Food and Wine Magazine has come up with a list of the top 10 restaurants where the food is delicious but the view is as memorable. This list was compiled by foodandwine.com.
1. The Aquarium, Dubai (Dubai’s Creek)
A floor-to-ceiling aquarium stocked with hundreds of exotic fish is the centre piece of this stylish restaurant, which also boasts stunning views of Dubai’s Creek. The specialty is seafood.
2. C5 Restaurant Lounge, Toronto (skyline)
Cantilevered over the city in Daniel Libeskind’s new addition to the Royal Ontario Museum, C5 has a view of the skyline. In the open kitchen, chef Ted Corrado, who has worked at Rain and Luce, produces refined “Toronto cuisine” – meaning multicultural.
3. Catch, Los Angeles (Santa Monica beach)
No restaurant captures SoCal beach chic as beautifully as this new seafood place with floor-to-ceiling windows off the beach in Santa Monica. Chef Michael Reardon prepares exceptional crudo.
4. Diwan Al-Sultan Brahim, Beirut (the Mediterranean)
This restaurant has several branches, but the one in an Ottoman building in the port area is the most appealing, due to its waterfront location and exceptional seafood.
5. Herbert Samuel, Tel Aviv (prime seaside location)
This buzzy new spot has luxurious interiors by architect Alon Baranowitz and a prime seaside location. The imaginative neo-Med menu from local celebrity chef Yonatan Roshfeld includes regional specialties such as Jerusalem artichoke soup with chestnuts.
6. Kaiwa, Honolulu (Waikiki Beach)
Set near Waikiki Beach, the ambitious new Kaiwa has a wall size waterfall in the dining room and a space-age tatami room decorated with gleaming fibre-optic strands. Best of all is the crisply executed contemporary Japanese cooking from husband and wife team Isamu and Motoko Kubota.
7. Muzedechanga, Istanbul (the Bosporus)
The owners of Changa, Istanbul’s coolest fusion restaurant, opened this new spot inside the elegant Sakip Sabanci Museum on the Bosporus’s European shore. The modern-Mediterranean mezes and entrees are fantastic as is the cocktail list.
8. Papadakis, Athens (Acropolis)
In the three years since Argyro Barbarigou relocated her restaurant from the island of Paros to Athens’s residential Lycabettus neighbourhood, she has become a media darling, with her own TV show and cookbook series. Papadakis is known for Barbarigou’s outstanding seafood and the superb view of the Acropolis.
9. Pierchic, Dubai (Palm Jumeirah island)
Housed in a wooden structure modelled on a traditional Emirati home, this spot overlooking the Persian Gulf has amazing views of the man-made Palm Jumeirah island. The menu reflects its waterside setting with imaginatively prepared seafood.
10. The Wharf Restaurant, Sydney (harbour)
At one end of a historic warehouse, this grand waterside restaurant brings in guests via a walkway lined with posters of past performances from the Sydney Theatre Company to a dining room with views of the harbour and bridge. In the kitchen, chef Aaron Ross (formerly of Claude’s) cooks contemporary Australian food with precisely calibrated flavours.