Taste
5x culinary hotspots of the highest order
The LXRY List 2023 features award-winning restaurants, innovative kitchens and sublime flavours.
Award-winning restaurants, innovative cuisines and sublime flavors. The LXRY List 2023 reveals a number of culinary hotspots where your taste buds will be delighted. MASTERS gives a preview…
Planet Earth, Amsterdam
Local and sustainable cooking is very trendy now. But Pianeta Terra in the Amsterdam canal belt has been doing this since it opened in 2000. Chef Fabio Antonini's kitchen uses only organic, often forgotten and sometimes unwanted, ingredients from Dutch soil. Entirely in the spirit of the Slow Food Alliance, which opposes the industrial production of food. Only the wine, oil and cheese come from Italy. And the atmosphere, service and hospitality unmistakably have their roots there. Although the restaurant, co-run by Fabio's wife Laura and his childhood friend Raul, is not as well known as, for example, Toscanini and Cecconi's, it took 2022th place on Prosecco DOC's list of the 30 best Italian restaurants in the world in 50. . Moreover, Italy Magazine awarded Pianeta Terra the title of The Best Italian in the Netherlands 2022. Definitely a reason to book a table there. Don't expect spaghetti carbonara and pizza vongole, but dishes made with respect for 'planet earth' (that's right, the name of the restaurant). Think of smoked pork chin from Extraordinary Pigs, wild Wadden Sea oysters from Goede Vissers (which other restaurants do not buy because of their size) and – surprise! – crow breast with gravy from the carcass, from The Kitchen of the Unwanted Animal, the organization that, in collaboration with restaurants, wants to show that unconventional meat can be very tasty and that we need to change our view on meat. Either way, you will leave with an experience richer!
Geranium, Copenhagen
Less than five kilometers separate the best restaurant of 2022 from that of 2021. After Noma in Copenhagen, fellow city Geranium is this time on the highest step of the global podium of honor according to The World's 50 Best Restaurants. “I had tears in my eyes when I heard that Geranium is the new number one,” chef Rasmus Kofoed told us. “Food is a great unifying factor, bringing people from all over the world together to share traditions, culture and ideas. I am so grateful that I can contribute to that. For me, this recognition is not about being better than someone else, it's a celebration of all of us.” And it is certainly a celebration to join Geranium. Take your time, because the menu takes at least three hours.
The Traveller, Amsterdam
The building where The Roast Roam used to be located, next to RAI Amsterdam, is now the second location of The Traveler. The concept of The Traveler is the brainchild of Michiel Deenik, chef and owner of the Visaandeschelde restaurant across the street. Together with catering entrepreneur Neal Valentijn and Lisa Bakker, former general manager of Visaandeschelde and The Roast Room, he embarked on the adventure, inspired by their shared passion for travel and the exciting flavors of world cuisine. The Traveler Zuid menu contains a mix of colorful, traditional world dishes, prepared according to modern cooking techniques. From dim sum and flammkuchen to Thai curry and pulpo anticucho. The drinks menu is also one big world trip with beers and wines from all over the world.
1742, Ibiza
The chef of two-star restaurant De Kromme Watergang is spreading his wings and has started a new restaurant in Ibiza (in collaboration with Nassau Group): 1742. Edwin Vinke's Zeeland cooking style – lots of fish, crustaceans and shellfish – can also be found on the menu from 1742, with dishes such as 'Zeeland Fruits de Mer: spicy shellfish and Thai flavours', 'Blue Lobster with squid and beach crab' and 'Langoustine barbecued with rum, potato and asparagus'. Not only the food is great, but also the location: a palace in the historic heart of the capital, at the highest point of Dalt Villa, with many works of art and a beautiful terrace with a view of the harbor. Guests are picked up at a pick-up point and taken to the restaurant, where they are presented with an Experience Menu of seven to ten courses.
Zilte, Antwerp
Here you eat with your head in the clouds, because: three stars at a height of fifty-five meters! Zilte is located on the top, ninth floor of the Museum aan de Stroom, which focuses on the connection between Antwerp and the world. Viki Geunes combines the identity of his kitchen with the appearance of the port city: worldly. Zilte is synonymous with the taste and smell of the sea. Fish, crustaceans and shellfish form the basis of the menu. But it's about more: “A dish can only be perfect if the setting and entourage are perfect,” says the chef. “We learned that from our many travels; then you come into contact with other perspectives on 'going to a restaurant'. Like the tailor-made feeling in major international cities such as London, San Francisco and Tokyo – the hospitality and submissiveness, without going to extremes. In recent years we have focused more on hospitality. People are guests here, it is their moment. No start button is pressed upon arrival: the guest determines the rhythm, his or her needs are met by us.” At the table at Zilte you will be immersed in an evening-filling program. To enjoy. Get away from it all. You sit and you experience. With the skyline of Antwerp as a culinary backdrop.
LXRY LIST 2023
Want to spot more culinary addresses? The annual LXRY List contains numerous innovative items and surprising addresses, a list that inspires and points to the future. Because new times are dawning...
