gem of a restaurant
- noun
- Informal
:
joya de restaurante
- While exploring the city, we stumbled upon a gem of a restaurant that served the best pasta we had ever tasted.
Examples
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Chef-owner Raul Arreola, who worked under Rick Bayless at Frontera Grill, has created a gem of a restaurant with food from the Oaxacan region of Mexico.
Blog text (31) -
The little coffee shop on the corner is truly a gem of a restaurant, known for its cozy atmosphere and excellent brunch.
-
After hearing about that hidden place from a friend, I finally tried it and discovered a gem of a restaurant that felt like a well-kept secret.
Synonyms
71
3.0
A person or thing that is very good and admired
4
4.8
A very good person, place, or thing that few people know about
Antonyms
How Good
Surface Forms
Morphology
gem + of + a + restaurant
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'gem' (a valuable or outstanding thing) with 'restaurant' to mean an especially good restaurant. The metaphor 'gem' = excellent is common across languages and the 'X of a Y' composition is straightforward, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Gem of a restaurant may come from the image of finding a small, shining gem hidden among plain stones, with the restaurant as that little jewel. That's why people use it to say a place is 'outstanding' or a lovely, often 'hidden' find.