Luxury hotels strive to offer their guests amenities of the highest caliber. The Michelin restaurant guide represents the highest level of cuisine. Because it’s constantly expanding beyond Europe, there are now hotels with Michelin-starred restaurants across the globe.
21212: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Guests can sit down to a dinner inside a stately Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh’s Royal Terrace, and feast on creative dishes that could include scallop beignet with egg custard mustard or celeriac ambrosia with smoked vanilla dill.
Although chef Paul Kitching’s modern, French-influenced menu changes weekly, there’s always an excellent wine pairing available thanks to the restaurant’s extensive list.
Tucked away on the two upper levels of the house are four spacious and airy bedrooms, each with its own dedicated lounge area. The decor is contemporary with designer furniture, but all of the period architectural features have been preserved whenever possible.
21212, 3 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5AB, United Kingdom +44 131 523 1030
Belmond Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Celebrities such as Walt Disney, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe and the Rolling Stones have flocked to this historic beachfront hotel since it opened in 1923.
The suites and penthouses, all with either city or sea views, are outfitted with antique furniture and French textiles that correspond with the building’s original Art Deco design. After a day at the namesake beach, guests head to the legendary piano bar for a caipirinha or to the spa for treatments that incorporate native ingredients like acai, guarana fruits, and Amazonian clay.
They can also spend their evenings indulging in pan-Asian cuisine from chef Ken Hom at Mee. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in the inaugural Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo guide in 2016.
There’s a dedicated sushi bar where diners can try 10 of the chef’s unique fish dishes. In addition to the food of Japan, you’ll also find specialties from all over Asia such as spicy Thai salad or Vietnamese salt and pepper crab.
Carlton Hotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland
The luxury hotel in the Swiss ski town of St. Moritz has been welcoming guests since 1913, and the palatial decor is said to take inspiration from the Russian Tsars.
From one of the 14 elegant suites, guests can enjoy some of the best views in the Alps.
The balconies, as well as the hotel’s serene spa and wellness center, all overlook the mountains and the famous Lake St. Moritz.
After spending the day skiing down the pristine slopes, perhaps with the assistance of one of the hotel’s outdoor butlers, guests can indulge in an Italian-inspired meal at Da Vittorio.
Overseen by brothers Enrico and Roberto Cerea, it’s the sister restaurant to the original of the same name in Brusaporto, Italy. Their creations are all based on seasonal ingredients and might include delicacies like grilled langoustine with almonds or risotto with smoked onion cream, shrimp, and tangerine reduction.
The Hassler, Rome, Italy
Perched at the top of the Spanish Steps, this luxury hotel has an unsurpassed view of Rome. Some of the hotel’s 92 elegant rooms and suites have expansive balconies with access to a sweeping panorama that spans from the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica all the way to the Altare della Patria.
It’s the ideal place to sip a glass of sparkling Ferrari Rosé procured from the in-room minibar.
The same view is also available from the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant Imàgo, located on the sixth floor, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Naples-born chef Francesco Apreda pays tribute to his experience working in Japan with dishes like blue lobster with hijiki seaweed salad and Parmesan cheese, or risotto with red chicory, Robiola cheese, and coriander seeds. They all combine traditional Italian cuisine with flavors of the East.
The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, Virginia, United States
The Washington D.C. metro area is packed with great restaurants, and Michelin recognized 12 of them in the city’s inaugural 2017 guide. But the Inn at Little Washington, which turns 40 this year, is so unique that the inspectors added it the guide despite its location 70 miles outside the city in the town of Washington, Virginia (often called Little Washington because of its proximity to the capital).
Self-taught chef Patrick O’Connell specializes in four-course tasting menus that could include extravagant dishes like caramelized Catalan custard with foie gras and port-soaked raisins or butter-poached Alaskan halibut with sauce barigoule and caramelized fennel, possibly paired with wines culled from their 14,000-bottle cellar.
After luxuriating in the sumptuous dining area decked out in drapery and rose-colored silk lampshades hanging above the tables, diners who have made a reservation can then retire to one of the equally baroque rooms for an overnight stay.
The Langham, Shanghai, China
Despite its location on The Bund in Old Shanghai, this hotel lies inside an ultra-modern glass building, and the guest-room decor leans towards the contemporary with a sprinkling of traditional Chinese elements. All of them, however, feature floor-to-ceiling windows that show off breathtaking views of the city.
T’ang Court was awarded three stars last year and subsequently became the only restaurant in mainland China with that honor.
Under the supervision of executive chef Justin Tan, diners kick off a multi-course tasting menu with marinated jellyfish in vinegar, deep-fried codfish seasoned in sweet soya sauce, or chilled rice noodle sprinkled with peanut, and marinated cucumber topped with sliced abalone. It ends on a sweet note with double-boiled bamboo bird’s nest with white fungus and apricot kernel accompanied with Chinese sweets
SingleThread, Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County got another high-end restaurant when chef Kyle Connaughton and his wife Katina Connaughton opened this ambitious spot in 2016.
It was fortunate enough to avoid the recent fires, so it’s still making waves across the San Francisco Bay Area. And in a region where it can feel like practically all the restaurants do farm-to-table cooking, this one takes it the extra mile.
The always changing menu is based on 72 distinct micro-seasons instead of the standard four. Guests reserve tables by buying a nonrefundable ticket in advance for the 11-course, ingredient-driven meal served in a serene 52-seat dining room.
After such a lengthy meal, diners can retire to the second floor to one of five guestrooms, including a 700-square-foot suite. Breezy Scandinavian design meets a farmhouse vibe in the decor, which complements the overall theme of the restaurant.
The Yeatman, Porto, Portugal
Wine lovers flock to The Yeatman, a wine-themed hotel tucked among famous port houses like Taylor’s and Croft that cling to the hills of the Vila Nova de Gaia neighborhood in Porto.
The hotel spa even does treatments using skincare products that contain wine extracts, and the rooms and suites are named after specific wineries. Those that face the River Douro have unparalleled views of Porto’s historic center.
That view is also present in the hotel’s restaurant that has held two Michelin stars since last year. Chef Ricardo Costa creates tasting menus that are a contemporary interpretation of traditional Portuguese flavors, and his dishes are always ideal for pairing with The Yeatman’s vast collection of local wines.
