The global food tourism market was valued at approximately $1.1 trillion in 2023 and is expected to hit $6.2 trillion in 10 years, which tells you everything about how seriously people now take eating their way across the world. What started as an afterthought on holiday itineraries has become the main event, with restaurants like Maido recently ranking number one on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list, proving that fine dining destinations are worth building entire trips around.
Most food cities will feed you well enough, but a handful operate on a different level altogether, where the concentration of talent, ingredients, and tradition creates something worth crossing continents for. These five destinations have earned their place not through marketing or hype but through decades of culinary excellence that continue to set global standards.
1. San Sebastián, Spain
San Sebastián is the second city with the most Michelin stars in the world, with 18 stars spread over nine prestigious restaurants, which is remarkable considering the population is less than 200,000. The Basque city operates at a Michelin star density that makes every other food destination look casual by comparison.
Three restaurants hold three Michelin stars: Arzak (since 1989), Akelarre, and Martín Berasategui, with Berasategui having become the chef with the most Michelin stars in Spain and the third most in the world since opening his restaurant in 1993. The food here isn't just technically excellent but rooted in centuries of Basque culinary tradition, from the pintxo bars lining the old town to the seafood pulled fresh from the Cantabrian Sea each morning. Book months ahead for the starred restaurants, and leave time for the casual eating between them because that's where you'll understand why this small city punches so far above its weight.
2. Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo has maintained its position as the city with the most Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide for 16 consecutive years since surpassing Paris in 2008, with over 200 restaurants featured in the Michelin Guide each year.
The 2026 guide features 12 three-star restaurants, 26 two-star restaurants, and 122 one-star restaurants, encompassing a diverse range of culinary styles, from traditional Edomae sushi to kaiseki and modern fusion concepts. What sets Tokyo apart isn't just the number of stars but the obsessive attention to craft at every level, from the 97-year-old chef at Nodaiwa Azabu Iikura Honten who is the world's oldest active Michelin-recognised chef to the ramen shops where chefs spend decades perfecting a single broth. The city offers luxury dining that feels both reverent of tradition and relentlessly innovative, with reservation systems that require planning but reward it handsomely.
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
Noma opened in 2003 and was ranked as the best restaurant in the world in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2021, effectively creating an entire culinary movement in the process. Chef René Redzepi and restaurateur Claus Meyer pioneered New Nordic Cuisine with a focus on simplicity, freshness, and seasonality, which sounds obvious now but was revolutionary two decades ago.
The restaurant's hyper-seasonal, nose-to-tail ethos and focus on fermentation and preservation techniques have been adopted by chefs around the globe, spawning an entire generation of restaurants across Copenhagen and beyond. The city now has 15 Michelin-starred restaurants, many run by former Noma staff who've taken the principles and created their own interpretations. Noma itself remains difficult to book and expensive to experience, but the influence ripples through every serious restaurant in the city, making Copenhagen essential for anyone who wants to understand where modern fine dining is headed.
4. Lyon, France
In 1935, revered French food critic Curnonsky heralded Lyon as the world capital of gastronomy, and nearly 90 years later the title still fits. This isn't Paris with its tourist-facing glamour but the real working heart of French cooking, where legendary chef Paul Bocuse ushered in France's era of nouvelle cuisine at his eponymous two-Michelin-star restaurant.
The city sits at the crossroads of the Rhône and Saône rivers, benefiting from poultry from Bresse, cow 's-milk cheeses from Dauphiné, crayfish from Bugey, and wines from Beaujolais and the Rhône Valley. But what makes Lyon essential are the bouchons, those traditional family-run eateries that can only be found in Lyon, serving quenelles, tablier de sapeur, and other dishes that range from rustic to revelatory. Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse brings together more than sixty merchants celebrating Lyon's gastronomic excellence, and a morning spent there will teach you more about French food culture than a week in Paris ever could.
5. Lima, Peru
Maido was ranked number one on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list, joining Central, which was named number one in 2023 and became the first South American restaurant to achieve this honour. Two restaurants from the same city reaching the top of global rankings within three years tells you Lima has arrived as a serious culinary destination.
Nikkei cuisine was born from the blending of Japanese culinary traditions with Peruvian ingredients when Japanese immigrants arrived in Peru in the late 1800s, and chefs like Mitsuharu Tsumura at Maido and Virgilio Martínez at Central have elevated this fusion to an art form that draws food obsessives from around the world. The city offers both high-end tasting menus and excellent casual eating, with cevicherías and markets that rival the fancy restaurants for quality and excitement. Book well ahead for the starred spots, but leave room to explore beyond them because Lima's food scene runs deeper than its headline restaurants.
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