From pizza in the Alps to Japanese fine-dining in Helsinki: Where to eat next
These restaurants offer an extra kick alongside their imaginative and varied menus: an ambience and style that is very much their own. Plus, we highlight some bottles to always have in your kitchen cabinet.
1.
Alto Pizza
Bolzano
Parkhotel Mondschein has opened a pizzeria in the former dining hall of the South Tyrol region’s first inn. Brothers Moritz and Klaus Dissertori decided against a Neapolitan concept. Instead, they use a light spelt and wholewheat dough and incorporate locally sourced ingredients: the charcuterie comes from butcher shop Alter Keller in Trentino and the vegetables are from the restaurant’s garden.
The interior design was overseen by Christina Biasi-von Berg, the founder of Merano-based studio Biquadra. She decided to keep the original tiled stove and the belle époque stuccos, and freshened up the wooden counter with a white marble top. Spoilt for choice? Klaus’s favourite item on the menu is the romana with grilled artichokes and pecorino.
Via dei Bottai 25, Bolzano
2.
Keit
Berlin
“Berlin can do everything but bread,” was a fair criticism until a few years ago. That reputation is crumbling thanks to a new crop of sourdough-focused bakeries. Leading the charge is Keit, founded in 2019 by former Adidas creatives Thanos Petalotis and Kolja Orzeszko. “We’re making bread from Berlin, for Berlin,” says Petalotis.
The bakery’s third and latest outpost has just opened in Kreuzberg, created by US designer Michael Burman. At its centre is a granite millstone-turned-counter. Walls are clad in handmade paper, while the benches are made from Douglas fir. The founders’ mantra is less but better – and then better still.
keit.berlin
3.
Belimbing
Singapore
With three successful outposts, The Coconut Club is driving Singapore’s food scene forward with sister restaurant Belimbing. Named after an indigenous fruit still rarely spotted in kitchens, it champions lesser-known aspects of Singaporean food.
Chef Marcus Leow, a veteran of Michelin-starred kitchens such as London’s Ikoyi and Iggy’s in Singapore, gives fresh inflections to familiar flavours. Rojak, a salad tossed with shrimp paste, is amped up with slow-cooked prawn shells, belacan (fermented shrimp paste), shaved ginger flower, Japanese firefly squid, pickled strawberries and powdered dried cuttlefish. It might sound like a tricksy-sounding combo but the result is delicious. Leow shows how far Singaporean cuisine has come and points to the distance that it can still cover.
269a Beach Road, Singapore 199546
Madre Mezcal
Oaxaca
If mezcal is the secret to Mexico’s festive spirit, then Madre Mezcal’s bottles are well worth a toast. Micro batches are made the ancestral way: by roasting agave plants in a pit, fermenting the resulting sugary liquid and distilling it in clay pots. Try the Tequila Blanco, made using blue agave, or the Ensamble Mezcal, a mixture of Espadín and Tobasiche varieties.
madremezcal.com
4.
Shii
Helsinki
Shii doesn’t make much of an impression from the street. But step inside and the atmosphere shifts as your eyes adjust to the low lighting. Here, every detail feels deliberate. “We want people to slow down the moment they walk in,” says chef Nadim “Nadi” Nasser, who opened the space backed by Helsinki’s Financier Group. “There’s a lot of noise in the world. We try to offer something quieter.”
The kitchen’s approach is rooted in Japanese tradition but flexible in its sourcing. Spanish sea bass, Atlantic golden-eye snapper and Japanese hamachi are dry-aged in-house and served alongside locally sourced vegetables. Some ingredients are flown from Japan but the philosophy is about restraint, not purism. “We don’t want to imitate Tokyo,” Nasser says. “This is Helsinki. It should also taste like Helsinki.”
shii.fi
Stuzzi Hot Sauce
South Tyrol
The Alps might not be synonymous with hot sauce but South Tyrol’s aptitude for winemaking translates surprisingly well to condiments. Stuzzi’s creators have plenty of industry experience: US winemakers Carla and Richard Betts have teamed up with Singaporean chef Ethel Hoon and South Tyrolean chef Jakob Zeller of Restaurant Klösterle in Austria’s Zug valley. The result is a streamlined bottle containing dried Calabrian chillies, distilled vinegar and a pinch of salt. Stuzzi also sidesteps brash branding to channel the refinement of Italy’s most elegant province.
stuzzihotsauce.com
