When you think of national cuisines, certain dishes instantly come to mind: sushi for Japan, curry for India and pizza for Italy. But what about Australia? Some might say meat pies, others might joke it’s smashed avo on toast, and New Zealanders might argue with us over the lamington, but it’s so much more than all those things combined.
Modern Australian cuisine is a beautiful fusion of cultures, celebrating the rich diversity of our multicultural nation – from the First Nations people who have nurtured this land for millennia to the generations of immigrants who’ve added their own ingredients and recipes to the pot. So, when Taste Atlas revealed its list of the 100 Best Cuisines in the World for 2024/25, we weren’t too fussed that Australian cuisine didn’t crack the top 50. After all, our cuisine is just a mash-up of all those cultures ranked both above and below us.
Taste Atlas compiled its official rankings of the World’s 100 Best Cuisines based on 477,287 ratings for 15,478 dishes in its database, with the top cuisines scoring the highest averages out of five.
The land of olive oil, honey and feta cheese – aka Greece – took the top spot as the world’s best cuisine with an overall rating of 4.6. European flavours dominated the top ten, with Italian in second, Spanish in fourth, Portuguese in fifth and French in eighth. There was also a strong Asian influence, with Indonesian ranking as the world’s seventh best cuisine, Japanese (Australia’s favourite cuisine) ninth, Chinese tenth and Indian 12th.
Australia just missed out on a spot in the top 50, landing in 53rd place behind Ethiopia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. According to Taste Atlas, our must-try is Tasmanian Atlantic salmon, which scored the highest ratings on their site. The top five also featured Tim Tams, macadamias and Cripps pink apples – though let’s be honest, calling those ‘dishes’ is a bit of a stretch.
Seafood might be the easiest way to sum up modern Australian cuisine, with salt and pepper calamari, Moreton Bay bugs and Sydney rock oysters joining Tassie salmon as some of the highest-rated dishes. As expected, Aussie classics like meat pies, sausage sangas, beetroot burgers and chicken parmas made the top 20 too, with entrants like dim sum and green chicken curry pies highlighting the diversity of our food scene.
So, what exactly is Australian cuisine? It’s no one such thing – it’s a blend of flavours, recipes and traditions from all around the world. While Taste Atlas had to represent us in the rankings somehow, the truth is we’ve got a little slice of all the best from all 100 cuisines. Who's the real winner now? You can check out our picks of the best restaurants in Australia here.