Where to eat on a short city break

On a two-night trip, meals decide the memory more than a third museum. You do not need a restaurant for every sitting. You need one meal you booked and a couple you can find when you are actually hungry.

Book one, leave the rest

Book the dinner you would be annoyed to miss, for the night you arrive or the night before you leave, whichever is less rushed. Breakfast can be the hotel or a cafe you walk to. Lunch should be allowed to be ordinary: a market, a bakery, a place with a queue that is moving. If every meal is a reservation, the day becomes a sequence of being on time.

How to choose quickly

Look at where the locals are eating at the hour you are hungry, not at the street the guide sent you to at 3pm. A short menu is a good sign on a short trip. So is a place that can take you in twenty minutes. Read the latest reviews for whether the kitchen is still open on the day you are there, not for a paragraph about the lighting.

With children or without much time

Eat earlier than you would at home. Kitchens close, high chairs disappear, and a tired group in a loud room at nine is nobody’s best meal. One ice cream or one good pastry counts. You are not compiling a list. You are feeding the day so the walking can continue.