Europe's Best Places to Eat Like a Local 2013

Eat your way across Europe—from a canal-side wine bar in Copenhagen to a classic Roman trattoria—with these local favorites as your guide.

It’s the best breakfast on the Bosporus: a lavish spread of eggs, sheep’s-milk cheeses, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, warm sourdough bread, local honey, and chai, on a rooftop terrace with postcard-worthy views. $$

Follow Islington’s beau monde to this high-end Middle Eastern bakery and café, where the tantalizing bread platter (toasted tableside) is a full meal in itself. $$

Though it’s welcomed plenty of tourists over its 137 years—not to mention habitués like Freud, Lenin, and Trotsky—the utterly grand café inside the majestic Palais Ferstel is known among pastry-obsessed Wieners for serving the best, flakiest strudel in town. $$

A new-wave coffee shop in the 10th arrondissement from rock-star barista Thomas Lehoux, whose cappuccinos are made with cult Telescope beans. tenbelles.com. $

The vibe is Mad Hatter meets 1950’s hausfrau at this Kreuzberg takeout bakery, where master pastry chef Andreas Minsch turns out his extravagant confections. You’ll be hard-pressed to choose between an enormous cinnamon roll or a slice of the popular Black Forest cherry cake. 49-30/2845-0894.

Adjacent to a farmers’ market just off the Circus Maximus is a pretty-in-pink pasticceria where Parisian-style tartlets are made with regional ingredients like apricots and pistachios. Order the flaky ricotta-and-chocolate-filled Romanella at the counter with an espresso—then get another one to go.

Squeeze in amid the regulars at this outdoor fish stall—they’re all devouring massive plates of perfectly steamed mussels. poissonneriemerdunord.be. $$

The most delicious plate of pasta in Rome is served in a narrow space with 15 paper-topped tables: cacio e pepe with pecorino and handmade noodles, garnished upon request with a generous dollop of sheep’s-milk ricotta. $$

Pleasure yachts from Capri and Positano drop anchor for lunch perched over the Mediterranean. The only thing fresher than the peppery wild arugula salad is the ricci (sea urchin) in the spaghetti. $$$

A chalkboard menu behind the counter tells you what’s on offer (fish pies; grilled herring; a crab sandwich with chips) at this classic holiday spot. hivebeachcafe.co.uk. $$

On a tiny, car-free isle between Patmos and Bodrum, Turkey, this harborfront restaurant is a popular stop for the sailing crowd. Everything is impossibly fresh, from the crawfish sautéed in lemon oil to the creamy local goat cheese. marathi-island.gr. $$

Beside the harbor in a tiny Costa Brava town, Els Pescadors serves up the day’s tastiest catch—prawns, John Dory, sea bass, turbot—brought in by the fishing boats bobbing just a stone’s throw from your table. restaurantelspescadors.com. $$$$

The most charming restaurant in western Sicily sits an hour’s drive inland from Marsala, on a remote hilltop. Nearly everything is made in-house: tangy ricotta, fragrant wildflower honey, garlicky salumi, silky tagliatelle, even the bittersweet amaro digestif. ardigna.it. $$

Take a tram from downtown, then walk up a trail to this traditional country restaurant and beer garden, where regulars gather over plates of schnitzel and Älplermagronen (creamy macaroni with cheese and potatoes). wirtschaft-ziegelhuette.ch. $$$

Choose your own fillings or defer to chef Delphine Zampetti for a deceptively simple baguette sandwich at her petite, retro-flavored deli in the 11th Arrondissement. 33-1/43-71-90-75. $

Rustic wooden tables and an open kitchen this 11th Arrondissement space a farmhouse vibe; the menu of neo-bistro classics is both soulful and inventive. septime-charonne.fr. $$$

At this elbow-to-elbow, standing-room-only “hors d’oeuvres bar” in the Sixth Arrondissement, the bread basket is communal, but the foie gras skewers and boudin noir macarons are just for you. 33-1/44-27-07-97. $$

Across from impossible-to-book Frenchie in the Second Arrondissement lies its edgy sibling, whose shared tables, 80’s rock playlist, and small plates (pulled pork on brioche) are all the rage. frenchie-restaurant.com. $$

In the 11th Arrondissement is the classic Parisian bistro every carnivore dreams of, with knife-cut steak tartare, foie gras haricots verts, and, of course, a venerable steak frites. 33-1/43-72-24-01. $$$

Two blocks from the Eiffel Tower, noted chef Christian Constant pays homage to his grandmother’s recipes at his casual, bi-level brasserie. $$$

It’s all about creative cocktails, grilled hot dogs, and Brooklyn Brewery beer (!) at this South Pigalle nightspot, where a fashionable crowd mingles with chefs fresh off the line. glassparis.com. $

Among the old fishermen’s houses of Barceloneta, this sepia-toned cervecería is full of local sea dogs and other salty types who come for house-brewed lager and a dizzying array of tapas (boat-fresh squid and shrimp; flash-fried padrón peppers). And when a football match is on, forget about it: the tiny bar is as jammed and as rowdy as it gets. $

On Monday nights, the canal-side wine bar becomes the hangout for the city’s culinary scene. A guest cook—sometimes from Noma or Relae—prepares a simple, tasty one-pot dish that functions like a staff meal, except it’s open to all. $$

Come without a reservation and you’re rolling the dice—the quirky owners will decide with a glance whether you deserve a seat at their trattoria. If you do make the cut, you’ll find quintessential Roman classics like house-made fettuccine. 39-06/6880-1978. $$$

Liguria’s beloved equivalent of the French socca is a thin, pizza-like pancake made from chickpea flour, served hot from the oven and typically adorned with hunks of gorgonzola or Stracchino cheese. Find the best at the family-run trattoria Sa’ Pesta, deep in the centro storico. sapesta.it. $$

In the fishing port of Vallon des Auffes, the idyllic L’Épuisette serves a proper Provençal bouillabaisse that’s oceans away from all others—brash and intense, rich with saffron and garlic and tasting unmistakably of the sea. $$$

In a sleepy hamlet 35 miles west of Alicante, the chef at Paco Gandía layers rice in a pan the size of a bicycle tire, along with rabbit, tomatoes, saffron, and snails that feed on wild herbs. Licked by flames from an open fire, the paella is not just good—it’s near-mythical. $$$

“P.A.&Co. is like after-school for adults—everyone knows each other and no one has reservations. Every time I’ve gone by myself, I’ve felt right at home.” paco.se. $$$$ —chef Marcus Samuelsson

Even the most jaded epicurean succumbs to the Willy Wonkaesque sense of wonder at this haven for the cocoa-obsessed. Lose yourself amid the shelves of chocolate bars, truffles, and pralines—some house-made, some globally sourced—then sign up for a class in creating your own. xocolat.at.

On warm nights, the roof deck atop the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture & Design is the stomping ground for the city’s freethinking intellectuals and cultural elite. An eclectic menu ranges from shareable snacks (jamón ibérico) to hearty classics (oxtail ragù with polenta). $$

On the ground floor of a 1970’s building in the residential Monteverde neighborhood, this nondescript space is touted by food lovers as the best trattoria in town. The standouts on the menu are fried meatballs in a basil sauce, tiny cuttlefish, and gnocchi that are nothing short of revelatory. 39-06/536-015. $$$

“The food at Dock Kitchen, in Ladbroke Grove, is complex and delicious. Chef Stevie Parle pulls inspiration from his travels, as with his Cornish crab with curry leaves and coconut.” dockkitchen.co.uk. $$$ —chef April Bloomfield