While hotels that offer top-notch scenery aren’t exactly scarce, some go the extra mile to ensure their restaurants, where reservations are available to both guests and outside diners, offer equally captivating visual experiences.
When Sedona’s much-beloved Enchantment Resort was planning its recent $25 million renovation, it added floor-to-ceiling windows and wraparound patios so guests would have unfettered views of the area’s magnificent red-rock-dominated landscape.
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Che-Ah-Chi—the two-floor Southwestern-inspired restaurant that joined Enchantment in May—opens out to a panoramic showing of these red-rock formations.
“We wanted to make sure that the guests felt like they were right in the canyon,” explains resort president Mark Grenoble, who oversaw the renovations, including the addition of Nana doors at Che-Ah-Chi to create a special indoor-outdoor dimension.
The task of developing a stimulating space that marries available visuals with what comes out of the kitchen requires chefs who not only appreciate the scenery but are also inspired by it. “There’s no doubt you’re in Arizona red-rock country when dining here,” says Che-Ah-Chi executive chef David Schmidt. “My menu includes a lot of local ingredients, like the mushrooms I forage in the nearby forest, so there’s definitely a Southwestern accent to my cooking. I really want diners to taste what fresh Arizona cuisine can be, and the jaw-dropping view just reinforces that every time they look up from their plates.”
Across the Atlantic in Porto, Portugal (the country’s second-largest city), the restaurant at The Yeatman Hotel is celebrating its first Michelin star for its Portuguese seafood menu courtesy of Ricardo Costa, one of that country’s most notable chefs. The coup for Costa shows The Yeatman’s commitment to having one of the best dining rooms around, and this attention to superior quality extends beyond the kitchen.
Situated along the Douro River, The Yeatman was destined from the beginning to have gorgeous views of the city’s historic center. Its fifth-floor restaurant has some of the most commanding vantage points at the hotel, especially if you are lucky enough to snag a spot on the terrace, where you can watch the flow of the river—the life source of the region’s famed vineyards. You can sample these very grapes at The Yeatman, whose cellar houses the largest collection of Portuguese wines in the world.
In Tokyo, the year-old Sushi Sora restaurant, on the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental, delivers stunning cityscape views that include the world’s tallest tower. Sushi chef Yuji Imaizumi serves up a rotating menu that reflects the changing seasons. “Eating seasonal ingredients while seeing the season in front of you is a special experience,” he says. We agree. From teetering cliff-top dining to dazzling underwater scenery, these ten restaurants serve up spectacular views.
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Mar’sel at Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Set on the jutting Palos Verdes Peninsula, Mar’sel’s majestic panoramas of the Pacific Ocean and nearby Catalina Island are the perfect setting for chef Michael Fiorelli’s equally inspiring menu of seasonal dishes.
Enjoy a refreshing and on-trend kale salad, followed by roasted king trumpet mushrooms and mascarpone polenta with some of the most beautiful moonrise scenes around. (Moonlit dining is so hot here, Terranea keeps a calendar detailing when the moon rises and sets and what phase it is in.)
The restaurant favors locally sourced ingredients, most of which come from its own garden, built in 2009. Rooms, from $425; 100 Terranea Way; 310-265-2800; terranea.com.
Sushi Sora at Mandarin Oriental Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Last summer’s opening of Sushi Sora at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo added yet another boldfaced eatery to the hotel’s already illustrious gourmet portfolio, which boasts a slew of Michelin-starred dining outlets.
Located on the 38th floor, with massive windows that frame the city’s stunning skyline, Sushi Sora is also the premier restaurant from which to see the recently completed, 2,080-foot Tokyo Skytree broadcast tower.
Manning the menu is sushi veteran Yuji Imaizumi, whose close relationship with some of the Tsukiji Fish Market’s best fishermen and produce merchants yields the freshest seasonal dishes around. Rooms, from $530; 2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi; 81-3/3270-8800; mandarinoriental.com.
The Yeatman’s Restaurant, Porto, Portugal
With Michelin-approved Ricardo Costa—the former executive chef at Casa da Calçada in Amarante, which nabbed two stars during his tenure—manning the kitchen, it didn’t take long for the restaurant at the now two-year-old Yeatman to rise to prominence.
The backdrop includes the famed Douro River and Porto’s historic city center, but Costa’s technique of updating old-school Portuguese cooking methods with contemporary touches is the foundation of his seasonal menus, which also call on the country’s great seafood tradition.
With offerings like a roasted lobster appetizer topped with citrus dressing and crayfish glazed with oyster yogurt and served with eel-and-foie-gras terrine, it’s no wonder that Costa won yet another Michelin star in November 2011. The wine cellar boasts 1,000 local and international wines, making this a truly blockbuster dining experience. Rooms, from $172; 250 Rua do Choupelo; 351-22/013-3100; the-yeatman-hotel.com.
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