According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Botin Restaurant in Madrid in Spain is the world’s oldest operating restaurant, which opened its doors in 1725.
Famous the world over, Ernest Hemmingway mentioned the restaurant’s signature dish cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.
But a few other restaurants throughout Europe contend the title.
Stiftskeller St Peter, situated in a monastery in Salzburg, Austria, claims to have been around as an inn serving food since 803. And evidence exists that Henry III of France dined at La Tour d’Argent in Paris in 1582. So which is it?
We’ll let the culinary historians duke that out.
1. Stiftskeller St. Peter (803) – Salzburg, Austria
2. Zum Franziskaner (1421) – Stockholm, Sweden
3. La Tour d’Argent (1500s) – Paris, France
4. Die Letzte Instanz (1621) – Berlin, Germany
5. A La Petite Chaise (1680) – Paris, France
6. Botín Restaurant (1725) – Madrid, Spain
7. Tavares Rico (1784) – Lisbon, Portugal
8. Rules Restaurant (1798) – London, England
9. Union Oyster House (1826) – Boston, United States
10. Yar Restaurant (1826) – Moscow, Russia
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