The Results Are In: Barcelona's Disfrutar Is The 2024 World's Best Restaurant

After earning the second place spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2023, Barcelona's Disfrutar has officially been crowned the 2024 best restaurant in the world. The modern, light-filled establishment — located in the district of Eixample — has racked up quite a few accolades since opening in 2014, including three Michelin stars, The Best Chef Top 100 from 2019 to 2023, and a prize for its exquisite interior design. 

The restaurant was established by chefs Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch, and Mateu Casañas, who all met when they were working in the kitchens of the legendary el Bulli in Spain, where they remained until it closed in 2011. The restaurant's name, Disfrutar — Spanish for "enjoy" — encourages customers to lightheartedly indulge in their unique dishes, high-energy service, and refreshingly laid-back ambiance. The World's 50 Best Restaurants recognized Disfrutar as a "dining experience of a lifetime," offering patrons a fast-paced tasting menu of avant-garde dishes inspired by Mediterranean cuisine, described by Disfrutar as "daring, fun and modern."

While the exact dishes on the tasting menus are not publicized — perhaps because of the constant culinary experimentation and the reliance on the freshest ingredients — Disfrutar's Instagram features stunning images capturing menu items like a Parmesan frozen biscuit, Sea urchin with marrow and corn cream, and a fig leaf margarita meringue.

Fine dining and highly-ranked culinary experiences are not new to the seaside city, so if you're a food lover looking for travel destinations, Barcelona should be at the top of your list. The city has around 30 Michelin-star restaurants and a bar in Barcelona was crowned the best in the world. As for Disfrutar, the restaurant takes reservations online 365 days in advance and is currently completely booked until mid-2025. If you happen to snag a spot on the waiting list, expect to be enjoying your meal for multiple hours. Disfrutar serves their patrons an average of 30 courses with excitingly creative bites such as a Beluga caviar-filled Panchino doughnut and a frozen gazpacho sandwich. Dishes are often served theatrically table-side, where blow torches and dry ice add to the magic of the moment. 

Both the Classic and Festival tasting menus are priced at €290 per person, just over $315. For an extra €160, you can add a wine pairing experience crafted by Disfrutar's sommeliers. They also offer a Living Table menu that's touted less as a meal and more as an experience. Each dish experiments with unconventional flavors and presentations — one course has diners drinking dew drops of gin from rose petals. The extremely exclusive Living Table experience will set you back €1,050 or $1,143 for one person. Dining at Disfrutar costs a pretty penny, but that's to be expected when you're enjoying the "World's Best Restaurant."