The Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations returns for its new season tonight at 9pm. We caught up with the show's host, three-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer and teacher Andrew Zimmern, to dish on his favorite hotel restaurants across the world. "With apologies to the Epicure at Paris' Bristol Hotel, The Manoir aux Quat 'Saisons, Aquerello at the St Regis in Venice, La Loggia in Florence, Aubergine at L'Auberge Carmel and Café Boulud at The Brazilian Court… here are my top eight… I couldn’t narrow it any further," he says.
"My home away from home. The Nomad restaurant serves some of the best food on the planet thanks to Chef James Kent, the Nomad Bar is the best place to get a drink in town and The Library mixes the best of both. Kent's duck preparations are legendary but don't skip the roast chicken. Really. Best thing is the room service that brings anything on the menus in the dining room to your bed on a tray within 25 minutes. Boom."
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"250-year-old hotel in the GRAND tradition. Prowl the lobby bar for Russian oligarchs, Arab sheiks and tin pot dictators of all types and sizes. The best people watching in the world is in that room. Just try to count the bodyguards or thousand-dollar-an-hour call girls. Head up for a pre-dinner caviar binge at the ancient Caviar Bar where the world's best caviar is served in the old style by folks who know their business. There is no place like this hotel in the world. None. Then go get dinner at L'Europe and be stunned back into complete bliss."
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"Incredible views of Victoria Harbor and killer Cantonese classics like crab steamed in egg whites and whole flounder with black bean sauce. I love Chinese food, and this restaurant has a traditional take on the best of Guangzhou style seafood executed to literal perfection."
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"Yeah, I love Hong Kong. LKH is the first Chinese restaurant to receive three Michelin stars, the food and the service are incomparable but the real stars are any of the dishes with Chinese style BBQ, really meat of any kind is beyond description here. The suckling pig, the tender crispy pork, the Wagyu beef…insane stuff."
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"Rooftop garden and terrace in season, phenomenal views of the Vatican, this place is a must, and the only three star restaurant in Rome itself. Taken on its own, that’s kind of meaningless, but the antique tableware, the world's greatest collection of Italian wines, and the world renowned version of the city's famous spaghetti Carbonara comes as fagottelli La Pergola, little edible purses of cheese and ham with pecorino and crushed black pepper might be my favorite pasta dish in the world."
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"The place that started it all. I remember my first meal there decades ago, sitting in stunned silence realizing that butter was churned and bread was baked according to table reservations. There are two menus, the Provence Garden and The Gourmet. I can only tell you I've eaten here three times and had a food boner for days afterwards. The cheese cart is not to be missed. This place is hard to even write about because of the opulent level of finish on every facet of the experience. Alain Ducasse at his regal finest."
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"Guess what? Dinner is open for lunch which is awesome. Almost as sweet as the history lesson on a plate that Blumenthal delivers with edible brilliance. The Meat Fruit is a 500-year-old dish that Blumenthal serves as a liver parfait but looks like an orange. There is surprise at every turn, the menu is inexhaustibly brilliant and frankly to see someone cook at this level of creativity is humbling for any of us that ever got a paycheck as a cook in a restaurant. Simply on another level."
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"There is no menu here at this little eight seat (think Andres' MiniBar) kitchen table tucked away in the back of Jaleo restaurant. The Iberico pork, foie and coffee semi-freddo, Pascualete and cotton candy, each course is a miracle. Add that to the fact that you can enjoy all the amenities of the Cosmopolitan both before and after your world class meal make this one of my favorites."
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Nomad, NoMad Hotel, New York City
"My home away from home. The Nomad restaurant serves some of the best food on the planet thanks to Chef James Kent, the Nomad Bar is the best place to get a drink in town and The Library mixes the best of both. Kent's duck preparations are legendary but don't skip the roast chicken. Really. Best thing is the room service that brings anything on the menus in the dining room to your bed on a tray within 25 minutes. Boom."
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L'Europe and The Caviar Bar, Belmond Grand Hotel Europe, St. Petersburg
"250-year-old hotel in the GRAND tradition. Prowl the lobby bar for Russian oligarchs, Arab sheiks and tin pot dictators of all types and sizes. The best people watching in the world is in that room. Just try to count the bodyguards or thousand-dollar-an-hour call girls. Head up for a pre-dinner caviar binge at the ancient Caviar Bar where the world's best caviar is served in the old style by folks who know their business. There is no place like this hotel in the world. None. Then go get dinner at L'Europe and be stunned back into complete bliss."
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Man Wah, Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
"Incredible views of Victoria Harbor and killer Cantonese classics like crab steamed in egg whites and whole flounder with black bean sauce. I love Chinese food, and this restaurant has a traditional take on the best of Guangzhou style seafood executed to literal perfection."
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Lung King Heen, The Four Seasons, Hong Kong
"Yeah, I love Hong Kong. LKH is the first Chinese restaurant to receive three Michelin stars, the food and the service are incomparable but the real stars are any of the dishes with Chinese style BBQ, really meat of any kind is beyond description here. The suckling pig, the tender crispy pork, the Wagyu beef…insane stuff."
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La Pergola, Cavalieri Roma, Rome
"Rooftop garden and terrace in season, phenomenal views of the Vatican, this place is a must, and the only three star restaurant in Rome itself. Taken on its own, that’s kind of meaningless, but the antique tableware, the world's greatest collection of Italian wines, and the world renowned version of the city's famous spaghetti Carbonara comes as fagottelli La Pergola, little edible purses of cheese and ham with pecorino and crushed black pepper might be my favorite pasta dish in the world."
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Le Louis XV, Hôtel De Paris, Monte Carlo
"The place that started it all. I remember my first meal there decades ago, sitting in stunned silence realizing that butter was churned and bread was baked according to table reservations. There are two menus, the Provence Garden and The Gourmet. I can only tell you I've eaten here three times and had a food boner for days afterwards. The cheese cart is not to be missed. This place is hard to even write about because of the opulent level of finish on every facet of the experience. Alain Ducasse at his regal finest."
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Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London
"Guess what? Dinner is open for lunch which is awesome. Almost as sweet as the history lesson on a plate that Blumenthal delivers with edible brilliance. The Meat Fruit is a 500-year-old dish that Blumenthal serves as a liver parfait but looks like an orange. There is surprise at every turn, the menu is inexhaustibly brilliant and frankly to see someone cook at this level of creativity is humbling for any of us that ever got a paycheck as a cook in a restaurant. Simply on another level."
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é by José Andrés, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
"There is no menu here at this little eight seat (think Andres' MiniBar) kitchen table tucked away in the back of Jaleo restaurant. The Iberico pork, foie and coffee semi-freddo, Pascualete and cotton candy, each course is a miracle. Add that to the fact that you can enjoy all the amenities of the Cosmopolitan both before and after your world class meal make this one of my favorites."
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