For the Middle East, Saudi Arabia marked a significant milestone with the launch of its own Michelin Guide, placing cities like Riyadh and Jeddah on the global food map. The kingdom’s evolving restaurants mix traditional Arabic fare with international influences.
In Asia, Cappadocia, Türkiye — long known for its dramatic landscapes — is now attracting food lovers eager for regional Anatolian recipes and farm-to-table cooking inside cave restaurants.
Jiangsu Province in China emerges as an affordable yet refined food destination, with cities such as Suzhou and Nanjing offering garden cuisine and classical techniques.
The Philippines shows rapidly rising food scenes in both Manila and Cebu, where local favourites like sisig and sinigang share menus with modern interpretations amid abundant fresh produce.
Canada’s culinary scene
Canadian destinations complete the list, with Quebec’s French-inspired kitchens and bistros serving harvest-driven menus, while Vancouver takes its place on the global stage as a 2026 World Cup host. The city’s Pacific location and cultural mix shape a vibrant culinary scene, from fresh seafood and Asian influences to emerging Indigenous cuisine. Michelin recommends visiting in summer, when outdoor dining thrives, and the city’s nature views become part of every meal.
Tuscany and Umbria, Italy
If there is one food destination I return to every year without question, this is it. I’ve written about and separately before, but together they form what I’d argue is the most complete culinary region on earth — rolling hills, extraordinary olive oil, hand-rolled pasta, bistecca Fiorentina, black truffles, and wine that makes you quietly reassess every bottle you’ve ever opened at home.
Italy is having a banner year for food travelers in 2026. The Amalfi Coast just got a new Belmond train service from Paris, Venice is buzzing with and the Italian culinary tradition continues to collect Michelin stars like they’re going out of style. But for my money, Tuscany and Umbria remain the soul of Italian food travel — less performative, more personal, and consistently extraordinary.
Lima, Peru
Lima has quietly become one of the most exciting culinary capitals on earth. In fact, my favorite local chef in just returned from a food journey there! Peruvian cuisine is the product of an unusually complex history — Indigenous, Spanish, African, Japanese, and Chinese influences layered over centuries — and the result is something utterly unlike anywhere else. The ceviche alone justifies the flight: fresh white fish marinated in leche de tigre, with ají amarillo, red onion, and sweet potato. Bracingly acidic and perfect.
Then there’s lomo saltado, the Chinese-Peruvian stir-fry that somehow became a beloved national staple, and causa, a cold potato terrine that sounds pedestrian and tastes magnificent. Lima also has some of the world’s most acclaimed tasting-menu restaurants — perennial fixtures on the World’s 50 Best list. If you want serious fine dining alongside outstanding street food in the same city, Lima is your destination.
New Orleans, USA
the one American city that has always functioned as a culinary destination in the European sense — where food is culture, identity, ritual, and joy all at once. The blend of French, African, Spanish, and Creole influences has created something entirely its own, and it rewards visitors who go deeper than the obvious hits.
2026 is a particularly good year to visit. The US is celebrating its 250th anniversary, the American South is a top Michelin pick this year, and New Orleans anchors all of it. Yes, eat a beignet at Café Du Monde. But also find a neighborhood joint doing proper red beans and rice, a crawfish étouffée that takes forty minutes to arrive because it’s being made correctly, and a po’boy from somewhere that doesn’t have a gift shop.
Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok belongs on any serious foodie travel list for 2026, and I’d argue it belongs near the top. Food here follows its own rhythm — from early-morning soups to late-night noodles cooked over roaring flames — and it invites you to eat often, widely, and without really overthinking it. Street food is the backbone: Chinatown comes alive after dark, pad kra pao and boat noodles appear at every turn, and mango sticky rice from a cart will ruin you for every other dessert.
Bangkok also has one of the most dynamic fine dining scenes in Asia, with Michelin-starred restaurants sitting a ten-minute tuk-tuk ride from the best $2 bowl of noodles you’ve ever had. If there is a city on this list where you genuinely cannot eat badly — not even accidentally — Bangkok is it.
Istanbul, Turkey
Turkey consistently ranks among the world’s top food destinations, and the variety here is genuinely staggering. Tender lamb kebabs, flaky börek, rich meze spreads, simit from a street cart, and baklava so good it rearranges your priorities. The spice markets — the aromas, the colors, the samples pressed into your hand — are worth a trip on their own.
Cape Town, South Africa
The Cape Winelands are a short drive from the city, and the combination of world-class wine with Cape Town’s dining scene makes this an increasingly serious food travel destination. We stayed right on the harbor at the and spent every evening wandering to a different restaurant within walking distance.
Before we spent a few days in Cape Town — and it immediately leapt onto my shortlist of cities I’d return to purely for the food. The culinary identity here is a fascinating blend of African, Dutch, Malay, and Cape Creole influences, built on an extraordinary ingredient base: fresh seafood from two oceans, locally grown produce, and some of the best wine in the southern hemisphere.
North India: Where Bold Flavors and Bread Rule
Delhi — The Street Food Capital of the Country
If your food travel guide to India starts anywhere in the North, it should start in Delhi. Old Delhi especially — Chandni Chowk — is probably the most food-dense neighborhood in Asia.
Here you eat chole bhature for breakfast. You stand at a tiny shop and watch a man fry jalebis in clarified butter at 7 in the morning. You have paranthe stuffed with everything from potato to radish to paneer, served at shops that have been running for over a century.
For lunch, nihari — a slow-cooked meat stew — is the move if you eat non-veg. And in the evening, the chaat options at places like Natraj or Sitaram Diwan Chand are genuinely life-changing.
Amritsar — More Than the Golden Temple
Most people visit Amritsar for the Golden Temple. But food travelers know that Amritsar’s kulcha — a stuffed bread baked in a clay oven and served with spiced chickpeas — is reason enough to make the trip.
The lassi here is thick, served in clay cups, and often topped with a layer of cream. The langar at the Golden Temple itself — free, vegetarian, and served to thousands every single day — is a food experience unlike any other on earth. No food travel guide to India is complete without mentioning it.
West India: Coastal Freshness and Spice Markets
Mumbai — Chaat, Rolls, and the Art of Eating on the Go
Mumbai’s food culture is shaped by speed. People here eat standing up, walking, or in 15-minute lunch breaks. And the food reflects that energy.
Vada pav — a spiced potato fritter inside a soft bread roll with chutneys — is Mumbai’s unofficial mascot. Pav bhaji at a good stall will genuinely make you emotional. And the Irani cafés scattered across the city are a kind of fading institution — old wooden chairs, bun maska (bread with butter), and chai that costs almost nothing.
For a sit-down meal, the city’s Parsi restaurants are worth seeking out. Dhansak, a lentil and meat stew with Parsi-Persian roots, is something you won’t find anywhere else in the country.
Goa — Seafood, Coconut, and Portuguese Shadows
Goa is a different kind of food stop in any food travel guide to India. The Portuguese colonial influence is still very visible on the plate. Fish curry rice is the everyday staple — a tangy, coconut-based fish curry served over rice that’s simple and perfect.
Bebinca, a layered Goan dessert made with coconut milk and eggs, is something to look for at local bakeries. And the seafood — especially crab, prawns, and local mackerel — is best eaten at shack restaurants right on the beach.
South India: Rice, Fermentation, and Ancient Food Traditions
Chennai — The Heart of South Indian Cooking
Chennai deserves a dedicated stop in every food travel guide to India focused on South India. The city runs on idli, dosa, sambar, and filter coffee — and every one of those things tastes different here than it does anywhere else in the world.
A proper South Indian breakfast at a place like Murugan Idli Shop or Saravana Bhavan (the original, not the chains) is a ritual. You eat on a banana leaf. You use your right hand. You don’t rush.
The Chettinad cuisine from the surrounding region is separately worth exploring — known for its use of dried spices, kalpasi (stone flower), and complex meat preparations that take hours to cook.
Kerala — Backwaters and the Best Seafood You’ll Ever Have
Kerala’s food is quieter than the North but no less complex. Coconut milk goes into almost everything — curries, desserts, even some rice dishes. The Kerala fish curry cooked in a clay pot is a benchmark dish that every food traveler should experience.
Puttu with kadala curry (steamed rice cylinders with black chickpea curry) is a breakfast that sounds strange and tastes extraordinary. And Kerala beef fry — for those who eat beef — is arguably one of the finest preparations of beef in the entire country.