When we travel, there is so much to take in. There are sights to see, history to learn, neighborhoods to explore, and the local people to connect with. But a major factor in our reason for travel is the food. It is the thing that all other travel activities must be planned around. We eat all of the food–cheap street eats, convenient store goodies, local coffee shops, but this post is all about the fancy restaurants and trust me: there’s no shortage of these.
We’re very grateful and fortunate to be able to travel and dine out as often as we do. In just the last handful of years we’ve covered a lot of ground:
- Paris, France
- London, England
- Portland, Oregon
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Chicago, Illinois
- All my Tokyo, Japan travel, including Kyoto
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Oaxaca and Mexico City, Mexico
- Washington, D.C.
- Austin, Texas
- Oahu, Hawaii
- Hanoi and Saigon, Vietnam
Check out our list below for what we think have been the best fancy restaurants we’ve been to. They have been the most memorable, and delicious meals we’ve had to date. Keep in mind we had to omit many fancy restaurants that we tried and just didn’t love.
Many of the fancy restaurants we tried may have been Michelin rated, been on the Michelin guide, or have earned accolades such as a Bib Gourmand or James Beard Award. These things actually really increase chances of having an amazing meal, but we’ve learned the expensive way that it is no guarantee. We’ll keep this list updated as we find more amazing restaurants. Onto the list!
Dakar (Senegalese) – NOLA $150 pp
Dakar was my first time trying Senegalese food, but I was super excited to try it because Chef Serigne Mbaye’s menu looked so interesting. With its communal tables, warm welcoming host and co-owner, Dr. Afua “Effie” Richardson, and use of local and Senegalese ingredients, Dakar certainly made a significant impression on our group. After eating at lots of different fine-dining restaurants, I will never forget Dakar, which was an experience that made me feel closer to home than anything else.
The restaurant is actually an old New Orleans home on Magazine Street and fits about 30 people inside in a mix of communal and individual tables. Dr. Richardson welcomes you by helping you wash your hands at the table, giving you a traditional warm drink, and, in the middle of the service, welcoming you into Dakar with a background on the food and Senegalese culture. As a history and food nerd, I loved nothing more than this experience.
The dinner is a tasting menu that features traditional Senegalese ingredients and local Louisiana cuisine. Some of my favorites were the gulf shrimp and suya spice, crawfish soup, and Ghanaian mille crepe with coconut sorbet.
Price: $$$$ ($150 USD pp)
Type of food: Senegalese
Address: 3814 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115
Website | Yelp
KinKan (Thai/Japanese) – LA $195 pp
There are many places to eat a fancy dinner in LA, but eating at KinKan introduced me to a new type of fusion between Thai food and Japanese ingredients, focusing on seafood. You’ll often find Chef Nan Yimcharoen at the bar, serenely assembling dishes. The restaurant is small, but the simplicity and calmness make for a relaxing and delicious meal.
KinKan offers a lunch kaiseki and dinner tasting menu, but they still offered a la carte options when we visited. I’ll never forget the crab curry with blue vermicelli noodles or the wagyu chirashi bowl with glistening egg yolk smothered on a bed of vinegary rice.
Price: $$$$ ($195 USD pp)
Type of food: Thai Japanese fusion
Address: 771 N Virgil Ave Los Angeles, CA 90029
Yelp
Maydān (Middle Eastern) – DC $75-150 pp
If you want a fine-dining take on Middle Eastern cuisine, try out Maydān in Washington, D.C. This Michelin-starred family-style restaurant serves a Tawle (“table”) experience that starts at $75 per person with a very filling meal of grilled halloumi, koobideh, walnut casik, muhamarra, and handmade pita bread. If you love lamb, I definitely recommend splurging on the Arabic seven-spice-crusted lamb shoulder.
Maydān is the perfect spot for a group because you get fed so much with the large portions! I recommend making a reservation because they book out frequently. Reservations open two weeks ahead, but they also offer a la carte options at the bar for walk-ins.
Price: $$$-$$$$ ($75-150 USD pp)
Type of food: Middle Eastern
Address: 1346 Florida Ave NW Washington, DC 20009
Website | Yelp
Senia (Hawaiian American) – Oahu $100 or less
There are plenty of places to eat in Oahu, but Senia will always be one of my favorite restaurants for a date night. Senia features Hawaiian American modern cuisine that’s expected out of the Per Se alums. We ordered off the a la carte menu, but they also offer a tasting menu option.
One of our favorite dishes was the smoked ahi “cigars” made out of a rolled crispy shell filled with fresh ahi inside. Once the server opened the lidded bowl carrying the fish, we oo’d and ahh’d about the smoke releasing from the “cigars.” Perhaps we were most surprised at the price tag–under $100 per person; we thought this was a reasonable price tag for excellent service and such an elevated meal.
Price: $$$ ($100 USD pp)
Type of food: American (new) cuisine, trendy restaurant
Address: 75 N. King St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Website | Yelp
Fushikino ふしきの (Japanese) – Tokyo $135 pp
Fushikino is one of my favorite dining memories of all my travels–and I don’t say that lightly. If you’re looking for a star-quality meal with excellent service, get a reservation at Fushikino. This traditional kaiseki restaurant specializes in sake tastings created by owner and sake sommelier Yusuke Miyashita. During the kaiseki meal, you’ll be given an in-depth history of each dish and sake pairing, as well as getting your pick to drink from custom ceramic sake cups.
If you’ve never experienced kaiseki before, it’s a traditional multi-course Japanese meal that involves just as much ritual as eating. This dinner took about three hours from start to finish. The 9-course kaiseki meal itself was the perfect balance of simplicity and elegance. Some of my favorite dishes were the hassun (seasonal platter) and mushimono (which had steamed eggs with oysters). Fushikino was a quintessentially Japanese experience, making our Japan trip memorable.
Price: $$$$ (¥ 22,000 / $150 USD pp)
Type of food: kaiseki, traditional Japanese
Address: Japan, 〒104-0045 Tokyo, Chuo City, Tsukiji, 4 Chome−10−16 四丁目町会ビル1F
Tabelog
Pujol (Modern Mexican) – CDMX $185 pp
As soon as you step into Pujol, you are welcomed by a garden of lush greenery and serene and natural architecture that feels like you’re inside an Architectural Digest home. Pujol is the perfect spot for a fancy celebration for two or even a larger group of six. We opted for a seven-course tasting menu with our friends, which took about 2-3 hours.
Some memorable dishes were the mole madre 3136, which featured a nine-year-old mole paired with a fresh mole (my taste buds were intrigued), and the ceviche of conch snail and fresh green peas and corn (what a combo!).
This newly awarded Michelin-starred restaurant has garnered a lot of accolades even before its Chef’s Table feature. Reservations are required and open one month ahead, and it wasn’t too hard to book. I would definitely recommend dining at Pujol while you’re visiting Mexico City.
Price: $$$$ ($6033 MXN / $360 USD pp)
Type of food: Modern Mexican, Fusion
Address: Tennyson 133, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website | Tripadvisor
Humo (Colombian Japanese) – London $198 pp
Humo is a Michelin-starred restaurant in London specializing in Colombian cuisine with a Japanese flare. If you like your fancy dinners with a mix of excitement, get a reservation for this open-fire dining experience at the bar. We got a front seat watching Chef Miller Prada work seamlessly with his team, grilling and assembling perfectly charred and smoked dishes.
Some of my favorite dishes were the maitake morels and white egg yolk sauce, sausage amuse bouche, and grilled custard sponge cake with koji ice cream. Don’t skip out on their tasty cocktails either because their shiso highball was refreshing and perfectly balanced. I love that they also offer nonalcoholic options too.
Reservations to Humo were relatively simple, with open spots within two weeks of dining. They are open for lunch and dinner with tasting menus or a la carte options. It’s nestled near Savile Row, so it’s a perfect spot for those who love to shop and want a nice dinner.
Price: $$$$ (155£ / $198 USD pp)
Type of food: Colombian, Japanese, European
Address: 12 St. George Street, London W1S 2FB England
Website | Tripadvisor
Daniel (French) – NYC $234 pp (5-course menu), $334 pp (9-course menu)
Daniel was one of our first fancy dining experiences and a great introduction. When you first walk into the restaurant, you’re greeted by a deep red interior with chrome accents–not what I would’ve imagined for a two-star Michelin restaurant in the Upper East Side. But once you step foot into the neo-classical neoclassical dining room with its crisp white cloth tables, warm leather and wooden chairs, and brilliant white arched columns, it feels like a completely different space.
The service at Daniel is impeccable. We had a dedicated host who worked as a lead for our table servers, and each person worked in sync seamlessly throughout the night, presenting and removing our dishes in front of us at the same time. What I loved the most was how personable the host was and how much he made our time fly by, even though we were completely stuffed by the end of the night.
The five-course tasting lasted roughly 3 hours and included plenty of amuse-bouche, bread service, chocolates, dessert, and canales as a parting gift.
Price: $$$$ ($234-$334 USD pp)
Type of food: French
Address: 60 E 65th Street, New York, NY 10065
Website | Yelp
ESqUISSE エスキス (Japanese/French) – Tokyo $270 pp
When we first started researching restaurants in Japan, I kept coming across suggestions of French Japanese fusion restaurants. We booked ESqUISSE, one of the famous restaurants with two Michelin stars. Our experience was very similar to our first fine dining spot, Daniel because it follows traditional fancy, white-table cloth service from French cuisine.
ESqUISSE offers tasting menus for both lunch and dinner options. However, I suggest dinner so you can see the pretty lights of the Tokyo skyline as the restaurant is atop the ninth floor of the Royal Crystal Ginza building. My favorite dishes were the cheese plate, dry-aged sashimi, butternut almond salmon roe, sea urchin rouille, and parsnip coconut dessert. At the end of your meal, you even get to say a few words to chef Lionel Beccat.
Price: $$$$ (¥ 40,000 / $270 USD pp)
Type of food: French, Japanese
Address: 5 Chome-4-6 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
Website | Tabelog
Kasama (Filipino) – Chicago $285 pp
Drive through the East Ukrainian Village in Chicago, and you’ll most likely see a long line forming outside of Kasama for busy brunch service, but once you book a tasting menu dinner, the ambiance slows down to offer a fine dining experience with dimmed lights, modern Filipino dishes, and detailed service that went beyond (our host even gave us his personal recs for our trip!).
The tasting menu had many contemporary spins on traditional Filipino dishes I grew up with, like adobo with mushrooms and mussel emulsion and a halo-halo granita. They even give you their famed ube huckleberry basque cake as a parting gift–you don’t even need to wait in a long line! You definitely won’t go home hungry with this tasting menu.
Price: $$$ ($235 USD pp)
Type of food: Filipino American
Address: 1001 N Winchester Ave., Chicago, IL 60622
Website | Yelp
Core by Clare Smith (British) – London $312 pp
Core by Clare Smith was a real breath of fresh air for traditional fine dining. I was expecting a stuffy experience for a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, but I was happily surprised to be welcomed by some of the quirkiest staff I’ve ever met. Set in a townhouse in the middle of Notting Hill lit by gas lamps on the sidewalk—it was an idyllic location.
Core offers various tasting menu options that reflect modern British cuisine–with a lighthearted flare from its famous chef. Our main server of the night, Lynn described every dish properly and gave us fun insight, like how Chef Clare loves Malteesers so much she created a dessert based on her favorite chocolate treats growing up.
We even got to say hello to Chef Clare and her team during our dinner–at least to say it was a very memorable dinner. If you’re traveling to London, I would recommend booking this ahead of time because reservations open one month ahead and sell out quickly.
Price: $$$$ (£225-245/ $289-312 USD pp)
Type of food: British
Address: 92 Kensington Park Rd Notting Hill, London W11 2PN England
Website | Tripadvisor
n/naka (Japanese) – LA $365 pp
It took us over a year to book a dinner at n/naka, but it was well worth it (even if booking meant waking up on Christmas morning!). Chef Niki Nakayama offered up one of my favorite dining experiences to date, and even during the traditional rituals of kaiseki, I still felt like I was dining at my cool aunt’s house.
This 13-course tasting menu is full of lifetime favorites like mushroom panna cotta, DIY mushimono at the table, and fresh bites of seafood. Since it was my birthday, they even gave us a cup of special barrel-aged sake. At the end of the meal, you’re greeted by Chef Nakayama, and she is one of the most humble and sweet people you’ll ever meet. Thumbs up to all the staff and servers who made dining at such a fancy place feel so comfortable, too.
Price: $$$$ ($365 USD pp)
Type of food: Japanese
Address: 3455 Overland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90034
Website | Yelp