Which restaurant is the best in the world? This can only be answered by a restaurant world ranking list that is compiled according to the most objective criteria possible and is as up-to-date as possible.

Restaurant-Ranglisten.de has developed a calculation method that fulfils these requirements as far as possible. The list is based on our many years of expertise in analysing restaurant guides from all over the world. In addition, our ranking list is updated several times a year.

Restaurant world ranking list: Guides and guest reviews as a basis

We have based our restaurant world ranking on as broad a basis as possible. The scores from all the restaurant guides that we analyse for our country rankings are taken into account. We also take into account the scores given by guests on the major online review portals.

Restaurant-Ranglisten.de has always specialised in compiling and comparing ratings from different restaurant guides. We have also utilised this expertise in the calculation of our restaurant world rankings. When calculating our ranking, we take into account the four best scores per restaurant in the current restaurant guides for a country. An average value is then calculated from the scores. In addition, rankings in The World's 50 Best list and the Le Chef Top100 list, as well as the Elite Traveller Top100 list, are taken into account and counted as a top score in a restaurant guide. If two or more restaurants achieve the same average score, the average scores from guests on the major online review portals determine the ranking. This makes the ranking more objective than other lists that are based on votes from individuals.

The World Restaurant Rankings are updated several times a year so that the scores from the latest editions of the restaurant guides are always included in the rankings. Of course, this calculation method is not free from distortions. If restaurant guides in one country largely agree on top marks and are more generous with top marks than in other countries, restaurants from these countries have a certain advantage. In our view, however, this distortion is significantly less than the fundamental problems of lists based on jury votes.

The World's 50 Best list

Lists based on jury votes are widely publicised with a lot of PR power. The best-known example is The World's 50 Best Restaurants list, also known as the Pellegrino list. But how meaningful are such lists? Even the most diligent jury members can only eat at a manageable number of restaurants each year, especially as they would theoretically have to go on a culinary trip around the world every year to get a global overview of the latest developments. In addition, the voting members are divided into regional juries, each of which is responsible for a part of the world. When voting, they are only allowed to cast some of their votes for countries from their own region. This structurally favours the top restaurants in regions where there are only a few top restaurants. These restaurants are then likely to collect the votes of many jury members, while in regions with many top restaurants, the votes are spread over a larger number of restaurants. For example, restaurants in South America make it onto the list more quickly than a top French restaurant. The extent to which a restaurant's position on the Pellegrino list depends on its location and proximity to other highly rated restaurants is illustrated by the example of Noma in Denmark, which topped the Pellegrino list several times and was therefore widely regarded as the "best restaurant in the world". As jury members obviously travelled to Copenhagen primarily to dine at Noma, other restaurants in Copenhagen also moved up the Pellegrino list. When Noma closed for its move, all other Copenhagen restaurants dropped down the Pellegrino list the following year. In other words, this list says more about which restaurants and which city or region are currently "in". However, there is no correlation between ranking and quality in the list. In addition to the world list, a 50-best list is published annually for Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa