Disfrutar in Barcelona has secured the number one crown at the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants shindig in Las Vegas, on a list dominated by restaurants from the Spanish-speaking world.

Runner-up was Basque restaurant Asador Etxebarri, with Diverxo in Madrid placed fourth and restaurants from Lima (Maido), Mexico City (Quintonil) and Buenos Aires (Don Julio) also in the top 10.

Consistent with that theme, Britain’s top entry at 17 is Kol, Santiago Lastra’s Mexican restaurant off Portman Square in London. Kol dropped off the Harden’s 100 list of Britain’s best restaurants this year, having appeared at number 95 in 2023.

Clearly the 50 Best judges – billed as 1,000 ‘international restaurant experts and well-travelled gourmets’ – are using different criteria from Harden’s, whose 2024 list is headed by four venues outside London: L’Enclume in the Lake District, Outlaw’s New Road in Cornwall, Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles in Scotland and Paul Ainsworth, also in Cornwall.

Britain’s other entry on 50 Best is Ikoyi in St James’s, at number 42, with another five London restaurants on the supplementary 50-100 list – Brat (65), Clove Club (80), Lyle’s (87), Mountain (94) and Core by Clare Smyth (97). Not a single British venue from outside London is listed.

Interestingly, the United States fares considerably worse than Britain. New York has just one entry in the top 50, Atomix at number 6, and another two between 51 and 100, where the US bags just one more, Chicago’s Smyth at number 90.