Who is running the kitchen and where they came from, the shape of the list, how far ahead you have to book and for which tables.
Luxury restaurants have traditionally introduced themselves through the menu. MUJE, the new Manhattan restaurant from three-Michelin-star chef Jungsik Yim, is taking the opposite approach. Before revealing what guests will eat, it has revealed how they will feel—suggesting that, in contemporary fine dining, atmosphere has become the opening course.
Alex Chang and Lina Goujjane's second Soho restaurant seats 39 around a five-stool wine and sake bar. Studio Tre's interior argues the case before the kitchen says a word.
Hong Kong's hotels have stopped treating drinks as an amenity and started building programmes that compete with the city's best independents. Singapore is doing the same thing with heritage. One of those strategies is easier to fake than the other.
At Four Seasons Los Cabos at Costa Palmas, the hardest table to get is a garden that seats a dozen people once a night. It is also a neat illustration of what is happening to resort kitchens everywhere: fewer covers, shorter supply chains, smaller plates.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten's terrace at The Mark and Marea's courtyard on Central Park South anchor the alfresco season, while The Carlyle, The Fifth Avenue Hotel and The Knickerbocker build programmes around a single cocktail.
New destinations, hotel openings and what our editors thought of them. Written for people who travel slowly.
