Swirling mosaics, a sculpted citrus grove, terra cotta leather, Murano glass and a waterside terrace will take you to coastal Italy \u2014 and to a spot atop the list of best-designed restaurants on the planet.<\/p>\n
Carbone Riviera, the coastal Italian spot that nudges the western shore of the Bellagio lagoon on the Las Vegas Strip, recently won Overall Best Restaurant in the world for 2026 from the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards, the prestigious global design competition for the hospitality industry, according to an MGM Resorts International announcement. The restaurant also won top design for the Americas.<\/p>\n
The competition received 1,155 entries from 73 countries across 53 categories, the announcement said. A panel of more than 40 judges cut the entries to a shortlist of 225 entries. Restaurants could not directly submit designs for the overall restaurant honor. Instead, the judges determined the award as part of the judging process.<\/p>\n
Design reaction<\/p>\n
Judge Meshari Aloudah, founder and CEO of Social Eats Hospitality Group, praised Carbone Riviera\u2019s design elements, noting they \u201care balanced beautifully against the Bellagio\u2019s existing grandeur.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement for Neon, Ari Kastrati, chief content, hospitality and development officer for MGM Resorts, said, \u201cCarbone Riviera was conceived as a maximalist, palatial, transportive design \u2026 Earning the title of Overall Best Restaurant on a global stage is humbling and a testament to the teams\u2019 collective efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ocean approach<\/p>\n
International designer Martin Brudnizki, MGM Resorts and Major Food Group collaborated on Carbone Riviera, sibling to MFG\u2019s Carbone at Aria. The restaurant opened about a year ago, replacing the legendary Picasso, which had occupied the space for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n
Diners approach Carbone Riviera through an ocean-inspired mosaic portal; a path leads through an abstracted citrus grove surmounted by a plaster arcade with sculpted branches and lemon-shaped sconces.<\/p>\n
The 240-seat dining room features terra cotta leather, mirrored banquettes, and custom Murano glass scones and chandeliers. Especially striking: columns and arches clad in mosaic swirls, with the pattern repeated on floors and ceiling. The dining room gives way to a pair of terraces, with the shooting Fountains of Bellagio beyond.<\/p>\n
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Swirling mosaics, a sculpted citrus grove, terra cotta leather, Murano glass and a waterside terrace will take you to coastal Italy \u2014 and to a spot atop the list of best-designed restaurants on the planet. Carbone Riviera, the coastal Italian spot that nudges the western shore of the Bellagio lagoon on the Las Vegas Strip,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[332,407,389,408],"class_list":["post-45261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-dining","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-dining"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117396654241699001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}