Culinary Journeys: Top 10 Dining Gems to Savor in 2024

After encountering numerous restaurant obituaries during the pandemic years, it felt like an opportune moment to compose restaurant love letters instead. Now that the fine dining arena—and the casual dining scene as well—has returned to full swing, and is more inventive, more concept-driven, and simply more enjoyable than ever, falling in love is easier than ever. And so is penning more accolades.

These ten establishments (listed in alphabetical order) captivated me this past year. Some dish out meals inspired by their owners’ grandparents’ recipes; others are unapologetically modern. Some represent homecomings, while others showcase talents from distant lands. They all encapsulate the essence of the term restaurant—to restore, to provide care, to welcome, and to create a sense of completeness.

Atelier Moessmer, Brunico, Italy

Norbert Niederkofler takes pride in claiming he’s the sole chef in Italy who doesn’t utilize olive oil or lemon. Instead, he aims to “Cook the Mountain”—the name of his cookbook and also his motto—employing solely the ingredients from his native Dolomites and methods reminiscent of a grandmother’s kitchen from a century ago, rather than a three-star restaurant (including his own) from a decade prior. Atelier Moessmer is housed in a villa from 1890 close to the chef’s residence in Brunico. The kitchen is situated within a sleek glass cube that was constructed as an annex, providing some of the best seats in the establishment. Twelve guests at a time occupy barstools surrounding the open kitchen directed by executive chef Mauro Siega, where chefs prepare proteins over an open flame and operate from a mise en place of aged, fermented, and otherwise preserved ingredients. Siega notes that merely 10% of incoming products are used immediately; the remainder is set aside for later use. The outcome is a menu brimming with color and flavor, even amidst the snowy Alpine winter.

Ayla, Maçakızı, Bodrum

The effortlessly chic Maçakızı placed Bodrum on the boho-luxe travel map several decades ago, and its culinary offerings have consistently been strong—robust enough to earn it one of the first Turkish Michelin stars awarded outside of Istanbul last year. The hotel attained a new pinnacle of culinary excellence in 2024 with the debut of Ayla, a dining “room” featuring just six tables on a covered platform overlooking the bay. The name pays tribute to Ayla Emiroğlu, the founder of Maçakızı from the 1970s and the mother of its current proprietor. The menu serves as a tribute to the Turkish culinary tradition, crafted by chef Aret Sahakyan, the hotel’s culinary backbone since the beginning. It features a tasting menu devoid of pretentiousness, offering just four official courses (plus the customary snacks and surprises typical of fine dining), and allowing diners to make selections. My dinner showcased creations such as tuna tartare with pastırma (well-seasoned air-dried cured beef) and pickled blueberry sorbet, along with blue crab accompanied by iç pilav (rice pilaf with pine nuts and currants) and zucchini blossoms. The kaymak (clotted cream) ice cream garnished with caviar was my favorite dessert of the year.

Casa Gadanha, Estremoz, Portugal

Local elders were uncertain about how to perceive Casa Gadanha when it launched in the white city of Estremoz a couple of years back. It’s definitely not your typical Alentejo eatery, known for serving hefty portions of rustic comfort fare. Casa Gadanha isn’t categorized as fine dining either, yet its chef, Ruben Trindade Santos, integrates the finest elements of that realm into his laid-back dining space and small plates menu. He honed his skills in some of Portugal’s leading kitchens, including Feitoria in Lisbon and Ocean in the Algarve, before embarking on a culinary journey through South America. This venture inspired him to create a creative menu of global inspirations using local produce; during the summer, a tasting menu included dishes like tzatziki straciatella, melon, and Iberian pork ham; Azorean amberjack with carrot and orange aguachile; and eggplant with honey, labneh, and chimichurri. There’s also a wood oven for pizza and outstanding long-fermentation bread.

Dar Tazi, Palais De Fes, Morocco

A charm-filled accommodation in Fez, Palais de Fes began as the city’s first modern restaurant in 1980—photographs of the original owner with Ronald Reagan and Middle Eastern royalty still adorn the walls. His descendants continue that tradition, transforming the hotel into a world-class establishment but keeping the kitchen at its core. Even upon my arrival well after midnight, they welcomed me with a “light” meal: a table laden with Moroccan salads—spiced carrots, smashed eggplant, and garlicky green peppers—followed by a vegetable tagine that had slowly simmered for hours. It’s not solely the quantity that impresses, but rather its quality and the diligence behind it. Ghita Tazi remarks that they’re still presenting food “as our grandmothers would offer it,” often prepared by cooks who have been there for close to 40 years.

Ekstedt, Stockholm

Everyone is now cooking over flames, yet Niklas Ekstedt was the one who sparked the trend in the fine dining space. At his eponymous restaurant in Stockholm, the Swedish chef embodies both a purist and a pioneer,working within a culinary space devoid of gas or electricity and utilizing cooking tools that were (or might have been) crafted a century ago or even earlier. While his brigade, directed by chef de cuisine Florencia Abella, ignites birch, hay, seaweed, juniper, and charcoal, he asserts that his establishment is not merely a fire restaurant but a technique-oriented venue that coincidentally employs fire. Regardless, he meticulously studies vintage cookbooks and explores marketplaces for antiquated stoves, smokers, fire cones, and bellows, subsequently using these artifacts to curate a 15-course menu featuring dishes such as hay-flamed pike perch, white asparagus paired with cured duck, and charcoal-grilled spring lamb saddle, ember-baked potatoes, and ramson (wild garlic). To describe the bread and butter course alone demands two paragraphs, but the considerable effort involved is arguably the focal point, and Abella mentions that the identical recipes presented tasted entirely different when prepared in a contemporary kitchen.

El Camino, Palma, Mallorca

“Honoring simplicity” serves as the motto for this establishment located in the heart of Palma’s historic district. El Camino provides a setting where patrons are seated closely at an elongated marble-topped bar in front of an open kitchen. The daily offerings are printed on paper placemats, which often bear the marks of wine glass rings or flecks of olive oil accompanying the bread. The menu, featuring shareable dishes, offers a selection of elemental delights: sizzling padrón peppers, acorn-fed Iberian ham, salted cod fritters, omelets enriched with blue cheese or chorizo, quail with escabeche, and exquisite fresh seafood, such as grilled octopus served with mojo rojo (red sauce) and tuna tartare. A lengthy list of Mallorca wines, primarily available by the glass, enhances the strong sense of locality.

Feitoria, Lisbon

While Lisbon is home to other, more extravagant fine dining venues, a revisit to Feitoria this summer captivated me with its subtle innovation. It’s creative, indeed, yet never solely for the sake of it, and the dish presentations are stunning while remaining easy to consume. Chef André Cruz became a member of the restaurant’s founding team in 2009 at the tender age of 21, embarked on a gastronomic journey throughout South America (working with Casa Gadanha’s Trindade), returned to Feitoria as sous-chef in 2015, and assumed the head chef role a couple of years ago. This path has guided him to an exceptional mastery of Portuguese ingredients and culinary concepts, as evidenced in the six- and eight-course tasting menus (including vegetarian options) featuring creations like “cozido do mar”—a seafood stew, a pescatarian interpretation of a traditionally meat-heavy dish—crowned with algae and caviar.

Mikuriya, The Dolder Grand, Zurich

The term Mikuriya translates to “kitchen where meals are prepared for distinguished guests,” and that’s nearly correct. The cozy eight-seat omakase venue, nestled away in a subtle room on the fourth floor of the luxurious hotel, indeed makes guests feel special, yet it lacks a traditional kitchen. Instead, Japanese chef Atsushi Hiraoka operates behind the dining counter, crafting a succession of delicate dishes, primarily based on raw fish but also incorporating lavish ingredients such as king crab, black truffles, white strawberries, and wagyu simmered tableside in sukiyaki style. It’s hard not to indulge in luxurious bites like the bluefin tuna nigiri adorned with caviar, but even simpler dishes—such as deep-fried tofu accompanied by dashi broth or red bean ice cream paired with matcha mochi to finish the meal—are crafted with a precision that transforms them into a delight to savor.

Rohet Garh, Rajasthan, India

The flagship of Rajasthan’s chic House of Rohet hotels, Rohet Garh serves as the ancestral residence of the esteemed family behind the brand. Since 1989, it has been designated as a Heritage Hotel—a significant accolade in India—and it aligns perfectly that it accommodated the cast and crew during Wes Anderson’s filming of The Darjeeling Limited in the vicinity. The venue is visually striking, featuring Mughal architecture, opulent silks, elephant carvings, and peacocks parading around the property. It has also preserved a strong devotion to tradition and excellence in its kitchen, where chefs were trained by the previous lady of the house, the late Thakurani Sahiba. Her recipes gained such popularity that she compiled them into cookbooks, and her descendants offer these treasured recipes to guests. A simple thali of Rajasthani curries, dals, and roti was a standout experience during a two-week journey through India.

Tohru In Der Schreiberei, Munich

Chef Tohru Nakamura notes that when German patrons sample his creations, they perceive it as Japanese, yet when Japanese guests taste them, they discern the German influence. In fact, he has transformed his namesake restaurant into a celebration of his own German-Japanese heritage—reflecting his upbringing in a household where miso coexisted with mustard in the refrigerator—and a manifestation of his culinary voyage through both food cultures. This unexpected pairing emerges as a winning combination, blending Central European tastes with the essence of kaiseki philosophy.

While distinct plates captivate—chawanmushi featuring Burgundy truffle, cauliflower, and duck ham, or carabinero accompanied by Norway lobster, small shrimp, and kimizu (a Japanese golden sauce)—it is the overall flow of the ten-course menu that elevates Tohru as a prominent figure in the international gastronomic arena.

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