Top Italian Restaurants 2023: the best Italian restaurants abroad selected by Gambero Rosso

The guide comes out in time for holidaymakers at the end of the year: 30 restaurants, 20 pizzerias and 20 wine bars around the world where you can go without fail to eat and drink quality Italian. The best restaurant is La Puglia in Santa Monica, the best Chef is Antonio Mermolia in Washington

Thirty restaurants and 20 pizzerias: where to go to eat excellent Italian cuisine abroad without fail But also 20 wine bars where to go and drink a good glass of Italian wine or buy a bottle to celebrate the new year with the certainty of finding the best made in Italy labels. It is proposed as a useful gastronomic guide for those who have decided to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays abroad, the 2023 edition of Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants. The Guide presents great news this year: for the first time an osteria, a bistro or a fine dining room are on the same level, evaluated with forks, while the wedges remain for pizzerias and bottles for wine lists. The rating is the classic: from one to a maximum of three.

What are the best Italian restaurants abroad? Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants 2023

In total, there are 30 Tre Forchette, 20 Tre Spicchi and 20 Tre Bottiglie, seven special prizes. The Chef of the Year is Anthony Mermolia, 39, works a few meters from the White House in the refined Fiola restaurant, his is an exquisitely Mediterranean cuisine, punctuated by creative energy and technical rigor. The Restaurant of the Year is a hymn to the authenticity of our regional cuisines: Puglia in Santa Monica, the place opened by Valentina Bianco, between dreamy focaccia, perfect orecchiette and a final pasticciotto. The Guardian of Tradition Award goes to Pino Posteraro, who since 1999 has strenuously and classily defended the Italian identity of flavors in his Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca in Vancouver, on the Pacific side. The Wine List of the Year takes us to the 'Las Vegas of the East', Macao, is that of 8 e1/2 Bombana Macao, thanks to the very deep research work of the manager and sommelier Marino Braccu. Let's stay in Asia for the New Opening Award which bears the signature of the Cerea family, Da Vittorio Saigon successfully opened last June in Ho Chi Minh inside the scenic Times Square Building. The Emerging Restaurant of the Year Award goes to the historic Carpaccio restaurant in Paris, renovated in grand style by the talent of young Oliver Piras and Alessandra de Favero, who also won the Tre Forchette for the first time. Finally, the Pizzeria of the Year is Napulé, on the shores of Lake Zurich, thanks to the professionalism of Raffaele Tromiro: behind an extraordinary dough there is a story of social redemption and independence.

“The level of Italian raw materials abroad has reached unthinkable levels, today it is easier to find niche PDOs in large international cities than in many Italian cities. In the kitchen, the traditional and more classic repertoire wins, with many new regional focuses. The Italian dish of the year? The cacio e pepe, increasingly replicated even in sophisticated establishments, from New York to Sydney”, he comments Lorenzo Ruggeri, editor of the Guide. “For us, a great trattoria is equivalent to an elegant hotel kitchen, abroad the border is now very thin hence the change in evaluation. In the selection work we go in search of the most authentic and true flavors beyond the context of the offer”, adds Luigi Salerno, CEO of Gambero Rosso. "Valuing a virtuous Italian restaurant abroad is equivalent to promoting the territory: it is a fundamental showcase for artisans and excellences that drive our exports, while stimulating curious and aware tourism", comments Paolo Cuccia, executive president of the Group .