The words “funky” and “Geneva” do not belong in the sentence, let alone the same galaxy, but let’s pretend someone actually managed to put them together. What you’d get is La Cour des Augustins, a boutique/gallery/design hotel, not far from the center of town. Because it also functions as a boutique that sells lamps, glassware, and objets d’art, it does not feel like a hotel, but a curated art gallery with funky furniture. The rooms are spacious and filled with light, with all the conveniences you expect: wireless Internet access, TV, iPod docks. Many visitors to Geneva end up staying in one of the historic grand hotels. That’s fine for bankers, but if you want something contemporary and smaller in scale, where service is personal, attentive but unobtrusive, La Cour des Augustins is ideal. The only drawback about staying in this hotel is that it is not quite in the center near the Rue du Rhône. You have to walk about 15 minutes or take the tram.

La Cour des Augustins
Rue Jean-Violette 15
Geneva, Switzerland
+41 22 322 2100
www.lacourdesaugustins.com

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Zurich is a wonderful city with stunning views of the mountains across the lake. It is cosmopolitan and urbane despite its small size. If, after two days of eating heavy central European food, you are craving something more exotic, make sure you go to Maison Blunt, a popular restaurant in the neighborhood behind the train station.

Maison Blunt serves Moroccan food: couscous, tagines, and mezzes (cold and warm). The place is packed, so you must reserve ahead of time. The crowd is young and artsy; the place has an industrial feel with Mediterranean tiles on the floors. One advantage of eating out in this neighborhood is that there are funky bars and cafes nearby. On warm days, you can even eat in the outdoor terasse (in their backyard).

Maison Blunt
Gasometerstrasse 5
8005 Zürich
Switzerland
+41 43 211 00 33
www.maison-blunt.ch

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You would think that, with lots of expensive high-rise condo buildings in this area (the Watermark, One Rincon Hill, The Brannan and further afield, the Infinity) and tech businesses (in South Park), you’d see better restaurants. Alas, the neighborhood is cursed by its proximity to the Ball Park, which means greasy ball park food (Momo’s, Tres Agaves, Burger Bar and their ilk). There are a few gems: South Food and Wine Bar, Local (which unfortunately has not been as good as before) and South Park Cafe (still a wonderful French bistro). But until the arrival of Ozone, no decent Asian place.

We went to Ozone Thai last night and told the kitchen to make everything super spicy: the tom yum khai soup with shrimp, spicy fish and calamari with sauteed long beans. All the dishes were very delicious! They have a good selection of cocktails, too, and my lychee martini was quite strong and not too sweet. The service is excellent: friendly, attentive but not obtrusive.

The owner came to our table after dinner (which I thought was a lovely thing to do) and asked if everything went well. We told him how delighted we are to have an excellent Thai restaurant close to our building. But we warned him that the phone number I painstakingly searched for on the Internet does not work. He apologized, saying that they are still trying to switch out the old Jack Falstaff number. As for home delivery, they will start after the inauguration on November 21. Another plus: they’re open till 2:00 in the morning.

Ozone Thai Restaurant
598 2nd St (at Brannan)
San Francisco, CA 94107
(no phone number yet)

Visit our map of favorite restaurants in San Francisco.

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Photo credits: Glen Bolosan

If you find yourself wondering where to have lunch near the Piazza Barberini – home to the Fontana del Tritone of Bernini – make an effort to walk to a small side street that is off the busy Via delle Quattro Fontane to find this little gem of a restaurant called Hostaria Romana.

Because it is off the main road, tucked away in a small street, it is not a tourist trap like the other places around the Piazza Barberini. The food — mostly Roman dishes — is very delicious. We had bucatini alla ‘matriciana (guanciale, piquant tomato sauce), a soup of pasta and beans, artichokes and spinach, and of course, a carafe of red wine. It was crowded at lunch with people from neighboring offices. The antipasti selection is amazing: fresh sardines, grilled artichokes, salumi and more. We found this restaurant by accident. We were very hungry but wanted to eat where the locals go, so we followed our rule which is to veer off to the smaller streets and search for menus that are only in Italian. That’s how we found Hostaria Romana.

Hostaria Romana
Vial Del Boccacio, 1
Rome, Italy
+39 06 47 45 284

** Check out: my favorite restaurants and cafes, and favorite hotels in Rome. See all of my Rome favorites on a Google Map.

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At Ristorante Nino, we watched an elderly couple who must have been in their late 70s, perhaps 80s, perform what seems to be their Saturday afternoon ritual which consists of discussing the menu of the day with the chef, then with the maitre d’, then with several waiters. Finally, they settled at their favorite table (riservato, of course, lest some unknown, never-to-return-again noisy tourist family occupy the sacred spot), but not before the man assisted his wife with her fur-trimmed coat. He took off his felt hat and his impeccable wool jacket, handed all of them to the waiter, then ordered a carafe of wine. In other cities, these people might be considered strange birds of a dying species, but in Rome, one sees elegant couples like them eating out in places like Dal Bolognese and Al Pompiere.

It’s difficult to get a table at Nino unless you reserve in advance or you arrive before the 2pm Saturday lunch rush. We had no reservations, but we were patient and waited for 15 minutes. It was very much worth it. For antipasti, we had thin slices of finocchiona toscana which melted in our mouths. Then we had the bean soup. “You must try the beans at Nino,” one of my friends advised us, and we are glad we did. Of course they have pasta dishes and secondi (meat and fish), if you are very hungry. You can also go there for dinner but again, you must reserve in advance. The prices are reasonable. The house wine in a carafe was very inexpensive for a place that’s just a block away from the luxury boutiques.

Ristorante Nino
Via Borgognona, 11
00187 Rome
Italy
+39 06 6795 676

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5. Al Granasso: lunch with the locals near the Piazza del Popolo

On our first night in Rome, we dined with friends at Il Bacaro, a restaurant that they recommended. Since our friends are locals, we trust their choices. But when it came time to head to the restaurant, we could not find it on our (paper) map. Thank heavens for Google Maps! We found Il Bacaro on a tiny alley not far from a piazza that is fairly popular with tourists (and filled with tourist pizza joints).

Although the restaurant is very small it does have outdoor tables, which come in handy when the weather is lovely. The food at Il Bacaro is wonderful! We shared antipasti of buffalo mozzarella and eggplants. I had a risotto with squid, vegetable ragu and balsamic vinegar. My dining companions had beef tartare; hand-made pasta with pumpkin, sage, guanciale (a type of bacon from Lazio) and parmesan; and risotto with zucchini flowers and taleggio cheese. Check out Il Bacaro’s menu.

What I especially like about Il Bacaro is that it is a perfect place to spend a long evening with friends or, if you are not meeting friends, it’s a cozy corner of Rome where you can relax and have a great meal. It’s very popular with locals so you must call to reserve. The best time to eat is 9:00 pm and after. Otherwise, you’ll be eating all alone and you won’t be able to indulge in that favorite Roman pasttime: people-watching.

Il Bacaro
via degli Spagnoli 27
Rome, Italy
+39 06 687 2554
www.ilbacaro.com

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Located right on the Piazza del Popolo, it is extremely popular with politicians, actors, designers and everyone else who thinks they should be seen in public wearing the latest Max Mara fur jackets and Prada boots. Needless to say, reservations are necessary. Don’t expect to get the best seats in the house, notably, the tables outside, as they are “reserved” for the regulars.

We went to Dal Bolognese at 9:30 in the evening, which is the perfect time to have dinner in Rome. The restaurant was packed with men in elegant suits and women in gorgeous silk and cashmere ensembles.

Dal Bolognese serves food from Emilia-Romagna, which is best known for Parma ham, parmigiano reggiano cheese, and balsamic vinegar (from Modena). So, of course, for the antipasti, we ordered Parma ham. There were other antipasti that looked tempting: culatello di parma, bresaola di chianina, coppa di testa (wild boar salami), to name but a few.

For my main course, I had to try the tagliatelle alla bolognese which was piquant and not at all heavy as I had imagined. My dining companion had the nodino di vitalla con carciofi (veal chops with artichokes) and it was exceptionally delicious — tender slices of veal, artichokes filled with delicate herbs, in a rich sauce.

Prices are on the high side: €13 to €20 for antipasti; €16 to €18 for pasta dishes; €19 to €26 for meat dishes; €17 to €30 for fish courses.

For wine we tried the Barbera d’Alba Paiagal 2006 (Antichi Poderi dei Marchesi di Barolo). This Barbera was quite rich in flavor (it tasted of currants) and the price was reasonable (34 EUR). This is another reason I love eating out in Italy: the price of good wine is not astronomical and restaurants don’t make this pretentious song-and-dance about wine.

What I also noticed was this: people sitting at the tables next to us had been there for quite a while before we arrived and they lingered on, having dessert and grappa, engaged long discussions and lively debates. The restaurant staff did not try to rush them out and they were in no hurry to leave. They simply sat there enjoying each other’s company, and I thought, how sad it is that in many cities around the world, very few people truly socialize in this manner, conversing with one another, oblivious to time, over good food and a bottle of wine.

We had our dessert and our grappa, like the others, and when it came time for us to leave, we decided to walk home and enjoy the crisp autumn air. On the way, we stopped to take one more look at the Pantheon, which is lit up at night and looks eerie amidst the lively crowds of the Piazza della Rotonda.

Dal Bolognese
Piazza del Popolo, 1
Rome, Italy
+39 06 361 1426

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(1) Go to the side streets or the streets off the main tourist drag. In this case, I was walking away from Via Condotti — Rome’s most famous shopping street — towards the Piazza del Popolo. Instead of taking the most direct route, the Via del Babuino (more designer boutiques and tourist pizza places), I decided to take a small detour and walk down the Via Ripetta which is quieter, more local. I also knew that eating on any of the main squares would be somewhat disastrous (with the notable exception of Dal Bolognese on the Piazza del Popolo).

(2) Look for menus in Italian only. Restaurants frequented by locals don’t bother to translate the menus or daily specials they post on their windows.

Using these two rules, I found Al Granasso on via Ripetta 32, next to a football (soccer) nostalgia boutique that sells vintage jerseys and Adidas sneakers. It is tiny and easy to miss. However, it caught my eye because posted at the door was a dark green chalkboard with handwritten specials of the day, all in Italian. I peeked inside, saw well-dressed Italian men and I immediately decided this was the place to have lunch.

Only seconds after the waiter handed me a menu, people began streaming in. Because the front room is tiny (8 tables), many had to go downstairs to the cellar where they have (a few) more tables. So, if you come to Al Granasso, don’t come too late. Shortly before 13:00 is fine, but if you arrive any time after that, you’re going to be banished to the underworld. Note: it’s not THAT bad since this is Rome after all, and people are lively and interesting to watch.

Lunch was divine. The antipasti of fried carciofi (artichoke) was different from how it is served in other restaurants. Most places stuff the artichoke with herbs, then fry it. But at Al Granasso, they slice it thinly lengthwise, then fry the pieces. The result: crispy, crunchy delicate strips of artichoke (not greasy).

The small salad of greens, rucola and anchovies, with just a bit of olive oil and a hint of lemon, was simply wonderful. I love eating anchovies in Italy because they do not serve the horrible salty little things that come in tiny glass jars (as sold in supermarkets outside Italy), rather  the anchovies are whole, packed in salt and taste fresh.

For the main dish I opted for orecchiette with fresh small tomatoes and rucola. No secondi for me, although the men at the next table seemed to be relishing their big meat dishes. Then they had grappa and went back to the office. I don’t know how they do it. I would have had trouble stumbling out of the restaurant had my lips come in contact with even one drop of grappa. Dessert of tiramisu followed by a shot of espresso, as usual, perfectly made (I have never had bad espresso in Rome), and I was ready to climb the hill above the Piazza del Popolo to the Villa Borghese.

Al Granasso
Via Ripetta 32
Rome, Italy

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5. Il Buco: excellent Tuscan food near the Pantheon in Rome

So you’ve just finished wandering inside the Pantheon, gazing with wonder at the perfect symmetry of the dome and the massive columns that, to this day, stand for the glory of ancient Rome. You’ve been walking for hours, darting in and out of churches, marveling at the Caravaggios and Berninis sprinkled across the city.

It’s lunch time and you’re ravenous, but you’d rather starve than eat in one of the hyper-touristy restaurants around the Pantheon with their five-language menus. You want a cozy restaurant that is patronized by the locals and serves very delicious, reasonably priced food.

I found such a delightful little gem tucked away on a side street, close to the Pantheon and the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (a church built on a shrine to the goddess Minerva). It is called Il Buco and it serves wonderful Tuscan food.

Since it’s October, Il Buco is serving dishes with tartufo nero (black truffles). I had the tagliolini ai tartufo and all I can say is that it transported me to the heavens. I can’t remember having a pasta dish as delicious as this one in recent memory. It is devastatingly simple: fresh tagliolini with butter, shavings of black truffle, salt, pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and topped with parmigiano reggiano. My lunch companion had ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach with a bit of a nutty cream sauce (just a tiny bit, not drowning in thick gobs of cream as this dish is often served in other countries). We shared a carafe of red wine, and finished up with tiramisu and two espressos.

One of the delights of eating out in Rome is the price of wine. I have paid between €3.50 and €5 for a carafe of good red wine, which encourages a rather decadent daily habit of having wine with lunch and dinner. Wines at Il Buco are inexpensive, so go ahead and order a Barbera d’Alba to go with your meal. If you are really hungry and want to try out Il Buco’s secondi (meat and fish courses that come after the primi and antipasti), be aware that it is a Tuscan restaurant so they serve large meaty dishes.

Il Buco Ristorante Toscano
Via di Sant’Ignazio, 7
00186 Rome
Italy
+39 06 679 3298

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It’s not easy to find reasonably priced, up-to-standard accommodations in Rome. The city is extremely popular with travelers and space is limited so there are a lot of dodgy, expensive hotels but few upgraded boutique hotels that don’t cost more than 200 EUR per night. That’s why I like Kame Hall, a four-room hotel in what’s possibly the best location in Rome: off the Piazza Mattei, which is famous for the Turtle Fountain. The hotel is only a few minutes from Trastevere, the Campo de Fiori, and the Pantheon. It is 20 minutes’ walking distance from the fabulous shopping area of the Via Condotti.

Kame Hall’s four rooms are located in a recently renovated building from the 1600s. It is on a tiny side street that has very little traffic or noise, a big plus in Rome. I once stayed on the Campo de Fiori in a pensione without air conditioning or fans, in early July, and although the view onto the Campo de Fiori was perfect, it was also extremely noisy and impossible at night.

So when I am in Rome, I make sure to choose an apartment or hotel on a side street, preferably not right next to a restaurant or bar. Kame Hall is, in this respect, ideal.

The rooms in Kame Hall are spacious, filled with light, and they have all the amenities that travelers expect: free Internet access (wired, not wireless, so if you own a Mac, you’ll have to turn on Internet sharing if you are traveling with a companion), air conditioning, mini-bar, a safe and TV. Bathrooms are modern and also very spacious, with strong water pressure. That means fantastic showers after a long day walking around in Rome.

Prices are reasonable. For a double room in October, I paid 160 EUR per night. Many hotels in Rome charge far more money but are run down, noisy, decrepit and unpleasant. So, Kame Hall is a gem in one of the best neighborhoods of Rome.

Kame Hall
Via Paganica, 9
Rome, Italy
+39 06 68 13 55 68
www.kamehall.com

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