World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025

On Monday, the World’s 50 Best announced the top 50 restaurants in the world for 2025 at an event in Turin, Italy on Monday evening. Maido in Lima, Peru was named No. 1, the second time a restaurant from this city landed in the top position (Central won in 2023). Spain’s Asador Etxebarri became the bridesmaid again at No. 2 for the second year in a row. Quintonil in Mexico City rounded out the top three.

Despite containing restaurants from many countries, this list of fine dining restaurants is not really representative of world cuisine. As Eater reports, “nearly all of the restaurants that have been ranked first are located in Europe; those that aren’t in Europe serve European-style tasting menus; and all of the restaurants except Central are helmed exclusively by men.” Fine dining remains, to a great extent, an old [Western] boys club. This is not meant to take away anything from the terrific chefs on the list who have undoubtedly worked hard to perfect their craft, it just notes that more could be done to allow opportunities for others to break into this sphere.

There are few Canadian or US restaurants on this list, which may be one reason the organization announced it would be compiling a list of the top 50 restaurants in North America.

Many chefs on the list list have written cookbooks, mainly about their highly regarded restaurants. These books are largely coffee-table expositions boasting incredible photography and often featuring highly complicated recipes that are aspirational rather than practical. Restaurants and/or chefs in the top 50 (either now or in recent years) with cookbooks include: 

• Disfrutar Vol I: The first book of Castro, Xatruch and Casañas, about the restaurant Disfrutar by Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas (Disfrutar, #1 in 2024)
• Etxebarri by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Jon Sarabia (Asador Etxebarri, #2)
• Quintonil. Food as Agent of Change by Alejandra Flores and Jorge Vallejo (Quintonil, #3)
• Books by or about Norbert Niederkofler (Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, #20)
• Elkano: A Culinary Landscape by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Aitor Arregi (Elkano, #24)
• Boragó: Coming from the South by Rodolfo Guzman (Boragó, #23)
• My Way: From the Gutters to the Stars by Tim Raue (Restaurant Tim Raue, #58 this year, #30 2024)
• Combinações Improváveis (Bilingual Edition): Receitas do Programa de Televisão /Recipes from the TV show by by José Avillez (Belcanto, #42)
• Books by Enrique Olvera (Pujol, #60 this year, #33 in 2024)
• Books by Björn Frantzén (Frantzén, #38)
• Books by Bertrand Grébaut (Septime, #40)
• Mugaritz. Vanishing Points and Mugaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking by Andoni Aduriz (Mugaritz, previous years)
• Books by Eric Ripert (Le Bernardin, #90 this year, top 50 previous years)