THE JOURNAL
Photograph courtesy of Isabel, London
Where to go it alone, and not need your phone.
We’ve all, at some point, been there – you’re on a business trip in a new city, hungry and flushed with the swagger of someone in possession of an expense account. But here is the dilemma – you want a decent meal, but you don’t want to sit in the middle of some buzzed-out restaurant hogging a whole table with only an iPhone for company. What you need is a counter, preferably with a view or a bar or open kitchen, where you can drink your martini and eat your steak frites with a lack of self-consciousness as delicious as the ribeye. To give you a head start, we have toured the world in search of the best places to dine solo.
Gracias Madre, Los Angeles
Photograph courtesy of Gracias Madre
Gracias Madres is the upmarket spin-off of the life-affirming Café Gratitude chain, which gives its dishes such names as “I am fulfilled” and “I am serene”. But don’t let this put you off. The vegan food with a Mexican accent is very good indeed at Gracias Madre. Located at the end of Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue it is a bright, airy edifice with a large patio and profusion of pleasing Mexican tilework. The main action is inside at the long counter with its attendant row of high suede-topped stools. The menu, created by Ms Chandra Gilbert, is wholly organic and there is a lengthy juice menu, which makes full use of the more abstruse vegetables – burdock root, anyone? Order some nachos and guacamole and settle in at the bar for an evening of prime WeHo people watching.
What to order: the deep-fried flautas, stuffed with caramelised onion and sweet potatoes, and finished with guacamole and cashew nacho cheese
What to wear
Happy Paradise, Hong Kong
Photograph courtesy of Happy Paradise
When you are dining alone, it pays to do it somewhere that is sufficiently buzzy that you don’t stand out like a tank top at Ascot. Well, places don’t come much buzzier than Happy Paradise. This modern Cantonese restaurant, opened by Australian chef Mr John Javier and renowned restaurateur Ms May Chow, is a riot of chrome and neon, a nod to the old Shanghainese barbershops and old cha-chaan-tengs (Hong Kong tea restaurants). Mr Javier is the past master of poultry preparation and so the menu is largely focused on chicken, duck and pigeon, though the single page à la carte menu still has space for classics like char siu, silky egg and rice. The music is loud, the drinks strong (try The Unbeatable Conman) and the atmosphere pumping – a fine place to make new friends and influence people.
What to order: the wonderfully gamey, tea-smoked pigeon
What to wear
The Grounds of the City, Sydney
Photograph courtesy of The Grounds of the City
A casual viewing of the The Grouds of the City in Sydney might lead you to believe you were actually in 20th-century Paris. Its red neon sign, food served from butler’s trays and walls lined with bookshelves carved from 300-year-old oak are all very General de Gaulle. With its low-lights and sexy design – the place has a full time in-house stylist – it is popular with first daters, but also comes equipped with a long dining bar with a line of red, wing-backed leather chairs on which you can make your way through the menu, which traverses classic French (steak with café de Paris butter and frites) and modern SoCal dishes.
What to order: poké-style chirashi salad bowl with a zingy sesame-lime dressing
What to wear
Vini e Fritti, New York
Photograph by Ms Liz Clayman, courtesy of Vini e Fritti
Mr Danny Meyer is one of the undisputed princes of the New York scene, and his latest opening, Vini e Fritti, a 50-seat Roman-style piazza is suitably imperial. All trad tiles, marble-topped tables and dark wood against white walls, it is very pretty indeed. The menu, from executive chef Mr Joe Tarasco, who previously worked at the Gramercy Tavern, is short and sweet, taking in a range of Roman favourites from mushroom and fontina suppli to bagna cauda with raw vegetables. Either take a seat at the long bar or at one of the high counters around the columns and drink in the scene, and one of the tasty Italian wines, of course.
What to order: the seafood fritti
What to wear
Coda, Berlin
Photograph by White Kitchen, courtesy of Coda
With its stripped wood bar and industro-chic concrete walls, Coda is Berlin down to its very chair legs. Opened by Mr René Frank, formerly of three-Michelin star La Vie in Osnabrück, and with the bartender from famed Lost In Grub Street, it drawers in the beau monde like monkeys to a bread basket. The menu is largely focused on sweet dishes and there is an à la carte and six-course tasting menu. The chef eschews added sugars and tends to produce lighter concoctions. The eggplant done four ways is a particular triumph of ingenuity, coming variously, slow cooked in oil, pickled, dehydrated and cooked in its own sugars.
What to order: tofu and black garlic
What to wear
Mishiguene Fayer, Buenos Aires
Photograph by Mr Santiago Soto Monllor, courtesy of Mishiguene Fayer
The literal translation of Mishiguene Fayer is “crazy fire” and the reputation of its founder the chef Mr Tomás Kalika has spread with all the alacrity of wild fire since he opened the original Mishiguene in 2014. His genius there was to produce up-market variants of the type of Jewish food everyone’s bubbies used to make – things like varenikes, the thin-skinned dumplings, and whole-roasted cauliflower cooked in milk. At his new restaurant, Fayer, he concentrates on the emerging Jewish-Argentine cuisine and so uses a traditional Asado grill to cook on. This upmarket Buenos Aires eatery gets very busy, especially for Shabbat on Friday, however, the crafty solo diner can more often than not score a seat at the bar. Arrive hungry.
What to order: asado cooked pastrami
What to wear
Isabel, London
Photograph courtesy of Isabel
Isabel is just about the prettiest restaurant in London, a (literally) gilded pleasure palace where the well-coiffed art scene meets the auction-house boys to pass the time. There is Dublin-green brocade on the walls and even the loos have hand painted chinoiserie wallpaper by de Gournay – it’s just that sort of place. Ask one of the rangy hostesses for a seat at the central, four-sided Macassar ebony bar. Lit warmly by a hundred odd brass ceiling lamps and serviced by staff in Napoleonic-blue uniforms, it’s the prime spot to goggle at the opulence of the scene, as whole artichokes and pumpkin tortelli are passed around. The latest opening from Chilean-born Mr Juan Santa Cruz, who also has Casa Cruz in Notting Hill and Buenos Aires, his photogenic customers also include Mr Michael Fassbender and Mr David Beckham. And what’s more, they have just launched a lunch hour menu, where you can get salads, fresh fish or short ribs on the hop.
What to order: nibble at the ’ndjua pizette and drink a glass of Taittinger