This sentence feels wrong. I have never heard "recommend" used in the dative. In my experience, nobody would say it that way ... we would use "recommend to me" or merely "recommend" instead. (However, the dative is tricky, and there are no firm rules dictating when one can use it.)

Orcrist is right.
Either: Can you recommend a place to stay in London?
Or Can you recommend to me a place to stay in London?
I wouldn't use the second one although its correct.
The dictionary definition says."recommend someone or something to someone"

This sentence sounds fine to me. "recommend me" is just the shortened version of "recommend to me", most likely. I've definitely used this construction before and have heard other native speakers use it. Nothing wrong with it, IMO.

@orcrist: Regarding the grammar, wouldn't the dative be "recommend to someone"? Did you mean the accusative (e.g. "recommend someone")?

Other similar constructions would be:

Can you order me a sandwich?
Can you get me a drink?
Can you find me a hotel?

I suppose that on occasion people use the "recommend me" pattern, but if I were writing or teaching, I would never write it or recommend it. That alone is worth noting here.

Some verbs (like "recommend", in my view) should not be used in the "verb + me" form because they have an unnatural feel ... textbooks that claim otherwise sound dubious. :-)

"@FeudRenais. "recommend me" means "to give me a recommendation" Example: Can you recommend me to your boss, since I need a job.

@Dejo: Yes, I know. By the way, the sentence as you have it now has lost its original meaning. Now it's a recommendation without the receiving party ("me") specified.

Maybe it's an age difference, or a regional difference, but I don't see why the original was changed, as it was, IMO, perfectly fine and even better sounding than the alternatives proposed afterwards.

> the sentence as you have it now has lost its original meaning

I have to agree. Japanese and Russian translation have "the receiving" party just like English original version had. So now we have mismatching translations.

@sharptoothed: the same happens with the Spanish and the French sentences, they also specify the receiving party ("me").

In English the receiving party is understood to be the questioner. Ergo there is no mismatch. In fact putting the "me" in, might be considered an overtranslation. Here is the reason why the English sentence sounds strange with "me". In English "me" can be either an object or an indirect object. A native speaker might first assume that it's an object, so when reading "Can you recommend me" will understand "can you put in a good word for me". Then when you continue reading the sentence, you realize that's an indirect object is meant here. The mental revision that becomes necessary in mid- sentence gives it an unnatural feel.

2Dejo
I see your point. But, does the following situation possible? A journalist interviewing, say, a restaurant critic: "Personally, I don't like Italian cuisine, but I know Italian restaurants are your favourite subject. Can you recommend a good place to have an Italian style dinner in out city?"

@sharptoothed
The structure of your sentence is exactly like the one above and the journalist is still the receiver of the information and whether or not he decides to pass it on to his readers is another question. However if you want to be specific about who the receiver is, then I suggest:
1.Can you recommend a good restaurant to our reader.
2.Can you recommend a restaurant to my liking.

As I'm writing this, I realize that in English we usually place the direct object before the indirect one: "Give it to me".

I think this is one of those sentences where native speakers disagree...

"Can you recommend me a place..." does not sound strange, IMO, as it is immediately evident, from the absence of the dative "to"/"for" after "me" that the meaning is "recommend TO me".

I also don't agree that putting "me" would be an over-translation. The sentence, as is, sounds more general - the speaker could be asking the person to recommend a place to someone else. I believe that sharptoothed's example illustrates this very well.