The Best Dining Experiences Our Editors Had in 2022
3 min read
As travel editors, we are fortunate to not only travel the globe and call it work, but to also snag reservations at some of the best restaurants in the world—both well known and under-the-radar. We each have an interest in, and a nose for, sniffing out great places during our travels. After all, it comes with the territory.
After discussing our favorite meals of the year in a very animated meeting, our team agreed it would be a shame to withhold these gems from our readers. That’s why this year, our editors (always keen, and sometimes hard-to-impress) decided to share the best meals we ate in 2022 around the globe—in Greece, New Zealand, Peru, and beyond. Each restaurant gave us an unforgettable meal, unmatched service, and a deep longing to return. All of them are worth bookmarking for your future travels; some providing such a unique experience, they’re worth planning an entire trip around. Read on for our editor’s 20 favorite dining moments of the year.
Kingi, Auckland, New Zealand
I had time for just one dinner in Auckland during a recent trip to New Zealand, and knew Kingi had to fill it. I had heard about it for a couple years—the smart, sustainable seafood restaurant appropriately inside Britomart, the country’s first urban green hotel. I called a friend who was happy to leave her kids for the night and rush on down. We essentially ordered the entire menu, flatbreads and fish burgers as well as pasta with cockles, pairing the lot with grassy local white wines. —Erin Florio, executive editor
Le Bernardin, New York City
The curtained windows of Le Bernardin on West 51st Street have allured, while also protected-from-view, chef Eric Ripert’s celebrated fine-dining seafood restaurant for the past 50 years—it was recently named the number one restaurant in the world by La Liste, among countless other accolades. One cold winter evening, I finally snagged a notoriously hard-to-land reservation and stepped behind the portière into the elegant seascape-inspired dining room. The tasting menu unraveled like a symphony, with precise service, lovingly-paired wines, and, of course, technically perfect dishes with elevated-yet-surprising flavors—all meticulously conducted by Ripert. It’s one of those special, only-in-New-York dining experiences that is certainly worth traveling for. —Scott Bay, associate editor
Paradiso at Badrutt’s Palace, St. Moritz, Switzerland
You know what’s better than sitting on a snow-covered mountainside, lapping up bubbling fondue and swilling crisp Champagne while the sun warms your face? Not much. Understandably, I was devastated to learn how much I’d been missing—at least where après-ski is concerned—when I visited St. Moritz for the first time this past March, where I’d traveled to take my first ski lesson. Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, the nearby landmark hotel which lords over Lake Saint Moritz, took over the management of Paradiso in 2021, a move which likely only assured its already-gilded reputation; regardless, the food and service now meets the same high standard as that of the hotel itself. Crisp, freshly baked baguette slices are passed down the picnic bench-style tables, the better to soak up the rich, blended-cheese fondue; buttery lobster rolls neatly coated with spicy mayonnaise suddenly appear out of nowhere, followed by a parade of thinly sliced cold cuts and dense pork terrines. It’s all you can do not to spend the whole day there, picking up a sunburn and sloshing your way back down the mountain. —Betsy Blumenthal, features editor
