First-timer’s guide to picking a good restaurant overseas. Photo / Getty Images
First-timer’s guide to picking a good restaurant overseas. Photo / Getty Images
Eating out on holiday is important but vacations are short and travellers don’t have time for trial and error. Here’s how to make the right choice every time, writes Ewan Mcdonald
Q. We love eating out and trying new restaurants. We want to find interesting places on our overseas holidaybut we don’t want to be disappointed or feel we’ve been ripped off.
A. Terry Durack of the Sydney Morning Herald is regarded the world’s best restaurant critic, so his advice is worth following:
“If you’re after a true taste of the country you’re in, avoid chain restaurants, touristy food streets, hotel dining rooms, restaurants with menus pasted up in 16 different languages, restaurants near famous tourist attractions, and anywhere with a spruiker outside who asks you where you are from. That will narrow things down somewhat.”
The late and sadly missed Anthony Bourdain recommended asking your hotel concierge where to eat and then going anywhere else. Durack agrees: “Make sure you ask your hotel concierge where to eat, and then cross whatever they recommend off your list, because it’s going to be filled with all your fellow hotel guests.
When abroad, ask your hotel concierge where to eat and then go anywhere else. Photo / Getty Images
“Your best trick is to get hold of a local. Find out where they like to eat, and what they order when they get there. If you have a specific national dish you want to try, ask them where to find the best one.”
No offence, but I’d take the likes of TripAdvisor, Yelp, Zomato and other “customer-generated”, “genuine reader” review sites with a pinch – or a tablespoon-full - of salt. Spoiler alert: you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Oobah Butler’s name may not ring a bell: he was once employed to write fake restaurant reviews for TripAdvisor, then created a fake restaurant called The Shed in his London garden. It was so favourably reviewed on the site that “reflects the real experiences of real travellers” that it became the city’s top-rated eatery in 2017. Enough said.
For genuine suggestions go to TimeOut and Eater, probably the best online “where to eat” guides for cities worldwide. Start with one of these, see if a place appears on the other, then check it against columns or postings from the critics in credible local media.
This is all very well in New York or London or Rome but what about when you pitch up in Winnebago Minnesota, Nether Wallop or Sasso Marconi for the night?
First thing you’ll do is drop your bags in the hotel. Then stroll the neighbourhood, paying attention to which restaurants seem to have a good crowd and who’s eating there.
Stroll the neighbourhood and pay attention to which restaurants seem to have a good crowd. Photo / Getty Images
Make a mental note (or take a photo) of a few places. Keep an eye out for eateries with menus printed in the local language – it won’t be a tourist trap and you’ll get a more realistic feel for daily life, regional dishes and prices than anywhere else – and you’re far more likely to meet, mix and mingle with the locals.
Remember, dining customs in many countries are often based around lunch rather than dinner. France has its menu du jour, many US diners have their blue plate specials, Spain its menu del dia – usually a three-course meal at a set price, changing daily and announced on a blackboard or window card.
They began life as a filling, economical, seasonal meal for workers (required by law in Franco’s Spain) and they’re both the best value and best example of regional cuisine. They’re particularly helpful if you feel challenged by a foreign language or unusual ingredients because the decision is made for you.
Some scams to be aware of:
The pavement spruiker who tries to entice you into the “best restaurant in the street/city”. Way better than the other 14 on the same block. Note: this especially applies in Lygon St, Melbourne.
The menu without prices – that’s how people have ended up paying $750 for a pizza and Coke in Venice.
And the fundamental rules apply – don’t eat near tourist attractions (unless it’s Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower and someone else is paying), in railway stations (unless it’s Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon, ditto) or anywhere the menu has photos of the food and is printed in Comic Sans font.
Or hotel breakfasts. Bland, monocultural and a universal crime against food. Breakfast is the perfect time to go find affordable local food and see how other folks live. You may be surprised to learn they don’t start the day with toast and marmalade in Tokyo and that Türkiye does the best brekkies on the planet.
The First-timer’s guide … is a fortnightly column where we’ll answer your travel-related questions — anything from roaming around Rome to reining in roaming charges. Send your queries and travel tips to travel@nzherald.co.nz with “First-timer” in the subject line.
