Notes from someone who spends far too much time at the table

I’ve eaten in enough fine dining restaurants to know when something is just well executed, and when it actually leaves a mark. The places below are not perfect in a textbook sense. That’s not what makes them special. What matters is that each one has a point of view, and sticks to it. You feel that immediately when you sit down.

These are restaurants I still talk about without needing to look at my notes.

Sézanne, Tokyo, Japan

Sézanne is one of the calmest dining rooms I know, and I mean that as praise. There’s no noise on the plate, no excess on the menu. Everything feels deliberate.

Daniel Calvert’s cooking is quiet, precise, and very confident. The dishes don’t try to impress you. They just land perfectly. When people ask me what three Michelin stars should actually feel like, this is often the example I give. You leave satisfied, not overwhelmed, and you remember flavours rather than tricks.

Apéritif Restaurant, Bali, Indonesia

Apéritif Restaurant is a fine dining restaurant located in Ubud, Bali. It surprised me the first time I ate there, and that doesn’t happen often. Bali has plenty of beautiful restaurants, but very few that operate with real fine dining discipline. Apéritif does.

The experience started with a cocktail and some creative concept style canapes which flowed nicely into the main dishes. I thoroughly enjoyed dishes like the Dorper Lamb and the Venison Wellington. Add a serious wine list and service that knows when to step in and when to step back, and you have a restaurant that feels genuinely international. I would happily eat here in Paris, Tokyo, or London and not feel out of place.

Plénitude, Paris, France

Plénitude is a restaurant you feel before you really understand. There’s a seriousness to the room, but not stiffness. You sense that the kitchen knows exactly what it’s doing.

The sauces are what stay with me. They’re deep, layered, and incredibly precise. Each one changes the dish completely. This is not modern French cooking trying to be clever. It’s French cooking at full confidence, pushed forward by someone who understands its foundations better than most. It’s one of those meals where you slow down without meaning to.

La Colombe Restaurant, South Africa

La Colombe is a restaurant I associate with ease. Everything works, and nothing feels strained.

The setting is beautiful, but the food holds its own. Classical technique, local ingredients, and a clear sense of balance run through the menu. I’ve always felt comfortable here, which is not something I say about many fine dining restaurants. It’s polished, but warm. That combination is harder to achieve than it looks.

Enigma, Barcelona, Spain

Enigma asks more of you as a diner, and I appreciate that. You can’t switch off here. You need to pay attention.

The menu unfolds slowly and deliberately. Some courses make immediate sense. Others take a moment. What impressed me is that it never feels random. Even when the techniques are experimental, there’s a clear direction. You may not love every dish, but you’ll understand why it’s there. That’s rare, and it’s honest.

Saint Peter, Sydney, Australia

Saint Peter changed the way I think about seafood restaurants. Josh Niland treats fish the way great kitchens treat meat, with respect, patience, and no waste.

Some of the flavours here surprised me, especially the richness. This isn’t light, polite seafood. It’s serious cooking. What I respect most is that the philosophy isn’t explained at the table. It’s just how they cook. You feel it in the food. That confidence is what makes Saint Peter matter.

A Casa do Porco, Brazil

A Casa do Porco is pure energy. The room is loud, busy, and alive, and yet the cooking is extremely precise.

Focusing entirely on pork could feel like a gimmick. Here, it doesn’t. Every dish feels considered. Every cut has a reason to be there. It’s generous, bold, and unapologetic. This is one of the few restaurants where I’ve laughed as much as I’ve analysed the food, and that’s part of why it stays with me.

The Witchery Restaurant, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

The Witchery Restaurant is about mood as much as food. You walk in and immediately know where you are. Candlelight, heavy fabrics, history in the walls.

The cooking is classic and confident. It doesn’t chase trends, and it doesn’t need to. What I remember most is how inseparable the food feels from the setting. You couldn’t lift this restaurant and place it anywhere else. That sense of place is powerful, and increasingly rare.

Conclusion

This concludes my list of the top 8 fine dining restaurants in the world. These restaurants don’t share a style, a country, or even a definition of luxury. What they share is clarity and fine dining executed to the highest level. They know who they are, and they don’t apologise for it.

Those are the places I trust. 

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