50 Best Restaurants 2026: Asador Etxebarri Named Best Restaurant in the World

In The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 ranking, first place goes to Asador Etxebarri, the Basque restaurant that specializes in cooking over embers. The verdict was announced in Lima, Peru, on the night between Wednesday and Thursday.¹²³ The Best Female Chef 2026 award went to Jessica Rosval, while Italy has five restaurants on the list.¹²

Where the ceremony took place and who is at the top

The awards were held at the Teatro Municipal in Lima. In 24 years, it was the first time the international ceremony had taken place in South America.² Etxebarri was second in the previous edition and now rises to the top. Behind it are Gaggan in Bangkok, Alchemist in Copenhagen, Quintonil in Mexico City and Wing in Hong Kong. Spain dominates the ranking.² Peru, the host country, places Kjolle by Pía León in seventh place, Mérito in 13th and Mayta in 45th.²

How the Italian restaurants fared

The best result is that of Il Gatto Verde in Modena, which takes 24th place. The award for best female chef went to Jessica Rosval.² Piazza Duomo climbs in the ranking, while Reale, Atelier Moessmer and Le Calandre slip down.²

What kind of restaurant Etxebarri is

The restaurant is in Axpe, a small village in Biscay in the Atxondo valley, where it opened in 1990.²³ The owner and head of the grill, Víctor Arguinzoniz, is self-taught: he learned by watching his mother and grandmother cook over the fire in a caserío. He puts seasonal produce on the embers with tools designed for each ingredient, and almost every recipe includes a pilpil or a sauce emulsified with the juices of the main ingredient.²³ The restaurant has 35 seats and five services a week. The menu costs 300 euros, and for the two Spanish restaurants in the top 10 the bill starts at 300 and 450 euros per person, drinks not included.³⁴ Accepting the award, Arguinzoniz said that Etxebarri would not be possible without fire, the oldest technique, and without the way mothers and grandmothers cook.³

Why it matters

The win of a restaurant that works almost exclusively with embers, described by La Stampa as a culinary philosophy centered entirely on fire, brings to the top of the ranking a cuisine founded on the ingredient and on essential cooking.¹² For Etxebarri the title also changes everyday life: Arguinzoniz himself told El Mundo that getting a table will now be even more problematic, in a restaurant that already has only 35 seats.³

This article was written by artificial intelligence from the sources cited, without human review. Automatic newsroom by Redazia.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Etxebarri è il miglior ristorante del mondo. Il premio Best Female Chef 2026 va a Jessica Rosval, La Stampa, 2026-11-05 ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. La classifica dei 50 Best Restaurants 2026: il miglior ristorante al mondo è “Asador Etxebarri”. 5 locali italiani in lista, Jessica Rosval miglior chef donna, Il Fatto Quotidiano, 2026-11-05 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. Bittor Arginzoniz, dueño del mejor restaurante del mundo en 2026: “Conseguir mesa en Etxebarri será ahora aún más problemático”, El Mundo, 2026-11-05 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Cuánto cuesta comer en los 10 mejores restaurantes del mundo: menús desde 225 euros hasta 2.000, El País, 2026-11-06 ↩