
Internationally acclaimed 2017 ranking celebrating the world's finest restaurants.
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New York City, United States
Operating from 11 Madison Avenue since 1998 and holding three Michelin stars continuously, Eleven Madison Park runs a fully plant-based tasting menu of eight to ten courses under chef Daniel Humm. Reservations open on the first of each month for the following month and fill within hours. The wine program spans 4,700 selections across 22,000 bottles, with particular depth in Burgundy, Rhône, and Champagne.

Modena, Italy
Three Michelin stars, a La Liste score of 97 points, and two World's 50 Best number-one rankings make Osteria Francescana the reference point for progressive Italian cooking. Located on Via Stella in central Modena, the restaurant translates Emilian pantry staples into conceptually charged tasting menus. The dining room is spare and art-hung, the cooking anything but predictable.

Girona, Spain
El Celler de Can Roca has held three Michelin stars since 2009 and twice claimed the top position on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Run by the three Roca brothers from a converted house on the edge of Girona, it sits at the intersection of Catalan terroir and avant-garde technique, with Joan leading the kitchen, Josep directing the cellar, and Jordi reshaping what dessert can mean.

Menton, France
Mirazur holds three Michelin stars and topped the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2019, placing it among the small tier of French restaurants that compete on a global stage. Set on a hillside above Menton near the Italian border, Chef Mauro Colagreco's kitchen draws on permaculture gardens and Mediterranean produce to build a menu where vegetables and seasonal rhythm drive the cooking. The wine programme matches that ambition across a cellar with serious regional and international depth.

Lima, Peru
Central occupies a converted house in Barranco, Lima's bohemian coastal district, and has held the number-one position on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list (2023). The tasting menu moves through Peruvian ecosystems by altitude — ocean floor to high Andes — using ingredients sourced by the research collective Mater Iniciativa. For serious diners visiting Lima, it represents the clearest single-table argument for Peru's biodiversity as a culinary framework.

Atxondo, Spain
In a mountain village between Bilbao and San Sebastián, Asador Etxebarri has ranked among the World's 50 Best Restaurants continuously since 2008 and holds the title of Best Restaurant in Europe 2025. Victor Arguinzoniz cooks everything over live fire using custom-built grills and a pulley system of his own design, producing a tasting menu that runs to 14 courses and books out months in advance.

Bangkok, Thailand
At a 14-seat counter on Sukhumvit 31, Gaggan Anand delivers up to 25 courses across five theatrical acts — progressive Indian cuisine decoded by emoji, set to a rock soundtrack, and ranked #1 in Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. The format demands participation: eating with your hands, licking the plate, and deciphering the menu are part of the evening's structure, not the novelty.

Lima, Peru
Named The World's Best Restaurant 2025 by the 50 Best organisation, Maido occupies a specific position in Lima's dining scene: the city's clearest expression of Nikkei cuisine, where Japanese technique meets Peruvian ingredient with precision and seasonal intent. Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura has built a decade-and-a-half of credential around this intersection, earning consecutive top-ten rankings and a loyal international following from a Miraflores address on Calle San Martín.

Errenteria, Spain
Mugaritz occupies a singular position in the Basque Country's dining hierarchy: two Michelin stars, a sustained presence inside the World's 50 Best (reaching as high as third place), and a format that dispenses with the conventions of a restaurant meal entirely. Located in Errenteria, a short drive from San Sebastián, it operates a single tasting menu built around conceptual provocation and hands-on eating, closing for four months each year to redesign itself from scratch.

Vienna, Austria
Inside a 1904 pavilion in Vienna's Stadtpark, Steirereck im Stadtpark operates at the intersection of architectural drama and Austrian culinary research. Three Michelin stars and consistent placement inside the World's 50 Best Restaurants top 25 position it as the reference point for serious dining in the city. The menu is built around rare breeds, near-extinct produce varieties, and ingredients grown on the building's own rooftop.

Tarrytown, United States
Set on a working farm in the Pocantico Hills, Blue Hill at Stone Barns holds two Michelin stars and ranked #11 in Opinionated About Dining's 2025 North America list. Chef Dan Barber's tasting menu is dictated entirely by the day's harvest, with no fixed dishes and a wine program spanning 3,000 selections and 18,000 bottles. It is 30 miles north of Manhattan, roughly 45 minutes by train.

Paris, France
In Paris's 7th arrondissement, Arpège holds three Michelin stars and a decades-long position inside the World's 50 Best — currently ranked 45th globally. Alain Passard's decision to remove red meat from a grand Parisian kitchen in 2001 reshaped how the city's haute cuisine thought about vegetables. Produce arrives daily from three biodynamic farms outside Paris, and the menu follows nature's calendar more closely than any printed card.

Paris, France
Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée on Avenue Montaigne has ranked inside the World's 50 Best Restaurants nine times between 2005 and 2019, reaching as high as number 13. Chef Romain Meder leads a contemporary French programme inside one of Paris's most formally composed dining rooms, where the front-of-house and kitchen operate as a single coordinated system. Booking well in advance is strongly advised.

Singapore, Singapore
At Restaurant André, dinner unfolds as a quietly luxurious narrative where terroir, seasonality, and memory guide each course. In an intimate, art-forward dining room, Chef André crafts modern French cuisine with Asian sensibility—precise, poetic, and deeply personal—elevating pristine ingredients into elegant expressions of texture, temperature, and time. Attentive yet near-invisible service, a discerning cellar with thoughtful pairings, and an atmosphere of hushed refinement create a rarefied experience that lingers well beyond the final bite—an invitation to savor beauty, restraint, and the pleasure of considered craft.

Alba, Italy
Piazza Duomo holds three Michelin stars and a consistent place inside the World's 50 Best Restaurants, operating from a pink-walled dining room on Alba's central square. Chef Enrico Crippa structures the menu around four tasting formats, with vegetables, herbs, and seasonal produce from the restaurant's own gardens driving the kitchen's approach. The wine program runs to 30,000 bottles across three distinct lists.

São Paulo, Brazil
D.O.M. holds two Michelin stars and a sustained presence in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, positioning it at the top of São Paulo's fine dining tier. Chef Alex Atala's kitchen treats the Amazon as a pantry, bringing native ingredients like jambu, tucupi, and priprioca into a tasting format that has redefined how Brazilian cuisine is read internationally. Reservations are essential, and the Jardins address has anchored the city's premium dining scene since 1999.

New York City, United States
Le Bernardin New York reigns as the city's premier seafood destination, where Chef Eric Ripert's three-Michelin-starred artistry transforms ocean treasures into transcendent cuisine. This legendary Midtown institution has maintained The New York Times' four-star rating for over two decades, offering an unmatched fine dining experience centered on the philosophy that "the fish is the star."

Tokyo, Japan
Two decades after opening in Minami-Aoyama, Narisawa remains the reference point for what Japan's innovative dining tier looks like when French technique meets satoyama philosophy. With two Michelin stars, a 4.25 Tabelog score, and a re-entry to the World's 50 Best in 2025, the 15-seat room prices at JPY 80,000–99,999 per head — a figure that positions it squarely against the most demanding tables in Asia.

Copenhagen, Denmark
Denmark's only three-Michelin-star restaurant, Geranium occupies the eighth floor of Copenhagen's Parken stadium with a menu that runs approximately 80% plant-based across 20-plus courses. Chef Rasmus Kofoed — the sole chef to have won gold, silver, and bronze at the Bocuse d'Or — leads a program recognised by the World's 50 Best (#1, 2022) and La Liste (98pts, 2026). The wine list, curated by co-owner Søren Ledet, spans 6,085 selections across 22,900 bottles.

Mexico City, Mexico
Two Michelin stars, a decade-long presence on the World's 50 Best list, and a mole aged for over a thousand days: Pujol in Polanco has done more to define contemporary Mexican fine dining on the global stage than any other single address. Chef Enrique Olvera's tasting menu moves between pre-Hispanic technique and modern precision, placing ancient ingredients inside a rigorous, architecturally considered format.

Chicago, United States
Alinea holds three Michelin stars and a consistent place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants, operating from a 65-seat Lincoln Park dining room where tasting menus run three to four hours. Grant Achatz's approach treats each course as a sequence of choreographed moments rather than a succession of plates, drawing on French technique, American ingredients, and modernist methods in equal measure.

Mexico City, Mexico
Quintonil holds two Michelin stars and ranked #7 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2024, placing it among the most closely watched restaurants in the Americas. Chef Jorge Vallejo's tasting menu draws on fresh local produce, traditional Mexican technique, and a counter section serving insect-based tacos that distills the kitchen's priorities into a single, direct statement.

Moscow, Russia
Positioned at the top of Moscow's fine dining scene, White Rabbit operates under a glass dome atop a skyscraper on Smolenskaya Square, pairing 360-degree city views with a tasting menu built around rediscovered Russian ingredients and techniques. Chef Vladimir Mukhin has placed the restaurant consistently inside the World's 50 Best — reaching number 13 in 2019 — and the kitchen remains one of the clearest expressions of the New Russian culinary movement.

Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Amber has held three Michelin stars continuously and ranked as high as #20 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, making it a fixed reference point for French Contemporary dining in Hong Kong. Chef Richard Ekkebus frames each structured meal around dairy-free technique, Japanese sourcing, and a sustainability program that now extends from rooftop herb cultivation to fermentation-led flavour building. The wine list runs to 11,000 bottles, with Wine Director Dirk Chen steering a Burgundy-weighted program.

Barcelona, Spain
Tickets in Barcelona reimagined tapas as playful, modernist Spanish cuisine under Albert Adrià’s hand. Must-try plates included the signature half-liquid olive, a seasonal tasting menu that shifts with local produce, and whimsical desserts served from the restaurant’s nostalgic ice-cream van. The setting married a circus-themed palette with precise modernist technique, delivering dishes that surprised with texture and bright, balanced flavors. Celebrated internationally — ranking #25 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2017 and featured on Chef’s Table (Volume 5, Episode 4) — Tickets combined accessible tapas energy with haute gastronomy, creating instantly memorable bites and a lively, sensory dining rhythm in Barcelona’s Poble Sec neighborhood.

London, United Kingdom
Housed in the former Shoreditch Town Hall, The Clove Club holds two Michelin stars and has appeared in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list consistently since 2016. Isaac McHale's tasting menus draw on prime British ingredients — Orkney scallops, Herdwick lamb, Torbay prawns — handled with technical precision and a looseness that keeps the cooking from feeling ceremonial.

London, United Kingdom
Three Michelin stars and a La Liste ranking of 81 points in 2026 place The Ledbury among London's most decorated fine-dining addresses. Brett Graham's eight-course evening menu, priced at £285 per person in Notting Hill's Ledbury Road, draws on produce from his own farm and in-house mushroom cultivation. The wine list holds the Star Wine List number-one ranking for three consecutive years.

Bangkok, Thailand
Nahm at the COMO Metropolitan Bangkok holds a Michelin star and an Opinionated About Dining Top 92 ranking for Asia in 2025, placing it among the city's serious Thai fine-dining addresses. Chef Pim Techamuanvivit leads the kitchen with a focus on heritage Thai technique. The Heritage set menu is the recommended format for a first visit.

Rubano, Italy
Three Michelin stars since 2002, a 99-point La Liste ranking in 2026, and a permanent position in the World's 50 Best since 2006: Le Calandre in Rubano operates at the upper tier of Italian fine dining. Chef Massimiliano Alajmo runs three tasting menus from a minimalist dining room where tables are carved from a single 300-year-old ash tree, forty minutes from Venice.

San Sebastián, Spain
Among Spain's longest-standing three-Michelin-star restaurants, Arzak has held its stars continuously since 1974 and appeared in the World's 50 Best every year from 2003 to 2018, peaking at number eight. Chef Elena Arzak leads the kitchen inside a century-old family mansion in Alto de Miracruz, producing Modern Basque cuisine informed by an in-house ingredient laboratory of more than 1,000 components. La Liste scored it 99 points in 2026.

Paris, France
At Pavillon Ledoyen, one of the oldest restaurant addresses in Paris, Yannick Alléno holds three Michelin stars and a 98-point La Liste rating, placing him among the most decorated chefs working in France today. His creative approach to classical French technique — centred on extraction-based sauces and fermentation — has kept Ledoyen in the World's 50 Best since 2017. Dinner runs Tuesday through Saturday evenings on Avenue Dutuit, steps from the Grand Palais.

Melbourne, Australia
Attica sits in Ripponlea, south of Melbourne's CBD, where Ben Shewry's tasting menu draws on native Australian ingredients — from outback flora to local rivers and farms — in compositions that have placed the restaurant inside the World's 50 Best Restaurants list every year from 2013 to 2018. La Liste awarded 96 points in 2025 and 95 in 2026. The format is formal, the commitment to indigenous produce is foundational, and bookings require significant lead time.

Lima, Peru
Set inside the 17th-century Casa Moreyra hacienda in San Isidro, Astrid & Gastón has held a place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants every year from 2011 to 2018, peaking at #14 in 2013 and 2015. Under chef Jorge Muñoz Castro, the restaurant runs a tasting format built around Peruvian biodiversity, with vegetables as a recurring editorial thread. Ranked #9 in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025.

Zwolle, Netherlands
De Librije has held three Michelin stars since 2004, making it the most consistently decorated restaurant in the Netherlands over the past quarter-century. Housed in a converted women's prison in Zwolle, it operates Thursday through Saturday evenings under chef and co-owner Nelson Tanate, with a programme built on regional produce, fermentation, and a vegetable-led approach that shaped modern Dutch cooking.

Paris, France
Septime has held a place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants every year since 2013, peaking at number 11 in 2024, while maintaining a single Michelin star and lunch pricing that undercuts nearly every restaurant at comparable recognition. Bertrand Grébaut's seasonal, vegetable-forward menus on Rue de Charonne defined the 11th arrondissement's neo-bistro template before the term became a Paris cliché.

London, United Kingdom
Housed inside the Mandarin Oriental Knightsbridge, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal holds two Michelin stars and a sustained presence in the World's 50 Best Restaurants. The menu draws from centuries of British culinary history, then reassembles those references through a contemporary technical lens. Dishes like the Meat Fruit have become shorthand for what modern British cooking can do when it takes its own heritage seriously.

San Francisco, United States
Saison has held two Michelin stars since at least 2024 and ranked third in Opinionated About Dining's North America list for 2025. The SoMa restaurant built its reputation on open-hearth cooking and hyper-local sourcing, and under executive chef Richard Lee it has expanded that foundation to incorporate a Chinese-American perspective on Northern California's seasonal pantry. A 9,285-bottle cellar anchored by Burgundy, Bordeaux, and California makes the wine program a parallel draw.

Larrabetzu, Spain
Azurmendi Larrabetzu elevates sustainable fine dining to an art form, where Chef Eneko Atxa's three-Michelin-starred vision unfolds through an immersive greenhouse-to-table experience. This architectural marvel seamlessly integrates Basque tradition with cutting-edge gastronomy, offering the acclaimed Adarrak tasting menu in a bioclimatic structure that defines the future of responsible luxury dining.

Copenhagen, Denmark

New York City, United States
Cosme has occupied a specific position in New York's fine dining conversation since it opened: the restaurant that made contemporary Mexican cooking legible to a city already fluent in tasting menus and seasonal ingredient sourcing. Located in the Flatiron District, it holds a World's 50 Best ranking and a La Liste score of 80 points (2026), with a bar program and dining room that function as much as social infrastructure as culinary destination.

Shanghai, China
Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet takes ten diners per night through a fixed programme in a secret Shanghai location, pairing each course with synchronized light, sound, and scent. The format has held a consistent position in the World's 50 Best Restaurants across eight years of rankings, reaching #24 twice, and was ranked #1 in Asia by Opinionated About Dining in 2023. It occupies a category of its own in the city's high-end dining tier.

Santiago, Chile
Boragó has held a place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants every year since 2015, and its tasting menu, Endémica, remains one of South America's most rigorous expressions of native-ingredient cooking. Chef Rodolfo Guzmán works with over 200 foragers and small producers across Chile, drawing from coastlines, high-altitude terrain, and a biodynamic orchard to build a menu rooted in Mapuche food culture.

Castel di Sangro, Italy
Reale occupies a 16th-century monastery outside Castel di Sangro and holds three Michelin stars, a place in the World's 50 Best (ranked 19th in 2024), and a La Liste score of 97.5 points. Chef Niko Romito's tasting menus pursue radical minimalism, extracting maximum intensity from single ingredients, with a 14-course plant-based format that has drawn international attention to an otherwise overlooked corner of Abruzzo.

Birregurra, Australia
Brae sits on a working organic farm in the Otway Ranges, two hours southwest of Melbourne, where chef Dan Hunter applies fine dining technique to produce grown on the property. Scored at 93 points by La Liste in both 2025 and 2026 and ranked 44th on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017, it operates as one of Australia's most closely watched destination restaurants. On-site accommodation makes the journey practical for guests travelling from Melbourne or further afield.

Tokyo, Japan
Den occupies a particular position in Tokyo's innovative dining scene: two Michelin stars, a Tabelog Silver Award held continuously since 2017, and a World's 50 Best ranking that peaked at number 11. Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa's omakase format reinterprets the seasonal discipline of Japanese multi-course cooking through a playful, technically precise lens, housed in the JIA architectural hall in Jingumae, Shibuya.

Paris, France
L'Astrance occupies a storied address on Rue de Longchamp in the 16th arrondissement, where Pascal Barbot's contemporary French kitchen draws on Asian influences and a deep commitment to produce. The glass wine cellar, curated by maître d' Christophe Rohat, has become as much a reason to book as the food itself. Ranked in the World's 50 Best Restaurants every year from 2006 to 2017, this is one of Paris's most credentialled creative tables.

Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Vendôme at Althoff Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg has held a place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants for over a decade and carries two Michelin stars under chef Joachim Wissler. The restaurant's Modern European tasting format runs Wednesday through Sunday evenings in a grand hotel setting outside Cologne, ranking 54th in Europe on Opinionated About Dining's 2025 list. For serious diners in the region, it represents the apex of the local fine dining tier.

Berlin, Germany
Berlin's most decorated Asian-inspired restaurant, Restaurant Tim Raue has held two Michelin stars since 2010 and ranked in the World's 50 Best every year from 2016 through 2025, reaching as high as #26. Drawing on Japanese, Thai, and Chinese traditions while eliminating white sugar, gluten, and lactose, the kitchen produces food that reads as rigorous European fine dining through an Asian lens.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tegui sits at the sharper edge of Buenos Aires modern cooking, a Recoleta address that reached World's 50 Best Restaurants No. 49 in 2017 and continues to define the ceiling of Argentina's tasting-menu format. The kitchen frames local produce through technique-led courses that treat the country's regional larder as both subject and argument. Advance booking is standard practice here.

Kruishoutem, Belgium
In the rolling countryside of the Flemish Ardennes, Hof van Cleve represents one of Belgium's most decorated dining addresses, holding two Michelin stars and a consistent presence in the World's 50 Best Restaurants over more than a decade. Under Chef Floris Van Der Veken, the kitchen has pivoted toward a plant-forward direction, earning five Radishes with high distinction from We're Smart and a La Liste score of 96.5 points in 2025.
Find out on Pearl and keep score across every place in 2017 World's 50 Best Restaurants.
Overview
The 2017 World's 50 Best Restaurants crowned Eleven Madison Park in New York City as the top restaurant globally. The list recognized 50 establishments across 22 countries and 36 cities, with a notable concentration in Europe and strong representation from Spain, which placed four venues in the top ten including Asador Etxebarri and El Celler de Can Roca.
This edition represented a major shift from the previous year's rankings, with a completely refreshed list of 50 restaurants. The geographic spread covered 22 countries across 36 cities, with Spain particularly dominant in the upper ranks—claiming four of the top ten spots. Peru contributed two restaurants to the top ten with Central and Maido, both in Lima. European restaurants held the majority of positions, though Asia maintained presence through venues like Gaggan Anand in Bangkok. The list balanced fine dining destinations across established culinary capitals and emerging food cities, from Modena to Menton to Vienna.
Eleven Madison Park claimed the number one position in the 2017 World's 50 Best Restaurants, marking New York City's return to the top spot. The list saw complete turnover from the previous edition, with all 50 positions filled by new entrants. Spain dominated the top ten with four restaurants, while Peru placed two Lima establishments in the upper ranks. The 50 winners spanned 22 countries and 36 cities, representing a global snapshot of fine dining across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
The 2017 edition saw a fundamental restructuring, with all 50 positions occupied by restaurants that weren't on the previous year's list. Eleven Madison Park's ascent to first place put New York back at the center of the fine dining conversation, while Osteria Francescana in Modena and El Celler de Can Roca in Girona took second and third respectively.
Spain emerged as the geographic winner with four restaurants in the top ten alone—El Celler de Can Roca, Asador Etxebarri, and Mugaritz joining the upper echelon alongside Eleven Madison Park. Peru's presence through Central and Maido demonstrated Lima's growing influence in global fine dining.
The list spread across 36 cities in 22 countries, balancing European heritage restaurants with emerging dining scenes in Asia and South America. Bangkok, Lima, and Vienna all secured top-ten positions, while traditional strongholds like France and Italy maintained their presence through Mirazur and Osteria Francescana. The complete turnover from the previous edition reflected either a significant methodology change or a dramatic shift in the voting panel's preferences.