Jun 25 2024
Spanish Restaurants Conquer OAD’s List of the Top Restaurants in Europe
There were 5 Spanish restaurants in the top 10 alone, and 45 on the list of 150, making it the country with the largest presence in the ranking
The famed OAD list of the Top Restaurants in Europe, an initiative from Opinionated About Dining’s Steve Plotnicki, has been released and restaurants from Spain have a the largest presence on the list. The list was announced at a special ceremony in Madrid, at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz Hotel.
Etxebarri restaurant, located in Axpe, Vizcaya, grabbed the second spot of the list, just behind Alchemist in Copenhagen, which took first place for the second year in a row, while the third spot went to JAN, in Munich, Germany. In the top ten, the fifth-ranking restaurant was also Spanish: Bagá, in Jaén; coming in seventh was DiverXO, in Madrid; and eighth was Restaurante Quique Dacosta, in Alicante.
Other Spanish names at the top of the prestigious list were Disfrutar, in Barcelona, at number 11; Desde 1911, in Madrid, at 21; and Azurmendi, in Vizcaya, at 24.
Of the 150 restaurants that made the grade, 45 are in Spain. Italy had the second-largest number of restaurants on the list, followed by Denmark, France, and the UK. Spain was also the country with the greatest increase in restaurants included, compared with last year.
This list aside, OAD has another selection of 404 restaurants in Europe that are worth visiting, and here again Spain has the largest presence, as 92 of the suggestions are in Spain.
OAD list is based on over 175,000 reviews contributed by more than 5,700 people who registered for the survey. In 2024 edition, only 6 from the Top 100 reviewers were Spanish-based.
¿What can be eaten in the Spanish restaurants listed in the Top 5?
Etxebarri, ranked number two, is considered the best grill in the world. They grill old cow steaks and other amazing Spanish products, like Palamós prawns (from a town on the Catalan coast), Joselito chorizo Ibérico, and cod kokotxas (fish neck and dewlap).
At Bagá, which is ranked number five and only seats 15 people, chef Pedro Sánchez uses local ingredients to create his excellent dishes. He uses shrimps from Motril (in Granada, another province in Andalusia), vegetables from Jaén’s gardens like peppers and pumpkins that he deconstructs in different ways, and local extra virgin olive oil in his recipes.