The Most Expensive Restaurants In The World
Put your money where your mouth is and discover these (very) high-end restaurants from around the world.
Copenhagen’s Alchemist restaurant promises ‘holistic cuisine’ - a blend of food, drama and art. $15m was spent (ten times the initial budget) converting an old Copenhagen shipyard into a futuristic restaurant - part planetarium and part cathedral of food. The cavernous interiors have been stunningly transformed to feature a sequence of jaw-dropping dining spaces that diners have to walk around throughout the course of the five-hour, 50-course meal. Dine on spectacular dishes or 'impressions' that take principles and techniques of molecular gastronomy, but presented in familiar forms and whimsical platings. The dinner-meets-performance-art experience costs around $600 a head. Despite the price, the waiting list already runs to over 20,000 people.
Renowned two Michelin-stared Madrileño chef, Paco Roncero presents an innovative multi-sensorial dining concept - under the roof of the Hard Rock Hotel in Ibiza. Expect a ‘gastro-sensory venue’, fusing culinary art and technological innovation, creating a unique experience and serving up 15-course menu of high-tech haute cuisine. Think edible entrance tickets, a variety of seafood cooked in a shell and a DIY salad that guests pick from vegetables that appear to be growing out of the table. The 350-metre, chromatic dining space focuses on temperature, humidity, aroma, visuals and music and is limited to just 12 guests at the table per ‘show’. Dinner is priced at $2,000 per person.
Chef Masayoshi ‘Masa’ Takayama’s original omakase (Zen-filled) temple in New York’s Time Warner Center has held three Michelin stars since 2009, sees a dinner for two at the 26-seater restaurant easily run to $1,500. A solid hinoki wood sushi counter is the focal point of the otherwise simple décor at Masa, allowing the luxury ingredients (seafood flown in daily from Japan) and flawless dishes to shine. A refined feast for any special occasion, the extensive multi-course tasting menu runs through caviar-topped toro tartare, kegani crab, geoduck nigiri and matcha mille-feuille. Every ingredient is treated with the utmost respect and traditional technique.
UltraViolet is one of the most elite and expensive restaurants in the world, with just one table in the 'experiential eatery' located 'somewhere in Shanghai'. Over a 22-course menu (priced between $500 and $900 per perso), just 10 diners a night are immersed in an environment that manipulates and melds light, sound, scent, temperature and theatre to create a culinary experience beyond compare. Each avant garde course highlights different ingredients that are presented in innovative ways. Dining in this three Michelin-starred restaurant is a theatrical and multi-sensory experience that engages all the senses.
Internationally renowned French chef Guy Savoy created his eponymous Paris restaurant in 1980 (there's another one in Las Vegas), recipient of three stars by the Michelin Guide. The 18th-century, neoclassical building - set on the banks of the River Seine - houses a sucession of elegant rooms designed by star French designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte - a fitting setting to showcase the best of French haute cuisine. His signature 'Colours, Textures & Flavours' tasting menu comprises of 13-courses and rings in at $478 per person - excluding drinks. Each dish promises to touch on each category - think: concassé of oysters, seaweed and lemon granité, a lobster ‘surprise’, caviar with smoked sabayon’ and black-truffle soup with layered brioche.
