Top 10 best restaurants in the world

Monday newsletters always feature top 10 travel lists to inspire.

Today: Top 10 best restaurants in the world

Each year, the ”World’s 50 Best Restaurants” publishes its list of the top 50 best restaurants in the world. Thanks to its panel of 1,080 culinary experts, as well as its structured and audited voting procedure, the annual list of the world’s finest restaurants provides a snapshot of some of the best destinations for unique culinary experiences, in addition to being a barometer for global gastronomic trends. The annual awards ceremony for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants was held in London from 2003 to 2015 before starting a global tour with stops in New York in 2016, Melbourne in 2017, the Basque Country in 2018, Singapore in 2019, Flanders in 2021, London in 2022 and Valencia in 2023.

Once a restaurant is voted as the world’s best restaurant, it gains instant world fame and cements its reputation as one of the culinary hotspots on the globe. However, all the restaurants that have topped the annual poll of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants over its history are no longer eligible to be voted on new editions of the list. Instead, these restaurants are featured on a “best of the best” list, although the latter is not well known to the general public. For example, Central in Lima – which was voted the best restaurant in 2023 – does not feature anymore in the world’s top 50 best restaurants of 2024, but gets an honorary mention on the “best of the best” list. Here are the 10 restaurants that have topped the annual list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants over the past two decades.

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10. THE FRENCH LAUNDRY, YAUNTVILLE, USA

Thomas Keller has influenced the gastronomic world in myriad ways: as one of the first champions of local, sustainable ingredients; as a moderniser of French cuisine; and as the master of balance between classic and modern, French and American, refined and witty. In The French Laundry, there’s no better magnum opus to define his career and everything that he stands for. When The French Laundry first opened, Keller expanded its modest kitchen garden into what eventually became the lush, three-acre smallholding across the street. More recently, it underwent a $10 million renovation inspired by the Louvre, gaining a billowing white ceiling designed to mimic an unfurled tablecloth, with multiple elements dedicated to sustainability. Despite its constant evolution, the restaurant has always stayed true to its classic values, with unapologetic loyalty to pressed linens, fine china and touchstone dishes such as butter-poached lobster. It was 10 years after The French Laundry opened in 1994 that Keller created its New York counterpart, Per Se. Since the launch of the Michelin guide’s New York edition in 2006, both restaurants have held the prestigious three stars, making Keller the only American chef to earn the distinction for two restaurants.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2003 & 2004
Restaurant website: The French Layndry

9. THE FAT DUCK, BRAY, UNITED KINGDOM

The sleepy countryside village of Bray, an hour’s drive from London, was not known for much before it landed on the gastronomic world map with the arrival of The Fat Duck in 1995. The Chef, Blumenthal, was similarly unknown: the self-taught chef learned classical French cooking while working as a credit controller and repo man, and has never worked in anyone else’s kitchen. And yet his flagship is hailed as a global gamechanger and was duly voted The World’s Best Restaurant in 2005. Molecular gastronomy is perhaps the term most commonly associated with Blumenthal, but his vision of what it means is more about the science of cooking, rather than test tubes and pipettes. He prefers to talk about multi-sensory cooking, the role that hearing, smell, sight and touch all play in people’s enjoyment of eating. Defining that style is Sound of the Sea, a dish that made its debut in 2007 and now comes in the form of seafood and edible sand plated to resemble the seashore and served with an iPod in a conch shell playing sounds of seagulls and ocean waves. More than 25 years after its opening, The Fat Duck is as relevant as ever, and remains one of the most influential restaurants in the world.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2005
Restaurant website: The Fat Duck

8. EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA, GIRONA, SPAIN

If the perfect family business could be defined in restaurant form, it would be El Celler de Can Roca. Run by three brothers with three distinct but equal talents – Joan, the chef; Josep, the sommelier; and Jordi, the pastry chef – it is not only a restaurant serving world-class food and wine alongside exceptional service, but a place so welcoming that it might as well be the Rocas’ living room. Add to that the influence of the siblings’ parents and the fact that their mother, Montserrat Fontané, still cooks the staff meals each day, there’s no doubt that this is a family effort like no other. Illustrating those family values is Growing up in a Bar, an iconic course served in a cardboard cut-out of the tavern that their parents still run to this day, with paper figurines of the brothers and snacks representing their childhoods. If that course depicts their earlier lives, The World is an edible journey through the travels the brothers have made together as adults, with bites influenced by Singapore, Mexico and beyond. It is undoubtedly the harmony between the brothers and their individual talents that led El Celler de Can Roca to No.1 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2013 and 2015.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2013 & 2015
Restaurant website: El Celler de Can Roca

7. OSTERIA FRANCESCANA, MODENA, ITALY

Massimo Bottura turned storytelling into an edible art form at his restaurant Osteria Francescana. Take, for example, The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna. Inspired by every Italian child’s habit of stealing the best bit of nonna’s Sunday meal, this fine dining version is composed of a sheet of crunchy, tri-colour pasta balanced on a hand-chopped meat ragù and airy béchamel, arranged in a composition that makes it look like it is about to take flight. For Bottura, it’s all about exploring territory and traditions, telling stories of Italian life through the concentration of absolute flavours, as the chef defines it: “Tradition seen from 10 kilometres away”. Complementing his thought-provoking cuisine is a restaurant-cum-art-gallery housing contemporary artwork, another passion of Bottura and his American wife, Lara Gilmore. Then there’s the seamless service in a series of cosy rooms and the unparalleled warmth of Italian hospitality. This winning combination led Osteria Francescana to the No.1 spot in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2016 and 2018, but it could have turned out very differently. In the years after opening in 1995, the restaurant almost closed as conservative locals were resistant to Bottura’s tradition-busting approach to the Italian kitchen. Thankfully, he persevered.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2016 & 2019
Restaurant website: Osteria Francescana

6. ELEVEN MADISON PARK, NEW YORK, USA

Eleven might just have been the lucky number for Will Guidara and Daniel Humm. Five years into their running of Eleven Madison Park, in 2011 they bought it from Union Square Hospitality, the group owned by restaurateur Danny Meyer, who had introduced them in 2006. Eleven years after their first meeting, the restaurant was finally crowned No.1 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2017. In July 2019, Eleven Madison Park entered a new era when Humm took sole ownership of the restaurant and started steering it into new directions. While Swiss-born perfectionist Humm is classically trained, he dedicated the years 2017-2019 to paring things back. The restaurant made its name with his neoclassical style and iconic creations like roasted duck with honey and lavender, or the playful black and white cookies that symbolise New York. Guidara’s slick operation of the Art Deco dining room centred around tableside theatrics. In June 2021, when Humm reopened the restaurant after 15 months of closure due to the pandemic, he did so with an entirely plant-based menu. Daring in its concept, flavours and philosophy, this timeless New York restaurant looks set to be a favourite forever.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2017
Restaurant website: Eleven Madison Park

5. MIRAZUR, MENTON, FRANCE

If the perfect restaurant experience can be defined as an equal marriage between exquisite food, outstanding hospitality and unparalleled ambience, then Mirazur has hit the jackpot. With its location on the idyllic Côte d’Azur, the freshest produce transformed into a tasting menu by talented Argentinian export Mauro Colagreco, and hospitality led by Colagreco’s exuberant Brazilian wife Julia, this truly is a destination restaurant. That its situation on the border of southern France and northern Italy means access to the best ingredients in Europe is simply the cherry on the cake. A master of reinvention, Colagreco has done everything possible in recent years to keep his restaurant at the top of its game, championing sustainability, rethinking the menu and even renovating the entire restaurant to extend its vegetable gardens and create a more immersive dining experience. In 2020, Mirazur became the first restaurant in the world to achieve a plastic-free certification, as well as acquiring a historic local bakery from which to produce its own iconic bread loaves. The restaurant’s current menu is inspired by the cycle of nature and divided into four offerings (root, leaf, flower and fruit) according to the biodynamic calendar.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2019
Restaurant website: Mirazur

4. NOMA, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

It is hard to imagine the culinary world without Noma. When it opened in 2003, the idea was to challenge the Old World order of gastronomy and celebrate Nordic ingredients. The following year, New Nordic Cuisine was born with a focus on simplicity, freshness and seasonality. The concept of cooking according to season is now so common throughout the world it’s almost become hackneyed, but back then 25-year-old chef René Redzepi and restaurateur Claus Meyer were about to change everything. After more than a decade of Noma, Redzepi felt that routine was killing his creativity, so he decided to close the restaurant for good and relocated his entire team to Tulum, Mexico, for a pop-up that followed similar ones in Tokyo and Sydney. He finally unveiled a new Noma in February 2018 at a different location, with its own farm, three completely distinct seasonal menus and a revised ownership structure. Redzepi honed his concept, using striking presentations to create reactions in the diner, including a tempura-style duck breast served alongside its blue-feathered duck wing, and thus capturing the imagination of the global foodie community all over again. Due to its fundamental differences from the original Noma, Many call the new restaurant ‘Noma 2.0’.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021
Restaurant website: Noma

3. GERANIUM, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Geranium – the second Copenhagen restaurant to take home a World’s Best Restaurant accolade – is located on the eighth floor of the building that also houses the Danish national soccer stadium. Although unusual, the location is blessed with enormous windows overlooking the beautiful Fælledparken gardens – making it a perfect spot to invite guests to taste nature while simultaneously observing it around them. Since making Geranium the first Danish restaurant to win three Michelin stars in 2016, co-owners Rasmus Kofoed and Søren Ledet have never rested on their laurels, keeping things fresh and exciting for regulars and destination diners alike. The locally inspired, seasonally changing ‘Universe’ tasting menu takes place over a minimum of three hours, with around 20 courses split evenly among appetisers, savoury dishes and sweets. Five years after he stopped eating meat, in 2022 Kofoed made Geranium a meat-free zone, focusing solely on local seafood and vegetables from organic and biodynamic farms in Denmark and Scandinavia. Artful creations may include lightly smoked lumpfish roe with milk, kale and apple, and forest mushrooms with beer, smoked egg yolk, pickled hops and rye bread. Each dish is an intricate work of art served on nature-inspired crockery.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2022
Restaurant website: Geranium

2. CENTRAL, LIMA, PERU

In 2008, Virgilio Martínez opened Central in Lima with a vision to create a fine dining experience rooted in Peruvian ingredients and cooking techniques. Intrigued by what was then an extravagant idea, Pía León joined in 2009 – then went on to become Martínez’s head chef and wife, laying the foundations of what would become the Central experience. In 2018, Martínez and León moved Central to a spacious building in Lima’s Barranco neighbourhood: Casa Tupac. Featuring a large garden, an investigation centre, as well as León’s solo restaurant, Kjolle (No.16 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024) and the couple’s family home, it is a haven of delicious flavours and thoughtful hospitality. Central takes it guests on a culinary journey through a myriad different Peruvian ecosystems, categorised by altitude – from below sea level in the Pacific Ocean to the high peaks of the Andes. Each dish reflects the origin of its ingredients, from Dry Valley (shrimp, loche squash, avocado) to Amazonian Water (pacu fish, watermelon and coca leaf).

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2023
Restaurant website: Central
Review: read my review of Central Restaurant here.

1. DISRUTAR, BARCELONA, SPAIN

Disfrutar Restaurant is owned and run by three chefs: Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas. The trio met at the legendary El Bulli (which reached No.1 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants a record-equalling five times), where each worked from a young age until its closure in 2011. The following year, they opened Compartir in Cadaqués, before unveiling Disfrutar in Barcelona in 2014. Located in the Eixample district of the Spanish city, the restaurant’s exterior is simple and the entrance narrow, before opening up to reveal a light-drenched, white-washed dining room and sun-dappled terrace at the rear. The combination of brilliantly imaginative dishes, unsurpassed technical mastery and playful presentation results in the dining experience of a lifetime, as full of surprises as it is memories. Two parallel menus are on offer, both around 30 courses. The Classic option is a greatest hits album featuring the chefs’ favourite dishes from the last decade, such as the famously indulgent caviar-filled Panchino doughnut or the brilliant frozen gazpacho sandwich. The Festival menu is the latest manifestation of the team’s unbounded creativity, always backed with meticulous culinary research.

Award: world’s best restaurant in 2024
Restaurant website: Disfrutar