We stayed at the Shelbourne for five nights from October 20-25, 2022. I chose this place for a ton of reasons, but the number one reason was to use up a bunch of Marriott Bonvoy points that had accumulated over the pandemic. Because I was using old travel credits for the flights for this trip, I wanted the trip to be as free as possible, so I cashed out about 250,000 Marriott points to stay at one of the most…
So I love doing a high tea when I go on vacation – especially if there is a fancy one in a fancy hotel that is KNOWN for tea. (I also love a high tea here in Chicago as there are a ton of amazing places for it!) Tea is also a great thing to do on the first day when you arrive in Europe or somewhere else where you may be feeling pretty tired or jet laggy. The 2…
We were very excited to add another Michelin Star to our list, and Glover’s Alley in Dublin was the place where we did it. While I can’t say it was the best meal we had in Dublin, it was certainly the longest and most expensive. The best part about our meal were the wines, which were all incredibly exquisite. The place itself is super cool with an ultra mid-century vibe. The upholstery is pink and velvety, or teal and leathery,…
When you think about Dublin, you don’t typically think about elevated cuisine. Usually its more of the fish n’ chips and bangers n’ mash variety of food. But don’t let its cruddy reputation fool you – Dublin has some really amazing eateries and we enjoyed a wide variety of cuisine from, yes, fish n’ chips, to fancy fish we have never even heard of like “plaice”! Delahunt was easily my favorite meal of our five nights in Dublin due to…
Under Grain was our second and last Michelin-starred experience in Valletta, and we ate here on the last night of our trip. Originally, I had booked at Grain Street, since we already had a Michelin star under our belt and we didn’t want to spend a ton of money. Grain Street has a Michelin “bib gourmand” which means it is excellent food for the value. While we were in Valletta, I received a phone call stating that somehow the reservation…
Tmun capped off an extremely busy and tiring day in Gozo, and it really was the perfect end to our day. I chose Tmun because it is located right in the harbor of Mgarr, Gozo, and its proximity to the ferry which we would need to catch to make it back home to Valletta. I had originally made a reservation for inside, but the evening was so incredibly perfect and beautiful, that the host obliged our request to sit outside…
I decided that in order to fight the jet lag, I would book a reservation in the evening on our first night in Malta in order to motivate us to stay up later than we otherwise would have. I mean, when we arrived in Spain in June of 2022, on our first night, we went to bed at 6:30pm and it was a massive struggle to stay up even til then. On this euro-trip, though, we booked dinner reservations at…
I was so excited to go to dinner at Noni, a one-star Michelin rated restaurant in Valletta, Malta. Not only was it going to be our daughter Anna’s first Michelin-starred experience, but it promised to be one of our nicest dinners for our entire trip. Noni easily lived up to my high expectations! Noni is located on Republic Street, which is the main thoroughfare running through the center of Valletta. It was towards the northern tip of Valletta and we…
It is pretty much impossible for me at this point to go to a city, especially in Europe, and not do a food tour. As I’ve mentioned before in several articles, it’s a great way to get to know a city, try some traditional food, and find some hidden gems. This time, I booked a private tour for three of us through Offbeat Malta Food Trails. I would have done a regular tour of theirs, but at this time they…
For our last night in Spain, we went to a restaurant that was recommended by our Hotel Concierge – Can Cisa/Bar Brutal. It seemed super hip and very wine-centric, which was something that I was especially looking forward to. When we arrived, we were seated towards the front of the space, although the a/c was not working there which made it a bit stuffy. Because of that, though, our water for the night was free, which is something that…