How to Have the Best Meal of Your Life in Any City
If you’ve been following along for a while, you probably have a sense of how important good food is to me. My extensive pre-travel research is equally devoted to eco-friendly ways to see and explore a city, and finding the best-rated restaurants in town (as a former chef and restaurant publicist, I know where to look for reputable dining recommendations!). Happily, these two areas of focus almost always intersect. I have a couple rules I follow no matter where I’m going:
Eat local
I preach this across many blog posts, but eating at locally owned restaurants and restaurants that source local ingredients is a guideline that will pay you back in spades. Eating local is sustainable, it supports the community you are visiting and it almost always provides the most memorable experience. The best chefs know that the highest quality ingredients are always going to be organic, and locally-sourced. Moreover, as a diner, you’re always going to have a better experience when dining on food that connects you to the place you’re exploring - whether through learning about the history of a dish and its roots in the indigenous cultures of a place, or by learning personal anecdotes of the Chef’s weekly interactions with purveyors in the community. When not seeking out fresh, farm-to-table dining you’ll probably find me at a local farmers market, tasting my way through the city’s best, local offerings.
leave your comfort zone
All that said above, in order to have a truly life-changing food experience while dining in a new place don’t order a dish you’d order at home! Presumably, you are traveling to a new place to have a new experience and eating local delicacies and produce you don’t normally find in your hometown are great ways to really understand your destination. I almost always ask servers what they recommend, what the chef’s favorites are and try to step outside my comfort zone so that every meal is a distinct memory. Sometimes I wish I’d stuck with my go-to order, but 99% of the time, branching out was 100% worth it.
I ‘m always sharing my favorite dining experiences on Instagram, but in case you haven’t been following along, here are a few favorites worth adding to your travel bucket list!
Dining at Wine Vault & Bistro with my SD bestie and fellow blogger at www.themoreyoubordeaux.com!
Wine Vault & Bistro, San Diego - Some how in the years I lived in San Diego I never knew about this place, but have already been back to eat there twice since moving away in April of 2019! The prix fixe menu here changes nightly, and is based on whatever is fresh and seasonal. As the name suggests, there’s a major emphasis on wine pairings and they are EXPERT at choosing wines that don’t just complement but actually enhance every morsel you put in your mouth. Best part? if you enjoyed one wine pairing in particular you can place an order for the bottle and take one home with you at the end of your meal!
The bread and chili butter here alone is worth stopping in at Meroma.
Meroma, Mexico City - This restaurant is rooted in its community. The owners come from the Netherlands, a nation where sustainability is paramount, and bring an environmental ethos to the restaurant by sourcing from local farmers. In fact, they’ve even helped foster the success of local farms by creating a network connecting those farmers to Meroma and other, like-minded restaurants in the city. I talked about the neighborly love I witnessed while dining there in my Mexico City guide, but seeing how the chefs and owners greeted not just guests but passers by on the street with warmth and affection made me feel like part of a loving community, even as a solo diner in one of the world’s largest cities.
Kolonihagen’s treatment of veggies is as thoughtful and delicious as any meat dish.
Kolonihagen, Oslo - Kolonihagen was the first organic restaurant in Oslo, and continues to be a pioneer in pushing boundaries when it comes to sustainable dining. They even have their own line of ethically produced food products that are sold throughout Norway! While there were some meat dishes on the tasting menu I tried there, I was blown away with how the chef’s treatment of vegetables made every veggie course taste as flavorful and satisfying as a juicy cut of steak. On top of that, my waitress - sensing a genuine passion for vino - brought out some of the most incredible sips to wash it all down. I had a view of the kitchen, and the pleasure of watching the HOT and tatted-up head chef prepare each meal just before it came out, which was icing on the cake.
Oyster-flavored ice cream in an actual oyster shell at PSS…need I say more?
Pollen Street Social, London - I’m sure this restaurant earned its Michelin Star status because of its truly, truly mind-blowing food, but it’s worth pointing out that, based on my experience, the way they treat any old guest is as if they might be an undercover Michelin reviewer. The service was exceptional as they guided you through many, many, many courses made from local ingredients. Highlights included a course of reimagined tea sandwiches, a quenelle of oyster-flavored ice cream resting in an oyster shell, and a guessing game dessert course complete with a pad of paper to guess what exactly you were tasting (spoiler alert, it didn’t matter they were all eye-rolling-ly delicious). The meal itself lasted just over 3 hours, and due to a later seating we ended up leaving the restaurant after midnight, but the experience was WELL worth staying up past my bedtime.
Herb garden in the center of the locally-made table where we prepped our ingredients, just harvested from the on-site regenerative farm.
ITAL at BodyHoliday, St. Lucia - This type of dining experience should come standard at any wellness retreat, because it truly helps educate guests about how the food they enjoy arrives at their plate. The meal starts with a guided tour of the ITAL garden by BodyHoliday’s Environment & Ecosystem Leaders, Damian and Ratoya Adjodha. They talk about the cultural heritage and traditional uses of native tropical plants growing there, alongside veggies more common in the US like tomatoes and eggplants. After helping to harvest the plants for your meal, you head to the dining area to help Chef Juliana prepare the ingredients. During our meal, Damien gave us a history of the Rastafari movement and spirituality, context that further connected us to the food we were eating. I only wish I could have kept the recipes to recreate at home!