ASADOR ETXEBARRI IS NAMED NO.1 IN THE LIST OF THE 50 BEST RESTAURANTS 2026

• Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain, is named The World's Best Restaurant 2026, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna
• Ranking includes restaurants from 28 territories across six continents, with 11 new entries and five re-entries
• Tuju in São Paulo earns the Highest New Entry Award, sponsored by Gloria
• Highest Climber Award, sponsored by Supermercados Wong, is awarded to Kadeau, Copenhagen
• Ferran Adrià receives the SevenRooms Icon Award
• Best Female Chef Award, sponsored by Lexus, is given to Jessica Rosval, head chef of Al Gatto Verde
• Bangkok's Dej Kewkacha wins Best Pastry Chef Award, sponsored by Sosa
• Best Sommelier Award, sponsored by Vik, is presented to Lesley Liu of Odette in Singapore
• The 50 Best Restaurants Scholarship, in association with Parmigiano Reggiano, is awarded to Doris Lam
• Naar in Kasauli is announced the winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award
• Junghyun 'JP' Park from Atomix in New York City receives the Estrella Damm Chefs' Choice Award

LIMA, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The gastronomic world gathered in Lima, Peru this evening for the unveiling of The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna.

Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo is named The World's Best Restaurant 2026, succeeding 2025 winner Maido in Lima, which now takes its place among the Best of the Best hall of fame. The awards ceremony, hosted at Teatro Municipal de Lima, honoured global culinary talent across 28 territories and six continents, with 14 new cities appearing in the ranking.

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For the full 1-50 list, please see the attached graphic or see the bottom of this release.

Ranked at No.2 in the 2025 list, Asador Etxebarri, run by chef-owner Victor Arguinzoniz, has perfected the art of Basque wood-fire cooking. Nestled in the peaceful Basque village of Axpe, this humble setting is where chef Victor and his team quietly welcome guests to experience his lifelong passion for cooking with fire. Across an unforgettable 14-course tasting menu, the kitchen creates elegant dishes that allow high-quality ingredients to take centre stage, elevating simple produce into extraordinary masterpieces through the mastery of the grill. Asador Etxebarri is followed in the ranking by Gaggan (No.2) in Bangkok and Alchemist (No.3) in Copenhagen.

Rikki Tidball, Managing Director of Events for The 50, comments: "The 50 Best Restaurants 2026, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, celebrates the highest calibre of hospitality on a global scale. We are delighted to announce this year's 1-50 ranking and honour Asador Etxebarri as The World's Best Restaurant 2026. Helmed by Victor Arguinzoniz, the team's dedication to transforming simple, high-quality ingredients into sophisticated dishes has captivated the culinary world. Celebrating gastronomic excellence and the remarkable talent shaping the global culinary landscape, this year's ranking welcomes 11 new entries to the 1-50 list, showcasing the breadth of talent, diversity and creativity shaping the global hospitality landscape."

11 restaurants make their debut on the 1-50 list this year, including São Paulo's Tuju (No.16); Meet the Bund (No.21) in Shanghai; Al Gatto Verde (No.24) in Modena; Masque (No.26) in Mumbai; Le Coquillage (No.34) in Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes, France; Ru Yuan (No.36) in Hangzhou, Mainland China; Nuema (No.37) in Quito; Onjium (No.41) in Seoul; Bozar (No.42) in Brussels; Naar (No.49) in Kasauli, India and Saint Peter (No.50) in Sydney, demonstrating the ranking's growing international reach in showcasing the world's finest dining destinations.

A further five restaurants re-entered the 1-50 ranking this year: La Colombe (No.35) in Cape Town; Schloss Schauenstein (No.39) in Fürstenau, Switzerland; Jordnær (No.40) in Copenhagen; El Chato (No.46) in Bogotá and Le Louis XV – Alain Ducasse (No.47) in Monte Carlo.

Additionally, seven restaurants received top honours across key regions: the title of The Best Restaurant in Europe is awarded to Asador Etxebarri (No.1) in Atxondo; Gaggan (No.2) in Bangkok claims The Best Restaurant in Asia; Quintonil (No.4) in Mexico City wins The Best Restaurant in Latin America, sponsored by Latam Airlines; Atomix (No.11) in New York secures The Best Restaurant in North America;  Trèsind Studio (No.28) in Dubai wins The Best Restaurant in the Middle East; La Colombe (No.35) in Cape Town is awarded The Best Restaurant in Africa and Saint Peter (No.50) in Sydney secures The Best Restaurant in Oceania.

Based in São Paulo, executive chef Ivan Ralston's Tuju (No.16) is recognised with the Highest New Entry Award, sponsored by Gloria, and Kadeau (No.8) in Copenhagen, secures the Highest Climber Award, sponsored by Supermercados Wong, moving up 33 places from the 2025 list.

Jessica Rosval, head chef of Al Gatto Verde (No.24), wins the Best Female Chef Award, sponsored by Lexus. Located at Massimo Bottura's Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Rosval is recognised for her signature wood-fired cooking and commitment to sustainability and social advocacy through Roots, a social enterprise restaurant she co-founded to empower migrant women through professional culinary training.

Visionary chef-restaurateur of the legendary El Bulli, Ferran Adrià receives the SevenRooms Icon Award. Celebrated for his commitment to culinary research and education through the El Bulli Foundation, a pioneering non-profit institution, he continues to shape the future of gastronomy by inspiring the next generation of chefs.

Junghyun Park from Atomix (No.11) in New York City receives the Estrella Damm Chefs' Choice Award. The only award to be voted for by his peers, this recognition reflects his commitment to innovate Korean fine dining as he continues to influence modern gastronomy on the global culinary scene.

Dej Kewkacha receives the Best Pastry Chef Award, sponsored by Sosa. A self-taught pâtissier, Kewkacha is a leading figure in Asia's pastry industry, redefining the dessert experience by elevating local flavours into fine-dining omakase courses, which earned him the title of Asia's Best Pastry Chef 2025.

The winner of The 50 Best Restaurants Scholarship, in association with Parmigiano Reggiano, was also announced this evening as Doris Lam. A former food journalist, she made a bold leap from a thriving career to train as a chef. She will gain invaluable insight with paid stages (internships) at The Fat Duck in Bray, United Kingdom, led by chef Heston Blumenthal, which was named No.1 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2005 and is now an honorary member of the Best of the Best hall of fame; and Salsify at the Roundhouse in Cape Town, South Africa, from chefs Ryan Cole and Nina du Toit, currently ranked No.71 on The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 extended list.

The Best Sommelier Award, sponsored by Vik, is presented to Lesley Liu, head sommelier at Odette in Singapore. Having quickly risen through the ranks, she is renowned for her impeccable pairing skills and is a dedicated mentor to her peers, actively championing women in the wine industry, having won Asia's Best Sommelier Award 2026.

Naar (No.49) in Kasauli is announced the winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award in recognition of its strong commitment to sustainability. The kitchen sources ingredients from the Himalayan region, changing its menu to match the six distinct seasons of the mountain range. Additionally, the team finds innovative ways to use kitchen scraps and incorporates ancient Himalayan methods like using hardwood ash to store and protect perishable foods.

The evening also celebrated the recipients of the pre-announced awards recognised in the lead-up to the ceremony. Among them is the winner of the Champions of Change Award, sponsored by illycaffè, Ghana Food Movement – a youth-led organisation transforming Ghana's food system through education, indigenous ingredients and community; the Art of Hospitality Award is presented to Tuju in São Paulo; and Yiaga in Melbourne receives the Visa One to Watch Award.

The Voting Process

The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list is created from the votes of The 50 Best Restaurants Academy, comprising more than 1,100 international restaurant industry experts, with a 50/50 gender balance, of which at least 25 per cent are refreshed annually.

The Academy is split into 28 separate regions around the world, with some regions spanning more than one country, territory or SAR. The decision as to how the region is divided is left to The 50, in consultation with its global Chairs, and is debated and reassessed annually. The divisions are designed to represent the global restaurant scene as fairly as possible.

The 50 Group works with professional services consultancy Deloitte as its official independent adjudication partner to help protect the integrity and authenticity of the voting process and the resulting list of The 50 Best Restaurants 2026. See more details on The 50 Best Restaurants voting process here.

Best of the Best

The Best of the Best group is formed of all the restaurants that have topped the annual ranking of The 50 Best Restaurants over its history, which are no longer eligible to be voted on new editions of the list. Those in the elite group of No.1 ranked restaurants have more than proved their worth and are now forever honoured as iconic dining destinations in the Best of the Best hall of fame. The chefs and restaurateurs who have led these restaurants to the pinnacle of the list have expressed their desire to invest in the future of the sector and 'give back' to the food world through new projects and innovation. The following restaurants have been named No.1 in The 50 Best Restaurants since the list's inception and were therefore not eligible for voting in 2026: 

• El Bulli (2002, 2006-2009)
• The French Laundry (2003-2004)
• The Fat Duck (2005)
• Noma – original location (2010-2012, 2014)
• El Celler de Can Roca (2013, 2015)
• Osteria Francescana (2016, 2018)
• Eleven Madison Park (2017)
• Mirazur (2019)
• Noma – current location (2021)
• Geranium (2022)
• Central (2023)
• Disfrutar (2024)
• Maido (2025)

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EDITORS' NOTES:

1-50 List:

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About The 50 Best Restaurants
Since 2002, The 50 Best Restaurants has reflected the diversity of the world's culinary landscape. Formerly known as The World's 50 Best Restaurants, the annual list of the world's most prestigious restaurants provides a snapshot of some of the best destinations for unique culinary experiences, in addition to being a barometer for and a pioneer of global gastronomic trends.

The 50 Group also includes The 50 Best Restaurants Latin America, The 50 Best Restaurants Asia, The 50 Best Restaurants Middle East & North Africa, The 50 Best Restaurants North America as well as The 50 Best Hotels, The 50 Best Vineyards, The 50 Best Bars, The 50 Best Bars Asia, The 50 Best Bars North America, The 50 Best Bars Europe, The 50 Discovery and the World's Best Sommeliers' Selection. The 50 brings together communities across the hospitality sector to foster collaboration, inclusivity, diversity and discovery, and to help drive positive change. William Reed, which owns The 50 (formerly known as 50 Best), is entirely responsible for the organisation of the awards, the voting system and the respective lists.

About the host destination partner: The Commission for the Promotion of Peru for Exports and Tourism, PromPerú

The Commission for the Promotion of Peru for Exports and Tourism (PromPerú) is a specialised technical body attached to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism. It is responsible for formulating, approving, implementing, and evaluating strategies and plans for the promotion of exportable goods and services, as well as domestic and inbound tourism, while promoting and strengthening Peru's image as a tourism and export destination.  

About the main partners: S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna

S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna are the main partners of The 50 Best Restaurants. S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna are the leading natural mineral waters in the fine dining world. Together they interpret Italian style worldwide as a synthesis of excellence, pleasure and well-being.

Our partners:

• PromPerú – Official Host Destination Partner
• S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna – Main Partner & Official Water Partner; sponsor of The World's Best Restaurant 2026
• SevenRooms – Official Booking Platform Partner; sponsor of SevenRooms Icon Award 2026
• DoorDash – Official Delivery Partner   
• Visa – Official Payment Partner; sponsor of Visa One to Watch Award 2026
• Estrella Damm – Official Beer Partner; sponsor of Estrella Damm Chefs' Choice Award 2026
• Sosa – Official Ingredients Partner; sponsor of Best Pastry Chef Award 2026
• illycaffè – Official Coffee Partner; sponsor of Champions of Change Award 2026
• Aspire Lifestyles – Official Concierge Partner; sponsor of ceremonial scarves
• Parmigiano Reggiano – Official Cheese Partner; sponsor of The 50 Best Restaurants Scholarship 2026
• Vik – Official Wine Partner; sponsor of Best Sommelier Award 2026
• Latam Airlines – Official Airline Partner; sponsor of The Best Restaurant in Latin America 2026
• Supermercados Wong – Official Retail Partner, sponsor of Highest Climber Award 2026
• Gloria S.A – Official Dairy Partner; sponsor of Highest New Entry Award 2026
• Tequila Ocho – Official Tequila Partner
• Lexus – Official Automotive Partner; sponsor of Best Female Chef Award 2026
• Inca Kola – Official Peruvian Soft Drink Partner
• Dassai – Official Sake Partner
• Maison Kaviari – Official Caviar Partner
• La Estampida Signature Beef – Official Peruvian Beef Partner
• Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima – Offiicial Venue Partner
• Teatro Municipal de Lima – Official Venue Partner
• Miraflores Park – Official Hotel Venue Partner
• InterContinental Miraflores – Official Hotel Venue Partner

SOURCE The 50