From check-in to chef’s table: Inside the hotels with restaurants that are destinations in themselves
You would think the most memorable part of dining on the 80th floor of The Ritz-Carlton Melbourne, looking out to the city’s skyline and suburban sprawl, would be the view. But as impressive as it is, it’s just one aspect of the experience for those sitting at Table 19, the backdrop to an evening centred on fine food and conversation.
The hotel’s restaurant, Atria, launched the chef’s table, Table 19, in July. Around a beautiful 19-metre table sourced from a fallen Victorian ash tree in the Yarra Ranges, just 10 guests are served a five-course menu helmed by head chef David Green (ex Lake House Daylesford) from an open service counter.
“We saw real value in allowing guests to watch our chefs work with fresh, local produce to create dishes tableside,” Green says.
This intimate set-up means the evening is sprinkled with chats with a chef and sommelier about techniques, produce and wine pairings.
“Our garfish comes from Port Phillip Bay, which is right behind us, and our fishermen go out three times a week,” says one of Table 19’s chefs, Alana, as she serves the spring menu’s garfish citrus ceviche.
“We’ve got a bergamot dashi around the sides: a little bergamot oil, a little kombu cream just to bring that umaminess through the citrus.”
Table 19 is part of a greater category of luxury hotels designing restaurants that are destinations in themselves. In Italy, La Pergola at the Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel, is the only three-Michelin-star restaurant in the eternal city.
Led by Heinz Beck, who also leads the culinary program on the La Dolce Vita Orient Express train, the rooftop restaurant was recently recognised as Europe’s best hotel restaurant at this year’s World Culinary Awards.
Travellers come to feast on Mediterranean dishes like risotto with zucchini cream scented with linden blossoms and marinated langoustine with saffron sauce, while watching the sun set over the dome of St Peter’s Basilica.
On the opposite side of the globe, the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver, Canada, describes its Hawksworth Restaurant as “a tribute to the Pacific Northwest”.
Named for renowned local chef David Hawksworth, the Michelin-recommended restaurant celebrates seasonal and regional cuisine. Fresh oysters, caviar and seafood towers all feature, and for comfort food done exceptionally well, its Sunday roast includes dry-aged organic prime rib from a local cattle farm – served with all the trimmings, of course.
The restaurant has received several accolades, including North America’s best fine-dining hotel restaurant in the 2026 World Culinary Awards.
Long before any of the above, however, Raffles Singapore has long been a stalwart example of destination dining. Its north Indian Tiffin Room has been part of the hotel since 1892, paying homage to the maharajahs’ golden age.
Named for traditional tiffin boxes – the stackable containers used to carry meals in India – diners can look forward to authentic specialties from award-winning chef Kuldeep Negi.
