The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Is Led by New No. 1 Disfrutar

For only the second time in its history, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants unveiled its flagship list in America, but it was Spain that reigned supreme tonight.

At a gathering of the world’s leading chefs and restaurateurs in Las Vegas, three of the four highest-ranked restaurants hailed from Spain, with Disfrutar in Madrid capturing the crown as the world’s best. The modernist restaurant (ranked No. 2 in 2023) led by the chef team of Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas who all worked at El Bulli, joins the ranks of Central, Noma, the French Laundry, and more that have topped the list in its 22 years since its founding. It becomes the third restaurant from Spain to win the honor, following in the footsteps of Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli and the Roca brothers’ El Cellar de Can Roca.

“We are so excited, we are so proud, and we think our struggle will be quieter now,” Casañas said with a chuckle as he acknowledged the journey to become the World’s top-ranked restaurant. And when asked if a younger generation of diner may not understand or appreciate long tasting menus with an avant-garde streak, Casañas replied, “Maybe it’s not the more fashionable way to do things, but for us, we do the things we want, and we never change our way. And today we are here.”

In the second spot was legendary live-fire restaurant Asador Etxebarri in the Basque country. When we named the 10 Most Influential Restaurants of the 2010s, Etxebarri was on the list, with chef Aitor Zabala telling us that it “brought a new dimension to cooking with fire and brought it around the world,” he said. “How many chefs put grills in their kitchen because Etxebarri has them?”

After Table by Bruno Verjus in Paris moved up from 10 last year to No. 3 in 2024, yet another Spanish restaurant, Diverxo in Madrid, joined a top five that was rounded out by Maido in Lima, Peru. At No. 6 Atomix in New York City once again ranked the highest of any American restaurant, further cementing its position at the forefront of Korean fine dining not just in the U.S. but around the world. The other U.S. restaurant to rank in the top 50 was Kyle and Katina Connaughton’s SingleThread in Healdsburg, Calif.

This year’s list was determined by 1,080 voters around the world and for all the criticisms of the awards, the impact appearing on it can move the needle for a restaurant. Chef Jeremy Chan, whose Ikoyi in London joined the list in 2022 and slotted in at 42 this year, told Robb Report his restaurant saw an immediate increase that has since settled into a steady flow of diners. Elena Reygadas, last year’s World’s Best Female Chef echoed the sentiments, saying that after her Rosetta in Mexico City ranked in at 49, it boosted business. This year her establishment rose up the ranks to 34, so perhaps the impact to her bottom line will be even greater.

The 50 Best Restaurants in the World 2024