Although writing this column allows me to provide plenty of restaurant recommendations it does, perhaps incongruously, leave me unable to answer the question everyone asks me as soon as they hear what I do.
Whenever I’m called upon to name my favourite restaurant, I have to answer that I simply do not have one. Because I am constantly researching this delightful subject either for this column or my weekly column in the Financial Times, I have to keep on the move. I simply cannot remember
the last time I took my wife out for a relaxed dinner without my notebook.
And because I insist on anonymity, I am precluded from getting to know any particular restaurant’s management or waiting team too well — so that extra pleasure of being warmly greeted or shown to a favourite table eludes me too. But here are five restaurants I particularly enjoyed this year that, for various reasons, I would revisit at a moment’s notice.
TERROIRS WINE BAR
5 William IV Street, London WC2, 020 7036 0660, terroirswinebar.com
Terroirs, located just north of Charing Cross Station and handy for theatreland, is the creation of the French owners of the wine importers, Les Caves de Pyrène. The wine list is full of many from organic and biodynamic growers across Europe while the menu, by British chef Ed Wilson, delivers strong, clean flavours in dishes such as slow cooked Suffolk pork belly with salsa verde, plaice with wild mushrooms and pot roast quail with gremolata.
ANTICA LOCANDA MINCIO
Borghetto, via Buonarroti 12, Valeggio sul Mincio, Verona, Italy, +39 045 795 0059, anticalocandamincio.it
As we drove the 25-minute journey back to Verona airport in northeast Italy, it was difficult to decide which had been the most impressive ingredient in our Sunday lunch at the memorable Antica Locanda Mincio, located in the heart of a medieval village.
The sun had shone. Our table had been located alongside the banks of a river where the water was running fast and high from Lake Garda 15 minutes away. And there was plenty of good food and wine.
We began with a plate of the local cured meats before pumpkin tortelli and its house speciality, small parcels of ravioli stuffed with diced meat and served in a restorative broth. Then fillets of eel and trout expertly grilled so that the outside skin was crisp and the inside moist and, finally, ice creams.
But I think I would most like to revisit Antica Locanda Mincio to reassure myself that all this meal was not just a dream….
BISTRO DE L’HOTEL
5 rue Samuel Legay, Beaune, France, +33 3 80 25 94 14, lhoteldebeaune.com
The weather in Burgundy for the next couple of months will be much colder than the glorious sunshine we enjoyed in late August but both conditions are essential for the nearby vineyards. The heat allows the grapes to mature, the cold means that they can rejuvenate for the next vintage.
In the bistro, Swedish chef Johan Björklund and his Haitian partner Margie Thybulle serve the classic Burgundy dishes with relish: a whole Bresse chicken and a vast rib of beef, both for two and theatrically sliced at the table, as well as a comforting, slow-cooked beef casserole. And their wine list is, not surprisingly, exceptional.
9 ECE AKSOY
Oteller Sokak 9, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey, +90 212 245 762841, dokuzeceaksoy.com
This restaurant is owned by and named after Ece Aksoy, a hugely experienced female chef and restaurateur who has been cooking in Istanbul for the past 30 years. It is one of the most gentle and yet most dangerous restaurants I have ever visited.
The former characteristic comes from the fact that Aksoy is a magician with vegetables and her menu abounds with many of the excellent and inexpensive ingredients grown in Anatolia, eastern Turkey: great salads, tomatoes, herbs, potatoes and aubergine, as well as delicious grilled lamb, veal and chicken.
The risk comes from sitting on the uneven pavement outside and watching the Turkish drivers navigate their cars along the narrow street barely inches from the tables.
AUBERGE DE CHASSIGNOLLES
Le Bourg, Chassignolles, Haute Loire, France Haute Loire, France, +33 4 71 76 32 36, aubergedechassignolles.com
To eat and drink as interestingly at L’Auberge de Chassignolles requires a flight to Lyons and a fascinating drive northeast into the wild Auvergne countryside where this little village is located. In contrast to Terroirs, this very French restaurant with six bedrooms is run by an English couple, Harry Lester and Ali Johnson. The food is hearty and delicious: their own charcuterie, chicken with Swiss chard, local cheeses and great desserts. And at seven the following morning the (extremely loud) church bells nearby herald a first-class breakfast.
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