The city of London is a pretty exciting place visually, so it seems almost counterproductive to dine in the dark. But that’s exactly what you’ll do at Dans le Noir? London, where you can experience the world in pitch black while blind waiters serve you your organic meal. It’s supposed to help sharpen your other senses in the meantime, so we can’t think of a better place to start training for super-sensory powers than dining in the dark. Unfortunately, the restrooms are fully lit for safety reasons, so you can’t practise there.

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If you’re looking to get high on alcohol and altitudes alike, the 122th-storey high restaurant-bar At.mosphere in Burj Khalifa, Dubai is your best bet. Naturally, they also serve high tea (but of course).

Needless to say, the fact that At.mosphere is situated just two floors below the observatory deck of the world’s tallest building means you get to enjoy an unparalleled view at downtown Dubai. Though even Adam Tihany, who designed the interiors, admits: “After five times, you feel a bit dizzy. You only want to come up twice.”

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Finally, a menu that helps us make up our minds about what to eat. Before you even make an order at pan-Asian fusion restaurant inamo St James in London, you can poke around at its interactive menu to beam prospective eats onto your plate.

The system even allows you to check on the chef, choose your tablecloth, get a waiter’s attention (goodbye, frantic hand-waving) or book show tickets. You know what they say: see it to believe it.

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This Pittsburgh-based takeout, Conflict Kitchen, switches cuisines every six months. For a while, it may be serving Cuban food; later it’ll be Afghan. Then Iranian. Why? Because all the countries it themes its food on have been on the receiving end of some sort of US punishment, whether armed invasion or sanctions. It’s a brilliant idea, and offers customers the medium of food to access cultures the US government portrays as malevolent.

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Step into most Mexican taquerías and sophisticated is not the first word that comes to mind. Delicious? More often than not. But taquerías are indoor/ outdoor spaces where the smell of pork roasting on a spit and plastic cups of hotter-than-thou salsas count as ambience. Taquería Canalla in San Pedro, just outside Monterrey, is looking to defy that rule. At this Mexican taquería, the interior is contemporary and sleek. The work of Manifesto Futura, the minimalist design is refined and understated.

There are the requisite high stools at communal tables, but all are crafted from raw, bright wood and boast clean lines. And those salsas? They’re tucked away in uber-stylish numbered bottles with tight typography that reminds us more of premium spirits than fresh sauces.

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Wow, imagine flying off for a short decadent getaway away without actually leaving the country. That’s the premise of Dine Mile High, which — lucky for all Londoners — touches down in mid-March to take away all the logistical pains of making it to the airport on time with your passport and boarding pass.


Instead, you’ll get checked in to a glamourous weekend ‘away’ (choose from Göteborg, Beirut, Sicily and Mozambique) at a pop-up London venue with entertainment from cabin crew and DJs on board — plus, of course, cocktails, wine, four-course meals prepared by ex-Moro chef Ollie Templeton and other delightful nibbles. That’s style.

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Grotta Palazzese is an incredible Italian restaurant situated inside of a cave overlooking the Adriatic Sea. This beautiful and secluded location is the perfect spot for a luxurious and romantic restaurant getaway. The only question is, how do you actually get there?

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If swine makes you swoon and carnivore is your middle name, this nose-to-tail, gastro-pub is calling. At The Breslin, the interior is dark, the ceilings high, and the tables covered with butcher paper. Start your meal with the Scotch Egg – a whole egg wrapped in sausage, breaded, and fried.

Seared sweetbreads also standout and the pig’s foot for two with creamy shallots is said to be dreamy (we’ve yet to find a partner who will take it on). If you’re pining for ale to wash down that bone marrow slathered toast, you will not be disappointed by the extensive list of craft brews on offer. But if you’re still wanting for a drink or two or three to nurse you through your food coma, the Ace Hotel’s lobby bar serves up stellar cocktails amongst hipsters and big, leather couches that beckon to be lounged in – if, of course, you can snag one.

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Grab a dinner and get a free vasectomy at the same place? In Bangkok, you can do just that. Dedicated to birth control, Cabbages and Condoms is founded by Thailand’s former Minster of Health Mechai Viravaidya, who also makes sure that post-meal condoms are handed out to restaurant patrons. Wow.

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A 14th century chapel of a psychiatric hospital, converted into a modern-day restaurant. That’s Thuys at the Het Dolhuys, a museum about, well, psychiatry. I am in love with its huge overhead windows and the box-like cloud chandelier crafted out of felt-covered metal boxes. The venue was redesigned by Dutch Studio Overtreders W, and the custom-designed furniture, produced by clients of a psychiatric institution. Nice to see this all come together beautifully.

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A few weeks ago, I was introduced to the infamous punk chef, Carl Clarke, aka God Save the Clam and RockLobsta. Now he is back with a six month residency in the heart of London’s St Paul’s district. Clarke will be converting the traditional pub, The Rising Sun, into an original Disco Bistro dining experience with lighting supplied by yours truly. On show in the restaurant will be a rolling collection of some of my most popular lighting pieces. Keep your eyes out for squirrels both on and off the menu.

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In my humble opinion, Chipotle is the most design-savvy restaurant chain out there. Seeing this bag reinforced that opinion. I’ve always loved Chipotle’s handwritten typography on its cups, basket-lining paper, and bags, but the text is usually pertaining to…burritos. This bag is a little different. On this bag, Lorem Ipsum, or ‘dummy text’, is printed in the same handwritten style as on the normal bags. It’s pretty clever, and definitely intentional. 

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There is dinner, and then there is dinner in the sky. Dinner in the Sky originated from Belgium and it has since infiltrated close to 40 other countries. The basic idea is to get a massive crane from which a restaurant platform suspends perilessly in mid-air, 50m above ground, while guests strapped into their seats clink glasses and have their noms in the sky. 

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Here’s one pop-up experience that’s a little different from the rest: it pops down underground. Located in the Tytyri limestone mine in Finland, Helsinki bistro Muru will run the pop-down restaurant for just a fortnight in September. The experience includes donning mine helmets and traveling down a test laboratory lift to emerge at the venue 80 metres underground for a four-course meal at the active excavation site.

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This talk of a zombie apocalypse is really getting to everyone’s heads. So much so that mobile food company Street Kitchen recently made its rounds in London last week offering brain burgers and the such prepared with ‘responsibly sourced British ingredients’, presumably to get Londoners used to gourmet zombie delicacies. Yes, real (calf) brains, real offal. This was staged to celebrate the season 2 DVD launch of TV series The Walking Dead.

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It’s not often you arrive somewhere for a lazy breakfast on a Saturday morning, to find a DJ pumping out tunes, a clown and a fairy doing wacky things with balloons, Italian cheese makers kneading mozzarella, chickens pecking about their coop, and row after row of impressive veggie patches. It’s a complex and seemingly chaotic package, but somehow, it all melds together, in a civilized, serene and incredibly cool oasis that’s attracting Sydney’s foodies in droves. Set in an old pie factory in the industrial suburb of Alexandria, The Grounds is almost more of a concept than a café or restaurant – a vast, gastronomic playground.

As well as a buzzing café, the site hosts a coffee research and testing facility, and an expansive, paved garden with heirloom veggies and herbs. Fresh herbs are picked from the garden every morning, and a full time horticulturalist ensures seasonal produce is grown for the menu. The coffee is outstanding, and the dine-in menu boasts hearty and home-style dishes, like soft-boiled free-range eggs rolled in crispy quinoa with asparagus and truffle oil, crispy chicken schnitzel with salsa verde and house slaw. There’s also a tasty takeaway menu, with bacon and egg rolls, a delectable three-cheese toastie, and a slow-roasted lamb shoulder sandwich. 

On weekends, the site is host to a small, friendly market – and The Grounds will soon be hosting classes in the garden, teaching kids how to sow seeds and watch plants grow. This outstanding new hotspot has been brilliantly conceived – and they’re doing their best to cover every last detail. There’s even a door-girl wielding a clipboard to cater for an ever-growing queue of salivating customers. One thing’s for sure: The Grounds certainly turns the old ‘KISS’ adage on its head; proof that sometimes, it’s the complex ideas that are the best.

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I usually skip proper restaurants and go straight to the hole-in-the-wall taquerias when it comes to Mexican food, but Hecho En Dumbo, now relocated to the East Village, is pretty awesome and not all that expensive. Their Picaditas de Jaiba, corn medallions with shredded dungeness crab and avocado, are amazing.

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Down an unassuming street in the La Macarena neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia humbly sits one of the city’s sexiest dining spots: Leo Cocina y Cava. It is here that Chef Leonor Espinoza saturates Colombian comfort food — mainly from the coast — with intense doses of creativity to produce fresh, contemporary dishes with a clean presentation and knock-out appeal.

From sea bass wrapped in banana leaves, to whitefish ceviche, to raw tuna encrusted with Santanderean ants – a Colombian speciality – the menu features a plethora of seafood, fabulously executed, justifying why Leo Cocina y Cava is often called one of the world’s 50 best restaurants.

A minimalist design fused with a touch of old-school colonial style in the dining room accentuates Espinoza’s talent at merging the traditional and the contemporary. And in this small, chic, space, it’s not unlikely to see the Chef herself talking to customers or meticulously adjusting flowers or place settings. Details matter.

So next time you’re in Bogotá, go beyond coffee and chocolate to experience something uniquely – and fabulously – Colombian.

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I think I’ve tried about four times now to get a reservation at Melbourne’s Fifteen Restaurant whenever I find myself frequenting the glorious city, but today I finally got lucky. Two years after its debut on Jamie Oliver’s show, this restaurant is still living up to the hype. Essentially it offers Mediterranean cuisine, but the difference is that it’s actually authentic. The menu stretches further than your average spaghetti bolognaise, pizza or risotto, that’s for sure. I was left amazed by a baked baby ricotta, prosciutto and balsamic entrée; kipfler potato smothered in a mixed pesto; and a baked pear with orange and vanilla mascarpone for dessert. The waiter even gives you a choice as to what bread style you want to dip in some oil. Now, that’s what we call service.

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Screw robots, the futures lies with the monkey. A restaurant in Japan has shunned its country’s reputation for technological advancement and opted to use the primates to wait tables for it’s increasingly supportive customers. Hmmm, it’s a little disturbing to see a monkey walking on two legs, dressed in a waistcoat and carrying a beer.

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