2023 OAD Top Restaurants in South America: The Complete Rankings

Set among the Inca circular terraces of Moray at 3,500 metres, Mil Centro is one of South America's most seriously regarded restaurants, ranking second on Opinionated About Dining's South America list in 2024 and 2025 after holding the top spot in 2023. Virgilio Martínez's high-altitude kitchen anchors its menu in Andean biodiversity, drawing on ingredients from the surrounding Sacred Valley with the same intellectual rigour as his Lima flagship, Central.

Le Central sits on Roanne's Cours de la République at the €€ price point, carrying a 2025 Michelin Plate and back-to-back Opinionated About Dining number-one rankings for South America — an unusual combination of French address and Latin American critical standing that positions it as one of the more anomalous entries in the region's dining scene. A Google rating of 4.5 across 489 reviews suggests consistent execution rather than occasional brilliance.

Don Julio holds a Michelin star and a top-ten World's 50 Best ranking, placing it at the apex of Buenos Aires' parrilla tradition. Booking two months ahead is standard; walk-in queues form close to opening time. The wine cellar runs to 60,000 bottles, and the beef — Aberdeen Angus and Hereford, dry-aged in-house — is sourced from the restaurant's own regenerative farm outside the city.

Boragó has held a place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants every year since 2015, and its tasting menu, Endémica, remains one of South America's most rigorous expressions of native-ingredient cooking. Chef Rodolfo Guzmán works with over 200 foragers and small producers across Chile, drawing from coastlines, high-altitude terrain, and a biodynamic orchard to build a menu rooted in Mapuche food culture.

Kjolle sits in Barranco's Casa Tupac, where Pía León — named World's Best Female Chef and the chef behind Central's rise — runs a tasting menu built entirely from Peru's ingredient treasury. Ranked #16 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024 and #5 in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025, the restaurant applies months of research to each ingredient without obscuring what it is. Open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.

Ranked among South America's top ten restaurants by Opinionated About Dining every year from 2023 to 2025, Gustu operates from Calacoto as both a working restaurant and a training ground for young Bolivian cooks. Every ingredient on the menu comes from within Bolivia's borders, making the kitchen a direct argument for what Bolivian produce can achieve at the highest tier of contemporary South American dining.

D.O.M. holds two Michelin stars and a sustained presence in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, positioning it at the top of São Paulo's fine dining tier. Chef Alex Atala's kitchen treats the Amazon as a pantry, bringing native ingredients like jambu, tucupi, and priprioca into a tasting format that has redefined how Brazilian cuisine is read internationally. Reservations are essential, and the Jardins address has anchored the city's premium dining scene since 1999.

Lasai holds two Michelin stars, a place on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list, and the title of Best Restaurant in Brazil 2024. Chef Rafa Costa e Silva's 15-course tasting menu, fed by two private gardens, runs just 10 guests around a single L-shaped counter in Humaitá. This is Rio's most decorated modern restaurant, and one of the most precisely considered dining formats in South America.

La Picanteria in Surquillo operates as a daytime-only seafood house, anchored in the ceviche and causa traditions that define Lima's coastal cooking. Ranked #10 on the Opinionated About Dining South America list in 2024 and holding a 4.6 Google rating across more than 2,700 reviews, it represents a different register to Lima's tasting-menu circuit — direct, ingredient-driven, and rooted in the market rhythms of its neighbourhood.

In Barranco, Lima's most creatively charged neighbourhood, Mérito has built a serious reputation by threading Venezuelan culinary memory through Peruvian ingredients and technique. Ranked #55 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024 and #6 in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025, the two-floor restaurant on Jr. 28 de Julio draws both local regulars and informed international visitors. The chef's counter remains the most coveted seat in the house.

A Casa do Porco sits at the intersection of democratic pricing and serious culinary ambition in downtown São Paulo. Chef Jefferson Rueda's whole-animal pork programme has earned a World's 50 Best ranking (#83 in 2025, previously as high as #7 in 2022) and a Michelin Bib Gourmand, placing this República address in a different competitive tier from the tasting-menu circuit that surrounds it.

Set inside the 17th-century Casa Moreyra hacienda in San Isidro, Astrid & Gastón has held a place in the World's 50 Best Restaurants every year from 2011 to 2018, peaking at #14 in 2013 and 2015. Under chef Jorge Muñoz Castro, the restaurant runs a tasting format built around Peruvian biodiversity, with vegetables as a recurring editorial thread. Ranked #9 in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025.

Argentina's only two-Michelin-starred restaurant occupies a quietly tucked passage in Recoleta, where Gonzalo Aramburu's 18-course tasting menu reframes the country's ingredients through rigorous technique. Ranked in La Liste's global top 100 and a member of Relais & Châteaux, it represents the furthest point on Buenos Aires's fine-dining spectrum — and the clearest argument that Argentine cuisine extends well beyond the grill.

Ranked #41 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024, Mayta has been among Lima's most consistent modern Peruvian addresses since relocating and relaunching in 2018. Chef Jaime Pesaque structures the menu around Peru's regional biodiversity, from Amazonian fish to Andean algae, across a nine-course tasting format and a parallel plant-based programme that earned a fifth radish in the We're Smart Green Guide.

Maní holds a Michelin star and a 95-point La Liste score while occupying a distinct position in São Paulo's creative dining scene: technically precise Brazilian cooking that draws on Amazonian ingredients without losing sight of European technique. Chef Helena Rizzo's menu places vegetables and native produce at its structural centre, earning the restaurant a decade of international recognition including a 2014 peak of #36 on the World's 50 Best list.

Named The World's Best Restaurant 2025 by the 50 Best organisation, Maido occupies a specific position in Lima's dining scene: the city's clearest expression of Nikkei cuisine, where Japanese technique meets Peruvian ingredient with precision and seasonal intent. Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura has built a decade-and-a-half of credential around this intersection, earning consecutive top-ten rankings and a loyal international following from a Miraflores address on Calle San Martín.

Mocotó occupies a different tier from São Paulo's tasting-menu circuit: Michelin Bib Gourmand-recognised and ranked 17th in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025, it serves northeastern Brazilian cooking in Vila Medeiros at prices that put it firmly within reach of daily dining. The loyal crowd returns for a reason that has little to do with occasion and everything to do with consistency.

Among Bogotá's most globally recognised modern Colombian restaurants, El Chato has held a position inside the World's 50 Best since 2023 — reaching #25 in 2024 — while keeping the format deliberately relaxed. Chef Álvaro Clavijo applies European technique to native Colombian ingredients, producing a menu that reads as a producer ledger as much as a dining list. Reservations are taken for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday, with Sunday service closing at 4 pm.

Isolina Taberna Peruana in Barranco brings traditional Peruvian home cooking to a serious dining context, with consistent recognition from La Liste and Opinionated About Dining since 2023. Chef José del Castillo draws on the deep pantry of Lima's mercado culture to produce dishes rooted in generational technique. Open seven days a week, it occupies a distinct position among Lima's mid-to-upper tier restaurants as a counterpoint to the city's modernist wave.

Two-Michelin-starred Oteque reigns as South America's best restaurant, where chef Alberto Landgraf's eight-course seafood tasting menu transforms Brazilian coastal ingredients into culinary art within an intimate Botafogo setting ranked 12th globally.

La Mar Cebichería in Miraflores is Gastón Acurio's dedicated ceviche house, ranked #31 among South America's top restaurants by Opinionated About Dining in 2024. Open daily for lunch service, the Av. La Mar address has become a reference point for Peru's ceviche tradition, drawing on fresh seafood and combinations that range from the traditional to the vegetable-forward. Chef Anthony Vasquez leads the kitchen.

Fiesta Lima brings four decades of northern Peruvian culinary mastery to Miraflores, where Chef Héctor Solís transforms Chiclayo traditions into refined dining experiences featuring signature Arroz con Pato, exceptional ceviche, and rare loche squash preparations unavailable elsewhere in the capital.

Chila revolutionized Buenos Aires fine dining through Chef Soledad Nardelli's pioneering New Argentine Cuisine, transforming local ingredients into haute cuisine masterpieces within a minimalist Puerto Madero space overlooking the Rio de la Plata. Though closed, this Relais & Châteaux restaurant remains a defining influence on Argentina's culinary landscape.

Fasano anchors São Paulo's fine-dining establishment in Cerqueira César, where contemporary Italian cooking has drawn the same loyalists for decades. Ranked #33 in South America by Opinionated About Dining (2025) and recognised by Michelin and La Liste, this is a room where the regulars know the rhythm as well as the menu. Dinner service runs nightly from 7 pm, with Sunday lunch the week's most considered sitting.

La Cabrera has held a position inside Opinionated About Dining's South America rankings every year since at least 2023, placing as high as #27 in that cycle. Located on Cabrera Street in Palermo, Buenos Aires, the parrilla draws both locals and international visitors with a format built around fire-driven beef cookery and a wine list weighted toward Argentine varietals. It operates daily across both lunch and dinner services.

Located in Getsemaní, Cartagena's most culturally layered neighbourhood, Celele translates years of field research along Colombia's Caribbean coast into a focused a la carte menu. Ranked #21 in South America by Opinionated About Dining (2025) and holder of a Sustainable Restaurant Award, it works with ingredients from wild harvests and Indigenous food traditions that most Colombian restaurants have never touched.

A Buenos Aires bodegón transformed into a fully-fledged restaurant in 2019, El Preferido de Palermo runs classic Spanish and Italian-inspired dishes through the same operational rigour as its sibling, the celebrated steakhouse Don Julio. Ranked 25th in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025 and recognised with a Michelin Plate, it operates in a different price bracket from its stablemate but holds its own on produce quality and craft.

Rafael occupies an art-deco mansion on Calle San Martín in Miraflores, where chef Rafael Osterling has spent decades threading Peruvian ingredients through Italian and Japanese technique. Ranked on Opinionated About Dining's South America list consistently since 2023 and awarded 90 points by La Liste in 2025, it holds a steady position in Lima's upper tier of cosmopolitan modern Peruvian dining.

Inside the Four Seasons Buenos Aires on Posadas, Elena positions itself at the intersection of open-fire Argentine grilling and internationally informed technique. Executive Chef Juan Gaffuri's dry-aged beef programme, 200-label wine list focused on Mendoza and Patagonia, and a 2025 Michelin Plate make it one of the more seriously argued cases for modern Argentine cooking in the city.

At Thames 2317 in Palermo, La Carniceria puts Argentine meat culture under a scrutinising, ingredient-first lens. Ranked #31 on the 2025 Opinionated About Dining list for South America and recognised with a Michelin Plate in 2024, it occupies the accessible end of Buenos Aires's serious grill scene — a $$ price point that earns consistent 4.3-star recognition across more than 3,000 Google reviews.

La Brigada in San Telmo has held a consistent position on Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in South America list since 2023, reaching as high as #19 in 2024. The restaurant represents the traditional end of Buenos Aires steakhouse culture, where the asado ritual takes precedence over reinvention. It operates Tuesday through Sunday for both lunch and dinner service, closed on Mondays.

Parador la Huella defines barefoot luxury dining in Montevideo, where Chef Vanessa González's fire-grilled seafood mastery meets Atlantic beachfront views in Uruguay's most celebrated coastal restaurant, recognized as the country's best by Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants.

El Baqueno has held a position inside the Opinionated About Dining Top 35 in South America every year from 2023 to 2025, placing chef Fernando Rivarola among the continent's most consistently recognized practitioners of modern Argentinian cooking. The restaurant operates from a setting on Cerro San Bernardo in Salta, grounding its work in the northwest's distinct larder rather than Buenos Aires convention.

Opened in 2011 as the first woman-led tasting menu restaurant in Brazil, Manu has grown into one of South America's most referenced addresses for plant-forward, seasonally driven cooking. Ranked 34th in the Opinionated About Dining top restaurants in South America (2025), the 20-seat format in Curitiba's Batel district serves a tasting menu built around local sourcing and over 60% plant-based ingredients.

OSSO Carniceria operates at the intersection of butcher shop and restaurant in San Isidro, where Chef Renzo Garibaldi has built a programme around dry-aged cuts and wood-fired cooking that Opinionated About Dining has ranked among South America's top restaurants in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The format is meat-forward and intentional: produce quality, butchery craft, and fire are the three load-bearing elements.

Gran Dabbang operates without reservations in Palermo, serving sharing plates that draw on Indian, Thai, and Arab techniques applied to Argentine ingredients. Ranked #46 on Opinionated About Dining's South America list in 2025, it occupies a specific niche in Buenos Aires dining: technically grounded, globally informed, and built around a format that rewards early arrivals and repeat visits.

Ranked 37th in South America by Opinionated About Dining in 2024, Carmen operates from El Poblado as one of Medellín's clearest arguments for Colombian ingredient-led cooking at a serious level. The kitchen works within a tradition that treats sourcing as structure, positioning the restaurant alongside the generation of Colombian tables rewriting how the country's produce is read abroad.

Ambrosia in Santiago is a contemporary French-Latin bistro that pairs market-driven cooking with an intimate, home-like setting. Must-try plates include Foie Gras with mushroom purée, a bright Citrus Ceviche, and Southern Toothfish with asparagus gazpacho and cucumber noodles. The kitchen, led by Chef Carolina Bazán, turns seasonal produce into refined, comforting dishes while sommelier Rosario Onetto curates a focused wine list to match. Ranked No. 30 in Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants in 2019, Ambrosia delivers efficient, warm hospitality in multiple dining rooms of a converted home, offering a relaxed yet polished meal that favors fresh flavors, precise technique, and memorable wine pairings.

Chicha por Gaston Acurio sits on Cusco's Plaza Regocijo and applies Acurio's Peruvian revivalist approach to Andean ingredients and regional cooking traditions. Ranked in Opinionated About Dining's Top 65 South American restaurants in 2025, it draws a broad crowd — tourists, Lima visitors, and locals — and delivers accessible but carefully considered Peruvian food at mid-range prices for the city.

Cielo occupies the rooftop of La Sommità hotel in Ostuni's whitewashed hilltop quarter, holding a Michelin Plate and consecutive Opinionated About Dining recognition across both its North and South American ranking lists. Chef Juan Manuel Barrientos Valencia works with Puglian ingredients reframed through a modern lens, with dining options spanning a terrace aperitif at dusk to a full tasting menu beneath vaulted ceilings. Price range sits at €€€€.

Evvai holds two Michelin stars and a place in the World's 50 Best at number 95, making it one of São Paulo's most decorated restaurants. Chef Luiz Filipe Souza's single tasting menu, Oriundi, channels the Brazilian-Italian migrant tradition through technically precise cooking and local ingredients. Pinheiros, Tuesday through Saturday evenings, with Saturday lunch service also available.

Zazu sits at the top of Quito's contemporary Ecuadorean dining tier, ranked #48 and #51 in Opinionated About Dining's South America rankings for consecutive years. The menu architecture moves through local ingredients with clear structural intent, supported by a full vegetarian option and one of the city's most serious wine collections housed in an 8-metre-high cellar.

Harry Sasson has anchored Bogotá's upper tier of Colombian dining for decades, earning consecutive Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in South America rankings and a La Liste 2025 placement. The restaurant occupies a generous space in the Zona Rosa corridor and delivers a menu rooted in Colombian ingredients interpreted with international technique. Open seven days a week, it draws both long-standing regulars and first-time visitors to the city.

Oro brings two Michelin stars to Leblon's dining strip, where Felipe Bronze works a contemporary register that draws on Italian technique and Brazilian ingredients in equal measure. Consistently ranked among South America's top restaurants by Opinionated About Dining and La Liste, it operates Tuesday through Saturday on Av. Gen. San Martin — a short walk from the beach, a longer commitment at the table.