22 WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS SEPTEMBER 2019
THE. WHOLE. WORLD.
I COULD BARELY BELIEVE my ears when the call came. The
editors of Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure wanted one
critic to travel the globe and come up with a list of the best
restaurants in the world. They wanted that person to be me.
Of course I said yes—who wouldn’t? But it wasn’t for the
reasons you might think. There are, of course, already lists,
guidebooks, ratings, and awards. Some are chosen by groups
of experts, others by voters around the world, still others
by teams of inspectors. Each method has its pros and cons.
What this list celebrates is cuisine and culture, not
rankings and numbers. To have the globe reduced to one
expensive tasting menu after another is to miss out on a
true taste of the world. What I want when I travel is a meal
that teaches me something about a region’s people and
their tastes and lives. That’s what this list is about.
For one person alone to compile
such a list would be impossible. So,
the editors asked a panel to nomi-
nate restaurants based on the inter-
section of food, travel, and culture.
From a massive list, we narrowed
the field and built an itinerary. Then
I got on a plane. And then another.
Over the course of four months, I
dined, anonymously, at 81 restau-
rants in 24 countries across six con-
tinents. I flew 279 hours—I still have
jet lag. From those meals, I chose
the 30 restaurants that were the most thrilling, the most deli-
cious, and that most immersed me in the culture of a place.
The morning after arriving in South America, woozy from
altitude sickness, I found myself in a car headed for the Andean
countryside. I barely remember the drive, despite the breathtak-
ing scenery. The lack of sleep and oxygen made me a dull fac-
simile of myself. Three hours later, everything changed. At Mil,
the incredible restaurant high in the Andes, I was snapped out
of my stupor and into a sharp and pleasurable focus. On the
drive back to Cuzco, my heart swelled with the marvel of where
I was, the improbability of being there, and the full realization
of the vastness of the world and the immense privilege I had to
experience it. I had similar moments at a food truck in Tijuana,
Mexico, and at the worn counter of a seafood joint in San Fran-
cisco, where my weariness fell away and I was renewed.
This is what a great restaurant can
do for a traveler: it can clarify and syn-
thesize the place you’re in, wake you
up to its wonder. That’s what I was
looking for on this journey—dining
experiences that fully embodied the
glorious awe of travel. And whether
you plan a crazy trip like mine to eat
at all 30 of the places on our list or
make a pilgrimage to dine at just one
or two of them, I hope you feel the way
I do: that you’ve experienced the
breadth of the world.
ABOUT OUR GLOBAL CRITIC
BESHA RODELL
Rodell is a James Beard Award–winning
writer who has reported on food and cul-
ture for 19 years in multiple cities across
two continents. One of the few truly
anonymous restaurant critics, she was
the critic at LA Weekly for five years before
joining The New York Times’ Australia
bureau in 2017 as its dining critic.
100,000+
MI LES
TRAVELED
279
HOURS I N
THE AIR^37
HOTELS
BOOKED
THE CULINARY
PANEL
Meet our international
panel of food- and drink-
obsessed travelers.
ALEX ATALA
chef-owner, D.O.M., São Paulo
NYESHA ARRINGTON
chef, Los Angeles
GABRIELA CÁMARA
chef-owner, Contramar, Mexico
City, and Cala, San Francisco
MAY CHOW
chef-owner, Happy Paradise and
Little Bao, Hong Kong
CHAD COLBY
chef-owner, Antico, Los Angeles
NINA COMPTON
chef-owner, Compère Lapin,
New Orleans
BILL ESPARZA
cookbook author and food writer
ROMY GILL, MBE
chef-owner, Romy’s Kitchen,
Thornbury, England
SKYE GYNGELL
chef-owner, Spring, London
SOLEIL HO
restaurant critic,
San Francisco Chronicle
FEDERICO DE CESARE VIOLA
AND LAURA LAZZARONI
editors, F&W Italia
JOHN KESSLER
restaurant critic, Chicago
DIEUVEIL MALONGA
chef, Meza Malonga, Africa
ANGIE MAR
chef-owner, Beatrice Inn, NYC
LUVO NTEZO
head sommelier, One&Only,
Cape Town
ENRIQUE OLVERA
chef-owner, Pujol, Mexico City,
and Cosme, NYC
ANNE-SOPHIE PIC
chef-owner, Maison Pic,
Valence, France
ROSE PREVITE
owner, Maydan and Compass
Rose, Washington, D.C.
DAVID PRIOR
food and travel writer; director,
Prior
RUTH REICHL
food writer
MARCUS SAMUELSSON
co-owner and chef, Red Rooster,
NYC
GAIL SIMMONS
Top Chef judge; contributor,
Food & Wine
PIERRE THIAM
chef-owner, Nok by Alara, Lagos,
Nigeria
JIYUN JENNIFER YOO
co-founder, Gotham Grove
24
COUNTRIES
VISITED
RESTAURANTS
VISITED
81
BY THE NUMBERS
