The World's 50 Best comes to Lima

When and where is The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2026?

In Lima, on Wednesday 4 November 2026. The talks run on 3 November, and the ceremony streams live on the organisers' YouTube channel.

Lima was not the first choice. The organisers had announced Abu Dhabi, then moved the 2026 edition to Peru, with PromPerú, the country's tourism and trade board, as the local partner. The awards also carry a new name this year: the organisers now call them The 50 Best Restaurants, under a parent brand called The 50. Most people still say World's 50 Best, and so do we.

Around the ceremony there is a week of events. The 50 Best Talks bring chefs on stage the day before. Signature Sessions are ticketed dinners where visiting chefs cook with local teams, open to anyone who books a seat. PromPerú's president, Michael Guevara, told the state news agency Andina that the event makes Peruvian food "a strategic asset" for the country. Expect a city full of chefs, critics and food writers, and fully booked tasting rooms.

Which Lima restaurants are on the World's 50 Best list?

On the 2025 list, four: Maido at No. 1, Kjolle at No. 9, Mérito at No. 26 and Mayta at No. 39. Lima was the only city with two restaurants in the top 10.

Maido is Mitsuharu Tsumura's Nikkei restaurant in Miraflores, where Japanese technique meets Peruvian fish, roots and chillies. Kjolle is Pía León's own restaurant, in the same Barranco house as Central, cooking with ingredients from across Peru's landscapes. Mérito, also in Barranco, is run by the Venezuelan chef Juan Luis Martínez and mixes his home cooking with Peruvian produce. Mayta is Jaime Pesaque's restaurant, built around Peruvian ingredients.

Look at a map and you see a pattern. Three of the four, plus Central, sit in Barranco and Miraflores, the two seaside districts most visitors stay in. Our flagship Barranco food tour walks the same streets, at lunchtime prices.

Why are Central and Maido not on the 2026 list?

Because they have already been No. 1. Former winners move into the Best of the Best and stop being ranked, so Central left the list after 2023 and Maido leaves it now.

The Best of the Best is the organisers' hall of fame. A restaurant that tops the list once is no longer eligible for the yearly ranking, which keeps the No. 1 spot moving. Central, Virgilio Martínez's restaurant in Barranco, won in 2023. Maido won in Turin in 2025, and joins the group at the Lima ceremony.

For a diner this changes nothing. Both restaurants are open and cooking, and both are among the hardest tables in Lima to book. It says a lot about a cooking scene that a visitor can also taste at a market stall or a street grill.

Which Peruvian restaurants are on the 2026 51-100 list?

Only one: Mil, in Cusco, at No. 95. No Lima restaurant appears on the 51-100 list for 2026.

Mil is Virgilio Martínez's restaurant in the Andes, next to the Inca terraces of Moray above the Sacred Valley. It was No. 75 on the 2025 extended list. Latin America has eight places in the 51-100 list this year, five of them in Mexico and two in Brazil.

What about Kjolle, Mérito and Mayta? They are not in the 51-100 list, and the top 50 stays secret until 4 November. Anything you read before the ceremony is a guess.

Can you eat at a World's 50 Best restaurant in Lima?

Yes, if you plan ahead. Book weeks in advance, expect to pay up front, and budget several hundred US dollars a head for a tasting menu before drinks.

Each restaurant takes bookings on its own website. Maido asks for payment in advance and books up weeks ahead; Mérito opens its tables a month at a time, and they go fast. The ceremony week will be the hardest of the year, with chefs and press from around the world in town.

Food tours do not include any of these restaurants. Fine dining is a separate booking, made directly with the restaurant. What a tour gives you is the everyday food those chefs grew up on, the markets they buy from and the cooks they admire. Guests often say they skipped lunch before a tour, or left too full for dinner, so plan the two on different days.

Which food tour suits a World's 50 Best trip?

Pick one that shows the ingredients behind the menus: the Barranco tour for dishes cooked in front of you, the Surquillo market tour for fruit and produce, or the historic centre for street food and chifa.

The Barranco food tour takes four hours, from $105, with ceviche, lomo saltado and a pisco sour prepared in front of you, a chocolate workshop and a full lunch. Guests say it leans to small restaurants more than street stalls. The Surquillo market tour starts in Mercado N° 1 de Surquillo, the market chefs use, with Andean and Amazonian fruit, then walks into Miraflores for 10+ tastings, from $71. It is the one that caters for vegetarians and gluten-free diets.

For the old city, the historic centre street food tour covers carts, a chilcano in an old casona, the Central Market and Barrio Chino, from $69. It suits meat and seafood eaters only. Every option below cancels free up to 24 hours before, handy when a dinner reservation moves.

Start where the chefs shop, then eat your way into Miraflores, with vegetarian, lactose-free and gluten-free menus.

★ 4.9 · 3 hours 30 minutes · from $71

Explore the Surquillo market tour → Tour details

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