What counts as a source
Award guides and competitions, established food guides such as the MICHELIN Guide, Gambero Rosso or Time Out, newspapers and magazines, and official tourism boards. Local press in the local language often counts most.
Each list has at least five independent sources, published in 2023 or later. An older edition counts only for a long-running award, and the list shows its year. We take one source per publisher. Affiliate sites, personal blogs, tour-company pages and lists marked as sponsored don’t count.
When a source names a place
A source counts for a place only when it recommends that food at that place. A bakery a guide praises for its bread doesn’t count on a cinnamon bun list, and a review that warns people off doesn’t count at all.
The order
The place named by the most sources comes first. When two places have the same count, the one recommended by more award guides, guides and competitions (rather than media lists) goes first, then the alphabet decides. Each list says how many sources it used and shows which ones name each place.
Open places only
Every place is checked as open on the date the list shows, on its own website, a recent listing or recent coverage. Closed places are dropped. Addresses come from the place itself or a map. Things change, so check before you go.
What to order
A dish appears under a place only when one of the sources names it there, and the list says which source. We never add scores, prices, tastes or quotes that a source doesn’t give, and we don’t copy a source’s text.
A second check
Every new list goes through a second, independent check of its sources, counts and addresses before it’s published. Lists that fail the rules stay unpublished: macarons in Paris, for one, had only six places that two or more sources named.
Your own list
The top 10s show what the guides agree on. In Matcha you score each dish you try, and the app ranks your own best pizza, gelato or cinnamon bun for every city.
