London
For tasty Mexican, head to La Bodega Negra in Soho. For something new, go to The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields. It’s done by 80s kids, so there’s plenty of Ghost Busters and Ferris Bueller references. And there’s an awesome speakeasy downstairs: when you enter (through a retro SMEG fridge door), you have to announce that you’re the “Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town” in order to be allowed in. You can tell they haven’t held back here.
Sydney
When we’re in other people’s restaurants in Sydney, we’re never relaxed – it’s a curse of the industry. But for Monday to Friday dining, we love Fratelli Paradiso in Potts Point, or Popolo and Fishface in Darlinghurst.
For a special occasion, Momofuku is very cool. Had he [David Chang] opened a little Momofuku noodle bar on a corner in Surry Hills, it would have gone off, but everyone’s got to cash in every now and again, and Chang can name his price now.
New York City
Mission Chinese Food is hard to beat. It’s an underground Chinese restaurant in the Lower East Side that looks like a takeout shop from the front. Inside, they play Chinese rap, and you drink out of a keg while you wait for your food. Subtlety doesn’t exist in this city. Otherwise, Catch in the Meatpacking District is really good for seafood.
