Hong Kong restaurants soar up World’s 50 Best ranks; Spain’s Disfrutar No 1 (2024)

Barcelona’s Disfrutar tops 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants; 2 in Hong Kong fast risers

Barcelona-based modernist hotspot Disfrutar has been crowned World’s Best Restaurant at an awards ceremony held in Las Vegas, in the United States.

The 2nd and 4th places on the list also went to Spanish restaurants: live-fire grill specialist Asador Etxebarri, headed by self-taught chef Victor Arguizoniz, and avant-garde Madrid-based DiverXO, by punk-style chef David Munoz, respectively.

Two Hong Kong restaurants experienced a stratospheric rise and took home individual awards.

Paris-based Table by Bruno Verjus, another self-taught chef, moved up to third spot after entering the list for the first time in 2023 in 10th place. Maido in Peru, headed by Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, who also won the Chef’s Choice Award, rounded out the top five.

Hong Kong restaurants soar up World’s 50 Best ranks; Spain’s Disfrutar No 1 (1)

Disfrutar is headed by chefs Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch, and Mateu Casañas, who met in the kitchen of el Bulli, the boundary-breaking Spanish restaurant that dominated the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“Good morning on the other side of the world in Spain,” said an emotional Castro from the stage at the June 5 ceremony at the Encore Theatre, before continuing in Spanish to say that the Disfrutar team, which had become like family, had for years poured their hearts into making the restaurant what it is today.

Commenting on the strength of Spanish restaurants in the rankings, Disfrutar’s Casañas said in a post-awards press conference that there are many reasons for Spain’s gastronomic prowess.

To be on the stage for World’s 50 Best is something to be proud of; it’s a great encouragement for myself, my team and my family

“In Spain you can find very special products and ingredients, and extraordinary people who are working with them. You also find a culture where evolution is like a tradition, and then you have the windows that our teachers in the past have opened,” he said. “We’re holding our country’s flag high tonight, we’re so proud.”

Winning the title of 2024 Best Restaurant in Asia was Gaggan in Bangkok, Thailand, headed by gastronomic provocateur Gaggan Anand, which was 9th overall.

Sézanne in Tokyo, a French restaurant headed by chef Daniel Calvert, came in 15th, having been named No 1 on the 2024 list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Hong Kong restaurants soar up World’s 50 Best ranks; Spain’s Disfrutar No 1 (2)

Vicky Cheng’s elegant modern Chinese restaurant Wing in Hong Kong swept in at 20th place to pick up the Highest New Entry Award.

Wing was previously ranked 90th on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants long list of establishments ranked from 51-100 list in 2023, and came 5th on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2024, which was announced in Seoul in March.

It is the first time one of Cheng’s restaurants – his Vea also ranks on the Asia’s 50 Best list – has made it into the World’s 50 Best ranks.

Hong Kong restaurants soar up World’s 50 Best ranks; Spain’s Disfrutar No 1 (3)

“It’s always been a dream, since I was a young kid, to be a part of the community of these chefs I’ve looked up to for so long.

“To be on the stage for World’s 50 Best is something to be proud of; it’s a great encouragement for myself, my team and my family – everyone who has sacrificed and invested time and effort,” Cheng said.

Hong Kong’s The Chairman ranked 26th and took the Highest Climber Award with a big jump from last year, when it took 50th place. Danny Yip, the founder of The Chairman, won the 2024 Icon Award from Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

In 2021, The Chairman took the No 1 spot on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list – the first Chinese restaurant to do so – and in the same year became the first Chinese restaurant to make the top 10 in the World’s 5o Best ranks.

Hong Kong restaurants soar up World’s 50 Best ranks; Spain’s Disfrutar No 1 (4)

Other Asia-based stars of the awards this year include Florilège in Tokyo (21st), the French-Japanese restaurant headed by chef Hiroyasu Kawate, and Bangkok-based modern German hotspot Sühring (23rd) headed by twins Thomas and Mathias Sühring.

Den in Tokyo came in 32nd, and Bangkok’s Sorn in 38th. Also in Bangkok, Le Du, the modern Thai restaurant headed by chef Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn (who is also behind Hong Kong’s Niras) took 40th place, down from 15th in 2023. Le Du took top position on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2023.

Mingles in Seoul, headed by Korean chef Mingoo Kang, came 44th, up from its ranks of 89th on the long list last year.

Hong Kong restaurants soar up World’s 50 Best ranks; Spain’s Disfrutar No 1 (5)

World’s 50 Best Restaurants hands out special awards each year, some announced in advance of the evening ceremony. The One to Watch Award, given to restaurants with superstar potential, was won by Kato in Los Angeles, a modern Asian-American restaurant where chef Jonathan Yao draws on his Taiwanese-American heritage.

Plénitude (18th), housed in the exclusive Cheval Blanc hotel in Paris and run by chef-patron Arnaud Donckele and director Alexandre Larvoir, picked up the Art of Hospitality Award, while the World’s Best Female Chef 2024 was awarded to Janaína Torres of A Casa do Porco in São Paulo, Brazil.

Her restaurant, 27th on the 2024 World’s 50 Best list, is a casual, accessible space that specialises in all things pork, as the name suggests.

The Sustainable Restaurant Award 2024, presented on stage by lauded chef and sustainability pioneer Mauro Colagreco, went to Billy Wagner and Micha Schaefer of Nobelhart & Schmutzig in Berlin, ranked 43rd on the list.

Australian Neil Perry was presented with the Icon Award by Dominique Crenn of San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn. Perry said that to him, “cooking has always been about generosity” and that he was humbled to win the award.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list is voted for by 1,080 international restaurant industry experts, who make up The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy.

The gender-balanced academy represents 27 regions around the world, each of which has 40 members, including a chairperson.

The night ended with a vibrant after-party at Encore Resort, next to sister property Wynn on the Las Vegas Strip.

“We feel proud of the breadth and depth of the culinary offerings available in Las Vegas, and we’re honoured to be working with 50 Best this year,” said Steve Hill, head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, as he opened the night’s proceedings.

This is the second time the awards ceremony has been held in the United States, New York having hosted it in 2016.

The full list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants

50. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy

49. La Colombe, Cape Town, South Africa (Best Restaurant in Africa)

48. Hisa Franko, Kobarid, Slovenia