Best Places to Go If You Love Food
Some destinations are worth visiting purely to eat. These cities and regions have built entire cultural identities around their cuisine — here's where every meal becomes a memory.
- San Sebastián, Spain
- Tokyo, Japan
- Bologna, Italy
- Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Lima, Peru
San Sebastián, Spain — The World's Most Michelin Stars Per Capita
San Sebastián — or Donostia in Basque — is a compact coastal city of just 186,000 people that somehow holds more Michelin stars per square kilometre than anywhere else on earth. This is not a statistical quirk; it is a reflection of a culture in which food is treated with the same seriousness that other cities reserve for sport or religion. The Basque people have a word — txoko — for the private culinary societies where members gather to cook elaborate meals together, not to eat out, but to cook. This obsessive relationship with food permeates everything: the markets, the bar counters, the supermarkets, the school canteens.
The most accessible expression of this culture is pintxos — small bites served on bread, skewered with a toothpick, lining every bar counter in the old town from around 7pm each evening. You walk from bar to bar, taking what catches your eye, washing it down with a glass of txakoli (the local slightly sparkling white wine, poured from a height to aerate it), and paying at the end by counting toothpicks. A full, deeply satisfying evening of eating and drinking costs €15–€25 per person. The bars on Calle 31 de Agosto and Calle Fermín Calbetón are the most celebrated for pintxos quality. Bar Zeruko and La Viña (famous for its burnt cheesecake, copied everywhere but never equalled) are essential stops.
"I have eaten in three-Michelin-star restaurants in four countries," wrote food writer James Cavell in Condé Nast Traveller in 2024, "and my single best meal of the decade was at a pintxos bar in San Sebastián that I cannot find on any map app. The woman behind the counter was 70 years old and had been making the same anchovy pintxo since 1989. It cost €2.50." For the full tasting-menu experience, Mugaritz (two Michelin stars, avant-garde and challenging — not for everyone) and Arzak (three stars, more approachable, rooted in Basque tradition) require booking 3–6 months in advance. Both are worth every minute of the wait.
4-Day San Sebastián Food Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, check in to the old town (Parte Vieja). Evening pintxos crawl on Calle 31 de Agosto — aim for 5–6 bars
- Day 2: La Bretxa Market in the morning (fishmongers, cheese, jamón). Afternoon: Aquarium and La Concha beach walk. Evening: txakoli wine bar and sit-down dinner at a traditional sidrería (cider house)
- Day 3: Day trip to Biarritz (45 min by train) or the Rioja Alavesa wine region (1h by car). Return for evening pintxos
- Day 4: Guided pintxos tour or cooking class (Mimo San Sebastián offers excellent options, €85–€120/person). Farewell lunch at Kokotxa or Bar Borda Berri
Daily Budget (San Sebastián)
- Budget: €70–€90/day. Hostel or guesthouse €35–50, pintxos evenings €15–25, lunch menú del día €12–15
- Mid-range: €150–€200/day. Boutique hotel in old town, sit-down dinners, one winery visit
- Splurge: €400+/day including one tasting menu at Arzak or Mugaritz (€230–€280 per person for food alone)
- Txakoli wine: €2.50–€3.50/glass. Pintxos: €2–€4 each. A filling pintxos dinner: €15–€25 total
Getting There & Practical Tips
- Nearest airports: Bilbao (1h by bus, €17 with Lurraldebus) or Biarritz, France (45 min). No direct flights from the US
- Train from Madrid: 5h 20min by high-speed AVE (€30–€60 booked in advance)
- Pintxos hours: bars fill up from 7–8pm. Arrive at 7pm for fresh stock and space; after 9pm on weekends it's packed
- Sunday: most shops closed but the market and pintxos bars are open — actually the best day to visit
- Language: Spanish and Basque (Euskara). A few words of Basque (eskerrik asko = thank you) are received with enormous warmth
Tokyo, Japan — 200+ Michelin Stars in One City
Tokyo holds more Michelin stars than Paris, New York, and London combined — 230 as of the 2024 guide, across 12 three-star establishments and dozens more at one and two stars. But the paradox of Tokyo food is that the most profound eating experiences often happen at places without a single star, at counters with eight seats, in basement restaurants that have been making the same dish since before the guide existed. The Michelin stars are real and the starred restaurants are extraordinary — but they are the visible tip of a culinary culture so deep and serious that it permeates every level of the food system.
The ramen culture alone would justify Tokyo as a food destination. There are ramen styles specific to each ward of the city — the shoyu ramen of Asakusa, the rich tonkotsu variants of Shinjuku, the experimental mazemen (brothless ramen) of the younger chefs in Shimokitazawa. Ichiran and Ippudo are the famous chains, but the real experience is a queue-to-enter neighbourhood shop where the chef has been refining the same recipe for decades. Budget ¥800–¥1,500 ($5–$10) for a bowl that will recalibrate your understanding of what noodle soup can be. Tsukiji outer market (the inner market moved to Toyosu) remains the best morning food destination in Asia — get there by 6:30am for tuna auctions and fresh sushi breakfast at a counter the size of a bar stool.
"The hardest thing about eating in Tokyo," wrote Anthony Bourdain in Medium Raw, "is accepting that you cannot eat everything. Every block has something extraordinary. Every department store basement (depachika) has a food hall that would be the best food hall in any other city in the world." The depachika — the basement food floors of Isetan in Shinjuku, Takashimaya in Nihonbashi, and Shibuya Hikarie — are the most reliable way to understand the full scope of Japanese food culture in a single afternoon. Budget ¥2,000–¥3,000 ($13–$20) for a depachika eating session across multiple counters.
7-Day Tokyo Food Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, recover, depachika evening at Isetan Shinjuku basement — graze across counters
- Day 2: Tsukiji outer market at 7am (tuna sashimi breakfast), Asakusa senbei (rice cracker) shops, ramen lunch in Asakusa
- Day 3: Toyosu tuna auction (book 2 months ahead via Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market), sushi breakfast at counter in Toyosu
- Day 4: Ginza — high-end kaiseki lunch or set menu at a restaurant with a view. Evening: yakitori under the Yurakucho train tracks
- Day 5: Shibuya/Shimokitazawa — coffee shop crawl, natural wine bar, izakaya dinner
- Day 6: Day trip to Kamakura — fresh seafood at Enoshima, shirasu (whitebait) bowls, wagashi (traditional sweets) in the temple areas
- Day 7: Final morning at Ameyoko market in Ueno, last ramen, departure
Daily Food Budget in Tokyo
- Budget eating: ¥2,000–¥3,500/day ($13–$23). Convenience store breakfast ¥500, ramen or set lunch ¥800–1,200, izakaya dinner ¥1,500–2,000
- Mid-range: ¥6,000–¥12,000/day ($40–$80). Sit-down restaurants for lunch and dinner, sake bar evening
- Splurge: ¥30,000–¥60,000/day ($200–$400) for kaiseki or omakase sushi experiences
- Omakase sushi counters: ¥15,000–¥50,000 per person ($100–$330) — book months in advance for top spots
- The menú equivalent: department store basement lunch sets ¥1,200–¥2,000 are exceptional value
Etiquette at Japanese Food Venues
- At sushi counters: eat nigiri immediately after it's placed in front of you — it is prepared at the precise moment for a reason
- Ramen: slurping is encouraged and signals appreciation to the chef
- Tipping: absolutely not. It causes embarrassment and may be refused
- Photographing food: acceptable at casual restaurants; at high-end counters, ask before raising your phone
- Shoes: at traditional restaurants with tatami seating, shoes come off at the step. Wear clean socks
- Counter dining: do not talk loudly or on your phone. The chefs appreciate quiet appreciation
Bologna, Italy — The Fat City
Bologna is called "La Grassa" — The Fat One — and it wears the nickname with complete self-satisfaction. This is the city that gave the world ragù (what the rest of the world calls bolognese, though the authentic version looks almost nothing like the ground-beef-in-tomato-sauce that bears its name internationally). It gave the world mortadella — the original, studded with cubes of fat and pistachios, utterly unlike the pink luncheon meat sold in its name elsewhere. It gave the world tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo, and lasagne verdi. Bologna is not a city that has a food scene. Bologna is a food scene that happens to also have a city.
The Quadrilatero market district — four streets of covered market stalls between Via Drapperie and Via Pescherie Vecchie — is the most concentrated expression of Italian food culture outside a private home. Fishmongers, cheese caves stacked with wheels of aged Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino, butchers hanging prosciutto from every beam, pasta shops where elderly women roll egg pasta by hand from 6am. Walk through it slowly on a Tuesday morning when the locals shop, and you will understand Italian food in a way no restaurant can teach you. The Mercato di Mezzo, a covered hall on Via dell'Indipendenza, is slightly more tourist-oriented but excellent for lunch.
"I have spent time in every major food city in Italy," wrote food historian Rachel Roddy in The Guardian in 2023, "and Bologna remains in a different category. The ragù here is softer, richer, and more patient than anything I have made at home or eaten in Rome or Florence. The woman who taught me to make it had been doing so for 60 years. She used wine I wouldn't dare put in a glass." (The Guardian, Food section, October 2023.) The city is also home to FICO Eataly World — the world's largest food and agriculture theme park, controversial among Bolognesi but genuinely educational and entertaining for visitors who want to understand Italian food production from field to plate.
3-Day Bologna Food Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, Quadrilatero market walk, lunch at Tamburini (the city's most famous deli, standing room), afternoon pasta-making class, evening osteria dinner
- Day 2: Morning at San Luca Basilica (6km porticoed walkway — the longest in the world). Afternoon: Parmigiano-Reggiano dairy visit or balsamic vinegar producer near Modena (30 min). Evening: tortellini in brodo at Trattoria Anna Maria
- Day 3: FICO Eataly World (half-day), final lunch with mortadella and tigelle bread at a local spot, depart
Daily Budget (Bologna)
- Budget: €55–€75/day. University-area trattorie lunch €10–14, aperitivo with food included €8–12, hostel €25–35
- Mid-range: €120–€170/day. Boutique hotel, proper osteria dinners €25–40/head with wine
- A pasta-making class: €60–90/person (3–4 hours, includes lunch)
- Parmigiano-Reggiano at source: wheels start at €15/kg — bring luggage space
- Bologna is an easy day trip from Florence (37 min by high-speed train, €20–40 booked ahead)
Etiquette & Practical Notes
- Do not order "bolognese" — order ragù or tagliatelle al ragù. Bolognese is a foreign word here
- Lunch is the main meal: 12:30–2:30pm. Evening dining starts at 7:30pm. Restaurants that open at 6pm are for tourists
- The city has a large university population — locals are international-minded and English is widely spoken
- Bologna is compact and walkable; the famous porticoes mean you can walk everywhere in the rain without getting wet
- Avoid August: the university empties, many local restaurants close for summer holidays
Chiang Mai, Thailand — $2 Meals That Change Your Life
Northern Thai food is a distinct culinary tradition from the central Thai food most Westerners know — earthier, less sweet, more bitter, and deeply aromatic with dried spices rather than fresh herbs. It developed in the Lanna Kingdom, which was independent from the Thai state until 1892, and shows strong Burmese, Shan, and Yunnanese Chinese influence. The essential dish — the one that justifies the flight more than any other single food on earth — is khao soi: a coconut-curry broth enriched with both braised and crispy egg noodles, served with chicken or beef, lime, shallots, pickled cabbage, and chilli oil. Every family, every restaurant, every street vendor has their own version. Finding the one that becomes yours is one of travel's great small pleasures.
The Sunday Night Market on Wualai Road (Saturday) and the Walking Street on Wualai Road (Saturday) and the Sunday Night Market on Thanon Wualai are the most celebrated street food events in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of vendors spread across pedestrian streets under string lights, selling everything from mango sticky rice to sai ua (northern Thai pork sausage packed with lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves) to crispy pork rinds to the local naem (fermented pork sausage with a pleasantly sour, funky quality). A full meal from multiple vendors costs ¥100–¥200 Thai Baht ($3–$6). The quality is extraordinary.
"I did a Thai cooking class in Bangkok and it was good. Then I did one in Chiang Mai and it completely changed what I thought cooking was," wrote one TripAdvisor reviewer of the Mama Noi Cooking School in 2024. "We went to the market first to source ingredients, learned about the history of each dish, and cooked eleven things in a morning. The khao soi I made tasted better than anything I've had in a Thai restaurant back home." (TripAdvisor, Chiang Mai Cooking Class reviews, 2024.) Cooking classes are excellent value: a full-day class including market visit, typically 6–8 dishes, and lunch costs THB 1,000–1,500 ($28–$43).
5-Day Chiang Mai Food Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, evening at the Sunday Night Market — eat everything, especially sai ua, mango sticky rice, and khao soi
- Day 2: Full-day cooking class (Mama Noi, Zabb E Lee, or Thai Farm Cooking School all excellent)
- Day 3: Morning at Warorot Market (the local's market, not the tourist one) — breakfast from market vendors. Afternoon: Doi Suthep temple, back for evening street food
- Day 4: Day trip to Chiang Rai (3h by bus) — White Temple, Blue Temple, night market
- Day 5: Final khao soi hunt (Khao Soi Khun Yai and Khao Soi Mae Sai are the most celebrated spots in the city)
Daily Budget (Chiang Mai)
- Budget: THB 800–1,200/day (~$23–$35). Guesthouse fan room THB 300–500, market meals THB 40–80 each, songthaew (red truck taxi) rides THB 30–50
- Mid-range: THB 2,000–3,500/day ($57–$100). Boutique hotel with pool, restaurant dinners, guided experiences
- Luxury: THB 8,000+/day ($230+). Luxury resort spa, cooking class, private tour
- Khao soi at a celebrated local restaurant: THB 60–80 ($1.70–$2.30). At a tourist-facing restaurant: THB 120–180
- Cooking class: THB 1,000–1,500 ($28–$43) including market visit and lunch
Safety & Cultural Etiquette
- Chiang Mai is very safe — one of Thailand's most comfortable cities for solo travellers and families
- Temple dress code: cover shoulders and knees at all temple sites. Most temples lend wraps at the entrance
- Do not touch monks or hand anything directly to a monk (if you're a woman)
- Remove shoes before entering any temple building and some restaurants
- Tap water is not safe to drink — stick to sealed bottles. Street food cooked fresh is generally safe; avoid anything that's been sitting out
- Scams: tuk-tuk drivers who offer a "special price" to take you to a gem store or tailor are to be politely declined
Lima, Peru — South America's Culinary Capital
Lima's rise to the top of global gastronomy lists has been one of the great food stories of the 21st century. In 2013, Central — chef Virgilio Martínez's restaurant in Miraflores — entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants list for the first time. By 2023 it was number one. Maido — which serves nikkei cuisine, the extraordinary fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cooking that developed when Japanese immigrants arrived in Peru in the late 19th century — has sat in the top five for years. Astrid y Gastón, Kjolle, and Mérito complete a cluster of world-class restaurants in a single city that has no parallel outside Paris, Tokyo, and Copenhagen.
What makes Lima exceptional rather than merely impressive is the depth beneath the fine dining. The huariques — small, family-run restaurants in working-class districts like Surquillo and Lince — serve ceviche made from fish landed that morning, for $5–$8. Mercado de Surquillo is the best food market in South America: three floors of produce, a dedicated ceviche hall, a rotisserie chicken section, a juice bar floor where vendors will blend anything you point at. The Peruvian potato alone comes in over 3,000 varieties. Lomo saltado — stir-fried beef with tomatoes, onions, and chips, a dish that reflects the Chinese chifa influence — is available everywhere and is the ultimate Lima comfort food.
"I saved up for two years to eat at Central," wrote one Reddit user on r/food in 2024. "The tasting menu takes you through 17 ecosystems of Peru, from sea level to 4,500 metres altitude. I ate things I couldn't name, prepared in ways I didn't understand, and every bite made me feel like I was in a geography class and a philosophy lecture and a dream simultaneously. It was the most extraordinary meal of my life. And then the next day I had a $4 ceviche in Surquillo market and it was almost as good." (Reddit r/food, Lima thread, 2024.)
5-Day Lima Itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive, settle into Miraflores. Evening: pisco sour at a classic bar (Bar Inglés or Huaringas), ceviche dinner
- Day 2: Mercado de Surquillo morning (arrive by 9am), Miraflores seafront walk (Malecón), cevichería lunch at La Mar or Chez Wong (book ahead)
- Day 3: Barranco neighbourhood — bohemian, arts district, best for brunch and gallery hopping. Afternoon: Larco Museum (world's best pre-Columbian collection). Evening: fine dining reservation
- Day 4: Day trip to Pachacamac archaeological site (30 min from Lima). Return for afternoon anticuchos (grilled beef heart skewers) at Grimanesa Vargas — a Lima institution
- Day 5: Final morning at the fish market in Chorrillos to watch the morning catch arrive, farewell ceviche, depart
Daily Budget (Lima)
- Budget: $30–$50/day. Hostel in Miraflores $15–25, huarique meals $4–8, public transit $0.50–1 per ride
- Mid-range: $80–$130/day. Boutique hotel, restaurant dinners $20–40/head, taxi rides
- Fine dining: Central, Maido, Astrid y Gastón — tasting menus $120–$180 per person, wine pairing extra
- Ceviche: from $4 at a market stall to $25 at a celebrated cevichería. The difference is real but both are worth trying
- Pisco sour: $5–$8 at a good bar, the benchmark drink of Lima
Safety & Practical Notes
- Lima is a large city and standard urban precautions apply — stay in Miraflores, Barranco, or San Isidro for tourist areas
- Do not walk with your phone visible or take out your camera in non-tourist areas
- Licensed taxis only — use InDriver, Cabify, or Beat apps rather than hailing on the street
- Altitude: Lima is at sea level but day trips to Cusco or Machu Picchu involve significant altitude (3,400m+) — allow acclimatisation time if combining
- Tap water: do not drink. Food at reputable restaurants is safe; be more cautious with very cheap street vendors
- US State Dept rating: Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution. Check current advisory before travel