39.) Alaf (Istanbul - 2024)
I was planning a visit to Alaf before realizing they had a tasting menu option. For my last meal in Turkey I decided to splurge for it, and man was it incredible. They are pushing boundaries - deserts made to look like chilies, takes on innards to be eaten like burgers, their cutesy version of "lamb kebab", and so much else. Not all hit the mark, but man were they showcasing the entirety of Anatolian cuisine, from camel tarts to skullfish. I expect only bigger and better things from this relative newcomer spot in the Istanbul culinary world.
38.) Salt (Budapest - 2024)
And here's the inventive. playful one of Budapest, the place that hit a lot of the right spots. It had the most courses of any spot on my most recent trip - 15. Not all of them worked, but even the ones that didn't fully, I had to admire the pushing of envelopes - such as a first little bit which was jsut a bundle of raw herbs, salt and yeast butter. But when they were on, man were they on. An incredible hen of the woods mushroom dish. Such brilliant uses of various picked ingredients, just adding taht little tartness to each dish. A dynamic bread course with the dip being duck and goose pates. A just brilliant main of pork cheek and beet. Various uses of old time yogurt and curd based desserts. They weren't there to knock you out with refinement, but with vision of a culinary history more deep than you would think.
37.) D.O.M. (Sao Paulo - 2025)
D.O.M. is arguably the grand-daddy of Brazilian fine dining - Alex Atala's spot that has claimed high marks for over a decade. It is still great, and really does an incredible job going deep, deep, deep into the depths of Brazilian ingredients and cuisine - from ants to river fish, to so many variations on the cassava / tapioca / tucupi. The main being a bit odd - a dish as much playing vegetables (leafs) with meat - probably keeps this from being five or so spots higher. It still truly was a fantastic experience and probably the best example of how to elevate traditional Brazilian dishes and ingredients - especially things like manioc chips, quail, and a wealth of seafood from the Amazonia.
36.) Sushi M (Tokyo - 2023)
I wanted to splurge on one sushi tasting menu. There are more famous spots in Tokyo, and more expensive ones, but I have to say hard to think any are plain better than Sushi M. One counter, dark lighting except for single spotlights on each table space. A sushi master behind the counter calmly creating magic. What I loved msot is beyond the say 12-15 pieces of nigiri, from all types of tuna to abalone, to squid to so much else (uni, egg sushi, etc.), was how they layered in other stuff, from a cold seafood soup, to a great little amouse bouche, to even of course a wagyu beef dish in the middle. Their sake pairing was incredible as well for those who prefer that to a more traditional wine. I truly could not have had anything better than this incredible meal.
35.) Mori (Busan - 2024)
Proper Kaiseki cuisine is heavenly. It is also very expensive - which is why I never went to a true Kaiseki spot in Kyoto (the home of it). Well, I did in Busan, and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be. Mori was primarily seafood based, from perfect raw sashimi cut counter side, to an incredible unagi fried rice as the main (a rice course usually comes last). Their fried dish was perfectly flaky fish. Incredible dishes of soft shell crab in a crazy complex sauce, or a perfect slice of wagyu topped with uni. It was decadent, delicate and oh so exacting. The only thing keeping it from not being even higher is you would want a little bit more sustenance at times, but the meal was just so incredibly delicate.
34.) La Colombe (Cape Town - 2024)
Cape Town has a series of incredible spots, including two to come. La Colombe has been around for many years, an old mainstay in teh Cape Town fine dining circuit, but it was not until this my 7th trip that I went. Situated far away up on a winery hill, the setting could not be more gorgeous, only met by the food. If it were a few more courses, probably ends up higher on the list, but it was pure ecstasy. One of the best poultry dishes I've had, in a quail three ways. As always a brilliant lamb finish. A brilliant bread course with compound butters shaped to make to look like fruits. They mixed whimsy, elegance and refinedness perfectly.
33.) Restaurante 99 (Santiago - 2018. 2024, 2025)
We were hoping to go to Borago, which is Santiago's top rated restuarant, but 'settled' for Restaurante 99 instead, which was excellent. The food is based on local ingredients but is more of modern fusion than any real 'Chilean' focus, but it was still excellent. It was early January, so we sat outside and because of that the pictures are a bit blurry, but do show off some of the inventiveness of the menu. There was a dish with aout six or seven preparations of mushrooms, including one constructed mushroom using two different preparations to make it look like a large mushroom. There was a bowl of perfectly seasoned little cockels, two great amouse bouches, and honestly I think my favorite set of desserts ever at a tasting menu spot - one called a 'red pepper' which was a sorbet with bits of red pepper again constructed to look like a red pepper. Restaurant 99 was a great spot, our best meal on maybe my favorite trip of all time. **2024, 2025 Update: In its return from Covid-related closure, Restaurante 99 pivoted to serving incredible versions of home food. Gone is the molecular gastronomy, but remains is such amazing exactness and love of regional ingredients. It's still amazing, just very, very different. Get ready to taste horse - which is amazing!**
32.) Coco (Ho Chi Minh City - 2026)
I ventured away from my normal HCMC go-to Anan (which, admittedly I have ranked further up) to try out an up and coming special spot in HCMC in Coco - there is a dynamic professionalism here - an incredible mix of really upmarket decor, lighting with some amazingly fun dishes like their "salad" of strange Thai herbs and greens with a galangal and mint sorbet, or their fancy way of making shrimp hot pot. I have no idea how often chef changes his menu, but I hope it is often if only because I'm sure there's a lot more kooky, interesting things he is crafting up for his tour of Vietnam.
31.) Lurra (Kyoto - 2023)
There are many amazing options for fine dining in Kyoto, the home of the Kaiseki cuisine. Most are deep into the higher end of Kaiseki pricing. Instead I opted for a place run by a Norwegian with a staff of various ethnicities, and cooking up incredible fare with Japanese precision, ingredient inspiration and the rest. The only real knock is that the primary main was a absolutely ludicrously good mushroom, but mushroom the same. Still, their dishes like ricotta balls made to look like pumpkins in a delectable soup, or an incredible watermelon and caviar dish, and so much else, was crafted with the precision one would expect for Japanese cuisine. I was honored to see that Phil Rosenthal went there in his latest trip - for me once going to a place before him. It isn't the msot prominent but in a place of food royalty, it's two Michelin stars are a showcase of how worthy it is overall.
30.) Sushi Sohei (Sapporo - 2026)
I'm very annoyed they don't allow you to take pictures of the first seven appetizers (i.e. the stuff served before the Sushi) - some are sashimi, but many are wonderful little bites of seafood-y wonderness. And then you start some of the best sushi of your life - just incredible collection of bites and fishes and interesting stuff. There is even a final a-la-carte special bites at the end, which were incredible but also a bit annoying that this is additional (not crazy, tohugh, I guess). In the end, Sushi Sohei is a world class omakase in probably the best place to get sushi in Japan (Sapporo). I went there by chance - put in requests here and two others, and this is the one that came through, but it was just incredible. Everything crafted brilliantly - watching the sushi master work is magnificent, and the fish itself was awesome and I love that they didn't make chu-toro the star, but varied it up so much.
29.) NOA Chef's Hall (Tallinn - 2024)
I underrated Tallinn, even knowing it was a great place. On my first day there, I took a ride around the coastline down to NOA, and from that second didn't underrate it more for a second. First they seat you in a library type room, where they bring you three simple, golden bites - all incredible. Then take you to the main area, with a large hearth and open kitchen, just pumping out great food. Nominally, steeping it in Estonian cuisine, but adding such flourish. Dollops of caviar, both normal and "estonian" (from a white strawberry). Inventive techniques like how they flash cook langoustines using hot metal. An impeccable main of lamb that was one of the single best dishes I've had in a European restaurant. All of it with teh flair and exactness you would expect from a Spain or Italy, with zero pretension as well. Just a special place.
28.) Masque (Mumbai - 2024)
It's not that I had not eaten at an Indian tasting menu before - of course Gaggan is one. But never one in India, and Masque met all expectations at presenting wildly inventive ways to consume Indian food with still such flavor and spice. Dishes alternate from exacting brilliance like a cured barramundi with prickly pear and beet broth, to the more street style, like a lamb floss kebab, lamb belly and sheermal (white korma curry). The main centering around prawn gassi was another nice touch to my home area of Indian on the konkan coast, as was an incredible pork belly vindaloo dish as well. On the whole, Masque was unapologetically Indian, while having a refinement that was astoundign at times.
27.) EMi (Madrid - 2026)
I went to EMi on a bit of a whim - fairly last minute decided to stay in Madrid on the Friday instead of heading straight to Toledo. There were more preferred options that were unsurprisingly sold out a week out. EMi wasn't, but not because it isn't great. It deserves its recognition and the food was wonderful - Spanish ingredients with Korean preparations. Yes, some of these matchups are a bit much, but in this case the chef worked at Atomix and Mingles so had grown up in Korean cuisine and brought the funk and umami and paired it with incredible seaweed, lamb, pork, prawns and much more. There was also little other global flair, from a bolinho, to a ton of tuiles, and much more. The dishes were all crafted so well. Honestly, kind of regretting already not ranking it higher, as looking back there were no misses in their 14 courses - just I guess no mind-blowing ones either, which pretty much all of the ones I've ranked above it have.
26.) Belcanto (Lisbon - 2021)
I just went to Belcanto last fall and chronicled it fully on this blog course by course. Some of this will be a repeat. Overall, the one word to describe it is opulence, from the position near the Opera house, the gold inside, the pristine white tablecloths, and the food from delicious small bites showcasing a refined version of Portuguese cuisine, to the famous 'Garden of the Goose that laid the Golden Egg' dish, fit with a long-cooked egg covered in gold leaf. There were about 15 moments alltogether, and while some were slightly below great, most were amazing, including the gold leaf, their breads and butters, to a little gold ball of cod, to an oyster with tuna tartare and a cod pearl. The food was authentically Portugeuse, from river prawns to so many great sardines and cod, to the main dish having a beef liver nata tart. Belcanto was immaculate in its gaudiness, even though it was pumping up what is often seen as a less refined cuisine.
25.) Saint Peter (Sydney - 2025)
Given "Australian" cuisine doesn't really have defining traits, what really sets Saint Peter apart is taking a specific point of view, in this case its focus on fish and fish butchery. The standout dish is the fish charcuterie plate, where it is just absurd that you are eating fish turned into salami, mortadella and chorizo, and it all tasting like those things with a hint of fish. Other dishes were just as good, if not as zany, with them cooking fish in just better ways than other places (an amazing bonito dish where they just rub charcoal on skin and that is it). On the whole, if their main dish was as good as all the others, it probably goes 3-4 spots further up. Saint Peter was just a masterpiece of focused cooking.
24.) Pier (Cape Town - 2022, 2023)
Pier is run by the group that runs even more notable restaurants in the Cape Town area, and is located in the heart of the most touristy area of the city in the V&A Waterfront, not an area for a truly creative explosion of primarily seafood, but all Capetonian food. The restaurant had some incredible dishes with incredible presentations, uncluding a pork jowl and crayfish soup, a mussel and ham sauce put within an oyster, to an incredible lamb flash-grilled in front of you with a million different fixings and sides and incredible sauces. Pier was so clean, so smart, such a great restaurant in a city full of them. Even the cheese course was amazing. Pier was a truly great experience.
23.) Ephedra (San Pedro de Atacama - 2026)
It is inexplicable that this restaurant exists. San Pedro de Atacama is an amazing tourist destination of a location, but mostly catering to the hostel types - the ones who aren't going to drop $100 at a dinner. But somehow, this ranch style restaurant on a dirt gravel road, with as beautiful a view as you would expect in Atacama, just works. Chef Sergio Armell has created something amazing, taking the paucity of the Atacama ingredients and treating them with the utmost care, delicacy and brilliant. The way he used river trout, alpaca, and of course that main of lamb, was all inspiring, as were his more lowkey dishes like a play on tamales or tacos. Ephedra is a diamond in the rough, truly.
22.) Goh (Fukuoka - 2026)
In a weird way, I want to contrast directly Goh with Ryosho which ranked about 15 spots further back (as of the Sep-26 version of this). Ryosho is a kaiseki that favors exacting perfection on simplicity. Goh is a more traditional tasting menu that features more, candidly, interesting preparations - but hell of the ingredients were not also super fresh, and the techniques wonderful. Goh is Japanese ingredients with a French twist, made by a true master in Goh Fukuyama, and the dishes were brilliant, from concoctions like a caviar, eel and squid combination taco in a shisho leaf, to this incredible abalone, mushroom and fungi herb dish that I still think about. Of course you have the main with the perfectly cooked piece of wagyu. Everything about Goh was in many ways not Japanese in presentation - it was more familiar, more global but also so perfectly done.
21.) Le Du (Bangkok - 2022)
There are many top restaurants in Bangkok, and Le Du is one of the few that focus on actual Thai food (quick shout out for the now closed Bo.Lan, a place I never was able to make it to). Their thai focused tasting menu was excellent, with great use of thai veggies, thai spices, thai curries, everything. The only real knock I can have is there was no standout meat dish. But there were excellent catfish, crab, shrimp, so much more. Le Du also had the most reasonably priced wine pairing I've seen, and good win to boot. The restaurant is doing some great things showcasing a cuisine that so rarely is featured in upscale venues in its own capital.
20.) Lasai (Rio de Janeiro - 2025)
Much like D.O.M. which we covered earlier, Lasai expertly uses a number of Brazilian ingredients, but what it doeas even better, to be honest, is take those and make a truly timeless and locationless tasting menu. The dishes you eat here can be eaten at the great restaurants of any European or Asian city, just based fully on the ingredients, and primarily produce of Brazil. From flax seed, to incredibly delicate eggplant, to a copa pork from deep in the jungle, to amazing river scallops. Lasai excels at taking normal ingredients and gurning the presentation and structure up to 11, without fail. It truly was a great experience.
19.) Anan (Ho Chi Minh City - 2023)
I've eaten here three times. First sampling some of their a-la-carte menu (I don't think there was a tasting then). Then getting a tasting menu that was a sampling. Well, in 2023 they graduated to the class of a michelin star along with a proper, incredible, chef's tasting menu that was a gastronomical delight through my favorite world cuisine. Anan is spearheading the way of showing how fancy, brilliant, inventive, Veitnamese cuisine can be at the tweezer and tasting level. Dishes like their one bite pho, their play on various Vietnamese classics made in their own way, their incredible lamb finish, their brilliant desserts. Vietnam is such a rich cuisine, and Anan is the first to truly to take it to gastronomic brilliance.
18.) Mume (Taipei - 2019)
I talked in the Belly of the Beast section of how most of the ones ranked above it are more on the molecular gastronomy side - and the top three all are, but Mume is frankly not, but it is truly mesmerizing. Like Pujol it is only six dishes but each was amazing in its focus and depth. Their two starters of jicama & prawn then a plum, kombu and tuna crudo were both just beautiful. The wagyu beef tartare was incredible, with teh softest bread for you to lap it up with. The two 'mains' of braised milkfish and oxtongue were impeccable. Even the dessert of tropical 'snow' was awesome. To some degree, while I could never see myself being able to make the dishes that the top three do because I wouldn't know where to begin, these are not dishes that are out of the realm of possibility. I could make something that looks similar; what is out of the realm of possibility is any idea that they would taste nearly as good, be as clean, as refined, as perfect as 'normal' food can be,
17.) Nen (Danang, Vietnam - 2026)
I wrote earlier about me going away from Anan to a place that while I liked was slightly worse. Well, that's all fine because I found a place in Vietnam that I thought was better. Nen was such an incredible, poignant showcase to Vietnam. There was also this a bit odd story about time that the waiters gave rehearsed explanations to. That part was a bit odd. Everything else was stellar, from a scallop film dish straight out of Gaggan, to an amazing fish roe and picked vegetable dish straight out of Merito (both the above comparisons in terms of how they looked), to a really wonderful duck main, a very underrated Vietnamese staple. The only thing keeping Nen from being higher up really was I just wish there were a scotch more courses. Still, it was an incredible meal in an underrated food city overall.
