Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#1 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. About the restaurant: The contemporary Colombian bistro, led by chef Álvaro Clavijo, pays homage to the producers it works with and applies global techniques to highlight local ingredients. Expect a friendly and welcoming atmosphere in line with Cavijo’s goal to offer diners a relaxed and approachable dining experience.

#2 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Tasting the rainbow: Pía León rose to fame as the head chef of Central, which was named The World’s Best Restaurant in 2023. But in 2018, she felt the need to express her culinary vision in an independent way.

#3 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Meet Don Julio: A family-run labour of love, an homage to the flavours and terroirs of Argentina, a temple of regenerative farming – Don Julio is all this and more.

#4 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#5 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Meet the chef: Chef Jaime Rodríguez spent years exploring the Caribbean coast of Colombia with former restaurant partner Sebastián Pinzón, meeting Indigenous people, discovering new flavours and ingredients and documenting recipes that were in danger of being lost.

#6 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#7 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Avant-garde Mexican: Quintonil is the setting for chef Jorge Vallejo’s boundary-pushing Mexican cuisine and his wife Alejandra Flores’ exceptional hospitality.

#8 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Location, location, location: Housed in a strikingly imposing three-story building in the bustling heart of São Paulo in the upscale Jardim Paulistano neighbourhood, Tuju stands out with its seamless blend of inventive cuisine and exceptional service.

#9 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. In a nutshell: After gaining valuable haute cuisine experience in kitchens around the world, chef James Berckemeyer returned to his native Peru to unveil his first establishment in 2015.

#10 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What’s the concept? At Nuema, Ecuador’s biodiversity is reviewed daily by chefs Alejandro Chamorro and Pía Salazar, following the rhythm of the seasons. Each dish is a stunning example of avant-garde gastronomy: angular and unusual shapes, bright colours and profound flavours. Endemic ingredients take centre stage, such as nepia (a fermented paste of cassava and chilli), mashua (a tuber native to the Andes) and river shrimp from Manabí.

#11 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What’s the hype? On its 10-year anniversary in 2018, Mayta moved to new premises with a revamped interior and totally redesigned menu. Since then, its star has been ascending, entering into Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019 and making its debut on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2022. Chef Jaime Pesaque’s refined Peruvian cuisine now draws diners from all over the world.

#12 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Why is it special? Behind a beautiful pistachio-green façade in São Paulo’s Pinheiros neighbourhood is the stylish dining room with exposed brick walls and leather banquettes where Tássia Magalhães and her women-led team work their magic.

#13 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Carrying the flag: With exceptional, vegetable-led dishes from chef Rafael Costa e Silva and warm, welcoming hospitality by his wife, Malena Cardiel, Lasai has all the ingredients of a standout restaurant. It has previously won the Art of Hospitality Award in 2019 for its unpretentious yet professional service, and has featured in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants every year since its opening a decade ago. Now it leads its country as The Best Restaurant in Brazil 2024.

#14 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Coastal concept: What began over a decade ago as a beachside kitchen in Cachagua, a small fishing village north of Valparaíso, has evolved into one of Santiago's most beloved seafood destinations.

#15 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. In a nutshell: Meaning ‘mayor’ in Spanish, Alcalde’s fare is based on chef Francisco ‘Paco’ Ruano’s simple, ‘frank’ Mexican cooking. Set in a stylish, welcoming setting in Guadalajara, Alcalde makes diners want to return again and again.

#16 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#17 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What’s the story? Chef David Castro Hussong and pastry chef Maribel Aldaco Silva opened Fauna in 2017 after working and travelling around the world. Castro was born and raised in Ensenada and had always dreamed that one day he’d pay homage to the ingredients of his hometown and its surrounding region. Today, the couple creates daily-changing experimental menus using exclusively seasonal and local ingredients.

#18 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What’s the story? Mario Castrellón was among the earliest chef to introduce the vision of a new Panamanian contemporary cuisine. The first restaurant from Central America to appear in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2016, Maito is a meeting point for the diversity of cultures, flavours and ingredients of Panama. Its influence in the region is growing so fast that in 2022 it won the Highest Climber Award and this year it maintains its title of The Best Restaurant in Panama.

#19 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What’s the concept? Sublime portrays Guatemala’s essence through a tasting menu conceptualised by chef Sergio Díaz with Jocelyn Degollado, an anthropologist with an understanding of how food intertwines with the country’s iconic events.

#20 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Behind the pass: Luiz Filipe Souza opened Evvai in São Paulo’s upmarket Jardins neighbourhood in 2017, after training in Italian restaurants including Fasano and Piselli in São Paulo and Reale in Castel di Sangro, Italy. In 2018, he represented Brazil in the Bocuse D’Or competition, reaching the finals in Lyon.

#21 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. How can I find it? Set in Buenos Aires’ buzzing Palermo Soho district, the journey to this restaurant begins with locating the giant, baby-shaped balloon that marks its location – a playful reference to its name, which means 'chubby boy' – although the queue of guests eager to secure one of the hottest seats in town may also give it away.

#22 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Welcome to the jungle: Arca elevates the culinary experience typically found in touristic beaches all over Mexico by bringing sophistication to popular dishes and creating a sustainable spot where nature rules.

#23 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. The idea: Celebrity chef Leonor Espinosa’s flagship restaurant showcases little-known Colombian ingredients and champions local communities and gastronomic traditions. Housed in the upmarket neighbourhood of Chapinero since June 2021, it features not one, but two dining rooms under one roof: the first showcasing the creativity of Espinosa; the second overseen by her daughter and sommelier, Laura Hernández Espinosa.

#24 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. The origins: In a large 20th-century house where one of the first restaurants in the neighbourhood of Palermo was founded, restaurateur Pablo Rivero (of Don Julio fame) and chef Guido Tassi set to work.

#25 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Homage to the hog: Meaning ‘House of the Pig’ in Portuguese, A Casa do Porco is named for its focus on pork in all its forms, with a tasting menu and à la carte offer that uses every part of the pig. In recent years, it has adapted to changing dietary requirements, introducing a vegetarian menu that tastes as good as the original, with options such as mushroom sushi and cheese ‘crackling’. The quirkily decorated restaurant is owned by chefs Jefferson Rueda and Janaína Torres in the heart of downtown São Paulo.

#26 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Why is it unique? The flagship cebichería in Gastón Acurio’s gastronomic empire that launched many global outposts, La Mar has long set the pace when it comes to Peru’s favourite marinated fish dish.

#27 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. The backstory: Located in the Faena Hotel, a former storage mill in the upscale Puerto Madero neighbourhood, El Mercado offers a contemporary al fresco asado experience.

#28 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#29 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What makes it special? Since its 2022 opening, Cordero has been blazing a trail for its innovative approach in making one protein the protagonist of its 24 dishes: lamb.

#30 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#31 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Location, location, location: Situated in the design-led Magnolia Hotel in Santiago's historical Bellas Artes neighbourhood, Demo Magnolia puts a sense of place at the heart of the menu.

#32 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Where are we: Mérida is the capital of the Yucatán province, situated on a peninsula in Mexico’s south-eastern corner. The region is most famous for its Riviera Maya coastline, home to world-leading resorts and tourist-heavy Cancun, but Merida is Yucatán’s cultural and historical heart.

#33 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What’s the story? Rafael, the eponymous restaurant of super-successful lawyer-turned-chef Rafael Osterling, opened in 2000.

#34 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What's in a name? Afluente, meaning 'tributary' in Spanish, wouldn't exist without Colombia's páramos: biodiverse, high-altitude ecosystems, set along the Andean mountain range.

#35 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. About the chef: After training around the world with the likes of Daniel Boulud, Charlie Trotter and Martín Berasategui, Gonzalo Aramburu returned to Argentina in 2007 and opened his eponymous restaurant.

#36 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What makes it special? In a city where tasting menus have been eschewed for casual dining, one young chef is determined to serve haute cuisine.

#37 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025

#38 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. In a nutshell: Opened in 2018 by Brazilian chef Alberto Landgraf – whose roots are Japanese and German – Oteque encompasses an open-plan kitchen and dining room, a small chef’s table seating six, plus a cocktail bar.

#39 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Origin story: Elena Reygadas was an English literature student before she became a chef – a profession she took an interest in by chance while working odd jobs following graduation.

#40 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Seafood master: Since opening in 2004, Crizia has quietly redefined how Buenos Aires dines on seafood.

#41 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. The backstory: After returning to his native Colombia, chef Jaime Torregrosa Correa opened his own take on a Japanese izakaya.

#42 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Short history: Located in the trendy Cuatro Grados Norte district of Guatemala City, Mercado 24 takes a fresh approach when it comes to cooking. Inspired by the diverse bounty found in the Central American capital’s daily markets, the four-strong kitchen team at this casual dining spot depends totally on the availability of that day’s produce – then cooks it accordingly.

#43 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Why should I go? Having travelled around Costa Rica to get to know the Central American country’s diverse gastronomic heritage from its Indigenous communities, chef Pablo Bonilla interprets traditional ingredients, recipes that have been orally handed down and culinary techniques at Sikwa.

#44 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Vegetarians, beware: There may be a few fresh salads on the menu and three fish dishes but make no mistake: this place is all about meat.

#45 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Created by Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, the chef behind Lima’s world-acclaimed Maido (#1 on World’s 50 Best list), Karai translates his Peruvian Japanese philosophy through the lens of Chilean ingredients.

#46 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What makes it special? The first restaurant located in this Caribbean city to rank in the extended list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2023 at #77, Manuel takes matters up a notch to reach the main ranking in 2024.

#47 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Origin story: In 2021, chef Fulvio Miranda decided to do what no one else was doing in Panama City: he created a culinary space focused on ceviche, a near-forgotten dish in his country, drawing inspiration from regional recipes. In 2023, Cantina del Tigre (translation: the tiger’s canteen) debuted on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, winning the Highest New Entry Award.

#48 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Dream team: Arami – meaning 'little sky' in Guaraní – was opened in November 2024 by chef Marsia Taha Mohamed and sociologist and sommelier Andrea Moscoso Weise.

#49 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. What makes it special? Reaching Mil, which is situated in Peru’s breathtaking Sacred Valley, requires a 70-minute flight from Lima to Cusco, then a 45-minute winding drive up to an elevation of 3,500 metres above sea level.

#50 on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Story behind the name: Chef Julio Martín Báez opened Julia in 2019 as a tiny four-hands affair named after his daughter.