While ultimately it all comes down to the food, most of us will look for stunning interiors, exceptional location and incredible ambiance to match the plates set in front of us. We've scoured the globe to bring you some of the world's most incredible dining spaces. From the super-modern and ultra-luxe to the romantic and whimsical, these are the world's most beautiful restaurants. If you're planning to book, check local restrictions – some restaurants might be temporarily closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Part of the exquisite Le Sirenuse hotel in Positano, La Sponda looks like it's been plucked straight out of a fairy tale. The romantic Michelin-starred restaurant features arched floor-to-ceiling windows with vine-coated roofs and prides itself on having 400 candles illuminating the dining room. Overlooking Positano and the Amalfi Coast, the restaurant's menu is focused on fresh, local ingredients and the culinary traditions of Naples and the famous coast.
Tucked away underneath Brooklyn Bridge, The River Café and its view are hard to compete against. Set right on the banks of the East River, the restaurant features floor-to-ceiling windows, exposing a stunning panorama of Lower Manhattan across the water. Fabulous to look at any time of the day, the view can be paired with breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner and is complemented by romantic interiors, flower arrangements and live piano music inside.
Lauded as the city's (and often the world's) most romantic restaurant, Clos Maggiore definitely feels like stepping into another world. White cherry blossom canopies adorn the ceilings in the dining room and the conservatory, that also has a retractable roof for summer dinners alfresco. The food – a contemporary take on classic French cuisine – is just as elegant.
A five-hour dining experience in a former warehouse in Copenhagen, Alchemist is an assault on the senses. The windowless restaurant is completely sealed from natural light and the 50-course tasting menu is served in what feels like a futuristic planetarium with its enormous 22,000 square-foot (2,043sqm) dome. Immersive projections feature anything from an underwater world with floating jellyfish to the Northern Lights and outer space, while the dishes, like cod jaw with edible plastic, highlight widely discussed issues.
Often described as an experience of a lifetime, a dinner at chef Thomas Keller's famous establishment is a parade of signature dishes, arriving as part of a nine-course tasting menu. However, the restaurant's food is so incredible, its stunning setting often goes unmentioned. Nestled in a historic steam laundry, The French Laundry welcomes its guests through a sequence of manicured gardens that lead to indoor and outdoor dining areas. There, wrap-around windows allow a peek inside the sprawling kitchen while the courtyard's ever-changing flowers signal the seasons.
Bringing a relaxed Hawaiian vibe to chilly Toronto isn't an easy task. Luckily, Miss Thing's does just that with sleek, yet fun interiors that feature frangipanis and pineapples in all the right places without being tacky. Lots of golden accessories throughout give the space a more luxe vibe while the food and its presentation – pineapple fried rice in a pineapple and cocktails with tiny umbrellas – perfectly straddles the border of feeling like a holiday without being gimmicky.
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Set in the lush Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden hotel, Botànic manages to capture the restaurant's ethos of horticultural eating through its interior too. Housed in a 16th-century mansion that's turned into a boutique hotel, the restaurant has ivy creeping along its walls, bird cages hanging from the ceilings and a whimsical décor of regal shades of sage, blush and blue. Many of the ingredients served here are grown in the chef's garden, but the largely plant-based menu still has a couple of surprises for carnivores too, from marinated Iberian pork to red prawns.
A throwback to sultry parlours of days gone by, this elegant Berlin establishment seduces with deep-red walls, plush sofas and accents of gold throughout. Striking a 1920s vibe, Golden Phoenix is set within the Hotel Provocateur and its chef, Duc Ngo, serves an enticing mix of what the restaurant calls "otherworldly French-Chinese culinary creations". Parisian cabarets serve as inspiration behind the intimate and cosy atmosphere, created by Dutch interior designer Saar Zafrir, which is completed with subtle lighting throughout.
With a view that's hard to beat, Sydney's Altitude restaurant is located within the upscale Shangri-La hotel. Towering 36 levels above Sydney Harbour, the floor-to-ceiling windows give an impression the diners are floating through air, taking in spectaculars views of some of the most iconic Australian landmarks – Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The food is equally as incredible, bringing together some of the best ingredients Australia's diverse land and sea life has to offer.
A fine dining oasis in West Hollywood, The Little Door offers the ambiance of a secret hideout. With a gorgeous, Mediterranean-inspired décor, the restaurant transports its diners not only with its interiors but with its food as well. Light and uplifting dishes like Portuguese shrimp, hamachi crudo and heirloom tomatoes with burrata are best enjoyed out in the courtyard where candles, fairy lights and lush greenery create a truly magical dining environment.
Deemed Bangkok's finest and highest restaurant, Sirocco at Lebua Hotel is vertigo-inducing. Set 63 floors above the sprawling city, the award-winning restaurant is not only popular for its exquisite cuisine, but for the panoramic city views too. A live jazz band adds to the moon-lit dinner experience that brings together aromas and flavours of the Mediterranean.
Playful and theatrical, no two interiors at sketch are the same and even the toilets resemble pods on a spacecraft. The Gallery (pictured), a vision of Art Deco in pink, is like stepping inside cotton candy, The Lecture Room's hues of orange and red feel like dining at sunset and The Glade is reimagined as a mythical forest with a fluffy carpet, made to resemble the forest floor. The food here is equally as good, earning the restaurant a mention on World's 50 Best Discovery.
Situated 16 feet (5m) below sea level, diners have sea life for company in the world's first all-glass undersea restaurant. A panoramic dining experience like no other, Ithaa's minimalistic décor lets its unusual surroundings shine with sharks, stingrays and colourful fish keeping guests company. The food is unsurprisingly very seafood-centric – Ithaa's menu features dishes like Maldivian lobster carpaccio and blackened scallops.
Sky Bistro charms with its simplistic yet sleek interior, but it's the jaw-dropping view that makes it into a truly special dining experience in incredible surrounds. Located at the top of Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park, the diners ascend via a gondola to nearly 8,000 feet (2,281m) above sea level where the scenery takes in the snowy tips and the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. The menu is inspired by the restaurant's location in western Canada and features lots of local and seasonal produce.
Effortlessly cool, there are lots of little quirks to love about The Refuge. The beating heart of Kimpton Clocktower, a hotel set in a Grade II-listed Victorian Gothic Revival building, Refuge incorporates plenty of original detail, designed in 1891. Large brass pendants hang from the coved ceilings, the heritage tiling is complemented by elegant and muted colours in the upholstery, while modern murals with slogans like 'The Glamour of Manchester' adorn the walls.
Located on the second level of Paris' famous Eiffel Tower, Jules Verne is arguably the city's most breathtaking restaurant. With a view over the city 410 feet (125m) above ground, this place isn't just a novelty because of its one-of-a-kind location. The restaurant received a Michelin star in the 2021 awards for "delicate, flawlessly crafted food".
On Australia's Central Coast, about an hour's drive from Sydney, Saddles overlooks a dam and is surrounded by thick and dry sepia-toned bush landscape. The cowboy ranch theme here totally fits and the grand sandstone fireplaces and leather saddles for bar stools only add to the charm. The food is equally unpretentious but satisfying with dishes like whole roast chicken and meat pies making an appearance on the menu.
Perched on the grassy banks of the Zambezi, this restaurant defines itself as a "casual dining café concept". Located on the edge of Victoria Falls, the courtyard at Zambezi House features a wooden deck, wrapping around trees decorated with fairy lights. Inside, guests sit on plush velvet sofas with black-and-white photography decorating the walls while those with a view of the opposite bank of the Zambezi will spot elephants and hippos.
It would be hard to argue there's a better location or view for a restaurant in Rome. Located on top of a 17th-century palace, Michelin-starred Ristorante Aroma has the Eternal City in its palm. Guests dine on seasonally inspired Italian cuisine with the Colosseum and Emperor Nero's gardens for company.
Originally built for the Exposition Universelle in 1900, Paris' Le Train Bleu is still one of the city's most exquisite and charming places to eat. Set in the Gare de Lyon, the opulent restaurant was a favourite of Coco Chanel and Brigitte Bardot and it's easy to see why – gilded frames and carvings, large-scale murals and grand chandeliers all add to the sumptuous atmosphere.
Located in the stunning Leela Palace in Udaipur, Sheesh Mahal is set across two levels overlooking Pichola Lake. The open-air restaurant features plenty of eye-catching detail, like stunning tile work and embroidered umbrellas. Traditional Rajasthani cuisine is on offer, served under the stars and illuminated by candlelight.
A Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant in Hong Kong, AMMO's mix of interiors is as enticing as its food. Inspired by the 1965 film Alphaville, the award-winning restaurant sits in what can only be described as a glass box in a former explosives site. With deconstructed spiral staircases for chandeliers, copper piping and leather upholstery in earthy tones, there's lots to love about this restaurant.
A taste of what 18th century was like in Russia, the interiors of Turandot in Moscow feel like they belong in an entirely different era. Reminiscent of a grand opera house with fountains, pillars and marble replicas of ancient statues, its grand staircases lead through golden archways to balconies overlooking the room. Both the walls and ceiling are adorned with beautiful paintings and murals. The menu has a heavy Asian influence, borrowing ideas from all over – think Vietnamese spring rolls, Japanese sushi and Chinese-style beef in black pepper sauce.
Nautika is not only one of Dubrovnik’s best restaurants, but one of its best looking too. Chairs and tables are scattered along the walls of the Dubrovnik School of Maritime Studies, offering impressive views of the historic fortresses of Lovrijenac and Bokar. The menu focuses on seafood, which is brought in fresh from the Adriatic each morning.
This breathtaking cliffside fine dining experience is the most sought-after dinner location in Los Cabos. Part of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, El Farallon (meaning a rock that comes out of the ocean) offers fresh fish caught daily by local fisherman and views that span across the Pacific Ocean, as well as the mountainous terrain inland.
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The Jane in Antwerp serves highly skilled and sophisticated cooking to match its incredible setting. Opened in 2014 in a repurposed military hospital chapel, The Jane's dining room is illuminated by a spectacular 2,000-pound (900kg) starburst chandelier while the kitchen occupies the spot where the altar once stood. Only the highly necessary parts of the space have been renovated, resulting in the weathered original ceiling and multicoloured stained-glass windows looking over bright white walls and a beautiful colour palette of black, gold and mint.
Fans of clean, simple lines and perfect symmetry will feel right at home at Odette, in Singapore's National Gallery. Elegant and sleek, it's an excellent example of less being a lot more – a colour palette of blush, ivory and powder pink is matched with accents in gold and marble, and the glass kitchen, where guests can watch their food being cooked, is equally as streamlined.
Deserts have a reputation for being inhospitable places, but diners get nothing less than the best service and food at Suhail restaurant. Located in Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort in the United Arab Emirates, the restaurant offers an international menu of food that simply tastes good. Meals are served on the rooftop under the stars where guests can admire the views across miles of undulating sand dunes.
A popular London haunt, Circolo Popolare's picture-perfect interiors and silky pasta dishes feel a lot more like Italy than Fitzrovia. Designed to recreate the "warm ambience of typical Sicilian weddings", walking into this incredible space is a lot like being on a sun-drenched terrace somewhere warm. Dishes fly out of the kitchen on brightly painted plates, pasta is served tableside after it's twisted in a massive wheel of molten Parmesan and fairy light-packed wisteria and orange trees cover the ceiling. It might be a little kitsch but it's definitely a lot of fun.
This two-Michelin-starred restaurant is located within the glamorous Hôtel Meurice in Paris, with rooms inspired by the Salon de la Paix at the Palace of Versailles and the restaurant's décor isn't far off in its lavishness. Dishes are created with the seal of approval from the renowned chef Alain Ducasse, famed for his technical skills and traditional French haute cuisine, which matches the palatial surroundings perfectly.