When people ask me to tell them what is my favourite restaurant I hesitate for two reasons.  Firstly I hate the ‘favourite’ type questions such as what is favourite colour, music, TV programme and secondly, how to decide.  Always for me the answer has to be ‘it depends’.

There are restaurants  thaimages-1t I return to time after time, or would if I could, so I suppose they could in some way be classed as favourites.  The first of those is a restaurant in London where I first went 15 years or more ago.  Le Caprice is legendary in certain circles and has been around in one form or another for 35 years with a host of celebrity, royal and hip clients.  For sure the former husband of the Queen’s late sister could always be certain to get the best table but Le Caprice serves its ‘ordinary’ regulars exceptionally well too.  After only my first couple of visits I was always ‘known’ and my Bloody Mary preferences always anticipated.  The food is a fusion of modern American, British and European cuisine, the service friendly and relaxed but uber efficient.  It’s not cheap but it’s not too expensive either (this is Mayfair!) but it is consistently good and I miss not being able to go as often as I used to do.

 

Overunknown-1 the years I’ve eaten in one or two of Rome’s ‘best’ restaurants but have always, in some way, left feeling disappointed because they never quite lived up to my high expectations.  The higher the price the higher the expectation is my thought.  Trattoria da Luigi though has hardly ever disappointed.  It has no pretensions whatsoever.  It is what it is, a simple family run Roman trattoria frequented mostly by Romans and those visitors to Rome who like me have been eating there for decades.  My first visit was probably 30 years ago and every visit to Rome since then has had to include one, two or even three return visits.  The staff are always welcoming and whilst the food could never be described as ‘fine dining’ it is undoubtedly fresh local food cooked well and served with enthusiasm.  I’ve seen the generations of the family grow up in the business and work hard to ensure that nothing much changes from year to year.  Perhaps occasionally the umbrellas or table lines are replaced or the wall re-painted but the abbacchio al forno or the fiori di zucca stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies remain delicious.

A relatively recent addition to my list of places to return to requires a bit more commitment in terms of cash and advance booking.  Osteria Francescana in Modena is owned and run by Massimo Bottura in the streets where he grew up as boy.  He’s a remarkable chef with a social conscience.  During Expo Milan in 2015 he organised Refettorio Ambrosiano to ensure that the chefs working at Expo didn’t forget the poor by using their talents and excess produce to feed the poor.  Osteria Francescana is Number 1 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2016 and boasts three Michelin Stars. “Our Cooking is collision of ideas, cultures techniques and gestures” says their website.  For me my dinner there was visually challenging – one of the presentation techniques is to throw the food onto the plate – and deeply rewarding in terms of flavour and especially the combination of flavours.