The toughest restaurant reservation on Earth

Hey it's Kate, and I've got bucket-list restaurants on the mind. Plus, some food tips for a hungry summer ahead [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi all, [Kate Krader]( here, Bloomberg’s food editor based in London, where the coronation has been inescapable. But we now officially have a new king. So let’s change the subject. Show of hands if you scored a seat at Noma Kyoto this spring. Hello? Anyone? Bueller? Although I live firmly in the world of high-end restaurants, I know almost no one who scored a vaunted place at the Danish restaurant’s [second Japanese pop-up](—the 10-week residency sold out in 37 minutes. That is, except my colleague [Howard Chua-Eoan](. If there was anyone to nab a reservation, it’d be Howard, who uses his apartment kitchen as storage, eats out every day, [skipping breakfast]( in favor of huge dinners. [Restaurants define his existence](. The fruits (and vegetables) of foraging at Noma Kyoto. Photographer: Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg To follow chef Rene Redzepi across the world, Howard changed his life and work schedules to accommodate a confirmed reservation. He also met restaurant lovers like himself, people who had jumped on a plane when seats materialized at the last minute. [He’s just written about it, gorgeously](. Of green rice where every grain is “as polished as a cultured pearl.” Bamboo roots manifesting as light-colored rainbows in tea dashi. Exquisite cockles that are actually comprised of ice cream. Here’s another of his essays that I love, on how home is a moveable feast. Illustration: Bráulio Amado; Photographer: Howard Chua-Eoan The meal itself cost €775 plus a 10% service charge, so more than $900 per person. The Noma Kyoto excursion is, quite literally, an investment, but one that pays off well for foodies when they’re engaged in the never-gets-old game of restaurant oneupmanship. And yet, that wasn’t even the meal that impressed Howard the most on his trip. Or the one that will allow him to always, always have the last word in the toughest-reservation-I-ever-scored conversation. That took place at Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita, the revered sushi bar in Tokyo. The 22-course meal at the 9-seat counter is virtually impossible to book if you don’t know someone; there’s a stream of food professionals who cite it as the place they want to eat before they die. Getting a reservation is, for some, like [getting invited](to fly on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rockets. For the rest of us: Tokyo’s luxury sushi restaurants go casual with budget spinoffs. Source: Onodera Group/Ginza Onodera Howard’s simultaneous scores have got me thinking about what my own restaurant checklist looks like these days. Once upon a time—a decade ago—it was dominated by places that topped lists, like the original Noma, in an old warehouse on the Copenhagen waterfront. As cliche as it is to say, it was one of the more memorable meals of my life; softly lit, in a space that evoked a Scandinavian cabin in the woods, with thick-handled hunter’s knives to cut the meat haunch and surreally sweet fresh chestnuts that had been foraged that day. Meanwhile in London, diners are paying over $11 for a single oyster. Photographer: Francis Augusto for Bloomberg Businessweek It seems almost quaint to make a checklist of destination restaurants these days, especially ones that qualify as “big deal.” Isn’t it much cooler instead to go deep on a single-subject? The best noodles from the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles. A paella tour around Valencia. Barbecue in Seoul. Sure, is the answer. But also, why not both? There’s no lock on being revelatory whether you’re an inexpensive, family-run spot on a cultural side street or posted up on the main thoroughfare of fine dining. One of six reasons why there’s never been a more exciting time to eat Thai in Bangkok. Source: Potong Which is why my current restaurant to-do list ranges from places that I have dreamed about for years to more recent obsessions: [Potong](, Bangkok Chef Pichaya “Pam” Utharntharm serves dishes that call out the Chinese origins of Thai street food in her family’s former medicine dispensary. [Elkano](, Getaria, Spain Fish, grilled over charcoal, is the one and only specialty at this restaurant in a Spanish seaside village. It’s been on my list forever, and one day, I’ll get there. [Inver](, Strathlachlan, Scotland It’s set in an impossibly scenic stretch of the Highlands, with a menu based on products sourced from all over this remote region. The oldest cuisine in America is having a moment thanks to Indigenous leaders such as Sean Sherman. Photographer: Ackerman + Gruber for Bloomberg Businessweek [Owamni by the Sioux Chef](, Minneapolis The chance to go deep on Native American cooking starts here at the restaurant from chef Sean Sherman. [Sushi Sugita](, Tokyo Sushi master Yasushi Sugita is an expert seafood sourcer and at adding the smallest touches of flavors—soy, mustard—to enhance it. [Kadeau](, Bornholm, Denmark Located on a rocky beach on an island not far from Sweden, the dining room offers panoramic views of the Baltic Sea, from which a lot of the menu is sourced. One of the nine best sushi bars in the US. Source: The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach [Sushi Sho](, Honolulu By all accounts, the array of dishes on Keiji Nakazawa’s menu is wondrous. [Cacio e Pepe](, Rome Word is, this is the best place in the Eternal City to eat the most soul-satisfying of pastas. Connect with Kate on [Twitter]( or [Instagram]( More food guides from around the world. [The 50 Best Bars in North America]( New York City’s Double Chicken Please takes top spot. [The Best Baked Goods in Rome]( These 11 places take the cannoli. [Manchester, the UK’s New Culinary Hot Spot]( Major openings bring the English city real restaurant swagger. [Upstate New York Restaurants Worth the Drive]( Big Apple chefs are relocating north to make the area a dining destination. [Opening This Summer in the Hamptons]( There will be sushi, surf and turf, and breakfast experts from Miami on the scene. What I’ve been reading. What happens when food is art and a viewer is hungry, plus other culinary news: [How a 40-Year-Old Flight Attendant Eats on $61K/Year in Queens, NY]( The compelling food diary from Bon Appétit chronicles the week in the life of a New Yorker who wakes up in LA on Monday in a hotel room with questionable in-room coffee, and who then maximizes her Queens neighborhood during a midweek layover on her way to Nice, France. [‘Everybody’s So Creative!’ and the Rise of the Recipe Reactions]( With all the trashy recipes on TikTok, the reaction videos have become just as important. Writing for Wired, a cultural anthropologist wonders whether that’s because you don’t know if people earnestly made bad recipe videos, or whether they are winking at the camera. [Banana Drama: “Hungry” South Korean Student Eats $120,000 Artwork]( What would you do if you see a banana duct-taped to the wall of a Seoul art museum and realized that you skipped breakfast? The Guardian finds out. Travel, eat, repeat. Even more opportunities to dine and drink well around the globe. [Everybody Wants to Go to Maine]( [These Are the Best Restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau]( [The Best Bars in Edinburgh for Beer, Wine and (of Course) Whisky]( [Fish and Chips Has Gone From Fast Food to £35 Luxury Entree]( [What It’s Like to Dine at Centurion New York, AmEx’s Black Card Clubhouse]( [Eat Lunch at the Edge of Space for $132,000]( You had some questions! Several of you wrote in via [our dedicated question line](mailto:AskPursuits@bloomberg.net?I%20have%20a%20question) and also [via Instagram DMs](. Here are some answers. What are some tips to make a perfect steak? Good timing! Summer grilling season is almost here, and the [tips we got from Hawksmoor’s Richard Turner]( a few years back remain essential. The main ones are to let your meat sit at room temperature for at least half an hour before it goes in the pan/on the grill. And then, let the steak stand for at least 5 minutes after it’s cooked so the juices are re-absorbed and redistributed. Season the cut right before it goes in the pan. And don’t be flipping the steak constantly when you’re standing by the grill, even though that’s the temptation. It can toughen the meat. Chef Andrew Carmellini also has an incredible and easy secret: “re-aging” steak with Gorgonzola. Photographer: Clay Williams/Bloomberg Caviar in pasta is a big rage now. What will the rage be in the summer or fall? So, Lee Zolhman, we’re in the midst of a big retro food moment, and that means caviar is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. For the fall, I predict pasta alla vodka, the kind with a creamy-booze-infused tomato sauce, is going to be on all the menus. Hopefully no one will add caviar to it. This summer, I’m expecting to see a lot of hot dogs. And they’ll have some competition: The 13 best hot dogs in America, as of last summer.​ Photographer: Gregorio Contreras Favorite bakeries from anywhere in the world? I will be here all day talking about bakeries. I just spent a lot of time [searching out the best ones in London](. (And in fact, I devoted my last newsletter to [the Croissant Diet](.) If you’re going to go to just one place in London, maybe it should be Arome, which has Asian-accented treats like the very popular honey butter toast, made with Japanese milk bread. But why would you go to just one place? The Buns From Home mini chain is divine and Shiok! has exquisite pastries like little travel cakes. Of course, there will always be [pastries in Paris](. At Le Meurice, Instagram star Cedric Grolet blows your mind with his desserts that perfectly resemble fruits and nuts, and there’s the sweet stuffed croissants from Du Pain et des Idées. The best pastries in Paris, according to top chefs. Photographs by Céline Clanet/Bloomberg But if I had some instantaneous carb-seeking travel machine, I would be going to Hart Bageri in Copenhagen. Every single thing in the display case is next-level. The cardamom buns are constructed from croissant dough. [The black sesame cookies with white chocolate]( are thicker than a hockey puck—and one of the best things I ate in 2021, period. What should you drink with a club sandwich? And which is the best? Those club sandwiches were forever a staple in New York diners, and now those places have gone extinct. If you’re hanging out at classic country clubs, you might still be able to find one. They’re best when they’re simple: a balance of sliced chicken breast (sometimes turkey), crispy-ish bacon, tomatoes, lettuce and mayo on toast. The best one I’ve had—the last one I had—was at the Grill in Midtown Manhattan. It was pricey, as befits the dining room’s [power lunch status](, but every element of the double-decker sandwich was well-considered from the bread to the ratio of sliced meat to bacon. It feels throwback, maybe as far back as when it was supposedly created, in the 1980s at Saratoga Club House in Saratoga Springs, New York. Soda of choice is the beverage pairing. Personally, I would go old-school with Fresca, or maybe iced tea. New for subscribers: Free article gifting. Bloomberg.com subscribers can now gift up to five free articles a month to anyone you want. Just look for the "Gift this article" button on stories. (Not a subscriber? Unlock limited access and [sign up here](.) 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