Tripadvisor has published its annual Best of the Best Restaurants and Food rankings for 2026, and unlike industry-voted awards, this one is built entirely from traveller reviews over the past year. The shortlisted spots represent fewer than 1% of the roughly eight million restaurants listed on the platform, so making the cut means real diners rated them among the best anywhere.
The rankings are split into seven categories: fine dining, viral hits, casual dining, date night spots, hidden gems, vegan and vegetarian, and a separate section for cooking classes and food tours. That split matters — a street food stall in Hanoi isn't being compared directly to a tasting-menu room in Singapore, which arguably makes the list more useful for trip planning than a single top-ten table.
In fine dining, Buenos Aires leads with Fogón Asado, an Argentine asado experience, followed by KOMA Singapore with its dramatic Asian-fine-dining setting, The Rhythms Restaurant in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem district, Edinburgh's moody gothic favourite The Witchery, and Meat Market in Valencia. It's a notably varied list — two South American entries, one Asian, one Scottish and one Spanish — rather than the usual rotation of three-Michelin-star names.
Casual dining is where the report gets genuinely practical. Top honours go to Pizzeria Arrivederci in Paris (yes, a pizzeria tops the casual list for Paris), with Tonnarello in Rome's Trastevere area, Metate Cabo in Cabo San Lucas, Thes 'Greek Creative Cuisine' in Athens, and Organika in Cusco rounding out the five. These are the kind of places you can walk into without a reservation weeks in advance, and all sit in cities most travellers are already heading to.
The hidden gems category is the most fun to mine. It includes a burger and snack joint in the beach town of Maragogi in northeast Brazil, Sad Man's Tongue Bar & Bistro in Prague, Hanoi-Oi Kitchen back in Hoan Kiem, Sfiziarte in Rome, and Taberna Clandestina in Cascais, Portugal. A couple of spots — Rome and Hanoi's Hoan Kiem district — appear in more than one category, which is a strong signal if you're deciding where to eat your way around next year.
Why care? Because these awards reflect what ordinary travellers actually loved, not what critics did. If your travel style leans toward booking a table at the top-ranked casual place in a city you're already visiting, or hunting down a bistro the tour buses haven't found, this report doubles as a ready-made itinerary. The full list also covers vegan and vegetarian picks plus food tours and cooking classes if you'd rather learn to cook the dishes than just eat them.