50 Best announced the new list of Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, recognising those establishments that lead the hospitality sector across the region.
Local fans of exquisite dining will be thrilled to learn that a restaurant in Qatar was placed on the list. ALBA by Enrico Crippa at Raffles Doha placed 46th and is now officially one of the best restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa.
ALBA by Enrico Crippa
Set within the iconic Raffles Doha hotel, Alba by Enrico Crippa provides a dose of Mediterranean design and flavour on the Arabian coast. The dining rooms blends classical white marble arches with plush dark green and red velvets, surrounded by Italian-inspired scenography. Raffles Doha is itself located in the capital’s famous Katara Towers building, the enormous waterfront landmark whose design was inspired by the nation’s traditional crossed-swords emblem.
Alba is the first international restaurant of the three Michelin star Chef Enrico Crippa of the iconic Piazza Duomo restaurant in Alba, Italy.
Crippa loves to amaze his guests with artistic, dynamic, and surprising tasting menus, where centuries-old recipes and local specialties meet a palate without borders.
The a la carte offering at Alba takes in a host of Italian classics, such as vitello tonnato and maccheroni alla Genovese, as well as more distinctive plates including taglioni with white truffle and Barolo-braised veal cheeks with ‘red cabbage from the desert’. There’s also an impressive 300-label wine list, including some notable imports from the world-renowned wine region surrounding Alba itself back in Italy.
The kitchen is headed up by the youthful but highly talented Antonino D’Alessio. Originally from Naples, D’Alessio has worked in top-end establishments in both the UK and France, as well as spending four years alongside Chef Crippa in the kitchens of Piazza Duomo.
Alba also hosts collaborations of the world’s best chefs. Recently, it hosted Top Chef Middle East & North Africa winner Ali Ghzawi in collaboration with Alba’s Head Chef Antonino D’Alessio, who also previously collaborated with Chef Fabrizio Mellino back in November 2023.
View this post on Instagram
Discover more about this months’ offers at Raffles Doha and ALBA by Enrica Crippa here.
Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024
Alba by Crippa joins 49 more restaurants across 14 cities within the Middle East and North Africa in the list, with Orfali Bros Bistro being awarded the region’s number 1 restaurant for the second consecutive year. The fine-dining Indian restaurant Trèsind Studio in The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, headed by chef Himanshu Saini, claims the number 2 spot. It is followed by Ossiano at number 3, also located in Dubai.
The third edition of the list, which highlights the best dining destinations in the entire region, also includes 13 new entries and two re-entries.
Here is the full list:
The Voting Process
The list is compiled by the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of more than 250 key leaders in the restaurant industry across the region, each selected for their expert opinion of the Middle East and North Africa’s restaurant scenes.
The Academy is divided into six regions: the Gulf; Saudi Arabia; Levant-plus; Israel, North Africa (East) and North Africa (West). Each region has its own panel of members including a chairperson, called the Academy Chair, to head it up. The panel is made up of food writers and critics, chefs, restaurateurs and highly regarded gourmets.
For the 2024 list, each MENA Academy member voted for up to seven restaurants, with at least two of these located outside the country where they are based. None of the event’s sponsors has any influence over the voting process.
To see more details on the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants voting process, please click here.
Further details about the ranked restaurants are available on the 50 Best website here.
Check out Marhaba’s FREE e-Guides for everything you need to know about Qatar.
