The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025: Who takes the top spot?
The awards ceremony took place last night in Turin, Italy, where the crowd gathered to celebrate the top restaurants and chefs for 2025. A panel of more than 1,000 experts, split into 27 regions around the world, came together to decide on the final ranking.
So, what is the World's Best Restaurant this year?
The accolade went to Maido in Lima, Peru – which was placed at number 5 in the 2024 awards and now unseats last year's winner, Disfrutar in Barcelona, Spain, to the top spot.
Maido's Lima-born chef Mitsuharu Tsumura cooks a fusion of Latin American and Japanese flavours, and said: 'We talk a lot about sustainability of the environment, but we rarely talk about human sustainability. I think this industry can be an example of how we can bring people together with the power of food.'
Every year, the panel awards special prizes to chefs, front-of-house staff, and activists who are leading the charge in hospitality in 2025.
This year's special awards went to the Best Female Chef, Pichaya 'Pam' Soontornyanakij of Potong, Bangkok and Mindy Woods in Byron Bay, winner of the Champions of Change 2025 award.
The World's Best Pastry Chef award went to Parisian chef Maxime Frederic, while the Estrella Damm Chefs' Choice Award went to Alberta Adrià, head chef of Enigma in Barcelona.
The highest-ranking restaurants on each continent were given a special mention.
Maido, as the best restaurant in the world, takes care of South America. Incidentally, Peru was well represented in the Top 50 list, as three other Lima-based establishments joined Maido: Kjolle (9); Mérito (26); Mayta (39).
Tresind Studio in Dubai (ranked number 27 in this year's awards) was named the best restaurant in the Middle East. The best restaurant in Asia is Gaggan in Bangkok, at number 6, while the best restaurant in North America is Quintonil in Mexico City (number 3).
The best restaurant in Europe is Asador Etxebarri in Spain (number 2 this year and last year). Spain also has DiverXO in Madrid in the global Top 5, retaining its number 4 spot.
Elsewhere in the Top 20, Denmark's Alchemist (Copenhagen) ranks number 5 and climbs three spots compared to last year; France's Paris-based Table by Bruno Verjus drops to number 8 from its number 3 ranking in 2024, and Plénitude (also in Paris) has the 14th spot this year, up four compared to last year; and the UK's Ikoyi, which was ranked 42nd in 2024, jumps up to number 15.
Italy is the European country with the most restaurants in 2025's Top 20 list, with Lido 84 in Lake Garda, Reale in Castel di Sangro and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico all ranking 16th, 18th and 20th respectively.
Here is the full Top 50 restaurant list (European entries in bold):
1. Maido, Lima, Peru
2. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain
3. Quintonil, Mexico City, Mexico
4. DiverXO, Madrid, Spain
5. Alchemist, Copenhagen, Denmark
6. Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand
7. Sezanne, Tokyo, Japan
8. Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris, France
9. Kjolle, Lima, Peru
10. Don Julio, Buenos Aires, Argentina
11. Wing, Hong Kong
12. Atomix, New York, USA
13. Potong, Bangkok, Thailand
14. Plénitude, Paris, France
15. Ikoyi, London, UK
16. Lido 84, Lake Garda Italy
17. Sorn, Bangkok, Thailand
18. Reale, Castel di Sangro, Italy
19. The Chairman, Hong Kong
20. Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, Brunico, Italy
21. Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan
22. Serene, Bangkok, Thailand
23. Boragó, Santiago, Chile
24. Elkano, Getaria, Spain
25. Odette, Singapore
26. Mérito, Lima, Peru
27. Tresind Studio, Dubai, UAE
28. Lasai, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
29. Mingles, Seoul, South Korea
30. Le Du, Bangkok, Thailand
31. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy
32. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy
33. Steirereck, Vienna, Austria
34. Enigma, Barcelona, Spain
35. Nusara, Bangkok, Thailand
36. Florilège, Tokyo, Japan
37. Orfali Bros, Dubai, UAE
38. Frantzen, Stockholm, Sweden
39. Mayta, Lima, Peru
40. Septime, Paris, France
41. Kadeau, Copenhagen, Denmark
42. Belcanto, Lisbon, Portugal
43. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy
44. La Cime, Osaka, Japan
45. Arpege, Paris, France
46. Rosetta, Mexico City, Mexico
47. Vyn, Skillinge, Sweden
48. Celele, Cartagena, Colombia
49. Kol, London, UK
50. Restaurant Jan, Munich, Germany
When we left the 28 (pick your time span) Later franchise in 2007, the protocol-breaching actions of two misguided siblings led to the carpetbombing of London's no-longer-safe zone.
Kids... What can you do?
28 Weeks Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's surprisingly effective follow up to director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland's 2002 zombie genre revitalizing horror experience, ended with a devilish final stinger that had audiences saying 'Et, merde' at the sight of the Rage Virus-infected emerging from a Paris Métro.
18 years later (in the real world) and 28 years later (in the Rage-infested world), Boyle and Garland are back, and they're not keen to simply rest on their laurels.
We quickly learn that the terrifying pandemic has been beaten back from mainland Europe (the French presumably shrugged off the infestation and dusted off the guillotines) and that Rage is contained to Blighty.
They really can't catch a break... And in many ways, that's the point.
While the infected are still out and about, there exists a safe space – an island within an island. Its name is Lindisfarne, aka: Holy Island, and it's in this isolationist community, only connected to the UK mainland via a causeway crossable at low tide, where we meet 12-year-old Spike (newcomer Alfie Williams). His scavenger father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is keen to make a man out of him and so decides to embark on a coming-of-age ritual of sorts: take him inland for the first time in search of his first kill.
As Spike's bedbound and mysteriously sick mother Isla (Jodie Comer) foretells in a fit of expletives, it's a really dumb idea...
28 Years Later doesn't look or feel like 28 Days Later. Or 28 Weeks Later, for that matter. So those wanting more of the same may end up disappointed.
Ditching the lo-fi, punk rawness of the first brush with sprinting nightmare fuel and the equally lean-and-mean feel of the second, 28 Years Later is crisper and more expensive-looking. While that may frustrate some audiences, what's clear is that Boyle and Garland didn't come back to simply cash in and play it safe.
It couldn't be any other way. 28 Days Later breathed new life into a horror mainstay by having the sprinting Rage-infected replacing traditional reanimated corpses. More than two decades later, zombies have invaded the screens and become ubiquitous – to the point of exhaustion. From the big screen offerings of the Rec franchise, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Planet Terror (to mention only the high points) to the zeitgeist-capturing small screen hits The Walking Dead and The Last Of Us, civilisation-threatening outbreaks featuring ravenous walkers, crawlers and biters have become mainstream.
The only way was forward. And a lot has happened since 2007's 28 Weeks Later – namely Brexit and a worldwide pandemic. Both of these resonate in 28 Years Later, especially the self-inflicted isolationist wound. The nationalist and seclusionist subtext becomes text: Saint George's Cross flying above the community; the banner reading 'Fail we may but go we must'; the sea patrol keeping the infection contained to the UK; the 'us' and 'them'-ness of looking backwards to a past of the England that once was... It all makes for a simple but effective Brexit analogy.
It's not particularly subtle; but then again, no allegory-infused zombie movie ever was. And neither was Brexit.
The obviousness of certain thematical strands is countered by some far more surprising choices, like the teasing-and-ditching of The Wicker Man motifs and the Summerisle setting in favour of exploring the evolution of the infected.
Of course, the introduction of various kinds of berserkers ('slow-lows' or the terrifying 'Alphas' with Predator penchants for spine-yanking) will lead to inescapable comparisons with The Last Of Us. But the script does enough to explore the potential of its ideas without toppling into déjà vu – particularly when one initially grating yet radical element is introduced...
Then there are unpredictably profound moments in the second half of the film, culminating in the Memento Mori / Memento Amori dichotomy, which is brilliantly delivered by the show's last act MVP Dr. Kelson, played to perfection by Ralph Fiennes. His scenes with Spike have an emotional resonance that elevates the material and make it hard to fathom how Alfie Williams is so accomplished for a first-time actor.
We'll hopefully be seeing both Boy Meets World and the iodine-covered Colonel Kurtz again soon, as 28 Years Later was filmed back-to-back with the first sequel in a planned new trilogy, titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is slated to hit theaters in January 2026. Let's pray Young Fathers return too, as their terrific soundtrack is not worth ignoring.
From the Teletubbies opening to a heroically bizarre finale which scoffers will likely liken to The Village, via a three-act structure that makes a young hero's odyssey evolve from a father-son adventure to a mother-son rescue mission to a young father figure spreading his wings, 28 Years Later's strange verve is exhilarating.
While there are some pacing issues, as well as surplus to requirement CGI moments involving swarms of birds and deer, Boyle and Garland have truly outdone themselves. Without skimping on the edge-of-your-seat tension and gruesome viscera that made the first two instalments so pant-browningly effective, their belated sequel is a radical revival that eschews the obvious at every turn.
It may not satisfy everyone, but give us daring over safe any day / week / year of the Rage pandemic.
28 Years Later is out in cinemas now.
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