If your idea of “dinner” is something that involves 14 courses, ingredients you cannot pronounce, a reservation secured three months ago, and a bill that makes your bank account briefly reconsider its life choices—you are in the right place.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 ranking placed restaurants from 30 cities and an astonishing variety of culinary traditions among its top 30. Maido in Lima took the No. 1 position, followed by Asador Etxebarri and Quintonil. The 2026 edition is scheduled for 4 November 2026 in Lima, so the 2025 ranking is currently the latest completed global edition.
So, sharpen your appetite and loosen your belt. Here are 30 of the best restaurants in the world, complete with their stories, chefs, signature dishes, approximate meal costs, awards, addresses and social handles.
1. Maido — Lima, Peru
Founded: 2009
Chef: Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura
Address: San Martín 399, Miraflores, Lima, Peru
Cuisine: Peruvian-Japanese Nikkei
Approx. meal cost: From S/1,295 per person
Awards: No. 1, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Best Restaurant in South America 2025
Instagram: @maido_restaurant
Website: Maido official website
Maido is what happens when Japan and Peru decide to stop arguing about whose food is better and simply collaborate. Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura opened Maido in 2009, drawing on his Japanese-Peruvian heritage to create a modern expression of Nikkei cuisine. His family arrived in Peru from Japan in 1889, making the restaurant’s cultural story almost as fascinating as its tasting menu.
Expect dishes featuring seafood, Amazonian ingredients, Japanese techniques and distinctly Peruvian flavours. The current Maido Experience is a 12-course tasting menu, with highlights such as squid ramen, caracoles al sillao and long-cooked beef.
After years of appearing near the summit of global restaurant rankings, Maido finally grabbed the big shiny trophy in 2025. Basically, Lima got a culinary World Cup—and Maido brought home the trophy.
2. Asador Etxebarri — Atxondo, Spain
Founded: 1990
Chef: Victor Arguinzoniz
Address: San Juan Plaza, 1, 48291 Axpe, Atxondo, Bizkaia, Spain
Cuisine: Basque grill
Approx. meal cost: Around €280–€300+ per person
Awards: No. 2, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
Instagram: @asador_etxebarri
Website: Asador Etxebarri
Located in a tiny Basque village beneath green mountains, Asador Etxebarri proves that sometimes the world’s fanciest cooking equipment is… fire.
Victor Arguinzoniz has transformed the humble grill into a culinary instrument of terrifying precision. Since opening in 1990, the restaurant has become famous for its obsessive approach to wood, charcoal, smoke and temperature. Arguinzoniz even developed his own grills to control heat with extraordinary accuracy.
The menu celebrates pristine ingredients rather than burying them under sauces and culinary gymnastics. Think beef, turbot, prawns, anchovies, mushrooms and seasonal vegetables, all cooked over carefully selected fire.
The restaurant’s No. 2 ranking in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list confirms what food obsessives have known for years: you don’t need foam, liquid nitrogen or edible flowers when your fire game is this good.
Come here expecting simplicity. Leave wondering why your backyard barbecue suddenly feels personally insulting.
3. Quintonil — Mexico City, Mexico
Founded: 2012
Chef: Jorge Vallejo
Address: Newton 55, Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico
Cuisine: Contemporary Mexican
Approx. meal cost: MXN 6,090 per person
Awards: No. 3, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Best Restaurant in North America 2025
Instagram: @rest_quintonil
Website: Quintonil official website
Jorge Vallejo opened Quintonil in 2012 with his wife and business partner Alejandra Flores. The restaurant takes its name from a Mexican herb, which is fitting because vegetables, herbs, native ingredients and ancient culinary traditions are treated like celebrities here.
Vallejo’s cooking is deeply Mexican without becoming a museum piece. His tasting menu may include escamoles, kampachi, Mexican corn, huitlacoche, rib-eye, cactus and melipona honey, with ingredients constantly changing according to season.
The current tasting menu is listed at MXN 6,090, before optional pairings.
Quintonil reached No. 3 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best ranking, making it one of the planet’s most celebrated restaurants. The best part? It manages to be highly technical without making Mexican food feel like it needs a passport.
4. DiverXO — Madrid, Spain
Founded: 2007
Chef: Dabiz Muñoz
Address: Calle del Padre Damián 23, 28036 Madrid, Spain
Cuisine: Avant-garde Spanish/Asian-inspired
Approx. meal cost: €450 for the solid menu; drinks extra
Awards: No. 4, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars
Instagram: @diverxo
Website: DiverXO official website
If restaurants had personalities, DiverXO would be the friend who arrives at dinner wearing three different jackets and somehow makes all of them work.
Chef Dabiz Muñoz built DiverXO around the idea of hedonistic, indulgent and wildly creative cuisine. The restaurant’s cooking refuses to stay neatly inside Spanish cuisine, borrowing techniques and flavours from Asia and beyond.
The current “Flying Pigs Cuisine” solid menu costs €450 per person, with elaborate beverage pairings available separately.
Dishes change constantly, but expect seafood, meat, spice, fermentation, unexpected textures and presentations that look as though Salvador Dalí wandered into a kitchen.
The restaurant sits at No. 4 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best ranking. In other words, DiverXO isn’t really “going out for dinner.” It’s closer to voluntarily entering Dabiz Muñoz’s delicious fever dream.
5. Alchemist — Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded: 2015
Chef: Rasmus Munk
Address: Refshalevej 173C, 1432 Copenhagen, Denmark
Cuisine: Holistic/experimental cuisine
Approx. meal cost: DKK 3,900 per person
Awards: No. 5, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 2 Michelin stars
Instagram: @alchemistcph
Website: Alchemist official website
Alchemist doesn’t merely serve dinner. It appears to have read the definition of “restaurant” and responded, “That’s cute.”
Chef Rasmus Munk’s Copenhagen creation combines gastronomy, theatre, art, science, architecture and technology into one enormous sensory experience. A meal can last four to six hours and contain up to 50 impressions, some edible and some purely theatrical.
The restaurant opened in 2015 and eventually evolved into its current Refshaleøen home. Today, tickets cost approximately DKK 3,900 per person, excluding beverages and service charges.
Munk’s cuisine is often philosophical as well as delicious, touching on environmental and social issues.
Alchemist ranked No. 5 in 2025. So yes, you will eat. But you may also question society, contemplate humanity and stare at a plate wondering whether it is food or performance art.
Possibly both.
6. Gaggan — Bangkok, Thailand
Founded: 2010; original restaurant later closed and the concept evolved
Chef: Gaggan Anand
Address: Bangkok, Thailand
Cuisine: Progressive Indian
Approx. meal cost: Approximately THB 5,000+ depending on experience
Awards: No. 6, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; multiple Asia’s 50 Best accolades
Instagram: @gaggan_anand
Website: Gaggan
Gaggan Anand has never been particularly interested in behaving like a conventional chef. His culinary career in Bangkok became famous for transforming Indian food into theatrical, playful and often wonderfully unpredictable experiences.
The original Gaggan opened in 2010 and became one of Asia’s most influential restaurants, earning the No. 1 position on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list for four consecutive years from 2015 to 2018.
Anand’s food has historically included modern interpretations of Indian street food, curries, seafood, yogurt, spices and playful desserts, presented with plenty of theatre.
The restaurant’s legacy remains hugely influential, and Gaggan returned to the global spotlight with a No. 6 position in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
This is Indian cuisine with its tie loosened, shoes kicked off and volume turned all the way up.
7. Sézanne — Tokyo, Japan
Founded: 2021
Chef: Daniel Calvert
Address: 7F, Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi, 1-11-1 Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan
Cuisine: Modern French
Approx. meal cost: Around ¥50,000+
Awards: No. 7, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 2 Michelin stars; Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants No. 1 in 2024
Instagram: @sezannetokyo
Website: Sézanne official website
Sézanne is proof that French cuisine and Tokyo are a rather excellent combination.
Opened in 2021 inside the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi, the restaurant is led by chef Daniel Calvert, whose cooking blends classical French foundations with the extraordinary ingredients available in Japan.
The restaurant’s menu changes seasonally, showcasing seafood, vegetables, meat and French techniques through a distinctly Japanese lens. Its dining room also overlooks the kitchen, allowing diners to watch the culinary choreography.
Sézanne earned two Michelin stars and was named No. 1 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, before ranking No. 7 globally in 2025.
The experience is polished, precise and decidedly elegant.
Basically, if French haute cuisine went to Tokyo, learned impeccable manners and upgraded its wardrobe, Sézanne is what came back.
8. Table by Bruno Verjus — Paris, France
Founded: 2013
Chef: Bruno Verjus
Address: 3 rue de Prague, 75012 Paris, France
Cuisine: Contemporary French
Approx. meal cost: Around €250–€300+
Awards: No. 8, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
Instagram: @bruno_verjus
Website: Table by Bruno Verjus
Bruno Verjus took a wonderfully unconventional route to becoming one of the world’s most acclaimed chefs. Before opening Table, he was a medical student, entrepreneur, photographer, author, radio commentator and food critic. Apparently, cooking was the final boss.
The restaurant is built around a long, wave-shaped counter overlooking the open kitchen. Verjus focuses intensely on exceptional seasonal produce, including line-caught fish, vegetables, herbs and carefully sourced meats.
Dishes might include monkfish torched with bay leaves, seasonal vegetables, lentils, crab broth and indulgent chocolate-and-caviar creations.
Table made an extraordinary debut in the global top 10 in 2023 and remained there through 2025.
It is sophisticated without being stuffy—essentially Parisian fine dining after deciding to develop a sense of humour.
9. Kjolle — Lima, Peru
Founded: 2018
Chef: Pía León
Address: Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco, Lima, Peru
Cuisine: Contemporary Peruvian
Approx. meal cost: PEN 988 tasting menu
Awards: No. 9, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
Instagram: @kjollerest
Website: Kjolle official website
Kjolle is chef Pía León’s personal culinary laboratory, and thankfully, the experiments are edible.
Opened in Lima’s Barranco district, Kjolle explores Peru’s extraordinary biological diversity through ingredients from different ecosystems. León’s approach is heavily influenced by research conducted through Mater Iniciativa, the research arm associated with Lima’s leading culinary scene.
The tasting menu currently costs PEN 988, with a separate beverages pairing listed at PEN 456.
Expect corn, tubers, corvina, squid, scallops, lobster, octopus, beef, cacao and Amazonian ingredients arranged into intensely colourful and imaginative courses.
Kjolle ranked No. 9 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
It is the sort of restaurant that makes you look at a humble potato and think, “You’ve been hiding your potential from me.”
10. Don Julio — Buenos Aires, Argentina
Founded: 1999
Owner/Chef: Pablo Rivero and team
Address: Guatemala 4699, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cuisine: Argentine parrilla
Approx. meal cost: Around ARS 100,000+ per person
Awards: No. 10, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; multiple Latin America’s 50 Best accolades; Michelin star
Instagram: @donjulioparrilla
Website: Don Julio official website
Don Julio is the restaurant to visit when you believe steak should be treated with reverence—and perhaps a small standing ovation.
Pablo Rivero’s Buenos Aires parrilla grew from a neighbourhood steakhouse into one of Argentina’s most famous culinary institutions. Rivero’s family connection to meat runs deep: his grandmother was a butcher and his parents were cattle breeders.
The restaurant specialises in Hereford and Angus beef, aged using a carefully controlled process and cooked over fire. Expect rib-eye, entraña, chorizo, sweetbreads and other Argentine classics.
Don Julio ranked No. 10 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
And yes, there are vegetables.
But let’s not pretend you came to Buenos Aires for the lettuce.
11. Wing — Hong Kong
Founded: 2021
Chef/Owner: Vicky Cheng
Address: 29/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Cuisine: Modern Chinese
Approx. meal cost: HK$1,980–2,980 per person
Awards: No. 11, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Art of Hospitality Award 2025
Instagram: @wingrestaurant_hk
Website: Wing official website
Chef Vicky Cheng opened Wing in 2021 to explore Chinese cuisine without the traditional boundaries. The restaurant sits above his French-influenced VEA and focuses entirely on the incredible diversity of Chinese cooking.
The menu changes seasonally, but possible highlights include crispy sea cucumber spring rolls, abalone sauce fish-maw rice, Alaskan king crab and botan shrimp with Chiu Chow sauce.
A meal generally costs around HK$1,980–2,980 per person.
Wing ranked No. 11 globally in 2025 and won the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award, recognising its service and overall guest experience.
The restaurant’s philosophy is refreshingly simple: take Chinese culinary heritage, respect it deeply and then give it a very clever modern haircut.
12. Atomix — New York, USA
Founded: 2018
Chef: Junghyun Park
Address: 104 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
Cuisine: Korean fine dining
Approx. meal cost: Around US$500+ per person
Awards: No. 12, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Michelin stars
Instagram: @atomixnyc
Website: Atomix official website
Atomix is the Korean fine-dining restaurant that turned Manhattan’s NoMad neighbourhood into a pilgrimage site for adventurous eaters.
Opened in 2018 by chef Junghyun Park and Ellia Park, Atomix is built around an intimate chef’s counter. Instead of simply presenting dishes, the restaurant often gives diners cards explaining ingredients, techniques and cultural context.
The cuisine draws on Korean fermentation, seafood, meats, grains and traditional flavours, but presents them with highly contemporary technique.
The restaurant has only a small number of seats, which helps explain why reservations can feel like trying to get concert tickets for a band that only performs once a month.
Atomix ranked No. 12 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list, making it the highest-ranked American restaurant that year.
It’s dinner, education and Korean culinary storytelling rolled into one very expensive—but memorable—experience.
13. Potong — Bangkok, Thailand
Founded: 2021
Chef: Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij
Address: 422 Vanich 1 Road, Samphanthawong, Bangkok, Thailand
Cuisine: Progressive Thai-Chinese
Approx. meal cost: Around THB 4,000–5,000+
Awards: No. 13, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Highest New Entry Award 2025; 3 Michelin stars
Instagram: @potongbangkok
Website: POTONG official website
Potong occupies a historic Chinese herbal medicine building in Bangkok’s Yaowarat district. Chef Pam Soontornyanakij grew up connected to the building through her family’s fourth-generation Chinese herbal medicine business.
That heritage becomes the restaurant’s central narrative. Potong explores Thai-Chinese cuisine through five elements and five senses, transforming ingredients and memories into an immersive tasting experience.
The restaurant quickly became one of Bangkok’s culinary sensations, earning the Highest New Entry Award and No. 13 ranking in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025.
Chef Pam also won the World’s Best Female Chef 2025 award.
Potong is basically what happens when family history, traditional medicine, Thai cuisine and modern gastronomy all walk into the same building—and decide to make dinner.
14. Plénitude — Paris, France
Founded: 2021
Chef: Arnaud Donckele
Address: 8 Quai du Louvre, 75001 Paris, France
Cuisine: Contemporary French
Approx. meal cost: €340–€415+
Awards: No. 14, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars
Instagram: @plenitude.paris
Website: Plénitude at Cheval Blanc Paris
Plénitude is the kind of Parisian restaurant where even the butter probably has a backstory.
Chef Arnaud Donckele opened the restaurant inside Cheval Blanc Paris, overlooking the Seine and Pont Neuf. His cooking focuses on classical French technique, exceptional ingredients and deeply layered sauces.
The restaurant became particularly famous for achieving three Michelin stars in its first year, an achievement that made the Paris fine-dining community collectively sit up and pay attention.
Current menus include Fuguons Ensemble at around €340 and the six-act Symphonie at around €415.
Expect seafood, vegetables, sauces, carefully aged ingredients and desserts that look far too beautiful to eat.
Eat them anyway.
That’s what forks are for.
15. Ikoyi — London, UK
Founded: 2017
Chef: Jeremy Chan
Address: 180 Strand, London WC2R 1EA, UK
Cuisine: Modern West African-inspired
Approx. meal cost: Around £395
Awards: No. 15, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 2 Michelin stars; Highest Climber Award 2025
Instagram: @ikoyi_london
Website: Ikoyi official website
Ikoyi takes its name from the upscale Lagos district and draws inspiration from West African flavours while using exceptional British ingredients.
Chef Jeremy Chan and co-founder Iré Hassan-Odukale created a restaurant where spices, smoke, fermentation and British micro-seasonality drive the menu. Signature dishes have included aged turbot with egusi miso, suya and smoked jollof rice.
The current full tasting menu is listed at £395, with a shorter experience available for £180.
Ikoyi ranked No. 15 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list and won the Highest Climber Award.
It’s bold, spicy and deeply contemporary—a reminder that West African ingredients deserve just as much space in the global fine-dining conversation as truffles and foie gras.
16. Lido 84 — Gardone Riviera, Italy
Founded: 2014
Chefs: Riccardo and Giancarlo Camanini
Address: Corso Giuseppe Zanardelli 196, Gardone Riviera, Italy
Cuisine: Contemporary Italian
Approx. meal cost: €100+; tasting menus considerably more
Awards: No. 16, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Michelin star
Instagram: @ristorantelido84
Website: Lido 84 official website
Lido 84 sits beside Lake Garda, which is frankly showing off before you even sit down.
Brothers Riccardo and Giancarlo Camanini run the restaurant, blending Italian culinary traditions with modern techniques and a strong connection to the region.
The cooking is inventive but rarely loses sight of Italian ingredients. Pasta, lake fish, vegetables, meats and local produce are transformed into dishes that feel both familiar and completely unexpected.
The restaurant has earned a place among Italy’s most celebrated dining destinations and ranked No. 16 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
The setting is almost unfairly beautiful, too. You get excellent food and Lake Garda views in the same package.
If your dinner date says, “I just want somewhere with a nice view,” congratulations—you’ve accidentally found one of the world’s best restaurants.
17. Sorn — Bangkok, Thailand
Founded: 2015
Chef: Ice Supaksorn “Ice” Jongsiri
Address: 56 Sukhumvit 26, Bangkok, Thailand
Cuisine: Southern Thai
Approx. meal cost: Around THB 4,000–5,000+
Awards: No. 17, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars
Instagram: @sornfinesouthern
Website: Sorn official website
Sorn is a love letter to Southern Thailand, written with chilli, seafood, coconut and a rather impressive amount of culinary precision.
Chef Ice Jongsiri focuses on traditional Southern Thai flavours and ingredients, but presents them through an elaborate fine-dining format. Expect curries, seafood, Southern spices, herbs and carefully sourced local ingredients.
The restaurant has become one of Bangkok’s hardest tables and was ranked No. 17 globally in 2025.
The restaurant’s approach is particularly interesting because it doesn’t attempt to make Thai cuisine “French.” Instead, it asks how far traditional Thai food can be pushed while remaining unmistakably Thai.
The answer appears to be: very, very far.
Bring an appetite. And possibly an emergency glass of water.
18. Reale — Castel di Sangro, Italy
Founded: 2000
Chef: Niko Romito
Address: Località Casadonna, 67031 Castel di Sangro, Italy
Cuisine: Contemporary Italian
Approx. meal cost: Around €200–€300+
Awards: No. 18, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars
Instagram: @ristorantereale
Website: Reale official website
Reale is located in the Abruzzo mountains, far from the obvious tourist routes—and that’s part of its magic.
Chef Niko Romito built the restaurant around an almost obsessive belief in Italian ingredients, simplicity and refinement. His food often strips dishes down rather than adding more and more components.
That sounds simple until you realise making something appear effortless at Michelin-star level is roughly the culinary equivalent of making a Formula 1 car look like a bicycle.
Reale has held three Michelin stars and ranked No. 18 on the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
The restaurant also forms part of Casadonna, Romito’s broader hospitality and culinary project.
For travellers willing to venture into Abruzzo, Reale offers an experience that feels removed from the noise of Italy’s major food cities.
Quiet mountains. Serious cooking. Zero need for gimmicks.
19. The Chairman — Hong Kong
Founded: 2009
Chef: Danny Yip and culinary team
Address: 3/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Cuisine: Cantonese
Approx. meal cost: Around HK$1,000–2,000+
Awards: No. 19, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; multiple Asia’s 50 Best accolades
Instagram: @thechairmanrestauranthk
Website: The Chairman official website
The Chairman has spent years proving that Cantonese cuisine doesn’t need molecular pyrotechnics to be extraordinary.
Founded in 2009, the restaurant focuses on traditional Cantonese cooking, exceptional ingredients and meticulous sourcing. Its reputation has been built on dishes such as crab with aged Shaoxing wine, char siu and slow-cooked soups.
The restaurant’s understated approach is part of its appeal. There is no desperate attempt to make every dish look like it escaped from a modern art museum.
The Chairman ranked No. 19 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
For diners who want to understand why Cantonese cooking is considered one of the world’s great culinary traditions, this is a particularly rewarding stop.
Bring friends.
Order generously.
Pretend you understand all the regional nuances.
Nobody has to know.
20. Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler — Brunico, Italy
Founded: 2023 in its current form
Chef: Norbert Niederkofler
Address: Via Riscone 33, Brunico/Bruneck, South Tyrol, Italy
Cuisine: Alpine Italian
Approx. meal cost: Around €250–€300+
Awards: No. 20, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
Instagram: @norbertniederkofler
Website: Atelier Moessmer
Norbert Niederkofler’s cooking is essentially a culinary love affair with the Dolomites.
His philosophy, famously expressed through his Cook the Mountain project, revolves around local Alpine ingredients, biodiversity and seasonality. The restaurant’s cooking explores herbs, grains, vegetables, game, fish and mountain produce with extraordinary precision.
Niederkofler previously earned three Michelin stars at St. Hubertus, and his new Atelier Moessmer project rapidly established itself among Europe’s elite.
The restaurant ranked No. 20 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Expect food that tastes distinctly Alpine rather than generically Italian.
It is a useful reminder that “local cuisine” does not have to mean rustic.
Sometimes local cuisine wears a perfectly tailored jacket and knows exactly which wine you should drink.
21. Narisawa — Tokyo, Japan
Founded: 2003
Chef: Yoshihiro Narisawa
Address: Minami-Aoyama, Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Cuisine: Japanese contemporary / Satoyama
Approx. meal cost: Around ¥40,000–50,000+
Awards: No. 21, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 2 Michelin stars
Instagram: @narisawa_restaurant
Website: Narisawa official website
Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa has spent decades exploring the relationship between Japanese cuisine and the natural world.
Narisawa’s philosophy is strongly connected to Satoyama, the traditional Japanese landscape where forests, farms and communities coexist. That philosophy appears on the plate through seasonal vegetables, seafood, meats, herbs and ingredients sourced from across Japan.
The restaurant originally began in 2003 under a different name before becoming Narisawa. Over time, it developed into one of Japan’s most internationally recognised fine-dining destinations.
Narisawa ranked No. 21 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
The food can be artistic, playful and highly technical, but nature remains the star.
If your definition of dinner includes learning something about Japanese ecology while eating something spectacular, Narisawa has your name written all over it.
22. Sühring — Bangkok, Thailand
Founded: 2016
Chefs: Thomas and Mathias Sühring
Address: 10 Soi Yen Akat 3, Bangkok, Thailand
Cuisine: Modern German
Approx. meal cost: Around THB 5,000–7,000+
Awards: No. 22, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Michelin stars
Instagram: @restaurant_suhring
Website: Sühring official website
Two German twin brothers opened Sühring in Bangkok and proceeded to convince the world that German cuisine can be much more than sausages and someone shouting “JA!”
Thomas and Mathias Sühring draw on childhood memories, German traditions and contemporary techniques. Their menu may include pretzels, seafood, meats, seasonal vegetables and modern interpretations of classic German dishes.
The restaurant’s setting in a leafy Bangkok villa adds to its relaxed yet sophisticated personality.
Sühring ranked No. 22 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
What makes it special is the emotional side of the food. Nostalgia is transformed into fine dining without becoming overly precious.
Basically, it is German comfort food after attending culinary school, travelling internationally and developing an extremely sophisticated wine cellar.
23. Boragó — Santiago, Chile
Founded: 2006
Chef: Rodolfo Guzmán
Address: Av. San José María Escrivá de Balaguer 5970, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
Cuisine: Chilean contemporary
Approx. meal cost: Around CLP 150,000–200,000+
Awards: No. 23, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Latin America’s 50 Best accolades
Instagram: @boragorestaurant
Website: Boragó official website
Boragó is where Chile’s astonishing geography becomes dinner.
Chef Rodolfo Guzmán has spent years researching native Chilean ingredients, from coastal produce to Patagonian plants and unusual indigenous foods. The result is a menu that tells the story of Chile through its ecosystems.
Instead of simply importing luxury ingredients, Guzmán searches for things that are uniquely Chilean.
Expect native herbs, seafood, mushrooms, grains, vegetables, meats and unusual wild ingredients, presented through highly inventive techniques.
Boragó ranked No. 23 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
The restaurant is particularly compelling for travellers interested in food as anthropology.
You don’t merely eat Chile here.
You get a small, beautifully plated geography lesson.
24. Elkano — Getaria, Spain
Founded: 1964
Chef: Aitor Arregui
Address: Herrerieta Kalea 2, 20808 Getaria, Spain
Cuisine: Basque seafood and grill
Approx. meal cost: Around €100–€200+
Awards: No. 24, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
Instagram: @elkano_getaria
Website: Elkano official website
Elkano has been grilling fish in Getaria since 1964, long before “open-fire cooking” became the fashionable phrase chefs put on restaurant websites.
The Arregui family turned this seaside restaurant into one of Spain’s great seafood destinations. Its cooking is based on exceptional fish, carefully managed fire and an almost religious respect for the ingredient.
The famous whole grilled turbot is the dish many visitors come specifically to experience. The restaurant also showcases other seafood from the Cantabrian coast.
Elkano ranked No. 24 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
The lesson here is beautifully simple: buy magnificent fish, cook it over fire and don’t mess it up.
Sounds easy.
It absolutely isn’t.
25. Odette — Singapore
Founded: 2015
Chef: Julien Royer
Address: 1 St Andrew’s Road, #01-04, National Gallery Singapore
Cuisine: Contemporary French
Approx. meal cost: Around SGD 400–500+
Awards: No. 25, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars; Asia’s Best Restaurant 2019
Instagram: @odetterestaurant
Website: Odette official website
Named after chef Julien Royer’s grandmother, Odette is housed inside Singapore’s National Gallery and feels more like entering a luxury art salon than a restaurant.
Royer’s cuisine is rooted in French culinary tradition, but years of working in Asia have influenced his approach to flavour and ingredients.
Expect dishes built around seafood, lamb, pigeon, mushrooms, caviar, vegetables and elegant French sauces.
Odette opened in 2015 and rapidly became one of Asia’s most acclaimed restaurants. It won Asia’s Best Restaurant in 2019 and holds three Michelin stars.
Its soft interiors and refined plating make it visually stunning, but the cooking is the real star.
Odette ranked No. 25 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
It’s the kind of restaurant where you whisper even when nobody has asked you to.
26. Mérito — Lima, Peru
Founded: 2018
Chef: Juan Luis Martínez
Address: Jr. 28 de Julio 206, Barranco, Lima, Peru
Cuisine: Contemporary Peruvian/Venezuelan-influenced
Approx. meal cost: Around PEN 500–700+
Awards: No. 26, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
Instagram: @merito.restaurante
Website: Mérito official website
Mérito is another reason Lima continues to dominate serious food conversations.
Chef Juan Luis Martínez blends Peruvian ingredients with Venezuelan heritage, creating food that feels personal rather than designed by committee. The restaurant’s Barranco location adds to its intimate, neighbourhood character.
Menus explore seafood, vegetables, native grains, tubers and tropical ingredients, with technique taking a back seat to flavour and storytelling.
The restaurant ranked No. 26 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
Mérito’s current address is Jr. 28 de Julio 206 in Barranco.
The restaurant is a great example of how migration can enrich cuisine: two cultures meet, exchange notes and produce something neither could have created alone.
And yes, Lima is starting to make the rest of the culinary world look slightly nervous.
27. Trèsind Studio — Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2022 in its current Studio format
Chef: Himanshu Saini
Address: St. Regis Gardens, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
Cuisine: Progressive Indian
Approx. meal cost: AED 1,350+ per person
Awards: No. 27, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars; Best Restaurant in Middle East 2025
Instagram: @tresindstudio
Website: Trèsind Studio official website
Trèsind Studio takes Indian cuisine into full theatrical mode.
Chef Himanshu Saini’s intimate restaurant explores India’s regional diversity through a multi-course degustation experience. Traditional dishes and ingredients are reconstructed with modern technique while retaining their cultural identity.
The experience is deliberately immersive, with food often accompanied by storytelling and visual presentation.
The current reservation policy lists an advance payment of AED 1,350 per person for food.
The restaurant ranked No. 27 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list and was recognised as the Best Restaurant in the Middle East.
Trèsind Studio is especially exciting for diners who think Indian food deserves to be treated with the same experimental freedom as French, Japanese or Nordic cuisine.
In short: curry has gone to Dubai, bought a designer suit and learned theatrical lighting.
28. Lasai — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Founded: 2014
Chef: Rafa Costa e Silva
Address: Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Cuisine: Contemporary Brazilian
Approx. meal cost: Around BRL 600–1,000+
Awards: No. 28, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; Michelin star since 2015
Instagram: @lasairio
Website: Lasai official website
Lasai means “tranquil” in Basque, which is appropriate considering the restaurant’s philosophy: let the ingredients do the shouting.
Chef Rafa Costa e Silva trained in Spain’s Basque Country before returning to Brazil. At Lasai, he combines modern techniques with ingredients grown in his own gardens and sourced from small farmers.
The restaurant’s tasting menu changes frequently and places strong emphasis on vegetables, seafood, meat, herbs and Brazilian produce.
Lasai has held a Michelin star since 2015 and has repeatedly appeared on major Latin American and global restaurant rankings.
It ranked No. 28 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
This is Brazilian food stripped of clichés and presented with remarkable precision.
Rio has beaches.
Rio has mountains.
And apparently, Rio has dinner that requires you to reconsider everything you thought you knew about Brazilian cuisine.
29. Mingles — Seoul, South Korea
Founded: 2014
Chef: Mingoo Kang
Address: 2F, 19 Dosan-daero 67-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Cuisine: Contemporary Korean
Approx. meal cost: Around KRW 250,000–350,000+
Awards: No. 29, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; 3 Michelin stars; Asia’s 50 Best No. 5 in 2025
Instagram: @restaurant_mingles
Website: Mingles official website
Mingles takes Korean culinary traditions and gives them a contemporary voice.
Chef Mingoo Kang builds dishes around seasonal Korean ingredients, fermentation, seafood, vegetables and traditional sauces, combining them into an elegant tasting menu.
Signature ideas include the Mingling Pot, packed with concentrated umami, and the Jang Trio, a dessert inspired by doenjang, ganjang and gochujang.
Mingles has accumulated an impressive awards history, including three Michelin stars in 2025 and 2026, and No. 5 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025.
It ranked No. 29 globally in the 2025 World’s 50 Best list.
The name “Mingles” is therefore quite literal: traditional and modern Korean cooking mingle on every plate.
And somehow, they get along better than most people at family dinners.
30. Le Du — Bangkok, Thailand
Founded: 2013
Chef: Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn
Address: 399/3 Silom 7 Alley, Bangkok, Thailand
Cuisine: Modern Thai
Approx. meal cost: Around THB 4,000+
Awards: No. 30, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025; former No. 1, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants
Instagram: @ledubkk
Website: Le Du official website
Le Du takes its name from the Thai word for season, and seasonality is at the heart of chef Ton Tassanakajohn’s cooking.
Rather than copying French fine dining and putting Thai ingredients on top, Ton uses modern techniques to highlight ingredients that are genuinely Thai. The menu may feature river prawns, heirloom vegetables, rice, seasonal curries and seafood, all presented with considerable refinement.
Le Du previously reached No. 1 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, establishing Ton as one of Thailand’s most influential young chefs. It ranked No. 30 in the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
The restaurant’s current address is 399/3 Silom 7 Alley, Bangkok.
If you’ve ever thought Thai food is already perfect and wondered why anyone would change it, Le Du’s answer is basically:
“Watch this.”
There is no single “best restaurant in the world”—because food isn’t mathematics and taste buds thankfully don’t use spreadsheets.
But this list demonstrates why the modern fine-dining world is so exciting. Peru, Thailand, Japan, Mexico, Korea, Brazil, Spain, France, Italy and dozens of culinary traditions are redefining what luxury dining can mean.
The current global ranking is particularly interesting because it isn’t dominated by one cuisine or continent. The 2025 list spans an extraordinary range of culinary cultures, with Maido taking No. 1, Asador Etxebarri No. 2 and Quintonil No. 3.
And if you’re planning a serious foodie pilgrimage, remember one golden rule:
Never ask a fine-dining chef whether the restaurant has “anything normal.”
