Caelis

Full disclosure: I spent a whole minute just turning my wine glass by the stem, watching candlelight move through the bowl, because every object on a Caelis table earns that kind of attention — the heft of the silverware, the linen, the spacing between you and your neighbor. Romain Fornell runs the kitchen at the Hotel Ohla, cooking French-schooled food on Mediterranean product, serious without a hint of stiffness. The staff read our mood almost instantly: we came to play, so they played along, and nobody steered us toward the check. Expensive? Very, and fair, because you're buying an evening rather than a dinner. Save it for actual news, the kind where you'll want to remember the room. I manage a couple visits a year, never without a reason, and the reason has yet to feel thin.