The World’s 50 Best Restaurants

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has reflected and celebrated the richness and diversity of the world's culinary landscape since 2002. Thanks to its panel of 1,120 culinary experts, as well as its structured and audited voting procedure, the annual list of the world's finest restaurants provides a snapshot of some of the best destinations for unique culinary experiences, in addition to being a barometer for global gastronomic trends.

Back in 2002, British magazine Restaurant – the leading publication dedicated to the UK’s restaurant trade – decided to create a list of the best restaurants in the world, based on the advice of 150 experts. The following year, that same team decided to host a celebration commemorating the announcement of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants; thus, the spirit of the awards ceremony and celebration was born.

Before this, no one had dared take on the task of including the entire restaurant industry, in all its global diversity, in a single ranking system. This system has been honed over time, growing first to a panel of 300 experts, then eventually to more than 1,000, with structural improvements being made along the way. Soon afterwards, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants became independently run from Restaurant magazine.