Frequently Asked Questions

When and where did The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 take place?

The awards ceremony for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States, on 5 June 2024.

Why have you chosen to host the awards in Las Vegas?

As The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is a global brand, the awards have been held all over the world - in New York in 2016, Melbourne in 2017, the Basque Country in 2018, Singapore in 2019, Antwerp in 2021, London in 2022 and Valencia in 2023. We are extremely excited to be able to host this global gastronomic gathering here in Las Vegas, a city that is no stranger to putting on some of the greatest shows on earth - from music to sports to theatre to gastronomy. It is a much sought-after destination for people from all over the world for these reasons, and is a clear choice to be the host city for the next edition of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. From our point of view, the time feels ripe to put the focus on Las Vegas as a world-class dining destination in its own right. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants creates a fantastic opportunity to bring an incredible community of chefs and food lovers together from around the world and we look forward to hosting the awards in Las Vegas and also seeing what other destinations are in store for the future.

Will there be 50 Best Signature Sessions in Las Vegas?

Yes, there will be a series of official 50 Best Signature Sessions as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 events programme which will be open to the public.  50 Best is about fostering connections and growing the hospitality community. As our events gather world class culinary talent in the same location for a few days each year, we have chosen to take the opportunity to encourage cross border collaboration between chefs and restaurateurs to deliver once in a lifetime gastronomic experiences for visiting gastronomes and local diners. Further details including dates, timings and chefs participating will be released closer to June.

What will the event programme look like?

Highlights for the programme in Las Vegas will include the thought-leadership forum #50BestTalks; a Chefs’ Feast showcasing the finest cooking from both local and international chefs; the ‘Meet the Chefs’ media roundtable event; 50 Best Signature Sessions; an educational event, and of course the awards ceremony and countdown itself.

What steps can a restaurant take to be featured in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 list?

The ranking provides an annual snapshot of the opinions and experiences of our experts, therefore if diners have been experiencing the outstanding characteristics of your restaurant, then it will be reflected in future results. What constitutes ‘best’ is up to each voter to decide – as everyone’s tastes are different, so is everyone’s idea of what constitutes a great restaurant experience. Of course, the quality of food is going to be central, as is the service – but the style of both, the surroundings, atmosphere and indeed the price level are each more or less important for each different individual. We don’t believe there is or should be a type of restaurant that features on the 50 Best lists. Restaurants do not have to fit certain criteria. We therefore urge restaurants simply to be the best they can be for their customers first and foremost and not to focus on such rankings or awards, but to see them as a welcome by-product of their hard work and talent.

Can a restaurant nominate itself to be on the list?

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 list will reflect the best restaurant experiences, and provide an annual snapshot of, the opinions and experiences of over 1,000 international restaurant industry experts. The list is the result of a poll of 1,080 independent experts, who each cast 10 votes for establishments where they have enjoyed their best restaurant experiences during the previous 18 months. Members of the 50 Best organisation do not vote and do not control the composition of the list; that is the collective role of the voting Academy. This means that restaurants cannot apply to be on the list. Equally, no sponsor has any influence on the voting process.

What does it mean to be included in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking?

It provides recognition of the dedication, passion and skill of the teams behind those restaurants. It also helps promote those establishments internationally to well-travelled, discerning gourmets, boosting the restaurants’ profiles and business.

How does publishing a list help the restaurants?

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants believes the publication of the list is part of an overall drive to support the international restaurant scene. Moreover, the global gastronomic community sees the announcement of this list as a way to generate awareness around restaurants, while also restoring confidence in the hospitality sector as a whole. Ultimately, the list also serves as an economic stimulus for those restaurants featured by helping drive footfall, and ultimately business, into their establishments.

General

Who organises The World’s 50 Best Restaurants?
The results and the awards are organised and published by William Reed. None of the sponsor partners has any involvement with the compilation of the results or awards. None of our commercial partners, nor any William Reed employees, votes in the poll.

Does a restaurant have to fit certain criteria?
No. They do not have to sell a certain product; they do not have to have been open a certain number of years and they do not have to have won any other culinary accolades. Any restaurant in the world is eligible to be voted for by our Academy so long as it has been open during the voting period, and so long as it is not planning on closing shortly after we publish the results (although we cannot always know this, of course). From 2019, members of the Best of the Best group, which is made up of former No.1 restaurants on the list, are not eligible in the annual ranking.

What is the ‘Best of the Best’?

The Best of the Best group is formed of all the restaurants that have topped the annual ranking of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants over its history, which are no longer eligible to be voted on new editions of the list. Those in the elite group of No.1 ranked restaurants have more than proved their worth and are now forever honoured as iconic dining destinations in the Best of the Best hall of fame. The chefs and restaurateurs who have led their restaurants to the pinnacle of the list have expressed their desire to invest in the future of the sector and ‘give back’ to the food world through new projects and initiatives, as well as making space for other talented teams and their restaurants to earn a coveted spot on the 50 Best lists.

How do we know the votes are valid?
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ voting process and results are subject to independent adjudication by world-renowned professional services consultancy Deloitte. Deloitte has been granted full and independent access to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants voting process and data and has performed procedures to confirm the integrity and authenticity of the voting process and the resulting list. See more details on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants voting process here.

How are the Academy regional panels assembled?
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy is gender-balanced and contains 27 regions around the world. Each region has a chairperson, and that chairperson assembles 40 people (including themselves) to vote. This panel is an equal mix of leading chefs and restaurateurs in that region, food journalists and critics, and well-travelled gourmets. Under usual circumstances, at least 25% of the panelists from each region change each year.

Who are the Academy Chairs?
The Chairs are selected for their prominent position within the gastronomic sphere in their region. They are in the best position to select an appropriate panel and their expertise is valued in developing the future strategy for the 50 Best brand. Meet our Academy Chairs.

Can a restaurant be taken off the list?
Not until the following year – and even then, it will only be the results of the voting that determines this, or if we are advised that it will be closed.

Why do restaurants drop on the list or fall off it?
If a restaurant falls from the top 50 or the top 100, it does not necessarily represent a decline in the standards of that restaurant. It could be an indication of shifting culinary tastes, or it could also represent that a geographical area is becoming more important.

How did the list start?
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list first appeared in Restaurant magazine in 2002, as a feature. Soon afterwards, an awards night was established to celebrate the results and so was born one of the most extraordinary gatherings of chefs on the planet. The results are now eagerly awaited and are published via our social media channels and on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants website (www.theworlds50best.com) on the awards night. However, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is now run entirely independently of Restaurant magazine.

What does ‘best’ actually mean?
That is up to each voter to decide – as everyone’s tastes are different, so everyone’s idea of what constitutes a great restaurant experience is different. Of course the quality of food is going to be central, as is the service – but the style of both, the surroundings, atmosphere and indeed the price level are each more or less important for each different individual. We allow those 1,080 experts to make up their own minds, and we simply collate their votes.

Do the sponsors help determine the recipient of the award?

No members of the 50 Best team nor any employee of any of the sponsors can be a voter. The sponsors have no knowledge of who is a voter, and they do not know the list in advance of the ranking being revealed to the public. The voting process and resulting list is independently adjudicated by Deloitte.