Elk steak and venison sausage used to be things you politely ate to help your buddy clear out his freezer. And if you weren’t an expert in how to cook the stuff, it was … an acquired taste, to say the least. But hunting has shifted from a rural pursuit to a popular pastime for city dwellers and suburbanites. And as a different kind of man heads outdoors, the meat he enjoys has gone mainstream, from home freezers to wild game restaurants around the world.
Listen to the “Joe Rogan Experience,” and you’ll hear everyone from athletes to movie stars talking about their affinity for game meat. It’s easier to find than ever, too, readily available in fine food stores and butcher shops right next to elk, emu and bison.
But perhaps the biggest sign game meat has hit the big time is that fine dining establishments around the world now have game meat on their menus, with some even earning Michelin stars.
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“Michelin?” you might ask, slightly confused. “You mean the tire people? I don’t remember asking Bobby Flay for his tips on steel-belted radials. Why am I listening to a tire company tell me where to eat?”
Well, the story begins in France in 1900, when a couple of brothers—André and Édouard Michelin—owned a tire company, and wanted to encourage people to get out on the road in this crazy new thing called the automobile.
READ MORE: BFGoodrich: Tires For Rolling In The Outdoors
So, they put together the first Michelin Guide, which lured people to the open road by showing them all the cool stuff they could experience along the way. It had maps and tips on changing your tires.
It also included lists of mechanics, hotels and, yes, restaurants. In 1926, Michelin began adding restaurant ratings to its guide, putting a star next to places it considered “Fine dining establishments.” Five years later, it expanded to its three-star format we know today.
Until early this century, the Michelin Guide was still largely a European institution. In the early 2000s, it began rating restaurants in New York City, and now rates restaurants all over the world.
For game-meat fans, that global reach has turned up something worth noticing: restaurants from Toronto to Tokyo are treating venison, boar, quail and other game as serious dining. Some have earned Michelin stars. Others have earned Michelin attention. A few haven’t landed on Michelin’s radar at all, but still deserve a spot on the list.
Here’s a look at the wild game restaurants to hit when you’re out on the open road.
Àclèaf: A Michelin-Starred Wild Game Restaurant in Plymouth, UK
Ensconced in the rolling hills of the Devon countryside, Àclèaf is as much an aesthetic experience as a gastronomic one, where you’ll enjoy a seven-course tasting menu of locally sourced dishes.
Each plate is a work of art, starting with the curry mango crab, working down the menu to Nicolas Berger chocolate. The main dish, however, is almost always game, changing seasonally based on what’s growing nearby. In winter, for example, you’ll find venison served with beetroot and a black tea glaze.
In spring, look for roasted quail crowned with house farce and finished with caul fat. If you’re not up for seven courses, Àclèaf offers a four-course prix fixe for 130 pounds a person.
Antler Kitchen & Bar Brings Wild Game Restaurants to Toronto
Author Michael Hunter of The Hunter Chef cookbook brought Canada’s largest city a place where diners can experience the flavors of the nation, whether it’s through Ontario Quail stuffed with duck sausage, Baffin Island turbot with winter squash or Canadian wild mushroom cesarecce.
Hunter makes game accessible, using it in familiar dishes like tomato-braised wild boar cavatelli and Ontario venison rigatoni. It’s proven one of the toughest tables in Toronto since its opening in 2015, and when it comes to eating game in the Great White North, no other wild game restaurants come close to Antler Kitchen & Bar.
READ MORE: Duck Recipe: Smoked Duck Wings with Maple Hot Sauce
LATURE Turns Game Meat Into Michelin-Starred Dining in Tokyo
In American restaurants, game meat is required to come from farms. Not the case in Tokyo, where chef Takuto Murota heads to the mountains and harvests the game himself, then adds in seasonal ingredients from suppliers he meets along the way.
The result is a menu at LATURE that brings the outdoors into the dining room, as Murota shows his keen respect for nature by using everything he harvests—bone and innards used in sauces, and venison blood used in macarons.
For a reasonable $87, Murota serves seven courses of stuff like deer salami madeleines, and pate en croute made of bear, boar, badger and deer. For about $150, you’ll get the chef’s game meat omakase, nine courses of game as you’ve never seen before.
The Wild Rabbit Serves Countryside Game Meat in Kingham
The Wild Rabbit is the textbook definition of “charming English countryside inn,” a two-story stone tavern set inside a 17th century Cotswolds farmhouse. Inside you’ll find a menu of game raised on farms in nearby Staffordshire, and vegetables from Cotswolds farms.
You can opt for a la carte or tasting menus, with starters like roasted veal sweetbread with crown prince squash and cacao nibs, and mains like venison saddle and haunch with elderberry and Szechuan au jus.
If the game feast puts you in a food coma, the Wild Rabbit offers rooms to sleep it off, then take a “Wandering Rabbit” nature walk the next morning to make more room.
READ MORE: Grilled Venison with Charred Scallion Gremolata: Wild Grub Unplugged
These next two wild game restaurants haven’t gotten the blessing of the Michelin Man quite yet, but they still serve some of the best game dishes in the country.
Gamekeeper Brings Game Meat Dining to the Blue Ridge
The Gamekeeper is a stone beacon of warmth set atop a hill in the mountains between Boone and Blowing Rock. Step inside and you’re welcomed by a fireplace and expansive views of the Blue Ridge, and a big menu of game meats.
The menu changes depending on the season, but dishes are along the lines of merlot-braised bison short rib, and boar and pimento cheese sausage. The go-to experience for chef Ken Gordon’s game prowess is the mixed game grill, where you’ll get wood-fired meats of Gordon’s selection.
READ MORE: Cooking Wild Game With Randy "Fresh Tracks" Newberg
Lonesome Dove Serves Urban Western Game Meat in Fort Worth
Lonesome Dove founder Chef Tim Love is a Texas culinary icon, the first Ft. Worth chef to cook at the James Beard House. His Urban Western cuisine blends Texas staples with wild game—stuff like rabbit ravioli with jalapeno foie gras sausage and kangaroo nachos with avocado salsa and fig-habanero demi.
The place has proven so popular, he’s opened locations in Austin, Texas, and Knoxville, Tennessee. And while it doesn’t have Michelin recognition yet, it was rated by American Way as one of the Top 50 restaurants in the world, and received the highest Zagat rating in Texas when it opened.
READ MORE: Chef Tim Love’s Urban Western Empire
Editor’s Note: The “Good Grub” content is alive and well at H&B. Be sure to visit hookandbarrel.com/food-drink on your next site visit to find more wild game restaurants and even some fantastic game recipes. And if you like music and food like Justin Adams, then The Wild Grub Unplugged series is must-read and must must-watch content! Bring your appetite!