FiftyThree: Reservations definitely needed

Chef Michael Han might just be the cockiest and most ambitious chef you'll ever meet.

With little more than three years of internships under his belt, the 31-year-old ex-lawyer has opened one of the most expensive restaurants in a city known for its gourmet food fanatics.

So far, though, his training (at the famous European restaurants The Fat Duck, Noma and Mugaritz) and his innate talent are impressing local pundits. One famously cranky critic called him the best local chef cooking European food to emerge in the past two decades. Han serves up light, complex modern European fare and his culinary lineage is obvious. Kudos to his commitment to using local ingredients.

FiftyThree's dining room is a tad spartan, the design aesthetic too -- obviously reflecting Noma's Danish minimalism. But it is still comfortable enough for the businessmen and socialites who have been clamoring to dine here. If anything, Han has already achieved one huge success: FiftyThree is the restaurant everyone's talking about.