More than 650 new venues have joined 50 Best Discovery in the platform’s latest refresh, with 75+ cities and towns appearing on the site for the first time. Asia Pacific is among the biggest movers in this update, adding 178 venues across 95 cities, and Malaysia is part of that growth, with six new additions to the platform. 50 Best Discovery is the sister platform to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Bars, Hotels and Vineyards. It now lists more than 3,500 hospitality establishments across over 800 cities and towns worldwide.
Asia Pacific Highlights
Of the 178 new Asia Pacific venues, the region gained 44 bars, 61 hotels, 51 restaurants and 22 vineyards. Japan led the update with 30 new venues, followed by India with 17. Thailand added 11, while Malaysia and the Philippines each added six. The refresh also introduced several destinations to 50 Best Discovery for the first time, including Busan, Haputale and Thimphu. That signals the platform’s reach is extending well beyond the region’s established culinary capitals.
Malaysia’s New 6 Additions
Malaysia’s six new venues are Frank’s Bar, Bar Mizukami, Cabinet 8, Potager, Terra Dining and Good Friends Club. They place the country among a cluster of Southeast Asian markets, alongside Thailand and the Philippines, expanding their footprint on the platform this round. While Malaysia’s tally is smaller than Japan’s or India’s, it reflects the country’s continued presence in the voting pools that feed into 50 Best Discovery, and adds to the existing roster of Malaysian restaurants, bars and hotels already featured on the site.
What It Takes To Make The 50 Best Discovery List
Unlike many discovery or review platforms, venues cannot apply to be featured on 50 Best Discovery. Asked what it takes for a venue to be included, the 50 Best organisation gave this response:
“Restaurants, bars, hotels and vineyards appear on 50 Best Discovery based on the votes of our various voting Academies for our different lists, such as Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, Asia’s 50 Best Bars, Europe’s 50 Best Bars, Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants, North America’s 50 Best Restaurants and North America’s 50 Best Bars, as well as The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, The World’s 50 Best Bars, The World’s 50 Best Hotels and The World’s 50 Best Vineyards. This totals more than 3,000 voters overall; each of these voters is an expert in their local restaurant, bar, hotel or vineyard scene. They are not voting specifically for 50 Best Discovery, simply for their best restaurant, bar, hotel or vineyard experiences, and then the lists and consequently the wider 50 Best Discovery database, are born from these votes. This means that establishments cannot apply to be on 50 Best Discovery.”
Asked whether a venue that received a vote this year but missed the main lists is automatically added to Discovery, the spokesperson said:
“We do not reveal the specific number of votes required to reach the threshold for 50 Best Discovery, just as we do not reveal the number of votes required to make it onto any of our annual rankings. This is to guard against potential lobbying. To qualify for 50 Best Discovery, a restaurant, bar, hotel or vineyard needs to receive a certain number of votes in the most recent round of polling for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, The World’s 50 Best Bars, The World’s 50 Best Hotels, The World’s 50 Best Vineyards, or any other of our annual regional rankings. 50 Best is ultimately responsible for the curation of the database. Restaurants, bars, hotels and vineyards cannot apply to be part of 50 Best Discovery.”
The Bigger Picture
Globally, the latest refresh added more than 210 restaurants, 110 bars and 130 hotels to 50 Best Discovery, alongside the introduction of vineyards as a new category, contributing over 190 entries. The scale of the update underscores how quickly the platform has grown beyond a companion tool for the 50 Best lists into a standalone global dining and hospitality directory.
For Malaysia and the wider Southeast Asian region, the update signals steady, incremental recognition rather than a single breakout moment. Six new venues is a modest addition set against Japan’s 30, but it keeps the country visible on a platform increasingly used by travellers and industry figures to discover vetted venues beyond the annual awards cycle.
| PHOTOGRAPHY: THE WORLD’S 50 BEST | WEBSITE: 50 BEST DISCOVERY |