Restaurant Quique Dacosta

Chef Quique Dacosta walked in as a 17-year-old in 1989, bought the place in 1999, and put his own name over the door in 2009 — and it shows, because the cooking is unmistakably personal. He rebuilds the menu almost completely every year, treating a meal as something closer to art than dinner; one recent menu, "Octavo," cheekily argues cooking deserves a place alongside the seven classical fine arts. The inspiration keeps circling back to the Mediterranean, and the whole thing is built to lodge in your memory even as it vanishes on the plate. Three Michelin stars and a longtime World's 50 Best name. Go when you're in the mood to be surprised.