World's 50 Best Restaurants 2026: Masque, Naar end India's 22-year wait

Two restaurants in India, Masque in Mumbai and Naar in the Kasauli foothills of Himachal Pradesh, were named on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list at a ceremony in Lima, Peru, on Wednesday, 4 November 2026. Masque was ranked No. 26 and Naar, run by chef Prateek Sadhu, was ranked No. 49. According to reports on the ceremony, they are the first restaurants based in India to make the main top-50 list since Bukhara in 2004. Spain's Asador Etxebarri, in Atxondo, was named the best restaurant in the world.

For more than two decades, Indian food has been well known around the world mainly through curry houses, takeaway menus and a handful of famous kitchens abroad. Gaggan, the Bangkok restaurant known for progressive Indian cooking, was No. 2 this year, but restaurants actually located in India had been missing from the top 50 since 2004. Two names returning in the same year suggests that the judges, many of whom travel widely for food, are now coming to Indian cities and towns to eat, not only to Indian chefs working overseas.

The pair also shows two different paths. Masque is a city restaurant in Mumbai that has climbed step by step through the rankings. Earlier in 2026 it was placed No. 15 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants and received that list's Art of Hospitality Award, which food writers described as the first time an Indian restaurant had won that title on the 50 Best platform. Naar is far from a metro: it sits in the hills near Kasauli, which means diners must travel to reach it. A ranking for a restaurant outside the big cities is a signal that food tourism in India can reach beyond Mumbai and Delhi.

There is a personal link between the two as well. Masque was founded in 2016 by Aditi Dugar and Prateek Sadhu, according to its public profile, and Sadhu now leads Naar. A chef who helped build one ranked restaurant has, a few years later, put a second, very different one on the same list.

The list has its critics. It is not an inspection guide like the Michelin Guide; it is a vote. The voters are named rather than anonymous, and, as reports on this year's list point out, they are allowed to accept free meals and trips from tourism boards and other promotional bodies, while the organisers do not pay for their travel. Readers should see a ranking as one panel's opinion, not as a measure of food safety, value or nutrition.

Peepals calculation: Masque moved from No. 68 last year to No. 26 this year, a climb of 42 places (68 − 26 = 42), and the gap since an India-based restaurant last appeared in the top 50 is 22 years (2026 − 2004 = 22). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Both restaurants are likely to see more booking requests from Indian and foreign diners, and more attention from food media. For Naar, which is outside a big city, that could mean more visitors to the Kasauli area.

Long-term: Regular places on world lists can help Indian regional cooking, local produce and smaller hill or coastal towns win a place in food tourism. It may also encourage more young Indian chefs to open ambitious restaurants at home rather than abroad.

Who is affected: Diners who plan trips around food, chefs and restaurant workers in India, hospitality and tourism businesses in Mumbai and Himachal Pradesh, and farmers and small producers who supply restaurants that build menus around local ingredients.

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