100 Great Things About Restaurants
Gourmet magazine’s favorite reasons for dining around the globe
We’re all for efficient service and top-quality food. But those aren’t the only reasons to love a restaurant. Sometimes we like a place just because the waitress is fun, or the fish arrives bearing a tag with the name of the guy who caught it. We’ll even go back because the lighting’s good.
From Brooklyn to Bangkok, here are some of the restaurants we love – and the often unpredictable reasons why.
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ESTONIAN HAUTE
Who would have guessed that Estonia would become the next hot destination for the fashionable European set? Pädaste Manor, a country-house hotel on the Estonian island of Muhu, has been drawing in-the-know Finns, Swedes, Germans, and Brits since it opened in 1997. A grand estate of fieldstone buildings set amid enormous beeches, Pädaste features just nine rooms, all outfitted with local pine furniture and antiques. There’s a sauna with a view of the Baltic, a Turkish steam room, even a little movie theater. But the standout here is the restaurant, where dishes such as locally produced ostrich steak with orange-spiked sauerkraut, and herring with onions and peppers are being hailed as forerunners of a “New Estonian” cuisine. It’s no wonder the country’s president recently chose this place to entertain the queen of Denmark.
— Gourmet, October 2001
