The annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 awards were presented this evening in Valencia, Spain, with five restaurants from Italy making the list. The influential ranking can propel a restaurant onto the international scene, as was the case in 2016 when the #1 slot went to Osteria Francescana, Massimo Bottura’s fine dining spot in Modena; it won again in 2018.
Central in Lima, Peru earned the top spot for 2023, but five restaurants from Italy landed in the top 50, which were just announced in a livestream broadcast from Valencia's Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias.
The highest-ranking of the five is Lido 84 in Gardone Riviera, in Lombardy on the shores of Lake Garda, which landed at #7 on the World’s 50 Best list. The next highest entry from Italy, at #16, is Reale in Castel di Sangro, a 16th-century monastery in Abruzzo. At #34 is Uliassi, in Senigallia, on the Adriatic Coast. Next up at #41 is La Calandre, in Rubano, in the Veneto region. And the fifth and final Italian restaurant to make the big list is Piazza Duomo, in Alba.
Bottura, whose Osteria Francescana has ascended to “Best of the Best”—past winners which are now recognized as a sort of Hall of Fame of Best Restaurants—was on hand in Valencia to present the Icon Award 2023 to his friend, Andoni Luis Aduriz, of Mugaritz in Spain.
Only two U.S. restaurants ranked this year, both from New York City, with Le Bernardin at #44 and Atomix at #8.
For more on all of the winners of this year’s 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by Italian companies S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, visit the World's 50 Best website. And check out the Twitter announcements of the Italian restaurants on the list below.