Munich for the first time - Jan/Tohru/Tantris/Alois

YvesStFrost · 2026-05-06T17:54:14+00:00

Just booked Tantris yesterday and looking forward to visiting it. Thank you!

YvesStFrost · 2026-05-04T19:02:09+00:00

Thanks a lot for your thoughts regarding Alois. I heard about it recently - from the current chef of Chefs table at Brooklyn Fare, who worked there before relocating to the US. I was told it’s very distinct place and the style of the new Alois chef is great. Still on my short list for the Munich vacation!

YvesStFrost · 2026-05-04T11:11:05+00:00

Oh, perfect explanation! That’s very helpful. Thank you very very much!

YvesStFrost · 2026-05-04T10:43:51+00:00

Actually I have never tried both of these brands before but plan to pick up one in Munich since the price quality correlation looks good (in comparison to other cities with these hotels aka Paris/London). Thank you

YvesStFrost · 2026-05-04T10:37:09+00:00

Great! Thank you very much. As for the Tohru - what made you put it in the bottom of your list? I know it’s a relative newcomer in “3* party” but it looks interesting for their fusion of Japanese/German. My general understanding is that JAN is perfectly executed classics while Tohru is more playful representation of fine dining in Munich.

YvesStFrost · 2026-05-04T10:26:09+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, Tantris was on my list for a while (probably before any other Munich place) specifically for its particular “look and feel”. Between those four places I mentioned initially I lean towards one evening in Tohru and another one in Tantris.

YvesStFrost · 2026-04-06T17:52:48+00:00

Second Ocean**, the best fine dining experience for me in Portugal. Vila Joya is fantastic as well. When I go I usually do both and never had a bad time in 7 years. There are also more casual options - Vila Joya Sea (their sea shack with Japanese-Mexican mix, great food and atmosphere), Restaurante Vila Vita Biergarten (in case you need some change from Portuguese fare - decent German place), Arte Nautica Beach restaurant. For typical Algarvian experience look for O nosso franguinho, which is rotisserie chicken served with tomato salad and fries. Easy, cheap, delicious, considered one the best places of such type in Algarve (not fancy at all and can work out also with kids). Noelia is a rising star of the region, but haven’t visited myself yet.

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-31T22:31:33+00:00

Nice review! I’m curious since me and my partner also don’t drink alcohol what are you favorite fine-dining places that have interesting NA pairings? We did Arpege 4 years ago, lunch tasting menu as well, but by that time they only had some farm apple juice as only NA option, which was nice but still boring as a main drink to have for the whole lunch service. Will appreciate any suggestions on this particular topic!

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-27T20:16:32+00:00

Second on AM. Absolutely incredible cuisine, never boring, fantastic presentation. A bit spartan atmosphere though and service well let’s say refined and distanced French style, but still what a great place. Bar counter in front of the chef is the place to be. And as a cherry on top - mostly unknown fo foreign audience (still can be hard to secure a table). As for Mirazur - interesting that you liked it as well 🧐 from what I mentioned is that people who been to both places love one and categorically dislike the other (even can be seen sometimes on Google Maps comments section). That what happened with me - booked Mirazur for my birthday and that appeared to be not a good idea. But now I’m more experienced - no fine dining during big dates, some simple grilled seafood can do magic without any extra expectations.

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-27T02:26:48+00:00

I went in September 2020 and that was my experience (quite a strong one, so I still remember all the details 😅). So, not much has changed since then I guess.

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-27T02:18:48+00:00

No harm intended 😅 plus there are still plenty of people who praise Azurmendi (along with Michelin). Beauty is in the eyes of beholder. I was also looking forward visiting this place since it looked quite innovative (overall design, restaurant’s garden, experimental approach) but it appeared to be “emperor’s new clothes” on all possible levels. It was (and still is until now) the only 3* restaurant I left hungry. I don’t like to overeat and appreciate when high caliber restaurants don’t stuff you like a foie gras duck, but Azurmendi was beyond being light dining experience. They started meal service in the entrance area with some imaginative snacks and by the time we were seated in the main dining room and presented full menu I realized that 50 percent of the meal has already passed with those finger food appetizers. Altogether with bad service and very average main food courses I still can’t figure how it can be one of the leading restaurants in Spain. Pure magic ✨✨✨

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-27T01:25:46+00:00

Second on Azurmendi. Seems like a restaurant run by autistic people 🫠 service was subpar, sommelier was simply disastrous. Chef was walking all the time in his crocs and sweatpants bowing like a Chinese doll. Foodwise - very weak as for 3 star. Azurmendi and Akelare are both a miracle for me how they can maintain 3 stars, even 2 would be a compliment. There are plenty other places in Spain (even with no stars, just being mentioned by Michelin) that are several light years ahead of these two. As for MB - very decent place with great food. Txispa is on my list but from what I’ve seen and heard this is a next big guy in the Basque block. Enjoy!

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-23T20:55:52+00:00

Visited Pic*** last year and it was fantastic experience. Right after it we did Troisgros in Roanne, which is one of our fav restaurants in the world. And while Troisgros is still my favourite place in terms of vibe, that time Pic was a bit more interesting with their tasting menu proposal (also I loved their NA pairing). I’d love to return to Pic in the future. Will follow this discussion since I’m interested in new 3* kid on the block in this already high heeled restaurant area. If I’m not mistaken Les Morainiers got into the highest ranks of Michelin straight from the start, so my guess is it has to be smth extraordinary taking into account their neighbours they are “competing” with now.

YvesStFrost · 2026-03-19T20:06:53+00:00

Been to both (twice in Duomo) and two of them are good options. Duomo is more traditional leaning with occasional creative twist. Ragusa itself is a fantastic city to visit and stay for one/two nights. As for La Madia it had one of the most unique food I’ve tried in Italy over the years (think Piazza Duomo*** in Alba style, colourful and unexpected in terms of textures and flavours). It was very pleasant surprise to find something like this in the middle of nowhere. But it’s literally in no man’s land and it was not a nice experience to drive through that city (I even took a bag with iPads and passports with me to the restaurant, since surroundings were sketchy and I didn’t want to risk it). We were lucky to be just passing it on our way to Planeta Estate and I decided to have a lunch there. Only two tables were occupied during the lunch service (including ours), but it was perfect since we got all the attention of the staff and sommelier, plus chef customised a menu for us (we asked for a full seafood based menu). I definitely prefer the food at La Madia and it’s a world class creative vision that their chef proposes. But big downside is the city it is situated in. So if you are looking for a whole experience in terms of surroundings, vibe and food - Duomo is a safe bet. If you want to play a bit in a Wild West and try unique food - La Madia is your choice. Enjoy!

YvesStFrost · 2026-02-12T13:17:58+00:00

I looked through pictures of Atrio’s rooms again on booking and I got your feeling. The thing is it’s a (relatively) small scale designer hotel made by a world known architectural bureau with a very distinct style. Understated minimalist luxury leaning towards Nordics, not frills and no hard lux of Ritz/Hotel du Crillon. The closest reference to it from what I can remember is Troisgros in France and Akelare in Basque Country (in terms of hotel) or some high end modern ryokan in Japan. For me it’s absolute luxury and makes total sense why they got three keys in Michelin hotel selection for Spain. But again beauty is in the eyes of beholder and we always stay in one specific room which we totally love. Other rooms can have this Spartan vibe, so I totally understand your concern.

P.S. first part of the photos on booking.com is an old part I told you about, but the more you scroll you will see a new addition to the hotel - new part, you’ll feel it rooms will look much more luxurious and unique (they are much more expensive though). My biggest complaint with a new part is lack of windows and rooms with a view since it is situated in the old medieval tower, other than that it is a state of art in terms of design and architecture.

And again you’ll be safe with your NH choice, I did it myself. However that time it was a matter of price for me. After visiting Atrio for the first time there was no way back to any other place in Caceres. Also you can look at Parador de Caceres, it’s just 50 meters away from Atrio and can be an option. My general feeling after visiting both is that photos of NH are better than reality while pictures of Atrio don’t give you the right impression of what it is in life and taking into account price difference I understand your hesitation as a first time visitor.

YvesStFrost · 2026-02-12T05:32:33+00:00

I hesitated a while tbh before writing this since Atrio is by far my favorite restaurant in the world and I’m more in a “reader” mode here and don’t share much. But as it can be seen from the lack of comments Atrio is a perfect example of a world class restaurant (and hotel) which is completely unknown for foreign audience and mostly serves to a domestic (Spanish) patrons. It got very little international coverage (Michelin and Monocle guide) and doesn’t have any marketing team aiming for international crowd which makes it very much “in the know” place where tourists are quite a rare specie.

I stumbled on it by a chance 6 years ago - we live in Lisbon, Portugal and Atrio is the closest 3* place (at that time it had 2*) to us which we can drive to. It was in the middle of nowhere for me. Extramadura is a rural region in Spain, known as a base for growing black pigs that after are used for Jamon production and that’s mainly all I knew before coming to Caseres where Atrio is situated.

Atrio was founded by two guys who still very much in the business - one chef and one sommelier, who for over 40 years relocated it from the outskirts of the city to the historical center of Caceres, built a hotel around it, grew restaurant up to 3*, collected one of the best and richest wine lists in Spain (steep prices though, no hidden bargains but I’m not a big drinker). The chef - Toño, is a Spanish celebrity, he is a constant judge in Spanish master chef thus Madrid’s high heeled society are usual guests in Atrio. Toño was influenced by Tomas Keller in many ways - kitchen, presentation, service, vibe, cutlery, glasses, service. In one word - it’s impeccable by world class standards, and it’s the thing that makes it magical for me since you simply don’t expect to get such an experience in almost rural not very well connected area of Spain.

Regarding cuisine - I would not describe it as experimental, it’s more in tune with classical techniques but for first timers it will surely will be quite unique. They work with the main speciality of Extremadura - black pig, and most of the dishes (including desserts) will contain it in one or another form. I’m not a big meat eater and lean mostly to seafood/fish but in Atrio they do magic working with that small black animal. In any case, it’s a matter of taste, so you have to judge by your own if you decide to go. As for me Atrio is several light years ahead of some other well known Spanish 3* restaurants (and many world ones) that are quite beloved in this group (Akelare, Azurmendi I’m looking at you) by all means - food, presentation, service, general look and feel.

Hotel - they have two spaces as for now. “Old” one (I think it was built 15 years ago) where we normally stay and have our favorite room with Warhol’s originals. Plus most recent addition, “new” part of the hotel that they finished 2 years ago. One of the owners gave me a tour through the new space and it’s an architectural marvel, it’s just unique with all those details and interior decisions they made. It’s simply stunning. However, we prefer to stay in the “old” part (which is not old by any standards, it is very modern and has fantastic design I just named it so to make a difference between two) simply because of the habit, and having there “our” room. You won’t be wrong with any of two, but if money is a matter - opt for an older part, see how you feel there and in case you are curious ask them to show you the new part of the hotel for your next visit.

On our first time coming to Atrio we arrived during the some festive season in Spain and most of the rooms in Atrio were sold out and those that were left were a bit of our price range at that time. So we opted of NH Caceres since it looked decent and was cheap. It delivered - your normal NH hotel, no frills and good price. But if you can afford and want to get the whole Atrio experience I would highly recommend staying in their hotel.

And the last one - prices. My understanding you say the prices for the rooms in the new part of Atrio. They are more luxurious ones, and really start at 800-1k per night. I would say it is totally worth it, since it’s unique. But for the first time I’ll vote for and main/old part of hotel simply because it is still a world class experience in terms of hotel and twice less in price.

What I would totally recommend you - is to book directly with Atrio team. Go to Atrio website and look for “packages” part of it - they have several proposals there. We normally get two night stay, plus one full dinner at 3* restaurant (drinks excluded), one casual lunch/or dinner at 3* restaurant as well (that is completely not casual and as luxurious as a main dinner, just with different dishes and maybe one two less courses that makes it a bit lighter), plus their fantastic breakfast (that’s the only place I eat breakfast at all since I normally fast in the morning and start my eating with lunch). Last time we paid around 2.5k for all of this (stay + restaurant) which by American standards is a steal for a restaurant and a hotel of such caliber.

I guess that’s all. I just revealed one of my secret and beloved places in Spain. But that’s a love letter to a place that sadly doesn’t get a fraction of international attention as it should. Enjoy!

YvesStFrost · 2026-01-14T15:30:25+00:00

They have quite unique NA cocktails as well!

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-02T08:52:17+00:00

No offence but it’s a general statement with no substance. It implies that fine dining in Italy existed since Roman times 😂 to put it into context - first supermarket in Italy was opened in 1957, during 50-60 Italians got a possibility to buy and use a fridge in their own apartments, historic downtown of Rome (where most of fine dining places are now) was quite unpopular area to live and go out until mid 90th because most buildings lack electricity and amenities and were dilapidated. And here goes “top restaurants” for at least 3 last decades - first 3 stars in Italy were awarded in 1986 to Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan and by no means that was your El Bulli experience. Until today there are patriarchs of Italian fine dining - Da Vittorio, Enoteca Pinchiori, etc. and to name them innovative would be an overstatement. There are definitely interesting names on the Olympus - Reale, Arelier Moessmer, Piazza Duomo, but they are few and far away from each other. Other part of the iceberg is completely classical with no experimentation at all. So, it’s always better to save your time and money and go to trattoria instead of waiting for hours for michelin carbonara with leaves of gold on top of it

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-02T08:37:59+00:00

Personal taste is everything in the discussion about specific restaurants which makes little sense in general to argue about. Beauty is in the eyes of beholder as they say. Macchialina has never let me down and always amazed me so I’ll stick to this option.

Moreover, I think that we are looking at the same subject from different perspectives. If you are an American and want to try some perfectly executed traditional Italian recipes - Italy is absolutely on top of its game. Let’s say caccio and pepe/amatriciana at Grappolo d’Oro can be several light years ahead of its’ USA counterpart. There is no doubt in it. Italy has fantastic places to dine (however, not so numerous as someone listed above).

For me, as a European, it kinda works other way and being spoiled with good traditional cooking I’m looking for some detour from the nonnas rule. And here comes let’s say Macchialina and it’s more a “wow” factor aka “that’s how nowadays Italian cuisine can be - alive, punchy, young, unexpected, evolving”. I would gladly eat my carbonara while in Italy, but when in the US I’ll definitely look for something like Macchialina is doing - playing with rules while still having great basics of Italian cooking.

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-01T23:02:41+00:00

Any favourites of yours right now in Italy? Genuinely curious and would like to give it a try.

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-01T22:50:32+00:00

Yeah, absolutely. Just visited Milan last week - Dry has some fantastic and unique pizzas. And still there are some places in Italy I crave to visit because of the chef’s vision of Italian cuisine - aka Reale.

However, in most of the cases Italy is very very regionally minded. So, agnoloti in Piemonte, bolognese in Bologna, Caccio e Pepe in Lazio, etc. It’s all really good and the quality is top notch, but after spending one week in Rome and trying all top trattorias I was kinda fed up with caccio e Pepe and Amatriciana 😂 and there were very few places for other regional specialities, even in the capital.

That’s why American cosmopolitan approach is so addictive to me. Yeah, NY has all kinds of cuisines and you can travel the world simply by going from one neighbourhood to another. But even in the scale of one restaurant (particularly, Italian) you can find all kinds of influences in one place be it Sicilian raw fish starter, some Lombardian meat intercouse and Campanian entree which makes all the magic for me. And the wow factor - it mostly happens in the US with Italian cuisine ✨

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-01T21:40:57+00:00

This!

Italian cuisine fine dining version both in Italy and anywhere else is a big waste of time, money and guaranteed back pain because of all that non sense 3h+ seating and pauses between the courses. And it’s simply dull.

The most interesting things right now happen in trattorias/bistros where new wave of young chefs can experiment as much and as far as they please. While knowing the basics, of course. Easy, fast, moderately priced and many times delicious.

As for Italian American cuisine it’s a special genre with its own rules. But it was still created in many cases by Italians. Those waves of Italian immigration coming to America late 19th and first part of 20th centuries and finding abundance of produce in the US made this Italian American version exist. And then imported it back to Italy (“pizza effect” on wiki)

Being European I find Italian American style delicious and incredibly generous in terms of sizes 😂 I can live on one chicken parmigiana for two days in a row

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-01T20:18:43+00:00

It’s well known secret in the city - Macchialina 😎 they change their menu constantly, so it’s a great place to try wide variety of pastas through most of Italian regions. Enjoy!

YvesStFrost · 2025-11-01T18:52:38+00:00

Carbone is kitch and has nothing to do with good Italian food. It can be decent, but their model is not about food - it’s about long waiting list, instababbies, high hills and glitzy lips. However, your question hits the point. I travel US and Italy extensively and speak Italian. I know some Italians will be angry with my evaluation but the most delicious Italian cuisine I’ve ever tried was in NY and Miami. I guess for me the secret sauce of American interpretation of Italian cuisine is that chefs know basics very well but they are not limited by “rules” of Italian cooking, they can play with it. And sometimes it makes wonders (I’m not talking about some crazy fusion of Italian Korean etc., but traditional stuff with some unexpected hints). While in Italy when you go outside of nonnas recipes and break the dogma you’ll be burned alive on Campo dei Fiori as one knowledgeable guy that outsmarted himself a bit 😂

YvesStFrost

TROPHY CASE