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Every year, thousands of new restaurants open in towns and cities across the globe. Some flop, some become locally beloved spots and some have people travelling from several miles away just to have a taste. A very, very select few gain global recognition.
Conde Nast Traveller’s Hot List of the world’s best new (or recently reopened) restaurants just dropped, featuring a batch of places worth crossing land and sea for. Of all the venues that have launched in the last 12 months, CNT’s list is made up of just 34 establishments that impressed its food and travel writers more than any others. The meticulously crafted lineup features a Caribbean restaurant in New York, an intimate dining room in Rio de Janeiro, a brasserie-style spot in Nairobi and a Levantine-inspired lounge in Brisbane. It also spotlights three exceptional new British restaurants.
First up – Shwen Shwen in Sevenoaks, Kent, a West African restaurant run by self-taught chef Maria Bradford. CNT writes that Bradford’s aim with her new joint was to ‘give Sierra Leonean and Afro-fusion cooking the stage it deserves, carrying rich culinary legacies on unexpected, but always rewarding, paths’. Standout plates include smoky mackerel with plantain purée, griddled spatchcock poussin with palm butter sauce and charred octopus with Kankankan spice.
In the nine months since Shwen Shwen opened its doors, it has been given a Michelin Bib Gourmand, named Michelin’s Opening of the Year and Bradford has been named Best New Chef in the UK's Top New Restaurant Awards.
The second new British restaurant on the list was Norah in Edinburgh. Norah sits in the city’s northeastern district of Newhaven, overlooking its harbour and lighthouse. According to CNT, it’s the ‘epitome of laidback chic with its country-kitchen interiors and butter yellow frontage’.
Only open for breakfast or lunch, expect comforting dishes like pickles, warm soda bread, and Irish Coolea cheese to begin, followed by mains such as tartiflette, sausage, egg and chips or fresh fish stew and desserts like bread-and-butter pudding or rice pudding with poached rhubarb. CNT called it the ‘kind of place where chefs come to eat on their day off’.
Norah is the first opening from Irish born chef Claire Hanrahan and partner Andrew Ainslie. The latter said: ‘Working closely with local suppliers and focusing on seasonal produce, Norah brings an ever changing breakfast and lunch offering to our pierside location, alongside weekly dinners and monthly pop-ups from friends in Scotland and beyond.
‘Situated on Edinburgh's waterfront neighbourhood of Newhaven with views of the lighthouse Norah has become a staple for the local community since opening in August 2025.’
The third and final British restaurant on the hotlist was London’s Carbone, an NYC import that launched in Mayfair in September. CNT described it as ‘the kind of restaurant where you can lose hours in a mesmerising, sweet-scented crimson blur and still wish for the night to continue’.
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Plus: The 18 British restaurants that were added to the Michelin Guide in April 2026.
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