The Consulate

With its unassuming brick-and-concrete exterior, the Consulate is easy to mistake for an office building. But if you venture inside, you’ll find a fine-dining experience that offers rotating global fare.

The chic interior, designed by owners Mei Lin and Douglas Hines, features such touches as royal-blue walls, a wooden bar repurposed from an early-1900s queen-size bed, and a library corner where diners can sink into an antique Le Corbusier recliner or a vintage leather sofa with a cocktail in hand.

But the restaurant’s most notable feature is its “Visa” menu. Every 90 days, a lucky guest is asked to literally spin a globe and select a random country. Wherever it lands, Chef Lin creates a menu highlighting exciting dishes from the chosen nation. Three months later, they do it all over again.

The regular menu spans the globe too. Visitors can try a taste of Turkey (the country) with şili levrek, a pistachio-crusted, pan-seared sea bass with an apricot-chili glaze on a bed of seasoned couscous; sample Ethiopian lamb tibs, a dry sauté with onions, berbere spice, rosemary, and jalapeños over white rice; or enjoy a Thai sautéed okra dish with cracked pepper, rosemary, and Thai chili sauce. Other dishes hail from Iran, South Korea, Cuba, Côte D’Ivoire, Greenland, China, the Philippines, and Italy. 

Come hungry enough, and you may just taste the whole world in one night.