The foodie’s guide to Europe: Ireland’s top chefs tell us where they eat on holidays
From the best tortilla in Barcelona to a disused petrol station in Copenhagen serving tasty burgers, our favourite foodies share their tips for your next European getaway
I know Paris like the back of my hand. I go there to eat as often as I can, and I get loads of inspiration. You always learn something, and I think it’s so important to educate yourself and eat out in other people’s restaurants.
Paris – Mickael Viljanen
‘The place is like a gin and tonic... it never goes out of fashion’
Le Bistrot Paul Bert (bistrotpaulbert.fr) is great value and always tasty. I would start off with a warm potato salad with smoked herring, and their steak frites are really good. They also do fried eggs with morels when they’re in season, very simple stuff like that. Their menu is on a blackboard that’s brought down to the table, and you have to decide what you want fairly quickly as they’ll only hold it beside you for so long! You can get a really good Paris-Brest or savarin for dessert.
Arnaud Nicolas (arnaudnicolas.paris) is very good. He has a new restaurant and he does extremely good stuff on the casual end. In L’Ami Jean (lamijean.fr), you also get the entertainment of the tiny open kitchen during service, and they make possibly the best riz au lait (rice pudding) in the world.
The food is very good in Clamato (clamato-charonne.fr). One dish I remember that was excellent was a whole-grilled red mullet, stuffed with a fondue of savoy cabbage and lardo, served in its own broth. Really simple stuff, but delicious. They do a very famous dessert in there, a maple syrup tart that’s just super. It’s worth going for that alone.
I had a phenomenal lunch not so long ago in Pierre Gagnaire (pierregagnaire.com). It’s one of those places that’s like a gin and tonic — it’s just never out of fashion. It’s ever evolving, Gagnaire is an artist.
Viljanen is the chef patron at Chapter One
Aix-en-Provence — Gráinne Mullins
‘I’d eat a lot of vegetarian food because the quality is so high’
I lived in Aix-en-Provence for just under two years, and I loved it. The area is really beautiful, and really green. I used to love going around the markets and exploring — there’s nothing like French markets. I’ve never tasted tomatoes that were so sweet. You get amazing olives, lots of fresh herbs and fantastic local ingredients. The pride they have in their local ingredients always stuck with me.
I was working in a restaurant called Dan B La Table de Ventabren (danb.fr), which is on top of a valley overlooking all the green surroundings. I treasure my time spent at Dan B with all my heart. It’s in the most picturesque location, and, on a sunny day, they open up all the windows and it turns into a terrace restaurant.
In Aix-en-Provence, there’s an area called Place des Cardeurs, which is a big open square with lots of bars and restaurants. Being surrounded by everyone enjoying themselves in the sunshine was so atmospheric. I would always eat a lot of vegetarian food over there, simply because the quality was so high.
The seafood was always excellent, too. Going toward the Marseille area, you had the famous bouillabaisse, which was a classic dish made from rock fish. Everyone had their own style of cooking it. Restaurant Chez Michel (restaurant-michel-13.fr) was just amazing, so traditional. They show you the fish beforehand, cook the potatoes in the fish soup and serve it to you in different courses — you have the soup to begin with, then the potatoes, then the fish. It’s a real experience.
And we’d drink rosé all day, every day! It’s really where I found my love for rosé. Château La Coste (chateau-la-coste.com) has Irish owners and they have a beautiful restaurant with a vineyard that looks out over the vines. You can get little cheese boards and sit out drinking their beautiful wine.
Mullins is the founder and CEO of Grá Chocolates
London — Barry Stephens
‘There’s a taco place in Borough Market where I order everything on the menu’
I love going to London. When it comes to food, London is now up there with San Sebastián for me. San Sebastián is still my mecca, because of its accessibility to unbelievable food, but for bobbing around eating and drinking, London is just great.
London’s markets are incredible — people are just so passionate about their little stalls, their craft and the trade. Victoria Park Market (victoriaparkmarket.com) is brilliant. You can just roll up, get a little glass of bubbly or a can of beer and just wander around. You’ve got the Mother Flipper (motherflipper.co.uk) lads there, who do brilliant burgers and a mean breakfast burger, with a pork patty, egg and potato rosti. I have to get to Butchies (butchies.co.uk) for their fried chicken at some stage.
Then you’ve got Borough Market… oh, just bury me somewhere in Borough Market (boroughmarket.org.uk). I always go to Tacos Padre (tacospadre.com) and get everything on the menu. I also love Bao (baolondon.com) in the corner for their crispy Taiwanese fried chicken and 40-day-aged beef.
Kiln in Soho (kilnsoho.com) is a Thai grill, run by the crew from Smoking Goat and Brat. In all three places, they cook over live fire, and Kiln has really great flavours and a good vibe.
For dinner, I’d go to Manteca (mantecarestaurant.co.uk). It’s a nose-to-tail Italian joint that just beats them all. You’d want to make sure you go for dinner, not lunch, because you’ll need your bed directly afterwards. It’s all about small plates and sharing. It’s one of these places where you can go and sit up at the kitchen bar, and it’s just great.
Stephens is the owner of 147 Deli and Just Chubbys
San Sebastián — Richard Castillo
‘Just go to the first pintxo bar you see with locals in it’
San Sebastián and the Basque Country in Spain is a region known for its exceptional food, and has been a sort of pilgrimage site for chefs for decades. It’s got some of the world’s best restaurants, but many of these are unassuming — old fashioned, no frills, no ego. Just incredible produce, and excellent cooking by exceptional chefs. Unbelievable.
What I love about the food scene there is the honesty of the cooking. Dishes come out with basic plating, and then they just blow you away with flavours that you don’t quite believe until you try. The simplicity of the cooking is what hooked me in, and has inspired me ever since.
You should start with the pintxo bars — just go to the first one you see with locals in it, get a beer and their recommended tapas. Start a conversation and follow the locals’ lead.
The places I would personally recommend are Bar Néstor (bar-nestor.negocio.site), Bar Sport (facebook.com/BarSportDonostia), and Restaurant La Rampa (restaurantelarampa.com). La Viña (lavinarestaurante.com) is brilliant for Basque cheesecake, which is synonymous with the region. The queues outside La Viña speak for themselves. Restaurant Elkano (restauranteelkano.com) is phenomenal, and the dairy cow beef from Casa Julian (casajulianmg.com) is unbelievable.
Castillo is the head chef and owner of Bahay
Lisbon — Gastro Gays
‘Time Out Market is a rite of passage and a great place to start’
Lisbon was the very first international destination we ran to once international travel restrictions lifted, because we missed it so much. We’ve been four or five times in the last few years.
For first-timers, Time Out Market Lisboa (timeoutmarket.com) is a rite of passage and a great place to start, right in the city centre. What it’s great for is tasting dishes from different top chefs (Alexandre Silva, Henrique Sá Pessoa, Miguel Castro e Silva) for far less than similar costs in their respective restaurants. But there’s almost always a stand-off for seats because it’s perma-popular.
Over-order seafood at Cervajaria Ramiro (cervejariaramiro.com) or something a little fancier (and pricier) at Sea Me (peixariamoderna.com). For more traditional dishes head to Zé de Mouraria at lunch or Casa do Alentejo at dinner. Cool foodies abound at ingredient-led restaurant-wine bars like Sem and Prado, and don’t miss Peter O’Connor’s incredible bar Onda Cocktail Room.
We’ve gotten a bit of a reputation about pastéis de nata, and have regularly recorded an entire trip by how many custard tarts we’ve scoffed… If you’re asking us, the best are found in Manteigaria (facebook.com/manteigaria.oficial), which literally means ‘butter shop’.
One of the best ways to eat in the city is a food walking tour, and we found Devour Food Tours (devourtours.com) to be the best. Bonjardim (+351 21 342 7424) is a no-frills frango (spit-roast chicken) restaurant steps from Restauradores metro station, where the terrace is appointed with simple tablecloths and the service can either be mildly warm or incredibly gruff. But it doesn’t matter, it’s all about the blistered-skinned chicken, slowly cooked over flame and served on the bone. With a bottle of Casal Garcia Vinho Verde in a bucket of ice to go alongside, it’s perfection.
Patrick Hanlon and Russell Alford are the authors of ‘Hot Fat’
South of France — Gráinne O’Keefe
‘We ate in really beautiful local restaurant which was simple and delicious’
I’ve just come back from spending a week in Le Muy which is close to Cannes, Nice and St Tropez. It was incredibly sunny, had amazing food markets and all of the people were very friendly.
I love the simplicity of the food there. Ingredients are always locally sourced and the food is cooked minimally to emphasise the main ingredients. We ate in a really beautiful local restaurant called Cantin(A) (+33 494 528 242) in Le Muy, which was very simple and delicious.
We also ate in Le Club 55 (club55.fr) which was great as it was right at the sea and we could go for a swim after. My favourite order is always the grilled local fish with vegetables, as it’s always super fresh and delicious.
That said, the favourite meals I had were the ones we cooked ourselves after going to the markets. One day we got fresh turbot and langoustines and grilled them with some potatoes, black rice and a caprese salad with fresh heirlooms and it was incredibly fresh and delicious.
I love Barcelona. If I were 10 years younger, I’d definitely be living there. I’ve eaten in a lot of the three-Michelin-starred restaurants in Barcelona, and you know what? Maybe two of them are really good, but generally I eat in the bars. They’re the great places that all the chefs know and love.
Every single time I go to Barcelona, I go to Cal Pep (calpep.com). Everybody I send there adores it. What I love about it is that there’s no menu, no wine list. You basically just tell them what you’re allergic to and they keep feeding you until you’re done. It’s the tapas that you want, and it’s done right. They make the best tortilla I’ve ever had in my life.
Bar Alegria (baralegriarestaurante.com) is a corner bar that you’d walk by and think nothing of in a sleepy part of town. But they do a truffle tortilla that, honest to god, you can smell before you see it. They also do a little thing called el bikini de mi infancia that’s basically a black truffle, jamón and Manchego toastie that’s really well done. They do an unbelievable burnt cheesecake, too.
There’s another place called Bar Cañete (barcanete.com), just off La Rambla. That’s an old stalwart, a huge big bar that’s famous for its seafood. There’s also a great one-star tapas place called Suculent (suculent.com), where you sit at the bar and they just keep feeding you.
Bar Brutal (barbrutal.com) is a real hipster, cool place that’s just done a collaboration with Brat in London. They do the most incredible scallops with tarragon, and it’s a really cool vibe.
If I was to go all-out for dinner, I’d go to Disfrutar (disfrutarbarcelona.com). It’s run by the three head chefs from El Bulli and it’s consistently one of the top restaurants in the world. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had — stuff that messes with your brain.
Matthews is a chef and TV personality
Lazio — Luca De Marzio
‘You can look out at the sea while you eat some nice oysters and prawns’
I’m from Lazio, and on my holidays, I usually go to our family house in San Felice Circeo, which is a small village between Naples and Rome. There’s really nice food there, especially because it’s not touristy.
The food is very simple in the south of Italy, I love it. You just need very simple food in the hot weather. The first thing I do is get fresh tomatoes and a basil plant, and some extra-virgin olive oil. Seafood is the best here, so we eat a lot of spaghetti with clams and grilled squid. We eat a lot of crudo here, as well.
There’s a great restaurant facing the sea called Mario L’Ostricaro (instagram.com/lostricaroterracina), and we go there for an aperitif of franciacorta, the Italian version of Champagne. You can look out at the sea while you eat some nice oysters and prawns. Then you go into the restaurant for fresh seafood, pasta and fish, like scampi alla catalana, which is steamed prawns with tomatoes and celery. On the right-hand side, there’s a mountain going down into the sea, and it’s just beautiful.
De Marzio is the owner of Rosa Madre
Copenhagen — Jordan Bailey
‘There’s a great burger place in a disused petrol station’
My wife is Danish, so I’ve been to Copenhagen many times. We go at least once a year. The food scene is extremely diverse. If there’s any kind of cuisine you like, they have it there, of a very high standard. Obviously, everyone thinks of new Nordic food and Noma (noma.dk), which is a must. But there’s so much more on offer.
For the first stop, you’ve got to go classic and get an open sandwich. There are many places that do it very well, but we keep going back to Restaurant Schønnemann (restaurantschonnemann.dk). It’s a very classic place that’s been there since 1877, and they guide you through the menu, because it’s quite big. You start with a fish, then on to a meat, then maybe a veggie one, too. I like to go for the stuff you can’t really get here, like pickled herring with a curried mayonnaise.
There are some really good bakeries in Copenhagen. We go to Hart Bakery (hartbageri.com) a lot, which is co-owned by René Redzepi of Noma and Richard Hart, former head baker in Tartine in San Francisco. It’s an incredible bakery. There are queues out the door all day. We go there the most for their pistachio bun — I don’t know how they make any money on it, because there’s probably about €20 worth of pistachios on there. When you bite into it, it just goes absolutely everywhere. But that’s part of the joy of it.
If you want to punch at the same level as Noma, for me it has to be Alchemist (alchemist.dk). It’s extremely expensive, but it’s like a 50-course tasting menu that’s about more than just the food. It’s a full experience. You move through different rooms, and it’s multi-sensory with performers and projections. The chef is a genius.
To flip it on the other end of the scale, there’s a place called Gasoline Grill (gasolinegrill.com) that’s a burger place in a disused petrol station. They have a set amount of burgers each day, and when they sell out, they sell out. That often happens before lunchtime! But it’s incredible — we always pay a visit when we go over.
Bailey is the chef patron at Aimsir
Amsterdam — Nico Reynolds
‘We sailed down the Amstel grilling prawns and making tacos’
One of my friends lives in Amsterdam, so I go over every January. I stay for a week, we rent some bikes, and just cycle around the city eating and drinking. The markets there are excellent. There’s one called Albert Cuypmarkt (albertcuyp-markt.amsterdam) which is really good — their stroopwafels are excellent. It’s funny, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I could eat them for days. You put them on top of a coffee and they melt a little bit, they’re deadly.
The last time I went there, I brought over my barbecue. There’s a really good fish market in Albert Cuypmarkt, so I bought a load of fresh fish and we got a little five-person boat, then just sailed down the Amstel grilling prawns and making tacos.
Amsterdam is one of those cities where you can find yourself in many different states. I went to a great fish restaurant called John Dory (johndory.nl) that was really good — we got the tasting menu there. We started off all nice and elegant, then the night goes on and you have a few beers and bitterballen (croquettes), and the standards start to get lower. We ended up at a takeaway called Chipsy King (chipsyking.nl), where all they serve is chips and sauce. And at 5am, hunger is a good sauce!
I’m originally from Finland and was born and reared in the capital region. I think Helsinki has always been the underdog compared to the rest of the Nordic capitals in many ways — the food scene included. It has evolved slower than Copenhagen and Stockholm, but it has so much to offer. My first introduction to fine dining was in Helsinki, and many experiences in these restaurants I still remember like it was yesterday: a Melanzane dish in Inari, the pairing of a tartare with salted ramson and an orange wine in Ora, the first time I had warm saké in Kabuki.
My favourite meal in a day has to be breakfast or brunch. I love the croque madame in Gastro Café Kallio (gastrocafe.fi), the pretty smoothie bowls in Relove (relove.fi), and the traditional buffet brunch in Ekberg (ekberg.fi).
For the in-between snacks and little hunger pangs, buns and pastries are the way to go. My favourites include Café Succès (instagram.com/cafesucces), for their massive, guilty-pleasure cinnamon or ‘butter eye’ buns with fresh coffee, or the savoury pies in Eromanga (eromanga.fi). Café Regatta (caferegatta.fi) is lovely both during winter and summer — the surroundings and atmosphere are quite unique.
Baskeri & Basso Bistro and BasBas Kulma (basbas.fi) were regular spots for me to meet friends or catch up with colleagues after work to enjoy simple, good food and great wine. It’s always busy with a buzzing atmosphere. Countless plates, bottles and stories have been shared here.
My favourite fine-dining experience is in Restaurant Inari (restaurantinari.com). All my dinners here have been inspiring, challenging and beautiful — all at the same time. They have left vivid memories of textures, smells and tastes, because they’ve been thought-provoking.
Raitaneva is the manager and head sommelier of House Restaurant at the Cliff House Hotel
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