The Most Expensive Restaurant In The World Isn't In Paris Or New York

At some point when you are paying the thousand of dollars to dine at the world's most expensive restaurants, you are no longer just paying for food. All the foams and foie gras and sustainably-sourced artisan ingredients in the world still can't justify shelling out four figures for a single meal, and that is what the most exclusive restaurants in the world cost. When you drop $2,000 at Ginza Kitafuku in Tokyo, you aren't going for just a really nice omakase, you are going for the atmosphere, the service, and the live preparation of fresh crab dishes right in front of you, which turn the entire evening into something that's as much an artistic performance as it is dinner. And at the single most expensive restaurant in the world, Sublimotion in Ibiza, that kind of experience gets taken to the extreme.

Sublimotion sits in a rather unusual location for a fine-dining restaurant. It's located inside the Hard Rock Hotel in Ibiza, Spain, a luxury resort destination in the Mediterranean most famous for its raucous parties and club scene. But Sublimotion embraces a dining experience just as loud, showy, and entertaining as the island's famous nightlife, going beyond food to present a multi-sensory meal that includes lights, choreography, and even virtual reality headsets. The meal itself is a 20-course tasting menu, with each dish being themed around a new setting that changes using projection screens on the walls. And all this dinner and show will cost you is $2,380 per person.

Founded in 2014, Sublimotion is run by Michelin-starred chef Paco Roncero, who is consistently listed as one of the best chefs in the world. The exclusive restaurant seats only 12 people at a time, and the entire dining experience lasts about three hours.

Because of the exclusivity and constantly changing menu, what Sublimotion serves usually remains a guarded secret, but chef Roncero is known for experimental versions of classic Spanish dishes. Depending on the night, you may get foie gras or caviar, but there are also things like tacos made with high-end Spanish Iberian ham. Like many luxury restaurants, the plating is as much of a draw as the taste of the food, with desserts that look like abstract paintings drawn on the dishes. And Roncero's menu often leans heavily into the tradition of molecular gastronomy, so there are plenty of foams, powders, and purees covering the unique dishes.

But the food really is just part of what Sublimotion is trying to do. The restaurant itself describes the experience as a "gastronomic performance," essentially mixing haute cuisine with performance art. It takes 25 servers to create the experience for just those 12 diners and includes music from famous Spanish composers and DJs. Everything from the colors to the humidity in the room is changed to alter the mood of each dish. It certainly is a one-of-a-kind experience — whether it's worth $2,380 is up to you.