By Chris
August 30, 2020 • 6 min read
As a child, I used to love plain food. The plainer the better. Hotdogs should be eaten completely plain. Why would anyone put ketchup or mustard on it, let alone onions or sauerkraut? Pizza should be cheese only. Adding toppings would increase my workload of picking off all intruders to my pizza. Sauces were in general moist, soggy and unpleasant. Cereal was my #1 food: plain, sugary, almost devoid of nutrition, and perfect.
I never imagined that as an adult, my tastebuds would change and I would eventually crave excitement in flavor and enjoy trying new things. This led us to book a reservation at the Michelin starred Restaurant 360 in Dubrovnik. It has one Michelin star and upon researching it, we found it had good reviews and a great view. Check out the night view from our table:
Upon arriving at the door embedded in the Dubrovnik walls itself, a staff member with a utilitarian clear plastic face mask greeted us and ushered us up the stone steps to the spacious outdoor seating atop the wall. Our table was by the water and we could see the Dubrovnik harbor complete with replicas of 16th century merchant ships sailing in.
Waitstaff instantly appeared and took our order for drinks. I had a moment of longing that zipped through me but I batted it down, thinking of the neverending stairs to our airbnb that awaited us afterwards. The last thing I wanted was a headache while doing that. Thus we ordered non-alcoholic drinks that turned out delicious and unique. Our sparkling water was refilled every 10 minutes or so, just when it got a quarter of the way depleted. The staff seemed magical in being non-intrusive but instantly attentive.
I'm "shoulding all over myself" right now since I don't remember what the trio above consisted of. They were delicious and exciting though. The macaron at the end was actually a savory flavor (i think truffle perhaps?) that melted into our mouths with intensity but also delicacy in texture. It was the best macaron I've had in terms of what it felt like and how much flavor burst forth. The second best so far would have been at a train station in Tokyo.
A seriously perfect amount of time later, our first courses arrived. I had a beetroot risotto that impressed me in its glorious magenta, and Brandon had Mackerel with miso mayo. We both loved the risotto with its blue cheese and gorgonzola splashes. The blue cheese cut well into the creaminess of the bite. I don't even really like blue cheese but it was perfect for this.
Brandon especially enjoyed the "trout caviar" (the orange Roe, er fish eggs) on his mackerel. The server sounded like an expert in his description of the mackerel and its many sidekicks. He then said, "basically whatever is on the left has a very strong flavor so slide it through the miso for balance". I loved that we were taught how to eat a dish properly. To me this showed an incredible amount of thought when designing the meal.
For his entree, Brandon picked the pork neck that our server informed us was cooked at low temperature for 24 hours then braised. He particularly liked the juiciness of the meat, the pumpkin cream on the side, and the cheese sauce from Pag (in Croatia).
My duck breast had perfect texture and juiciness as well. It had a very rich flavor so I ate it in small bites. I was most surprised by how fun and delicious the onion filled with duck confit was. I had to google the term "confit" (along with like 10 other terms in this blog lol) and it refers to a slow cooking preservation style of the entire duck from French cuisine. I cut into the onion and a light fluffy whipped-like concoction of the confit poured out. Delicious. My "worth-it-meter" kept on rising due to thoughts that I'd never think of stuff like this, nor attempt cooking it.
After our entrees, the server inquired about desserts. At first we said no and were surprised when we got three mini desserts anyways. Upon reflecting on how unique everything we had eaten was, we changed our mind and Brandon ordered a pear dessert.
Before the pear arrived, they surprised us with a second dessert pictured above (one for each of us). It looked like it arrived in a space pod and consisted of sorbet and yogurt mousse. It tasted light and refreshing.
Finally, our actual dessert arrived. At this point I was too full to eat much more, so Brandon took one for the team and informed me the pear kadaif was delicious with interesting textures. However, the yogurt mouse was probably his favorite. Also FYI from my googling, a kadaif aka kanafe aka kunefe is a traditional middle eastern dessert typically soaked in a sugary substance and layered with cheese or nuts.
As our 3-hour dinner drew to an end, we saw a throng of people coalescing in the harbor. White robed priests led some sort of procession that we later learned was for the August 15th Assumption of Mary celebration. It would have been cool to see a procession in normal times, but due to the current pandemic, we were a bit concerned for the people who made up the crowd below.
Overall we thought Restaurant 360 was completely worth it. We spent about $200 USD altogether, on two non-alcoholic drinks, two first dishes, two entrees, one dessert, and ended up getting a trio of amuse-bouches and two sets of surprise desserts also included. The service was the best I've had thus far with almost magical appearances by staff. The view was amazing, and we felt safe and socially distanced atop the wall and from other guests. The food was delicious and inventive and I would definitely go back.
Our only other two Michelin experiences were in Japan with Marcus and Jr. We had eaten at a Ramen restaurant called Tsuta that had a very good shoyu soba ramen topped with some truffle oil. It was good but did not "wow" us. We actually liked the ramen chain Ichiran a bit better.
The other restaurant was a kaiseki restaurant that specializes in multi-course traditional Japanese cuisine. This experience was awesome but I do not feel able to fully trust my experience of the food since many things in the courses were simply too foreign for my western palette. I felt a bit sad my taste buds were not expanded enough yet to fully appreciate it.
We look forward to continuing to try new foods and flavors.
January 25th to February 20th After our brief stay in Singapore, we more or less spent the next month (from January 25th to February 20th) on various Thai islands. It was a blast and a really unique experience. Looking back on it I'm probably struck the most by how different the experience was on each of the islands. We also had some interesting experiences getting to and from the different…