Tapas, paella on the port, Jamon Iberico, more tapas… Volcano eruption…Who could have thought? (Cal Pep, Inopia, Quimet I Quimet, Comerç 24 coming soon)

After eating in all these “alpha” sushi places in Tokyo the standards for fish and rice get pretty high. I don’t want to sound snobbish – the first time I went to Japan I was so ignorant, I thought that sushis are the most basic meal to prepare, something everyone…

Sushis in a random sushiya somewhere in Japan.. Nothing in common with this or this. Looking from a European point of view, the fish in “a random sushiya somewhere in Japan” was still better than anywhere in Europe. The rice was a disaster though. You get what you pay for…

Last time I had a kaiseki dinner, I promised to myself that I won’t have it “any time soon”. “Not any time soon” was exactly two years. I don’t even know if you can have dinner in Kanamean Nishitomiya if you don’t stay at the ryokan. The ryokan has only…

Staying in a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Kyoto was a very special experience. Let’s say, hoteliers who are willing to learn how to host a guest in their hotel should stay in a high-end ryokan for at least one night. The experience was “special” from the moment my taxi…