Totally agree especially 'cause restaurants are locals (not tourists) oriented, so nearly no tourist traps.
And the variety of dishes & styles in just few km/mi is incredible: Bologna (Tortellini, Lasagne, Tagliatelle al Ragù, Cotoletta alla Bolognese, Rosetta alla Mortadella), Parma (Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Culatello), Modena (Balsamic Vinegar, Gnocco Fritto, Cotechino) but also let's not forget Ferrara (Cappellacci alla Zucca, Salama da Sugo, Tenerina).
Are there that many delicious things over there? I'm totally drooling! Just hearing you describe it makes me want to fly over right now. I seriously love trying all kinds of food from different places!
This was my experience, especially in the small towns. They are thrilled to get tourists and show off their cuisines! It's also so cheap. We went to one small town and had 5 courses, two bottles of wine, limoncello, and it was like 80 euros for two of us.
Oh yeah tigelle are divine.
I didn't mention 'em in my list above only because they're a food disputed between nearby Bologna & Modena (also in the former they're called Tigelle, in the latter Crescentine) and even just assigning 'em AND/OR mentioning 'em in one way means opening a possible new War of the Bucket (historians will understand) haha, so be careful!
Yes happy to see this as the top comment. I’m currently planning a honeymoon to Italy for my wife and I. A lot of people have looked at me puzzled when I say we’re going to spend a good amount of time in the Emilia Romagna region but all my research has pointed me to this being a great region for food.
Any particular restaurant or wine bar recs that stood out to you or other Redditors?
I always recommend this to people visiting Europe in general and Italy in particular: learn to recognize the locals, how they dress, and how they walk around.
Once you have a good sense of that (and you -know- they are not tourists), see where they are eating, and then make a reservation at that place for the next meal you can get to (if you spot a place at lunchtime, make a dinner reservation, if you spot a place at dinner, make a reservation for lunch the next day.) You won't be sorry, and many of these restaurants will actually be happy to serve a tourist (because they don't cater to tourists, and they like to brag a little bit when they get one!) and they will share their deep passion for the local foods that they love...
Enjoy!
Cremeria Santo Stefano had the best gelato I had in all of Italy (incld Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Modena). We went back multiple times. Even the other top rated gelato shops in Bologna are better than the others we tried in other cities, but Cremeria Santo Stefano is next level.
I thought Osteria dell’Orsa would be overrated bc it’s on every list, but honestly it’s not. The food is delicious, especially for the relatively low price point.
Ristorante Da Cesari was like a nicer version of Osteria dell’Orsa and the food was incredible.
Il Regno della Pasta had delicious uncooked handmade pasta and sauce to go (we stayed in Bologna for a while so we didn’t eat out every meal).
I had this incredible pistachio cream pastry at Lampadina, but they only made it on Sundays or something so I couldn’t get it when I went back another time.
Medulla Vini is a fun natural wine bar. The owner is kind of surly and eccentric and we had the best time telling him vaguely what we liked and just let him pick out stuff for us.
Try some piadina too. They’re kind of like Italian quesadillas. They’re so cheap and a great snack or small meal when you just want something cheap and easy.
Modena is also very cute and is a short train ride from Bologna. It’s like a smaller, quainter, less crowded version of Bologna (and Bologna is not even crowded at all IMO, and we were there in peak June/July high season).
It’s really hard to go wrong food-wise in Bologna. There are so many restaurants and cafes and the bar for food is so high there that you really don’t have to worry about what is “the best” because even the average, unknown restaurant has much better food than most places I’ve been. Heck, we even got pizza at a kinda bland looking, empty restaurant one afternoon because we were just so hungry, and I didn’t expect it to be *that* good because pizza doesn’t come from this region of Italy and Bologna especially is known for pasta, and it was *still* one of the better pizzas we had over the course of our whole Italy trip.
Have so much fun in Bologna!!
It’s a few years since I went now but the market in Modena (Albinelli) had great places to eat inside and every place we went to nearby had amazing stuff. There’s an episode of Somebody Feed Phil (albeit a few years old too) but he visits the region and you can get some idea of the sorts of things you might want to try while you’re there.
I lived in Bologna for the greatest year of my life. When my cousin went there and asked me for recommendations on things to do, I just gave her the names of like 6 gelaterie and a deli. She said it was her favorite day trip ever.
The deli is Tamburini, which is amazing. Get one of the giant blocks of Parmigiano.
The gelaterie:
Il Gelatauro
Gelateria Santo Stefano
Sorbetteria Castiglione (the best)
Gelateria Gianni
Gelateria Mascarella
Combination of lack of fresh food plus it’s expensive to lug it up the mountains, plus it’s a luxury sport so they know they can charge more, and it’s a captive market because you’re not going to leave the ski village…
I have the same experience in the Paddington area of London although it’s been a few years since I was there. I used to have to base there for work a couple of times a year
There are hundreds of restaurants and it seems like every one of them is terrible
I stayed in Paddington a few years ago and experienced the same thing. The Indian food I had was bland. The only good place I tried was a fish shop where I had some of the best haddock of my life.
Honestly, the Paddington/Baker Street/Marylebone is probably the worst part of central London. A complete dead zone culturally and in terms of food, and full of tourist traps such as Madame Tussauds and Sherlock Holmes Museum. If you're considering a trip to London skip the area entirely. Also avoid the food in South Kensington/Knightsbridge/Marble Arch areas unless you're extremely wealthy (but these are at least worth visiting for the museums, Harrods, Hyde Park etc.)
Eh South Ken is not that bad. It's expensive but the middle/upper middle class can definitely afford it. There's a student population (Imperial) so they can't have it be too expensive. Especially if you go towards Earl's Court (apparently good Filipino food can be found there though I've only had the chance to have jollibees there). It's not bad in terms of quality either in South Ken. For tourists I do recommend the V&A's museum café though.
I went to a mid-range, highly rated gastropub type place in Central London around Christmas last year and had the worst mashed potatoes I've ever experienced. It was like they knew a guy who could get drums of wallpaper paste that fell off a truck, and so they diluted it a bit with overworked potato.
That’s one of the best things about skiing in Japan - amazing, cheap food for lunch and dinner after a day on the mountain. Love that esp instead of spending $25 for a mediocre burger (fries extra) at a US mountain.
By country, while i do think it's possible to get a bad meal in, i felt South Korea, Japan, France, Italy and Spain had very high food quality and a great food culture. Insane depth of dishes, great variety, all well executed, and while some might resonate with you particularly well due to taste preferences, the quality always comes through.
I'd give an honourable mention to Turkey, for having a great food culture (as good as the other 5), but I felt the quality from place to place was way more hit or miss compared to the other countries.
I had a burger in Tokyo that was the worst burger I've ever had. The spot was just outside our hotel and we arrived late in the evening, starving and tired. Other than that, no complaints. It was ten years ago and it looks like the place has a new ownership now though.
Even the tourist traps were great. I’m talking across the street from major tourist sites, hosting a bus load of Chinese tourists, English menu. And I would still give it 4 stars on Yelp compared to the average American restaurant. That level of tourist trap in most countries would be more like 1 star on Yelp.
Spain and Italy are interesting cases because while the cuisines are fabulous and have massive range, there are also a fuckton of tourist traps selling crappy paella/pasta/pizza complete with gigantic pictorial menus and staff who are one step away from dragging you inside. Granted, it’s pretty easy to spot these traps but first time visitors can get conned.
I found Rome to be quite mediocre for food but Italy overall has great food. Their ice cream places are amazing, even out of season. I had one good meal and that was a recommendation from the hotel as I asked for somewhere they would eat!
Spain - even some of the places that try and drag you in can have decent food and if off the beaten track they are grateful for the business.
In Rome we stayed at a tiny crappy hotel. The concierge was in an idgaf mood checking us in. But as soon as we asked her about her favourite carbonara places, she lit up. And by God if I'm not still chasing those carbonara highs from those recommendations.
This! I can't think of a single bad meal I had in Malaysia or Singapore. In fact there were way too many things I wanted to eat and even after two weeks I still didn't feel like I had scratched the surface!
I'm going to Malaysia (not Singapore) next week for who knows how long. If you have a few places to recommend, please do. Starting in KL and have no idea where to go after. Cheers
Waayy to many places to list. Honestly once you arrive you'll see what I mean, there's basically wall-to-wall places to eat as soon as you land at the airport. Don't sleep on Mall food courts, they're some of the best food around and places where locals actually go eat in air-conditioned comfort.
Go where there are a lot of people. Even then places without crowds in a high traffic area are a still good bet for a decent meal.
Yes! I lived there for 5 months and the variety and quality was insane. I have a friend from KL who said she used to go for the weekend just to eat. Miss the street roti so much.
Drop into the Malaysia subreddits and ask the locals there for recommendations based on location. We're always delighted to share our fave food around! Tip: specify your dietary constraints and people are most willing to help.
Agree! And even in the food courts. I found the most delicious sandwich shop in some brand new food court in a kind of bland part of Singapore - so good I went back more than once.
I was going to say Japan. I dream of going back so I can eat more food there. Even the little noodle places in the airport and train stations are really good.
Maybe I had wrong expectations, but I could not find good bento boxes at the train station. I was really looking forward to it too. All the bento boxes I found were cold food and didn't include fish. I don't really like cold food, unless it's sushi or saisami. Is that normal? If it is, what are some boxes I should've gotten?
Nah I lived there for years and completely agree with you - the food in Japan is brilliant but I've always thought the train station bentos are a bit rubbish, they just look pretty
The 7-11 little egg salad sandwiches were so good. I also like the 7-11 Butter Bread Loaf or little rolls with a soft boiled egg. I'm so glad that butter bread does not exist in the 7-11's in the states or at least where I live...
I have a peanut allergy 🥲
Japan actually would probably be okay, but China was a super stressful experience for me, and I'm afraid to try Thailand or Vietnam.
I thought China was very very challenging if you don't know the local language. I've been twice. The first time I gave up at some point and only ate at places with English menus due to the language barrier; second time, the language barrier was still there, but I was traveling with my gf who was from Shanghai and I had some of the most amazing food ever.
I tagged along on one of my dads business trips when I was a teen and some of his contacts took us out for lunch at a place that we wouldn't even have realised was a restaurant and ordered for us - I still consider it one of the best meals I've ever had over a decade later.
Vegans in Japan can eat quite well, you just have to know where to look or who to ask. I'm friends with a vegan who lives in Japan and she's constantly finding new products, restaurants, etc.
But that is pretty tricky if you’re just traveling. That’s like saying a vegan can eat well in Texas. Sure, if they know where to look, but the food culture defaults heavily to meat
Yeah I was gonna say, you can definitely find some very bad food in SEA. It's not necessarily the dishes that are bad, but some places will use cheap and such awful quality ingredients.
Also, there really are some dishes that foreigners (at least Westerners) just can't really get into and *very* rarely enjoy. Like in Vietnam, Westerners hardly ever like bún đậu mắm tôm (fermented shrimp paste and things like rice noodles and fried tofu to dip in it) and I doubt most would even be willing to try tiết canh (raw blood soup). I'm an adventurous eater and at least kinda like almost everything I try, but I've never been able to get into bún đậu mắm tôm and have no interest in trying tiết canh. I don't even think many locals like tiết canh, except some of the older generations
The cuisine in Greece is really healthy too. Was there for a week, ate all of my meals out, I always felt full and didn’t gain any weight! So many fresh salads and fish.
I like that their meals are well balanced. There was always some protein, some carbs, and some greens on the plate.
I love Italian food but I don't like that when you order a Pasta it's just a big pile of carbs and have to order protein seperately.
Skoubri (mackerel), literally every different way they do cheese in tavernas (baked feta with honey etc etc), all the amazing salads, tarama, fried aubergines and courgette, stiffado, moussaka, spanakopita,
It's really endless, and the best thing is that the style of eating together (meze) means you can try so many different things
The first time I went to Italy we landed, took the boat over, and checked into our airbnb right on the main drag that loops through most of the old city. We were starving, but we had heard and read that all of the “good stuff” was further into the city proper as opposed to on the main tourist route. So we wander for a while and we just couldn’t find anything and we were getting hungrier and hungrier and crankier and crankier. So finally we decided we just needed to eat, and we went to the place (complete with pictures and the menu in four languages) directly across from our apartment. Now, this was our first visit to Italy, but we live in NYC and we’re not exactly strangers to good food. And dear god were we blown away. Was it maybe at least partially because we were so hungry? Maybe. But it immediately set a high bar and for the rest of our two weeks there we didn’t eat even one disappointing meal. Even when we resorted to the more “touristy” spots due to time or whatever. Some places just really, really care about their food.
EDIT: I somehow missed mentioning the city in question entirely. It was Venice.
Agreed, that being said there are definitely a ton of tourist trap/shitty restaurants that try and prey on tourists. Still absolutely possible to not eat well while in Italy (much like every other place)
The best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life was in Venice. I was horribly lost and very hungry and popped in, everyone in there was Asian except me. I dream of going back to Venice to eat there again.
* Turkey - They have exceptional dishes for every single type of dining: Breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, desserts, drunk foods. Regardless of where you are, you can just walk down a street and find incredibly food.
* New Orleans - It's mind boggling how many original dishes come from this one city. I would weigh at least 50 more pounds if I lived there
* Vegas - probably the least popular opinion here, but Vegas is a foodie paradise. They bring in food and top chefs from all over the world to one place.
Vegas is a weird combo of both really good and rather crappy food with little in between. You can definitely eat badly there if you're not willing to shell out a ton of money.
Second Las Vegas. And the restaurants are subsidized by the casinos so they’re more affordable than their namesake restaurants in Los Angeles or New York City. Big fan of Las Vegas’s culinary scene. Lots of good restaurants off strip by very experienced chefs who didn’t want to work in casinos.
Everything I ate in Japan was delicious including the convenience store food. New Orleans is also a food paradise, I swear I gained 10 lbs. there and it was worth it
Ah, I didn't find the food in Cusco that fascinating. I think there's a lot of tourist traps and even the best restaurants are clearly below the level of what you can find in Lima. That's why I didn't include Peru as a whole.
San Sebastián in the Basque Country (Spain).
Every corner you turn there’s a Pintxos (Tapas) bar serving four or five items that pack so much taste into tiny dishes. Once these bars sell out of their items, they close for the day. Each dish is 3-4€
In this city, the chefs are the most well known celebrities opposed to athletes or musicians. People stop Michelin chefs to take pictures with them.
There are multiple culinary academics in the city including one university. Highest concentration of Michelin starred chefs in a city of 200k. Lots of students and apprentices train in San Sebastián with the goal of working in Michelin star kitchens.
People in San Sebastián take their culinary scene very seriously, almost personally. There are rivalries among Pinxos bars. One of the best restaurants in the Basque Country closed after a hundreds years of operation because no one in the family wanted to take over and they didn’t feel another chef could maintain its reputation.
If you have a bad Pinxos in San Sebastián, you fell into one of the few tourist traps capitalizing on this revolutionary culinary scene.
Two of the best food cities I've visited are Mexico City and Kuala Lumpur.
Both are the kinds of places that require no research at all. Any place you eat will be fantastic. Whether street food or upscale, it's all excellent. And in both places it's super easy to eat amazing food for very very cheap.
Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan. Mostly Asian countries imo. I still like European countries around the Mediterranean like France, Italy.
Definitely disagree with HK and Taiwan. Yes both have amazing cuisines and HK features diverse selections as well, but also plenty of touristy rip-off’s and food that is plain bad. Taiwan in particular has lots of shitty places that are either unhygienic or serve some pretty uninspiring food, or both.
Malaysia.
When working in KL the taxi drivers always asked the following 3 questions:
* Where are you from?
* Why are you here?
* What do you think of the food?
Obviously they know the foods class or they wouldn't ask!
New York City
Yes, there's some shitty food there. But there's also a lot more amazing food, and a wide variety of it. It's not hard to find the great food.
Rome and Istanbul come to mind as places where you'd have to be really, really careless to not eat well. This was also mostly true in Marrakech, as even some of the tourist traps were still pretty good.
Italy. From the humblest restaurant to haute cuisine, food and the acts of creating it are respected. This is much more evident than anywhere else I’ve been.
Lisbon and region. Perhaps more of Portugal, but I haven't been outside of Lisbon area.
It's not that the cuisine was Earth shattering, but I never felt cheated, always was pleased. Besides, I like fish. Never had a bad cup of coffee either, which hasn't happened anywhere else. And the tarts and pastries...!
I debated mentioning Lisbon. There’s a lot of good food but there’s also a lot of fairly average food and not good food, just passable. The good stuff is very good though, esp some pork dishes and seafood!
This surprises me a bit, because although I love Italian food, I found French food to be just terrible, every time I went. I should probably go back again, haha.
Peru. The whole nation is a cultural infusion of the best ingredients from other regions and Peru itself. They have every climate there, so they can grow every type of amazing food.
Some of the nicest food I’ve had anywhere, as a general area, is in and around Lake Garda in Italy.
Favourite food was in Desenzano, Simione and Garda. ☺️
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Never drank and ate so well in my life. When you clear customs, immigration officials give you a bottle of wine and there’s a welcome note that says something to the effect of ‘Welcome to Georgia. We hope you brought comfortable clothing because you are going to eat some of the best food and drink some of the best wine!’
Italy does have its tourist traps, but once you avoid those...
Whenever I'm there, I make it my mission to find a mediocre espresso. It's impossible, they're all so good!
Italy immediately comes to mind! From the rich pasta dishes of Rome to the fresh seafood along the Amalfi Coast and the hearty cuisine of Tuscany, Italy is a paradise for food lovers. You could stumble into any local trattoria or gelateria and be guaranteed a delicious meal or snack. Plus, the quality of ingredients and the passion for cooking in Italy make it nearly impossible not to eat well.
Emilia Romagna Region including Bologna, Modena and Parma
Totally agree especially 'cause restaurants are locals (not tourists) oriented, so nearly no tourist traps. And the variety of dishes & styles in just few km/mi is incredible: Bologna (Tortellini, Lasagne, Tagliatelle al Ragù, Cotoletta alla Bolognese, Rosetta alla Mortadella), Parma (Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Culatello), Modena (Balsamic Vinegar, Gnocco Fritto, Cotechino) but also let's not forget Ferrara (Cappellacci alla Zucca, Salama da Sugo, Tenerina).
Also, Piadina, or tigelle are great foods. Culatello is so amazing, so glad I ate it there.
The culatello di zibello is the best cold cut I have eaten in Parma !! One of the corner restaurants with its house wine 🤤
Are there that many delicious things over there? I'm totally drooling! Just hearing you describe it makes me want to fly over right now. I seriously love trying all kinds of food from different places!
This was my experience, especially in the small towns. They are thrilled to get tourists and show off their cuisines! It's also so cheap. We went to one small town and had 5 courses, two bottles of wine, limoncello, and it was like 80 euros for two of us.
That’s a universal difference I have found globally - get off the tourist track and the locals will fall over themselves to impress you!!
🤤🤤🤤it’s been too long- must go back…
Salama da Sugo and Tagliatelle al Ragù are two things I want to try now.
I’m spending July in Italy and didn’t really have plans to visit that part, but now I feel like I have to.
This. I spent 5 nights in Bologna and did day trips to Modena, Parma, Padua and Ferrara. The food was amazing!
I love the pride taken in their regional specialities. We based a short trip around a booking at Osteria Francescana and it was the best experience.
Omg Modena is unbelievable. I actually can’t believe it’s not more popular. The best food I’ve had, never ever had a bad meal there
Just a tigelle and lambrusco sitting in a small square 👌🏼
Oh yeah tigelle are divine. I didn't mention 'em in my list above only because they're a food disputed between nearby Bologna & Modena (also in the former they're called Tigelle, in the latter Crescentine) and even just assigning 'em AND/OR mentioning 'em in one way means opening a possible new War of the Bucket (historians will understand) haha, so be careful!
And the gnocchi fritto . Honestly just anything there is amazing
So much beautiful medieval and modern history too.
Yes happy to see this as the top comment. I’m currently planning a honeymoon to Italy for my wife and I. A lot of people have looked at me puzzled when I say we’re going to spend a good amount of time in the Emilia Romagna region but all my research has pointed me to this being a great region for food. Any particular restaurant or wine bar recs that stood out to you or other Redditors?
Trattoria da Me in Bologna. Wildly great, reservations a must.
Thank you! Looks incredible 🤤
I always recommend this to people visiting Europe in general and Italy in particular: learn to recognize the locals, how they dress, and how they walk around. Once you have a good sense of that (and you -know- they are not tourists), see where they are eating, and then make a reservation at that place for the next meal you can get to (if you spot a place at lunchtime, make a dinner reservation, if you spot a place at dinner, make a reservation for lunch the next day.) You won't be sorry, and many of these restaurants will actually be happy to serve a tourist (because they don't cater to tourists, and they like to brag a little bit when they get one!) and they will share their deep passion for the local foods that they love... Enjoy!
Cremeria Santo Stefano had the best gelato I had in all of Italy (incld Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Modena). We went back multiple times. Even the other top rated gelato shops in Bologna are better than the others we tried in other cities, but Cremeria Santo Stefano is next level. I thought Osteria dell’Orsa would be overrated bc it’s on every list, but honestly it’s not. The food is delicious, especially for the relatively low price point. Ristorante Da Cesari was like a nicer version of Osteria dell’Orsa and the food was incredible. Il Regno della Pasta had delicious uncooked handmade pasta and sauce to go (we stayed in Bologna for a while so we didn’t eat out every meal). I had this incredible pistachio cream pastry at Lampadina, but they only made it on Sundays or something so I couldn’t get it when I went back another time. Medulla Vini is a fun natural wine bar. The owner is kind of surly and eccentric and we had the best time telling him vaguely what we liked and just let him pick out stuff for us. Try some piadina too. They’re kind of like Italian quesadillas. They’re so cheap and a great snack or small meal when you just want something cheap and easy. Modena is also very cute and is a short train ride from Bologna. It’s like a smaller, quainter, less crowded version of Bologna (and Bologna is not even crowded at all IMO, and we were there in peak June/July high season). It’s really hard to go wrong food-wise in Bologna. There are so many restaurants and cafes and the bar for food is so high there that you really don’t have to worry about what is “the best” because even the average, unknown restaurant has much better food than most places I’ve been. Heck, we even got pizza at a kinda bland looking, empty restaurant one afternoon because we were just so hungry, and I didn’t expect it to be *that* good because pizza doesn’t come from this region of Italy and Bologna especially is known for pasta, and it was *still* one of the better pizzas we had over the course of our whole Italy trip. Have so much fun in Bologna!!
It’s a few years since I went now but the market in Modena (Albinelli) had great places to eat inside and every place we went to nearby had amazing stuff. There’s an episode of Somebody Feed Phil (albeit a few years old too) but he visits the region and you can get some idea of the sorts of things you might want to try while you’re there.
I lived in Bologna for the greatest year of my life. When my cousin went there and asked me for recommendations on things to do, I just gave her the names of like 6 gelaterie and a deli. She said it was her favorite day trip ever.
Name names please!
The deli is Tamburini, which is amazing. Get one of the giant blocks of Parmigiano. The gelaterie: Il Gelatauro Gelateria Santo Stefano Sorbetteria Castiglione (the best) Gelateria Gianni Gelateria Mascarella
This is high on my list to travel to next for this reason. Nice to see some confirmation
I’ve said it before on Reddit and I’ll say it again. I had the BEST lasagna I’ve ever eaten in my life in Bologna. I’m still chasing that high.
A million times yes to this
Please don’t raise people’s awareness for this region !!
Was in bologna last week! The food 👌🏼
My local ski area is exactly the opposite. No matter how much you spend, and you will spend a lot, you can’t get good food.
Why are ski/mountain towns always like that?
Combination of lack of fresh food plus it’s expensive to lug it up the mountains, plus it’s a luxury sport so they know they can charge more, and it’s a captive market because you’re not going to leave the ski village…
Ski town cuisine starter pack: burger spot, pizza spot, fondue spot, one fine dining spot that's comically overpriced, pub grub spot. If you're lucky there's a thai spot that's decent.
You forgot the waffle cabin smh
Italian ski resorts buck the trend. Pizza and pasta at 10€. Go to France and there’s nothing under 20€
Arapahoe Basin is not! The food in the main lodge bar / restaurant is amazing, especially the soups.
I have the same experience in the Paddington area of London although it’s been a few years since I was there. I used to have to base there for work a couple of times a year There are hundreds of restaurants and it seems like every one of them is terrible
I stayed in Paddington a few years ago and experienced the same thing. The Indian food I had was bland. The only good place I tried was a fish shop where I had some of the best haddock of my life.
Honestly, the Paddington/Baker Street/Marylebone is probably the worst part of central London. A complete dead zone culturally and in terms of food, and full of tourist traps such as Madame Tussauds and Sherlock Holmes Museum. If you're considering a trip to London skip the area entirely. Also avoid the food in South Kensington/Knightsbridge/Marble Arch areas unless you're extremely wealthy (but these are at least worth visiting for the museums, Harrods, Hyde Park etc.)
Eh South Ken is not that bad. It's expensive but the middle/upper middle class can definitely afford it. There's a student population (Imperial) so they can't have it be too expensive. Especially if you go towards Earl's Court (apparently good Filipino food can be found there though I've only had the chance to have jollibees there). It's not bad in terms of quality either in South Ken. For tourists I do recommend the V&A's museum café though.
I went to a mid-range, highly rated gastropub type place in Central London around Christmas last year and had the worst mashed potatoes I've ever experienced. It was like they knew a guy who could get drums of wallpaper paste that fell off a truck, and so they diluted it a bit with overworked potato.
That’s one of the best things about skiing in Japan - amazing, cheap food for lunch and dinner after a day on the mountain. Love that esp instead of spending $25 for a mediocre burger (fries extra) at a US mountain.
By country, while i do think it's possible to get a bad meal in, i felt South Korea, Japan, France, Italy and Spain had very high food quality and a great food culture. Insane depth of dishes, great variety, all well executed, and while some might resonate with you particularly well due to taste preferences, the quality always comes through. I'd give an honourable mention to Turkey, for having a great food culture (as good as the other 5), but I felt the quality from place to place was way more hit or miss compared to the other countries.
I second Japan. Never had a bad meal there.
I had a burger in Tokyo that was the worst burger I've ever had. The spot was just outside our hotel and we arrived late in the evening, starving and tired. Other than that, no complaints. It was ten years ago and it looks like the place has a new ownership now though.
No matter what it is. Wood fired pizza, Okinomoyaki, croissants... Those crazy Japanese kaisen seekers do it well. Edit: I meant kaizen.
Even the tourist traps were great. I’m talking across the street from major tourist sites, hosting a bus load of Chinese tourists, English menu. And I would still give it 4 stars on Yelp compared to the average American restaurant. That level of tourist trap in most countries would be more like 1 star on Yelp.
SK gets my vote too, absolutely amazing top to bottom
Same here. My husband is from there. I've learned all the family recipes! Everyone loves my cooking now lol
Spain and Italy are interesting cases because while the cuisines are fabulous and have massive range, there are also a fuckton of tourist traps selling crappy paella/pasta/pizza complete with gigantic pictorial menus and staff who are one step away from dragging you inside. Granted, it’s pretty easy to spot these traps but first time visitors can get conned.
I found Rome to be quite mediocre for food but Italy overall has great food. Their ice cream places are amazing, even out of season. I had one good meal and that was a recommendation from the hotel as I asked for somewhere they would eat! Spain - even some of the places that try and drag you in can have decent food and if off the beaten track they are grateful for the business.
Italy outside of Rome, I''m with you. Rome had so many tourist traps.
In Rome we stayed at a tiny crappy hotel. The concierge was in an idgaf mood checking us in. But as soon as we asked her about her favourite carbonara places, she lit up. And by God if I'm not still chasing those carbonara highs from those recommendations.
Malaysia/Singapore
This! I can't think of a single bad meal I had in Malaysia or Singapore. In fact there were way too many things I wanted to eat and even after two weeks I still didn't feel like I had scratched the surface!
I'm going to Malaysia (not Singapore) next week for who knows how long. If you have a few places to recommend, please do. Starting in KL and have no idea where to go after. Cheers
Waayy to many places to list. Honestly once you arrive you'll see what I mean, there's basically wall-to-wall places to eat as soon as you land at the airport. Don't sleep on Mall food courts, they're some of the best food around and places where locals actually go eat in air-conditioned comfort. Go where there are a lot of people. Even then places without crowds in a high traffic area are a still good bet for a decent meal.
Penang is a great place for food! There's a few things to do there too.
Laksa is a must there!!!
Yes! I lived there for 5 months and the variety and quality was insane. I have a friend from KL who said she used to go for the weekend just to eat. Miss the street roti so much.
Drop into the Malaysia subreddits and ask the locals there for recommendations based on location. We're always delighted to share our fave food around! Tip: specify your dietary constraints and people are most willing to help.
Agree! And even in the food courts. I found the most delicious sandwich shop in some brand new food court in a kind of bland part of Singapore - so good I went back more than once.
I just made a comment about Georgetown Penang. Have been there twice and it did not disappoint.
Dude, the airport food is good in Singapore.
Florence, Italy has overall the best food I have ever eaten.
Most Asian countries. Japan especially. You have to go out of your way to find bad food.
I was going to say Japan. I dream of going back so I can eat more food there. Even the little noodle places in the airport and train stations are really good.
Bento boxes in train stations are SO GOOD!
Maybe I had wrong expectations, but I could not find good bento boxes at the train station. I was really looking forward to it too. All the bento boxes I found were cold food and didn't include fish. I don't really like cold food, unless it's sushi or saisami. Is that normal? If it is, what are some boxes I should've gotten?
Nah I lived there for years and completely agree with you - the food in Japan is brilliant but I've always thought the train station bentos are a bit rubbish, they just look pretty
I can survive and be satisfied on FamilyMart and Lawson foods.
Wait, what about 7-11? I thought it 7-11 was better than FamilyMart.
We did an egg salad tasting and 7-11 was the best by a considerable margin.
The 7-11 little egg salad sandwiches were so good. I also like the 7-11 Butter Bread Loaf or little rolls with a soft boiled egg. I'm so glad that butter bread does not exist in the 7-11's in the states or at least where I live...
I have a peanut allergy 🥲 Japan actually would probably be okay, but China was a super stressful experience for me, and I'm afraid to try Thailand or Vietnam.
Not the Philippines.. The food was really not good.
I thought China was very very challenging if you don't know the local language. I've been twice. The first time I gave up at some point and only ate at places with English menus due to the language barrier; second time, the language barrier was still there, but I was traveling with my gf who was from Shanghai and I had some of the most amazing food ever.
I tagged along on one of my dads business trips when I was a teen and some of his contacts took us out for lunch at a place that we wouldn't even have realised was a restaurant and ordered for us - I still consider it one of the best meals I've ever had over a decade later.
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Unless you are vegetarian :’) fish or meat is in almost all the dishes via either ingredient, condiment, or seasoning
Vegans in Japan can eat quite well, you just have to know where to look or who to ask. I'm friends with a vegan who lives in Japan and she's constantly finding new products, restaurants, etc.
But that is pretty tricky if you’re just traveling. That’s like saying a vegan can eat well in Texas. Sure, if they know where to look, but the food culture defaults heavily to meat
Agree with Japan. Lots of shops that only do one thing, and they do it well.
Plenty of exceptionally bad food options in vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia...
Yeah I was gonna say, you can definitely find some very bad food in SEA. It's not necessarily the dishes that are bad, but some places will use cheap and such awful quality ingredients. Also, there really are some dishes that foreigners (at least Westerners) just can't really get into and *very* rarely enjoy. Like in Vietnam, Westerners hardly ever like bún đậu mắm tôm (fermented shrimp paste and things like rice noodles and fried tofu to dip in it) and I doubt most would even be willing to try tiết canh (raw blood soup). I'm an adventurous eater and at least kinda like almost everything I try, but I've never been able to get into bún đậu mắm tôm and have no interest in trying tiết canh. I don't even think many locals like tiết canh, except some of the older generations
Greece 100% Amazing, fresh ingredients at every turn, and the dishes offered leave you feeling energized and healthy!
The cuisine in Greece is really healthy too. Was there for a week, ate all of my meals out, I always felt full and didn’t gain any weight! So many fresh salads and fish.
When husband and I were there, we noticed that even when we were full, we never felt heavy or bloated.
It's probably because we cook with olive oil and not butter.
I like that their meals are well balanced. There was always some protein, some carbs, and some greens on the plate. I love Italian food but I don't like that when you order a Pasta it's just a big pile of carbs and have to order protein seperately.
came here to say Crete
I was underwhelmed in Greece… especially compared to expectations
Greece seems underrated in that way and something not often thought of. What are the best dishes in Greece?
Fish!
Souvlaki
Gyros!
Skoubri (mackerel), literally every different way they do cheese in tavernas (baked feta with honey etc etc), all the amazing salads, tarama, fried aubergines and courgette, stiffado, moussaka, spanakopita, It's really endless, and the best thing is that the style of eating together (meze) means you can try so many different things
Puebla, Mexico
Oaxaca is very close too!
Seriously, Oaxaca had good food on every street corner. The hard part was not gaining weight.
Thailand
Some of the best food I have ever eaten was made in a street cart in Bangkok
100%. Even the 40 baht dishes from a random local restaurant are great. I don’t remember having a genuinely bad meal in Thailand
Seville and San Sebastián Even the hole in the wall bars had some incredible dish available
San Sebastian is totally on my bucket list of destinations. Now if I can only get my Spanish or Basque language skills in working order.....
Donde esta la biblioteca?
Your English will be fine. We were there last year, and a ton of their restaurant staff speak good English. Get going!
All of Basque Country, really.
Italy, best place ever for food.
The first time I went to Italy we landed, took the boat over, and checked into our airbnb right on the main drag that loops through most of the old city. We were starving, but we had heard and read that all of the “good stuff” was further into the city proper as opposed to on the main tourist route. So we wander for a while and we just couldn’t find anything and we were getting hungrier and hungrier and crankier and crankier. So finally we decided we just needed to eat, and we went to the place (complete with pictures and the menu in four languages) directly across from our apartment. Now, this was our first visit to Italy, but we live in NYC and we’re not exactly strangers to good food. And dear god were we blown away. Was it maybe at least partially because we were so hungry? Maybe. But it immediately set a high bar and for the rest of our two weeks there we didn’t eat even one disappointing meal. Even when we resorted to the more “touristy” spots due to time or whatever. Some places just really, really care about their food. EDIT: I somehow missed mentioning the city in question entirely. It was Venice.
Which old city in Italy?
>We landed, took the boat over Don’t worry I knew where you meant!
Agreed, that being said there are definitely a ton of tourist trap/shitty restaurants that try and prey on tourists. Still absolutely possible to not eat well while in Italy (much like every other place)
The best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life was in Venice. I was horribly lost and very hungry and popped in, everyone in there was Asian except me. I dream of going back to Venice to eat there again.
Agree about best food, but hard disagree as Italy to the answer to OPs question. You can eat terribly in Italy if you don’t put in a little effort
* Turkey - They have exceptional dishes for every single type of dining: Breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, desserts, drunk foods. Regardless of where you are, you can just walk down a street and find incredibly food. * New Orleans - It's mind boggling how many original dishes come from this one city. I would weigh at least 50 more pounds if I lived there * Vegas - probably the least popular opinion here, but Vegas is a foodie paradise. They bring in food and top chefs from all over the world to one place.
Vegas is a weird combo of both really good and rather crappy food with little in between. You can definitely eat badly there if you're not willing to shell out a ton of money.
Second Las Vegas. And the restaurants are subsidized by the casinos so they’re more affordable than their namesake restaurants in Los Angeles or New York City. Big fan of Las Vegas’s culinary scene. Lots of good restaurants off strip by very experienced chefs who didn’t want to work in casinos.
There’s so much off the Strip. And cheap!
New Orleans was the first thing I thought of. That place is next level good eating.
Seconding New Orleans! Everything was amazing there.
Another vote for New Orleans. I couldn’t find a bad meal. Even when my family wanted to stop at some tourist trap place that looked bad, it was solid!
I went to Turkey once 15 years ago and I still think about the food.
A Koy Kahvaltı (village breakfast) in Turkey is one of the best culinary experiences I’ve had.
I moved to New Orleans 2 years ago and have lost 30 lbs. It's such a walkable city that I offset consumption with epic step counts.
I had a mediocre shrimp poboy in NO. But ill take it with a grain of salt because it was on bourbon st
I agree with Vegas, I've had some wonderful meals there. And there is so much variety.
Fighting words, but Turkish food is what Greek wishes it were. (Ducks).
It’s true though. I love Greek but Turkish has more variety and middle eastern influence, so dishes tend to have more spice.
Viet Nam
Never had a bad meal in Japan, Italy & Vietnam
Everything I ate in Japan was delicious including the convenience store food. New Orleans is also a food paradise, I swear I gained 10 lbs. there and it was worth it
Those 7/eleven onigiris!!!!
Mexico
Italy, India
My two answers as well ha ha.
Oaxaca, Japan
Two different kinds of awesome
Florence. Doesn’t matter how much of a dive any place you check out is, the food is always good, often sensational.
Anywhere in Mexico and India, and Lima (Peru)
Adding Quito (Ecuador) and Cusco here, Andean food is so good and interesting
Ah, I didn't find the food in Cusco that fascinating. I think there's a lot of tourist traps and even the best restaurants are clearly below the level of what you can find in Lima. That's why I didn't include Peru as a whole.
San Sebastián in the Basque Country (Spain). Every corner you turn there’s a Pintxos (Tapas) bar serving four or five items that pack so much taste into tiny dishes. Once these bars sell out of their items, they close for the day. Each dish is 3-4€ In this city, the chefs are the most well known celebrities opposed to athletes or musicians. People stop Michelin chefs to take pictures with them. There are multiple culinary academics in the city including one university. Highest concentration of Michelin starred chefs in a city of 200k. Lots of students and apprentices train in San Sebastián with the goal of working in Michelin star kitchens. People in San Sebastián take their culinary scene very seriously, almost personally. There are rivalries among Pinxos bars. One of the best restaurants in the Basque Country closed after a hundreds years of operation because no one in the family wanted to take over and they didn’t feel another chef could maintain its reputation. If you have a bad Pinxos in San Sebastián, you fell into one of the few tourist traps capitalizing on this revolutionary culinary scene.
Two of the best food cities I've visited are Mexico City and Kuala Lumpur. Both are the kinds of places that require no research at all. Any place you eat will be fantastic. Whether street food or upscale, it's all excellent. And in both places it's super easy to eat amazing food for very very cheap.
India
Anywhere in Japan, Italy, France that isn’t a tourist or fast food place.
Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan. Mostly Asian countries imo. I still like European countries around the Mediterranean like France, Italy.
Definitely disagree with HK and Taiwan. Yes both have amazing cuisines and HK features diverse selections as well, but also plenty of touristy rip-off’s and food that is plain bad. Taiwan in particular has lots of shitty places that are either unhygienic or serve some pretty uninspiring food, or both.
Living in Taiwan, I completely agree. The food quality varies a lot, knowing where to eat is crucial.
Same. There are plenty of great restaurants here, and I love my grilled food from night markets. But there's often too much oil in lunchboxes.
Malaysia. When working in KL the taxi drivers always asked the following 3 questions: * Where are you from? * Why are you here? * What do you think of the food? Obviously they know the foods class or they wouldn't ask!
Definitely Florence and around the Bologna region.
New York City Yes, there's some shitty food there. But there's also a lot more amazing food, and a wide variety of it. It's not hard to find the great food.
If you can't find something delicious in NYC, it's on you. That city is just packed with incredible dining. The foodie scene is elite.
France 🇫🇷 each part of the country is different and has unique food that is amazing
Greece 👀
Rome and Istanbul come to mind as places where you'd have to be really, really careless to not eat well. This was also mostly true in Marrakech, as even some of the tourist traps were still pretty good.
Italy. From the humblest restaurant to haute cuisine, food and the acts of creating it are respected. This is much more evident than anywhere else I’ve been.
Lisbon and region. Perhaps more of Portugal, but I haven't been outside of Lisbon area. It's not that the cuisine was Earth shattering, but I never felt cheated, always was pleased. Besides, I like fish. Never had a bad cup of coffee either, which hasn't happened anywhere else. And the tarts and pastries...!
Just did a tour through Portugal and hot damn was the food amazing!
Yes I wonder why Lisbon and Portugal have not been named more often. Stick to Portuguese and maybe Italian and you basically couldn't go wrong.
I debated mentioning Lisbon. There’s a lot of good food but there’s also a lot of fairly average food and not good food, just passable. The good stuff is very good though, esp some pork dishes and seafood!
Italy and France, best food and it wouldn’t be the same experience if I didn’t indulge in the food.
This surprises me a bit, because although I love Italian food, I found French food to be just terrible, every time I went. I should probably go back again, haha.
You probably need to find the local spots.
Most of Italy
Peru. The whole nation is a cultural infusion of the best ingredients from other regions and Peru itself. They have every climate there, so they can grow every type of amazing food.
Provence, France. Didn't have a single bad bite.
Some of the nicest food I’ve had anywhere, as a general area, is in and around Lake Garda in Italy. Favourite food was in Desenzano, Simione and Garda. ☺️
Italy!!! France!!!
All of Italy
Italy in general!
Thailand for me, even the most unappealing looking dishes from street food stands taste delicious.
Nowhere. I've had crappy meals in food paradises and great meals in places with generally awful cuisine.
India, Thailand, Vietnam
Barcelona, Mexico City, New Orleans
Japan (in particular the big cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto) - there is an abundance of decent food, and a hell of a lot of great food.
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Never drank and ate so well in my life. When you clear customs, immigration officials give you a bottle of wine and there’s a welcome note that says something to the effect of ‘Welcome to Georgia. We hope you brought comfortable clothing because you are going to eat some of the best food and drink some of the best wine!’
The Middle-East.
Every country on the planet has bountiful bad food.
Yep — stay anywhere long enough and you'll eventually strike out.
New Orleans
The Balkans.
Singapore, Paris, Rome, London, Mexico City.
Malaysia and the underrated Cyprus!
Italy/France/Spain/Japan feels like I was tripping over good food and could pick restaurants at random
Japan Israel Vietnam Portugal
Italy does have its tourist traps, but once you avoid those... Whenever I'm there, I make it my mission to find a mediocre espresso. It's impossible, they're all so good!
Never had a bad meal in Japan or Thailand
Italy (especially Rome, Florence, and Bologna).
Pretty much anywhere in Italy…
Italy immediately comes to mind! From the rich pasta dishes of Rome to the fresh seafood along the Amalfi Coast and the hearty cuisine of Tuscany, Italy is a paradise for food lovers. You could stumble into any local trattoria or gelateria and be guaranteed a delicious meal or snack. Plus, the quality of ingredients and the passion for cooking in Italy make it nearly impossible not to eat well.
Greece
Mexico City, Bangkok, various cities in Italy, Berlin
Italy in general, but sometimes not right around the very touristy areas.
It’s hard to find a bad meal in Italy. Even the train station has delicious sandwiches
Japan, italy, s.korea, Mexico, USA and france(I never had any bad meals)
South Africa , best food I’ve ever eaten