What we do

foodtourist.com is dedicated to food lovers throughout the world who have embarked on the quest of searching out the best restaurants, the best food stores, the best wine merchants and the best food products! We share with you the experiences of our reviewers who have so far been in Europe, Australia, the USA and South East Asia.

At foodtourist.com you won't find lists of the world's most expensive and well-known restaurants although some of them are certainly here. You can read about Etxebarri in Axpe, Le Comptoir in Paris, Mugaritz in San Sebastian, the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, The Whampoa Club in Shanghai, Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, Ambria in Chicago, Alain Ducasse in Paris, the Blue Ginger in Singapore, Tetsuya's and Rockpool (fish) in Sydney and Hutong in Hong Kong.

But some of the best food experiences our reviewers have reported have been in unlikely places: skewered lamb in a market in Thessaloniki, grilled red mullet in Kavala, sipping great coffee in Turin's glorious cafés, the freshest possible seafood on the island of Cheung Chau, kamumoto oysters freshly shucked at a market in Vancouver, sipping beautiful bo lai (pu-ehr) tea in Washington DC and uncovering the delights of fermented durian (tempoyak) in a back street in Kuala Lumpur. These experiences were not expensive, but they were memorable.

foodtourist.com also recognises that many people travel widely seeking out great food experiences. For this reason, our reviewers have shared information about hotels and good limousine services. You will find reviews of some of the world's great hotels such as the Peninsula in Hong Kong, Raffles in Singapore, the Renaissance in Kuala Lumpur, the Jefferson in Washington, the Inn at the Market in Seattle and the Bristol in Paris. Rather than simply list the great and the well-known hotels though, we've tried to find hotels that are perfect for food lovers. Take the Inn at the Market in Seattle. Not only is it right next to the famous Pike Place market but one of the best restaurants in the north-west (Campagne) is right there in the hotel.

foodtourist.com accepts that no one web site is going to give you everything you need to make a decision about where to eat and what food-related places to visit in any city. To that end, we review web sites and books that our reviewers have found useful when preparing for a visit to a city. These are qualitative reviews. There's no shortage of web sites and books covering travel and food. We've tried to sift through them for you and highlight only the very best.

A final comment. foodtourist.com is based in Australia and France and so our coverage of major Australian and French cities and towns is especially detailed. Whether you're visiting Sydney, Melbourne, Paris, Avignon, Nice, Adelaide, or even the island state of Tasmania, you'll find reviews of restaurants and other food spots. We've also created some Special Searches, including Australia's top ten restaurants and recommendations for good value eating.

Our rating system

foodtourist.com does not believe that it is possible to be completely objective about the reviewing of restaurants. Too many factors come into play. All reviewers have their foibles. They have their likes and their dislikes and it is difficult to completely set these aside. We have, however, given each restaurant a numerical ranking out of 20. Above 15 means that it should be taken very seriously, 13 or 14 means good food and 11 or 12 indicates that there is some good food served but other factors such as service or atmosphere might be lacking. 

But we also ask our reviewers to tell us about the places that they really like and feel particularly comfortable in. We ask them to assign a number of "hearts" to indicate those places where they feel that they want to go back to time and time again because the food is good and the service welcoming and thoughtful. So our reviewers have rated Chez Panisse at three hearts but they have also given Sailor's Thai canteen where you sit at a table with 50 other people to eat dishes that are less than $20 the same rating. 

So look at both the rating and the number of hearts to get an overall feel for what our reviewers think about the place. And you can enjoy the site in the knowledge that all reviews are carried out anonymously and all meals and accommodation are paid for in full. If you know of a place that should be included in this site, let us know and we will schedule a review.