Smyth in Chicago was named No. 1 among the top 50 restaurants in North America on Thursday night, according to the 50 Best organization, and a surprise new entry at No. 2 was Eight, an eight-seat, 20-course speakeasy in Calgary, Alberta, that attempts to put all of Canadian history and culture on its plates.
A subset of the popular and powerful World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, the North America list covers the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Mexico falls under the list of Latin America’s 50 best restaurants.
Overall, Canada continued to overperform on the list, occupying 14 spots, including five of the top 10.
In 2025, the first year the awards were given out, two restaurants in the Caribbean were included; this year, there were none. The new list tilts further toward the kind of tiny, tasting-menu-only restaurants where the cost of a meal often reaches $500 per person.
New York City was a notable winner, with five new additions to the list: Gramercy Tavern, Torrisi, Semma, Tatiana and Kabawa. Eunji Lee of Lysée won the award for best pastry chef, and the veteran Aldo Sohm of Le Bernardin was named best sommelier. But Atomix, last year’s No. 1, dropped to No. 7, and popular spots like Via Carota and the Four Horsemen fell off.
