Before he opened this restaurant, Bruno Verjus would spend two or three hours traveling all over Paris sourcing ingredients for his evening's dinner. Now that he has turned professional, Bruno's customers are the beneficiaries of the same type of dedication and commitment to quality and excellence.
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3 rue de Prague Paris, France + 33 1 4343 1226
102Waldhotel Sonnora
Helmut Thieltges is the quiet star among Germany's top chefs. He never worked at fancy restaurants or chased fame and fortune, instead spending his time developing his own cuisine— classic, but never boring—which stands out for its product quality and precision cooking. Diners can expect signature dishes that are unforgettable.
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Auf dem Eichelfeld Dreis, Germany 65 789-8220
103Inter Scaldes
The benefit of being located in Zeeland is that Jannis Brevet is able to source his oysters, turbot and lobsters from local waters. To pair with the glorious fish, Brevet offers his guests a cellar stocked with some of the greatest white wines produced in France and Germany.
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Zandweg 2 Kruiningen, Netherlands 011 338 1753
104Le Baratin
This quirky restaurant is a good spot to catch a famous chef having dinner on his night off. Raquel Carina is "the mother of the neo-bistro movement," and her menu is filled with dishes like cauliflower smoked bacon soup, chicken fricassee in a white wine sauce, and just about every possible cut of offal and innards imaginable.
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3 Rue Jouye-Rouve Paris, France +33 1 43 49 39 70
105Bartholomeus
Set opposite the beach in fashionable Knokke, the Belgian equivalent of France's Deauville, the small, modern dining room is filled with a smart-looking crowd. The menu - filled with luxury ingredients like wagyu beef tartar, Gillardeau oysters, caviar, and turbot - is equally smart. Bart Desmidt's cooking has a contemporary edge to it.
Opinions differ on Heston Blumenthal’s take on British antiquarian cuisine. Some say you will find “the same meticulous attention to detail employed at the Fat Duck,” while others see it as “overhyped and overrated.” The “comfortable and casual room” offers “splendid views of Hyde Park.”
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66 Knightsbridge London, United Kingdom +44 20 7201 3833
107Apicius
In the '80s and '90s, when it was located in the 17th arrondissement on the Avenue Villers, Jean-Pierre Vigato's restaurant was popular among both local and international diners. After a bit of a down period, interest in his cooking has been rekindled since he moved the restaurant to an exquisite mansion off the Champs-Elysées.
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20, rue d'Artois Paris, France 01 43 80 19 66
108Akrame
If you are interested in finding out where the hottest young Parisian chefs like to eat on their night off, look around Akrame Bellalal’s dining room the next time you visit his restaurant. Given that his formative years were spent working with Pierre Gagnaire and Ferran Adrià, it makes sense that Akrame’s tasting menu is filled with dishes like a lightly poached egg surrounded by smoked foam made with sherry, dried beef bits and snipped chives or cod that is sprinkled with spinach powder after being steamed and served with a cup of carrot essence on the side. Bellalal is only 31 years old, and his fellow chefs aren’t the only ones to sing the praises of his cooking; reviewers say it’s “just fabulous,” adding that the kitchen sends out “dish after delicious dish” of “modern and creative food.”
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19 Rue Lauriston Paris, France 01 40 67 11 16
109Le Pré Catelan
Wonderful ingredients, precise cooking from a chef who did his culinary training with Joël Robuchon and Gerard Boyer, and a finale of exquisite desserts, served in a mansion in the middle of Paris's Bois de Boulogne: We can't think of anything better than to spend a Sunday in the park with Frédéric Anton.
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Pré Catelan (Le) Paris, France 01 44 14 41 14
110De Karmeliet
One of the most classic houses in Belgium. Dishes like roasted French scallops with leek; sea urchin and cream with seaweed; and "Sole meunière," with Belgian endive and sabayon with lemon grass show that Geert van Hecke knows how to take advantage of the wonderful products from the nearby North Sea.
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Langestraat 19 Bruges, Belgium +32 50 33 82 59
111Henne Kirkeby Kro
British-born Paul Cunningham gave up the big city life and moved from Copenhagen to this idyllic location on the west coast of Denmark. There were raves for everything from the wonderful gardens, to the lovely rooms, to the delicious breakfast that Cunningham serves his guests each morning.
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Strandvejen 234 Henne, Denmark 7525 5400
112Il luogo di Aimo e Nadia
Back in 1962, Aimo and Nadia Moroni opened a simple restaurant on a quiet street in a residential section of Milan. Fifty years later, a dining aficionado no less significant than Michael Tusk, chef of San Francisco's Quince, the highest-rated U.S. Italian restaurant in our 2012 survey, says this remains one of his favorite places to eat in Italy.
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via Montecuccoli 6 Milan, Italy +39 0241 6886
113Paul Bocuse
Whether you like this “classic house where nouvelle cuisine was invented” depends on whether you want to step back in time in order to enjoy dishes like the truffle soup Bocuse created for French President Giscard D’Estaing in 1975. At this point, it’s as much a museum as a restaurant.
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40 Rue de la Plage Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, France +33 4 72 42 90 90
114La Vague d’Or
The cuisine of Breton-born Arnaud Donckele, a protégé of Jean-Louis Nomicos, is appropriate for the setting, the beautiful Résidence de la Pinède. Donckele's menu includes dishes such as loin and cheek of local sea bass slow-cooked in seaweed and Sisteron lamb served two ways, with thyme and argan oil, and with a pimento and summer savory emulsion.
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Residence Pinede Promenade Jean Charcot St. Tropez, France
115Ramón Freixa
In 2009, Ramón Freixa underwent a major life change by moving his family's restaurant to Madrid. Despite the change of location, Freixa is still serving the type of regional Spanish cooking - like a cannelloni with three roasted meats with mushrooms and asparagus and roasted woodcock (in season) - that he was known for in Barcelona.
Bravo to Marcus Wareing. Back in 2007, our very first survey awarded this restaurant the honor of being the most overrated restaurant in the U.K. But now, seven years later, Wareing has managed to snag a place on our Top 100 list. Why the difference, you ask? Well, anyone’s guess is as good as ours, but one of the two most obvious explanations is that the further Wareing gets from his partnership with Gordon Ramsay (the duo had a very public divorce in 2008), the more our reviewers like his restaurant. Another theory is that the restaurant has been on an upward glide path ever since James Knappett was ’executive chef (he has since moved on to the Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs.) Regardless of the reason, Wareing has the restaurant on track (in fact, he displaced Ramsay’s restaurant on this year’s list), and reviewers are hailing his “well-executed Modern British fare utilizing wonderful ingredients.”
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Wilton Place London, United Kingdom 0207-235-6000
117Romano
Romano Franceschini and Franca Checchi opened this restaurant with the idea that Romano would source the best fish and seafood available, and Franca would come up with delicate ways of preparing them. Now, with the help of their son Roberto and daughter Maria Cristina, they are on the verge of celebrating their 50th anniversary.
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Via Giuseppe Mazzini, 120 Viareggio, Italy +39 0584 31382
118Comme Chez Soi
Responsible for carrying the torch lit by his father-in-law, legendary chef Pierre Wynants, Lionel Rigolet continues to meet the high standards that this magnificent art nouveau dining room, located a few hundred yards from Brussels' Grand Place, has always been known for. Don't miss their signature dish of gray shrimp with oysters and a Riesling and potato mousseline.
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pl. Rouppe 23 Brussels, Belgium 0 25 12 29 21
119Le Chateaubriand
There was a time, not that long ago, when Parisian chefs still rejected the type of modern techniques and ideas that their colleagues in Spain were using. Then along came Iñaki Aizpitarte, who, from a nondescript dining room in the 11th arrondissement, lead the initial charge that changed French dining forever, resulting in what has become a New Wave of Parisian restaurants.
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129 Avenue Parmentier Paris, France 33-1 43-57-45-95
120Àbac
When he moved his restaurant from the Barrio Gotico to this luxurious boutique hotel located in an upscale part of Barcelona that overlooks the city, Jordi Cruz brought his cuisine - which has one foot in the molecular era and the other rooted in a more natural style - along with him.
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Avinguda del Tibidabo, 1 Barcelona, Spain www.abacbarcelona.com
121Hostellerie Jérôme
It’s not unusual to hear reviewers say things like “I enjoyed my meal here more than I enjoyed the one I had at the Louis XV.” The praise is for the “ingredient-intensive” cuisine chef Bruno Cirino serves at this restaurant, which is perched high above the Mediterranean in La Turbie.
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20 Rue du Comté de Cessole La Turbie, France +33 4 92 41 51 51
122Michel Trama
The building that houses this restaurant-a mansion that was once the residence of Raymond VII, count of Toulouse-is where one of the deans of French cooking, Michel Trama, has been serving a contemporary version of his native Gascon cuisine for the past 35 years.
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52 Rue Royale Puymirol, France +33 (0)5 53 95 31 46
123Al Sorriso
Luisa and Angelo Vallaza's low-key place is not as well known or as flashy as some of the more famous restaurants in Italy, but you will find fabulous cooking and top-class ingredients at this restaurant located just south 45 minutes east of Lake Maggiore. The wine list contains numerous majestic bottles from every region of Italy, but most of all from the restaurant's own Piedmont region.
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via Roma 18 Soriso, Italy 03 2298 3228
124L’Enclume
This restaurant, located in the United Kingdom's Lake District, is where Simon Rogan made a name for himself. Using ingredients that come from the region as a starting point, he creates dishes like Dublin bay prawn in pig skin, beetroot and sea beet and Dexter beef with tripe braised in an oyster sauce.
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Cavendish St, Cartmel Grange-over-Sands, United Kingdom
125La Mere Brazier
It is rare when a restaurant so closely associated with its founder survives a complete changing of the guard. That task can be even more daunting when the founder in question is the iconic Eugénie Brazier. Mathieu Viannay managed to overcome those odds, and after a period of years in which this classic house fell into decline, he has restored it to its former status. At the heart of Viannay’s success are his “gentle twists on the classics of French cuisine,” and his versions of Lyonnais stalwarts like poularde demi-deuil and lièvre à la royale “are so good that Viannay has created one of the rare occasions where both classical and modern food lovers will be in agreement.” One reviewer described Viannay as “a terrific ambassador for the cuisine of Lyon” – high praise indeed, given that the city’s culinary history is replete with chefs the likes of Paul Bocuse and Alain Chapel.
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12 Rue Royale Lyon, France +33 4 78 23 17 20
126Santceloni
With the iconic Can Fabes now shuttered, those who want to reminisce about the late Santi Santamaria’s cooking can do so at this beautiful restaurant in the Hotel Hesperia Madrid, where his influence can be felt in dishes like roasted Figueras’ onions with cockles, apples and celery.
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Paseo de la Castellana, 57 Madrid, Spain +34 912 10 88 40
127La Belle Epoque
Yet another student of Harald Wohlfahrt's kitchen at Schwarzwaldstube, Kevin Fehling has been at the helm of this restaurant, set in a luxury hotel on a remote location on the Baltic Sea, since 2005. Fehling does his best to use local ingredients in dishes like eel with frozen wasabi dust and a jus of cucumber and Granny Smith.
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Columbia Hotel Kaiserallee 2 Lübeck-Travemünde, Germany
128Martin Wishart
Back in 1999, when Edinburgh was a dining wasteland, Martin Wishart opened this smart restaurant where the marvelous seafood includes items like Loch Fyne crab, Orkney scallop and Kilbrannan langoustine. Wishart caters to meat eaters as well with dishes like Borders Roe Deer with braised lettuce, carrot, date and BBQ onion.
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54 Shore Edinburgh, United Kingdom +44 131 553 3557
129Pakta
This offering from Albert Adrià and the team that brought you Tickets features Nikkei cuisine, the unusual combination of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine that originated with chefs like Gastón Acurio. While the combination might sound unusual, dishes like squid nigiri with lime and fried causa with chicken and huacatay work well together.
Set in a remote location at the tip of Zeeland province, Edwin Vinke’s place utilizes the wonderful fish and seafood that are swimming less than a hundred meters from his restaurant to create dishes like a combination of turbot and local shellfish with seaweed and briny vegetables.
If you are willing to overlook the drab surroundings of a business hotel, you will find some of the best ingredients in Belgium, and Yves Mattagne, who offers diners some of the best fish cooking in Europe. As you might expect, it's a good location for a business dinner while you're in Brussels.
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r. Fossé-aux-Loups 47 Brussels, Belgium 0 22 17 92 25
132Rias de Galicia
Shrimps from Denia, turbot from Getaria, percebes from Galicia: Juan Carlos Iglesias is a fanatic when it comes to sourcing high-quality fish. If you visit his restaurant, you will dine on perfectly chosen specimens of fish and seafood from every region in Spain and select from one of the best wine lists in the country.
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Carrer de Lleida, 7 Barcelona, Spain +34 934 248 152
133Grand Véfour
Le Grand Véfour is set alongside the gardens of the Grand Palais, and when it opened in 1794, it was the first example of a formal French restaurant. Today a visit affords diners the opportunity to enjoy Guy Martin's vegetable-oriented cooking while sitting on cushions once warmed by the likes of Napoleon and Victor Hugo.
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17, rue de Beaujolais Paris, France 01 42 96 56 27
134Patrick Guilbaud
Serving “perfectly executed” dishes based around Irish ingredients, like a glazed fillet of Wicklow lamb, a pressé of game birds and pan-roasted native red deer, Patrick Guilbaud’s restaurant has been the anchor of the Irish haute cuisine movement for the past 33 years.
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21 Upper Merrion St Dublin, Ireland +353 1 676 4192
135Fischers Fritz
Berlin's upscale Regent Hotel is a perfect backdrop for Christian Lohse's cooking, which includes dishes like a terrine of foie gras and smoked eel with a pepper caramel and jam of purple eggplant, and charcoal-grilled Bresse pigeon served with parsley root and pumpernickel, pigeon jus with Moro-blood orange.
Ever since this Asian-fusion restaurant opened its doors in September 2001, William Ledeuil has been packing them in. At a lively dining room on a charming street on the Left Bank you can enjoy dishes like milk-fed lamb with a ginger condiment and Thai jus.
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4 Rue des Grands Augustins Paris, France +33 1 45 51 61 09
137Perbellini
Giancarlo Perbellini’s careful cooking, along with some well-sourced fish and seafood, can be sampled at this elegant restaurant, located in a business park 30 minutes south of Verona. Giancarlo and his wife, Paola, are among the most gracious hosts in Italy.
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via Muselle 130 Isola Rizza, Italy 04 5713 5352
138Casa Gerardo
Marcos and Pedro Morán have demonstrated that it is possible to update Spanish regional cooking while maintaining its soul. Unfortunately, Asturias doesn’t attract the same number of tourists as Madrid or Barcelona, so people who don’t venture from the beaten path risk missing the Morans’ wonderful cooking.
After spending a long day on the slopes, visitors can restore themselves at this restaurant where the cuisine, prepared by Michel Rochedy and Stéphane Buron, features the exceptional ingredients of France's Savoie region, which include leeks from Patrick Evrard, Sylvain Erhardt's asparagus, fera from Raphael Jordan and Jonathan's Pertuiset pike fish.
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Rue des Chenus Courchevel, France + 33 (0)4 79 08 00 55
140Les Bacchanales
Christophe Dufau, one of the top young chefs in France, and his wife, Esty, run this pretty restaurant located just down the street from the Chagal Chapel in Vence. Each night they offer a menu of innovative cuisine that they pair with natural wines.
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247 Avenue de Provence Vence, France +33 4 93 24 19 19
141De Jonkman
Given that it is surrounded by so many superstar chefs, Filip Claeys' restaurant often gets overlooked. But many of our reviewers say that his dishes - like North Sea crab three ways, Panna Montana, coffee and marrow, and locally sourced turbot with caviar, cauliflower and hazelnut butter - are as good as what you will be served at any other restaurant in the region.
David Martin’s restaurant is an unlikely candidate for our Top 100 list. Just a simple brasserie in Brussels’ working-class neighborhood of Anderlecht, it is open for only six meals a week: lunch on weekdays and dinner on Friday night. Having learned his trade while working at restaurants like L’Arpège and Bruneau, Martin raises the brasserie experience to a new level by offering starters like a carpaccio of langoustines from Brittany served with lacquered bacon and laurel oil or a Basque-style pig’s foot served with a mille-feuille made from the pig’s ear and served with a ham mousse. But where Martin really shines is when he reaches into his meat locker, which is absolutely overflowing with beautifully marbled, dry-aged cuts of locally sourced Belgian beef, Simmental beef from Bavaria and the Gallician Rubia Gallega, a breed one rarely sees outside Spain.
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Rue Ropsy-Chaudron, 49 Brussels, Belgium 02 523 09 58
143Alkimia
Although Jordi Vilà is not as well-known as some of Spain's more famous chefs, he serves some of the most enjoyable and consistent modern cooking in the country at this restaurant in Barcelona's Eixample district.
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Indústria 79 E Barcelona, Spain 93 207 6115
144Esperanto
Sayan Isaksson's restaurant is on the short list of Scandinavian restaurants that people should pay attention to. A menu filled with dishes such as straw-smoked Belon oyster with grilled apple juice and caviar, and reindeer calf with fermented lingonberries makes the restaurant a top contender to break into the Top 100 in 2016.
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Kungstensgatan 2, Stockholm, Sweden +46 8 696 23 23
145De Leest
Though Jacob Jan Boerma and Kim Veldman opened this place in 2002, it wasn’t until 2013 that the international dining community began to take notice of the restaurant. The menu is a mix of ingredients, like the French-sourced Gillardeau oysters prepared two ways – in a tartare with Bellota ham and warm with potato and leek – and Dutch beef with mustard and winter truffle.
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Kerkweg 1 Vaassen, Netherlands +31 578 571 382
146Il Povero Diavolo
One reviewer said of Pier Giorgio Parini that “he transforms his dishes into landscapes, stories and memories, and makes them easy to understand for everyone at the same time.” Another described him as “young, revolutionary, green” and called him “the future of Italian cooking.”
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Via Roma, 30 Torriana, Italy +39 0541 675060
147Côte Saint Jacques
Known for its refined cooking, pleasant service and a charming location along the banks of the Yonne river, Jean-Michel Lorain's restaurant continues to be an important stop over for diners who are traveling along France'sNorth/South autoroute.. A little more than 90 minutes away from Paris, it's close enough for a day trip or a quick overnight stay.
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14, Faubourg de Paris Joigny, France +33 (0)3 86 62 09 70
148The Square
Phil Howard’s exaggerated bourgeoise cooking is still packing them in at this classic Mayfair house. Along with the multiple variations of truffle, foie gras and lobster that Howard typically has on offer, you will also find one of the best lists of red Burgundies in London.
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6-10 Bruton St London, United Kingdom +44 20 7495 7100
149Bastide de Capelongue
Edouard Loubet is a master at expressing the vivid aromas and flavors of the herbs and flowers that emanate from the Provencal landscape. His hotel/restaurant, located in Bonnieux and overlooking the Luberon Valley, also offers splendid views, especially in summer when you can dine on the terrace.
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Les Claparèdes Chemin des Cabanes Bonnieux, France
150Bouchery
A number of reviewers feel that Damien Bouchery, having adopted the natural style of cooking that has become a signature of young Belgian chefs like Kobe Desramaults and Gert De Mangeleer, is Belgium’s next great chef. Damien’s wife, Bénédicte, is one of the country’s top young sommerliers.
