9 Top Open Fire Cooking Restaurants

Open fire cooking and fine dining have become firm friends in recent years. Chefs around the world are returning to one of the oldest and most primitive methods of cooking inspired by the unique flavours that only smoke and flame can impart to meat and vegetables.

We've rounded up a selection of restaurants around the world, from Stockholm to South Africa, where open fire cooking in the kitchen rules.

1. Ekstedt, Stockholm

For Michelin-starred open fire cooking head this inventive Stockholm restaurant where ingredients are cooked in a wood-burning oven, over a fire-pit or smoked through a chimney using birch wood.

2. Marble, Johannesburg

South African chef David Higgs is having fun playing with coals in his new live fire restaurant recently opened in Johannesburg.

3. Pitt Cue, London

They raise their own curly haired, rare-breed mangalitsa pigs in the countryside, delicious cooked over open flames in what has become a local institution.

4.  Marta, New York

The Italian tradition of cooking seasonal specials “alla brace”, over open embers is a daily spectacle in this energetic open kitchen with two wood-burning ovens and an open-fire grill taking center stage.

5. 4505 Burgers and BBQ, San Francisco

Equipped with one of the area’s last remaining historic wood-fired barbeque pits, 4505 serve up classic favourites like the "Best Damn Cheeseburger" to slow-roasted brisket and smoked whole chickens. 

5. Ox Restaurant, Portland

OX Restaurant finds inspiration in the wood-fired grilling tradition of Argentina, and with it, the culinary heritage of Spain, France and Italy.

5. Ox Restaurant, Portland

OX Restaurant finds inspiration in the wood-fired grilling tradition of Argentina, and with it, the culinary heritage of Spain, France and Italy.

6. Camino, Oakland

Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain have gained a solid reputation for their fire-based cooking at this Oakland destination where recipes include half a Dungeness crab grilled in the fireplace to wood oven-roasted hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and artichokes with smoky lentils, turnips and a poached egg. If you can't make it there, you can always try out some recipes in their cookbook.

8. Tertulia, New York

This fun, casual Spanish gastropub is a great place to savour the delights of northern Spain, stateside while the fire crackles while the vino flows. Try the paella cooked to perfection in the wood-fired oven.

9. Mallmann, Argentina

Renowned Argentine chef Francis Mallmann is an expert at cooking with fire: over it, under it, in it and around it at his 1884 restaurant in Mendoza.