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Plénitude
At Plénitude, sauce is not a supporting element — it is the subject. Every dish is written in its name: the ingredient exists for the sauce, not the other way around.
Housed on the second floor of the Cheval Blanc hotel at the foot of the Pont Neuf, Plénitude received three Michelin stars without passing through one or two — a distinction that alone makes it one of the most anticipated reservations in Paris. Chef Arnaud Donckele's philosophy places sauce at the centre of French cuisine in a way that is not merely technical, but almost literary.
02
Mosu
Where Korean memory and French technique meet at the fire — Ahn Sung-jae's cooking asks you to rediscover ingredients you thought you already knew.
Mosu was my first Michelin three-star, and it remains one of the most considered meals I have eaten in Korea. The kitchen sits open to the dining room with almost no barrier between cook and guest — a transparency that turns out to be entirely appropriate for food this honest about its intentions.
03
Sushi Saito
The shari makes the sushi. At Saito, every piece of neta is a lens, and the rice beneath it brings the image into focus.
Sushi Saito has been a members-only counter since 2019, when it withdrew from the Michelin Guide rather than continue accepting public reservations. The reputation it built before that withdrawal, and everything that has accumulated since, makes it one of the most coveted seats in the world. An invitation to a private group dinner in April 2024 brought me there, and it remains my finest experience of sushi.
04
The Chairman
Cantonese cooking stripped of pretension, driven entirely by ingredient. Danny Yip's kitchen does not try to impress you. It simply feeds you better than almost anywhere else in Asia.
The Chairman opened in 2009 with a philosophy that has not changed: no factory-made sauces, no shortcuts, no flourish for its own sake. Eighteen years after my last visit to Hong Kong, it was the first restaurant I went to, and the right choice.
05
Le Taillevent
Where the history of French gastronomy pours itself into every glass.
Founded in 1946 and a three-star institution for over three decades, Taillevent remains one of Paris's most storied grandes maisons. A first visit that arrived before I fully understood what I was walking into — and proved more than I was ready for.
06
Txispa
The apprentice's fire burns differently, and that is exactly the point.
Seven months after opening, Txispa earned a Michelin star and entered the World's 50 Best at number 85. Set 200 meters from the legendary Asador Etxebarri in the Axpe valley, it is where a decade of training under Bittor Arginzoniz becomes something entirely its own.
07
El Celler de Can Roca
Thirty courses and sixty thousand bottles. The reservation I had waited for.
A meal built around a single reservation, designed from the beginning around one table in Girona. Four and a half hours, thirty courses, and the finest wine pairing of my experience.
08
iKOYi
A restaurant better measured by the 50 Best than the red guide
iKOYi does not call itself a fusion restaurant, and the food makes the case for that refusal. Built on British ingredients with West African spices and Asian sensibility woven through, it is one of London's most original cooking propositions.
09
MAZ
Nine courses from ocean floor to Andean highland, made with Japanese hands
MAZ is the Tokyo outpost of Central, the Lima restaurant that topped the World's 50 Best in 2023. Nine courses climb from ocean floor to Andean highland, built on Japanese ingredients and Peruvian philosophy, and the two meet most clearly in the sea.
10
Maison Lameloise
Where tradition is the future, and the Côte d'Or ends at the table
Maison Lameloise has held a Michelin star since 1926, the year the Guide first awarded them. Nearly a century later, under Éric Pras, the third star remains, and the Burgundy wine pairing alone is worth the detour to Chagny.
11
Bar Leone
The best bar in Asia, and I still haven't eaten the mortadella.
Bar Leone topped Asia's 50 Best Bars in its debut year. I went twice, got soaked both nights climbing the hill, and missed the mortadella sandwich both times. The bar more than made up for it.
12
Sazenka
Three firsts on a single day, and the most unexpected one was a daikon.
One of only two restaurants in Japan to hold the triple crown across Michelin, Tabelog Gold, and World’s 50 Best. A first visit, a first three-Michelin-star meal in Japan, and a first proper encounter with dazha xie, all on the same day.
13
Via Toledo
The street that changed everything. Naples, reimagined in a room in Namyeong-dong.
Before Culinary Class Wars made him the most talked-about chef in Korea, Kwon Sung-jun was running a seven-course caviar collaboration dinner for six people in a room that felt like a studio. I had no idea what was coming.
14
Akelarre
Where the view and the chef's name carry what the menu cannot consistently deliver
This is a restaurant with two moments of genuine force: a plate of foie gras and a lamb main. Either alone would justify the visit. What runs between them, however, did not hold to the standard three stars implies.
15
Sadang Heuksando Hongeo
Hongeo is not food you taste. It is food you inhabit for an evening.
Someone at the table said, half-joking: where are Korea's fine dining chefs while this exists in a neighborhood restaurant in Sadang? Having spent time at three-star restaurants across Europe and Asia, I found the question harder to dismiss than it sounded.
16
Belcanto
Two stars in Portugal and 25th in the world. One of those numbers is the more accurate account.
A personal rule for this trip held that pairings would be ordered wherever possible. At Belcanto's Chef's Table, watching Avillez check every dish and adjust sauces mid-service, the pairing became secondary to the spectacle of a kitchen operating at full commitment.
17
Fukahireya
The most satisfying meal at Azabudai Hills, and a preview of what 4000 Chinese Restaurant might be
The chef asked at the counter whether I wanted it grilled or steamed. I chose grilled, and it was the right call. It was the best thing I ate that evening.
18
WING 永
A guide that rewards mastery of established forms, and a list that rewards the construction of new ones
The building at 198 Wellington Street holds The Chairman on the third floor, WING on the twenty-ninth, and VEA on the thirtieth. I visited all three during the same trip. What follows is what happened twenty-six floors above.