The 15 things you need to know to eat well overseas

When you travel, there’s no point pretending to be anything other than what you are: a stranger in a strange land. All travellers are tourists.

We parachute into a culture that has evolved without us for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and we think we know all about it because we spent a few hours on Google or read a book about it on the plane over. Our best strategy is to admit to very little knowledge and learn on the job.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t do our homework. Yes, look everything up, study the culture and customs and learn a few words of the language, or download an app that will do it for you.

And above all, use food and the communal act of eating to open new doors, drive new experiences and make new friends.

We may never be a local in the same way we are at home, but chasing good food and dining experiences is guaranteed to make travelling more memorable. Plus, you get to eat.

Here’s a bluffer’s guide to dining well around the world. Use it wisely.

Know what time to have dinner

In 1940, Spain’s General Franco decreed that clocks were to move forward one hour, to align with Hitler’s Germany – and there they stayed. Dining late, long after the sun has set, has become part of Spanish culture, with many restaurants not even opening until 9pm or 10pm. It takes a few days to acclimatise, but sleeping late can help, as can meeting up for a coffee or cocktail at 7pm to see you through. (An extra eating and drinking opportunity per day? Excellent.)

Parisian diners prefer to dine from 8pm to 9.30pm, Londoners from 7pm to 8.30pm. In Tokyo, 6pm to 8pm is peak. In Northern Europe, the US, Australia and Canada, people tend to eat earlier, about 6.30pm to 7.30pm. In Sweden, Finland and Norway, it’s even earlier, from 5pm onwards.

Also, the hotter the climate, the later the dinner. It makes sense to wait for the cool of the evening before hitting the streets after a meal. In Greece, tourists eat early, and locals eat about 9pm or 9.30pm.

When to eat with your hands

Sometimes bluffing is just good manners. When people of a certain culture eat with their hands, as in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, it’s respectful to do the same. Wash your hands first and use your right hand to eat – either using flatbread or rice to help pick up the morsels of food, or by gracefully pinching together your thumb, index finger and middle finger as a group and using your fingertips. You can press soft foods such as rice into a wad for safe transportation to your plate, rather than directly to your mouth.

Get the lay of the land

Over years of restaurant reviewing I adopted some sneaky tricks to maximise my experience. One was to take a meandering route from my table to the loo, so I could see what everyone else was ordering and eating. It’s the bluffer’s guide to “I’ll have what she’s having” and really helps you order like a local.

Eat pasta like an Italian

TV chef Jamie Oliver once revealed his wife, Jools, likes to cut her spaghetti into short lengths before she eats it. Remarkably, they’re still together. I’m not sure I could cope with a partner who wanted her spaghetti to be like the one in the Heinz can.

The first rule of pasta etiquette is to not bring a knife anywhere near it. You don’t even need a spoon. Just pick up a fork, twirl the spaghetti around the tines, and lift to the mouth. This is made easier at benchmark pasta joints such as Salumeria Roscioli in Rome, where there is only enough sauce to coat the pasta, not a swimming pool of it.

Eat pizza like an Italian

You can get pizza everywhere these days, but the proud people of Naples will insist theirs is the true, traditional, original. The dough is delicate and elastic, with a smoky, charred crust. Toppings are minimal – the tang of San Marzano tomato, creamy fior di latte mozzarella and a leaf or two of fragrant basil.

To find Naples’ best pizza, look for the Verace Pizza Napoletana sign that guarantees the pizzeria subscribes to the principles of authentic pizza making (as seen at Da Attilio, 50 Kalo or Concettina ai Tre Santi).

And do not attack it with a knife and fork. The base should be sufficiently cooked so you can eat it the way they do – a libretto, the crust folded in like a book, eaten in the hand.

But it’s not the only pizza in town. Many connoisseurs prefer the thinner, crisper, Roman-style pizza, or the visually dazzling pizza al metro, baked in large, long trays so that you can buy it by the metre.

Eat sushi like the Japanese

Sushi is as much an experience as a meal, so choose a seat at the bar rather than a table, to witness the precise slicing of the fish and expert handling of the vinegared rice. If it is omakase, leave the menu to the chef. Nigiri (finger) sushi is traditionally finger food, but the use of chopsticks is more common. If you wish to dip it into soy, dip only the fish side, or the rice will fall apart. Your go-to guide: tuna is maguro, toro is tuna belly, chu-toro is fatty tuna belly, sake is salmon, ebi is prawn, tai is sea bream, ika is squid, ikura is salmon roe, unagi is freshwater eel, hotate is scallop. And tamago? Omelette. Drink delicate green tea or rice-based beer such as Kirin, Asahi or Orion. Sake is rice-based, best served chilled, and traditionally, poured for you by your companion, and by you for them.

Order dim sum like the Cantonese

Yum cha (literally “to drink tea”) and dim sum (“to touch the heart”) started life in the tea houses along China’s famous Silk Road. Westerners think of yum cha as lunch, but Cantonese people flock to the tables from very early in the morning. Traditional restaurants still use trolleys to convey the dumplings from table to table; these days they may come on trays, or you need to order, as at the upscale but fabulous Mott 32 in Hong Kong and Singapore. Ask for soy and chilli if you want, and if you run out of tea, just turn the lid of the teapot upside down as a sign for a refill.

Eat frites like the French

A simple observation: the French do not lunge towards the bowl of fries as soon as it lands on the table. Nor do they help themselves with their hands. Instead, they tend to move the fries to their plate towards the end of eating, smoosh them into the left-over sauce and eat them with a knife and fork. The best in the world? At the nostalgia-laden, pink-table-clothed La Poule au Pot, in Les Halles, Paris.

How to order wine

There’s quantum physics, and then there’s ordering wine in a new country in a different language. Sometimes, it’s just best to leave it to the experts.

When I ask the sommelier for a wine to match my river trout at a country estate in Alsace, he pours a lovely, good-value riesling that dances in the glass. I expect a long sermon on provenance and malolactic fermentation, but instead, he points to the rows of vines on the north-facing slopes beyond the garden. “It’s from there,” he says. Both trout and wine are as native as the munster cheese, served with caraway seeds (it’s an Alsace thing), and it feels like the most natural pairing in the world.

If in doubt, ask for a wine that best reflects its place of origin, which is hopefully where you are, and don’t be shy about stating a ballpark budget. Ask to see the bottle even if it is poured only by the glass and take a discreet photo of the label for future reference. If you have developed certain preferences, such as a low tolerance for oak or a love of organic wines, now is the time to say.

Dress to impress

You can bluff your way into fancy hotels and popular restaurants by dressing smartly. (One restaurant manager I know always judges people on the quality of their shoes and allocates them to good and bad tables accordingly.) It doesn’t have to be fashionable designer gear, but something that gives you confidence and presence. For years, I had hippy-length hair and a scruffy disposition, but when I wore the one velvet jacket I owned, I could get in anywhere.

When to eat oysters

In the northern hemisphere, tradition dictates oysters should only be eaten in the months containing the letter “r”, from September to April. In other words, avoid the hot summer months of June, July and August when oysters can spawn and lose condition.

In Australia, you can safely ignore that. Sydney Rock Oysters are available year-round, with peaks from September to March, although most oyster lovers prefer the flintier, less salty flavour available in autumn and winter. North of the equator, from Europe and America to Japan, remember your “r”s. And book yourself in for a tasting of the finest oysters in the world (outside Australia) at Gillardeau, on the Ile de Re in Normandy, or at the venerable Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill in London.

Know when and when not to tip

In a New York restaurant, you are expected to leave a tip of 20 per cent of the total bill – in some cases, 25 per cent. In France, a service charge is automatically added to your bill. In cafes and bars, just leaving some change is enough of a gesture of thanks.

In Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Denmark, tipping is not mandatory, and can be considered offensive; turning an intrinsic act of hospitality into a transaction. (Sometimes, it is a transaction, like the time I had to tip three different bellhops just to get my suitcase from the cab to the front desk of the hotel.) If you’re unsure, always check with your hotel before you head out to dine.

How to nail your restaurant list

Got the flights booked? Book the restaurants next, then the hotels. Talk to friends who travel, go through the relevant guides, read local food bloggers, and put together a long list, then cross-reference to reduce it to a short list. For top-end restaurants, the online Michelin Guide is very useful. If you’re after the bragging rights of going to the hottest restaurants in the world, head for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants site. World of Mouth is an under-the-radar restaurant app that chefs swear by. Note that some of the most ordinary eating places in the world are featured on TikTok.

Once you’re on the ground, keep your eyes peeled and your nose ready to pick up good cooking smells. Stroll through street markets and chat to people when you can. Ask any hospitality people – a good waiter, a chef, or staff in wine boutiques and cheese shops – for their tips.

When in doubt, don’t try to bluff

Instead of pretending to know what you are doing, seek help. People love to help. Ask what to do, how and when to do it, and you will learn something. Leave your pride, ego and dignity at the door, and be humble enough to immerse yourself in the mysteries of a different culture and space. It might change you.

Or just bluff, and use this bucket list

Here are 10 restaurants that are the best of their kind and that will give you an experience so immersed in their own culture, you could not possibly be anywhere else. I recommend them without reservation – the only problem being, you will need reservations.

The Chairman, Hong Kong A tasting menu with built-in surprises that celebrates the timeless artistry of classic Cantonese cuisine.
Order Whole steamed groper with mandarin peel and salted lard, and sweet and sour pig’s tails. See thechairmangroup.com

Asador Etxebarri, Bizkaia, Spain Bittor (Victor) Arguinzoniz cooks baby eels, sea cucumber and Palamos prawns over the coals of specific types of wood in this elegant yet humble dining destination in Basque country.
Order Aged beef chop, reduced milk ice-cream with beetroot juice. See asadoretxebarri.com

Sushi Saito, Tokyo, Japan A serene eight-seat omakase counter renowned for its delicate, precise nigiri sushi. Takashi Saito turns dinner into a masterclass of craft with fresh and aged fish.
Order Hokkaido sea urchin, fat-marbled otoro belly tuna. See theworlds50best.com

Maido, Lima, Peru Chef Mitzuharu (Micha) Tsumura’s hot spot captured the top spot at the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards in June, for its party-time Nikkei (Japanese/Peruvian) cuisine.
Order Sudado (black cod stew), sea urchin rice, 50-hour beef short rib. See maido.pe

Atomix, New York, US Ellia and Junghyou Park have shone a spotlight on Korean American dining at its most refined, using set menus dictated by the seasons.
Order Oiji muchim (spicy cucumber salad), jellyfish with pine nut milk, langoustine with kim chi glaze. See atomixnyc.com

Le Louis XV, Monte Carlo In a magnificent setting within the historic Hotel de Paris (a trip in itself), Alain Ducasse gives new relevance to the grandeur and extravagance of classic and coastal French cuisine.
Order Provencal artichokes with sea anemone, burrata and caviar; spit-roasted Quercy lamb with courgette and fennel leaf. See montecarlosbm.com/en

Amisfield Restaurant, Lake Hayes, New Zealand Chef Vaughan Mabee upends the traditional winery restaurant by hunting, shooting and fishing his way to dinner. His food is a theatrical but always meaningful expression of the immediate landscape and its inhabitants.
Order Baby paua; wild boar mortadella on blood crumpet with liver butter. See amisfield.co.nz

The Ledbury, London, England Australian-born Brett Graham’s refined Notting Hill restaurant has finally received a three-Michelin star rating (about time, too) for the refinement of its menu and the warmth of the dining experience.
Order Lobster, sancho pepper and morel mushrooms, hay-aged Anjou pigeon with Mirabelle plum, aubergine and fig. See theledbury.com

Francescana at Casa Maria Luigia, Modena, Italy Mercurial chef Massimo Bottura rose to the top of the tree by reinventing the classics and having fun with it at Modena’s Osteria Francescana. Now you can try his iconic dishes (and Sunday brunch) at its countryside sibling, charmingly located within an art-filled 12-room boutique hotel, Casa Maria Luigia.
Order The Crunchy Part of The Lasagne; Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart. See casamarialuigia.com

Makris, Athens, Greece Athens is filled with dynamic street food and a new generation of neo-tavernas that bring Greek food to life. Chef-to-watch Petros Dimas aims higher, offering an elevated gastronomic experience rooted in Greek tradition and inspired by the plants grown at his family’s farm.
Order Hellenic blue crab tartlet, sea bass with Aegean seaweed, lamb with wild herbs from Crete. See makrisathens.com