Debriefing on My First Michelin Star Restaurant Visit

While visiting Lisbon, my friend and I happened upon a Michelin Star-winning restaurant very close to our Airbnb. I’ve never had a full dinner at a restaurant of this caliber before¹, and the prices were substantially better than what I’ve seen in Chicago. We decided to take the plunge and make reservations.

First Impressions

I’d consider myself the opposite of a foodie. The more pomp and circumstance around food, the less I like it. And indeed there was a lot of pomp right from the start.

To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying this kind of thing. It just isn’t my style.

The host took our jackets and showed us around the restaurant (including window views) as if we were touring an apartment. The dining room was quite dark. The chairs were surprisingly comfortable.

Despite the chairs though, I found myself quite ill-at-ease. It felt wrong to speak much louder than whisper, and I suspected that lapsing into my customary slouch would be frowned upon by the wait staff.

I was presented with a napkin on a tray and apparently expected to remove it as some sort of ritual – the first of several uh oh moments that reminded me I had no sense of the norms here.

Actual Foods

I selected the four-course meal and accompanying wine pairing. Before each dish, a waitress would first bring out a new wine and tell me about it with descriptors that – unfortunately – meant absolutely nothing to me. Then a waiter would bring the next course and explain it similarly, though I was at least able to understand more about the food than about the wine.

Recalling the particular courses wouldn’t be interesting for you to read, and definitely not for me to write, so I’m not going to do it.

It was fancy and mostly pretty tasty, and the portions were small but not comical. Before the dinner, I’d told myself I’d stop at McDonald’s on the way back if I were still hungry, but in fact I didn’t need to.

The wine, to a person who rarely drinks anything that isn’t sold at Aldi, was surprisingly good. The one white still tasted as all white wine does to me: like old, tangy grapes. But the reds were noticeably distinct from what I’d had before, and the two port-style wines were truly tasty.

Takeaway

I’m glad I did it. It was expensive, but it was an experience I likely won’t do again for a long time, and it forced me to learn some fine dining customs (e.g. picking up a napkin proffered like an hors d’oeuvre).

Eating so slowly, with a full dinner stretched out over more than two hours, really does force you to appreciate and think about the food more. But it’s also very boring.

Ignoring price for a moment, was it better than a solid Japanese or Indian restaurant I might visit for $30 in Chicago? I think no. The food was more interesting but less satisfying, and the experience itself was too slow and stuffy for my taste.

My best future food adventures are more likely to involve me eating takeout from the comfort of my couch.