A curated collection of my restaurant reviews documenting fine dining experiences across Michelin starred kitchens and exceptional independent restaurants. These impressions focus on craftsmanship hospitality and the details that define memorable dining.
Restaurant Review
Kei Kobayashi’s 3 Michelin star tasting menu delivers French haute cuisine with Japanese precision, from the signature “vegetable garden” to perfect blue lobster and Gunma wagyu, in a discreet dining room with calm, professional service.
3 Star Dining
Paris has one of the highest concentrations of Michelin three-star restaurants in the world. With my recent visit to Kei, I have now dined at eight of the ten in the city. This comparison draws on more than fifty three-star meals worldwide, with Kei as the latest addition.
Michelin Guide
At Vienna’s most difficult reservation, the two-star Mraz & Sohn pairs a €188,88 tasting menu with a come-as-you-are mood. A trolley of ingredients and “Wiener Schnitzel immer aus” set the tone: very good, witty cooking, looser plating, and hospitality that favors fun over reverence.
Andalusia
December suits Seville: streets lit with Christmas lights, nativity scenes in courtyards, chestnut smoke on the air, orange trees heavy with fruit. In that glow, Cañabota’s Michelin-starred seafood counter offers a focused, fire-led meal and the city’s most convincing reservation.
Spain
Smoked Room Madrid is Dani García’s fire-first omakase: smoke as structure, not show. Despite the name, it isn’t a Japanese restaurant but modern Spanish cooking with Andalusian heart and a few quiet Japanese touches.
3 Star Dining
Waitlist luck led to one of my finest three-star dinners at Plénitude, Cheval Blanc Paris. Donckele’s sauce-led Symphonie showed absolute control, from a perfect scallop to precise, warm service.
Articles
A midday visit to L’Ambroisie: precise, classical cooking under Shintaro Awa, with a legendary langoustine feuillantine and the quiet formality of Place des Vosges.
3 Star Dining
Le Gabriel at La Réserve shows Paris at its most polished: a palatial room, flawless service and precise, French cooking. The €148 four-course lunch is a clear, generous window into Jérôme Banctel’s three-star craft.
3 Star Dining
Pierre Gagnaire’s a la carte menu is demanding, complex and almost overwhelming at times. But the depth, clarity and expression of the dishes stay with you long after the evening ends.
Andalusia
In my view the best restaurant in Marbella, Skina pairs high ambition and high prices with polished two-star technique, yet still needs more creative identity before a third Michelin star becomes inevitable.
Recommended
A curated list of Spain’s most exceptional fish restaurants — from Elkano in Getaria to Los Marinos José near Málaga.
Articles
A first visit to Le Clos des Sens in Annecy: nature-led, lake-fish focused Michelin three-star cooking, precise service, and a luminous Savoie mushroom composition.
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