Best Restaurants in the World – Part One

A couple of weeks ago I reached out to some of the top travel, food, craft beer, and wine bloggers in the world and asked them a not so simple question. “What’s the best restaurant in the world?” Below is part one of their answers for Best Restaurants in the World. The taste voyage spans from Laos to Ecuador to Portugal with some exciting stops in between.

Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler, Canada – The Planet D

The best time we ever had at a restaurant was the Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler Canada. What makes the Bearfoot Bistro so amazing? Well, not only does it boast an exceptional menu combining local ingredients of seafood and wild game with international flavours, it also offers an evening of adventure.

Aprés ski, you can start the evening off with a bottle of Moët & Chandon accompanied by a dozen West Coast oysters. Once the blood warms put on a Canada Goose parka and enter the Belvedere Ice Room. This coldest tasting room in the world has 50 different vodkas from across the globe just waiting for you to taste. It’s then on to an evening of dining. The Bearfoot Bistro offers three and five course tasting menus with carefully selected wine pairings. Top the meal off with nitro ice cream theatrically prepared at your table. The food is divine, but you cannot miss going to the wine cellar where you can sabre your own bottle of champagne surrounded by 20,000 bottles of the world’s finest vintages. If that doesn’t sound like the ultimate dining adventure, I don’t know what will.

Dave and Deb in the Belvedere Ice Room – Photo Courtesy of The Planet D

We had the privilege of spending the night sampling everything the Bearfoot Bistro had to offer and to this day, it is our most memorable meal of our lives. Just don’t try backcountry snowboarding after a night here, you may not quite be up to par on the slopes.

Dave and Deb are well known travel personalities in both online and mainstream media. Their highly acclaimed travel blog, The Planet D, won the 2014 Gold medal for Best Travel Blog and Best Photo Illustration of Travel by the Society of American Travel Writers. As spokespeople and international ambassadors, The Planet D have had the opportunity to work with some of the world’s top companies and brands – while discovering more than 100 countries on all seven continents. Dave & Deb aim to inspire people to follow their dreams and push their boundaries living by the motto adventure is for everyone.

Deb Sabring Champagne – Photo Courtesy of The Planet D

Tamarind in Luang Prabang, Laos – Gallivance

With the incredible culinary diversity available around the world, it’s impossible for us to pick exactly “The Best” because the meal isn’t just about the food, it’s about the meal experience. But anytime we’re reminiscing about wonderful meals we think back to Luang Prabang, Laos.

The peninsula town is sandwiched between two rivers – the mighty Mekong and the lovely Nam Khan. Riverfront restaurants of all persuasions line both banks, offering everything from burgers and spaghetti Bolognese to traditional Asian fare and “Fusion Lao”.

As newbies to Laos – and Lao food we just had to try Fusion Lao. We’d heard about a cool little place called Tamarind that features “Mod-Lao” dishes and Lao-style tapas.

Stuffed Lemongrass – Photo Courtesy of Gallivance

Since the temperature was hovering around 90°, James decided to try his first Beer Lao, described by the Bangkok Post as the “Dom Perignon of Asian Beers” – two big thumbs up. Terri went for the Lao-Lao Cocktail, a refreshing blend of honey, lime juice, and Lao-Lao – the potent local moonshine brewed from rice. Wow!

We started with a small sampler platter featuring four different dips with sticky rice (in the cute basket) and sesame-seaweed chips. The sticky rice was totally new to us. You pinch off a little morsel (it holds together in a ball), then go for the dip. The dips were tomato salsa, smoked eggplant, spicy coriander, and chili paste with dried buffalo. Delicious.

Our final taste sensation was Chicken-Stuffed Lemongrass, an amazingly inventive dish. A mixture of chicken and herbs is wrapped in a stalk of lemongrass, then dipped in an egg batter and deep fried. Served with a ginger-peanut dipping sauce, it stole the show.

Needless to say, we came away totally sated and only $12 lighter. Tasty and creative food, cheap prices, and wonderful ambience made it, if not the “The Best,” certainly One of the Best.

Terri and James Vance of Gallivance are lifelong travelers. They started traveling in their 20s and never looked back. When they turned 30, they found an opportunity to move to Khartoum, Sudan for their first overseas working/living adventure, and jumped at it – James as a geophysicist and Terri as a management consultant. Now, over 30 years and 60 countries later they’re experienced global nomads and expats, wandering the world…still lovin’ it and still married!

Lao Fusion Starters – Photo Courtesy of Gallivance

Tiestos Café in Cuenca, Ecuador – Hole in the Donut Culture

Across six continents and nearly 60 countries, I’ve eaten in a lot of restaurants, but my hands-down favorite was Tiestos Café – Restaurant in Cuenca, Ecuador. Chef and owner Juan Carlos Solano specializes in Cuencano fusion cuisine, prepared on “tiestos,” handmade ceramic plates that are placed directly over the flames, then delivered directly to the table. Each dinner comes with fried potatoes, rice, bread, and corn tostados, as well as a half-dozen small round pots that contain heavenly spreads such as pickled onions, pickled hot peppers, and ají (hot sauce).

It’s easy to fill up on the appetizers, but don’t! Solano main courses include selections such as chicken filets with a curry and macadamia sauce or beef medallions in a mora (blackberry), red wine, and ishpingo (a native Ecuadorian plant similar to cinnamon) sauce. And if you’re still not full, the dessert menu is to die for. The average price, without wine, is about $15 per person. With wine, plan on $20 per person.

After years of working at jobs that paid the bills but brought no joy, Barbara Weibel realized she felt like the proverbial “hole in the donut” – solid on the outside but empty on the inside. Determined to pursue her true passions, she started her travel blog, Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel, and set out to see the world.

Cuenca, Ecuador – Photo Courtesy of Hole in the Donut Culture

DOC Restaurant in the Douro Valley, Portugal – Wander and Wine

When The Wandering Gourmand asked me to participate in the ‘Best Of’ blog series, the first thing that popped into my head was a meal I had at a restaurant in Portugal during a trip in 2013. After a couple of days in Porto, my now fiance and I spent a night in Portugal’s famous wine region, the Douro Valley. Since the Quinta (wine house) we were staying at didn’t serve a meal the night we were there, we decided to splurge on a fancy meal at Chef Rui Pauli’s DOC Restaurant.

DOC Restaurant – Photo Courtesy of Wander & Wine

Seated on the deck overlooking the majestic river at dusk, we indulged in the most magnificent 5 course meal with wine pairings. From octopus carpaccio to foie gras to salted cod, each dish was perfectly executed and paired with a delicious local wine. Not to mention that each dish looked like a piece of art. The service was impeccable, the ambiance was quiet and romantic, and the overall experience was one for the books!

Hana-Lee Sedgwick is the author and photographer of the blog, Wander & Wine, where she shares her wine, food and travel adventures. Born and raised in Santa Barbara, she fell in love with the world of wine while living in San Francisco after college and soon became certified as a Sommelier. Hana-Lee loves to help people learn about and appreciate wine, and her writing has been featured regionally and nationally in publications and websites.

View from DOC Restaurant – Photo Courtesy of Wander & Wine

Picasso’s in Las Vegas, Nevada – Everything-Everywhere

I”ll go with Picasso’s at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I went there at the very start of my travels. Most expensive meal I’ve ever paid for in my life.

Gary Arndt is an awarding winning travel photographer who has been traveling around the world non-stop since 2007. His travels have taken him to over 160 countries and territories and has earned membership in the elite Traveler’s Century Club. His blog Everything Everywhere is widely considered one of the most popular travel blogs in the world. In 2010 Time Magazine named it one of the Top 25 Blogs on the Internet and it earned a Gold Medal in the Travel Blog category in the 2012 North American Travel Journalist Association (NATJA) awards.

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This is part one of a two part series. Read part two here.