{"id":13487,"date":"2020-06-22T10:31:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T15:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.netcredit.com\/blog\/?p=13487"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T21:23:01","slug":"oldest-restaurant-in-every-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.netcredit.com\/blog\/oldest-restaurant-in-every-country\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oldest Restaurant In (Almost) Every Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good food is a cultural treasure that is handed down through generations.<\/p>\n

Many of the world\u2019s oldest businesses<\/a> are restaurants for the simple reason that delicious, familiar food never goes out of fashion. Everywhere in the world, we eat variations on centuries-old recipes embedded in the place we come from. Restaurant culture tells us who we are<\/a>, where we\u2019ve been, and where we are today.<\/p>\n

Online lender NetCredit\u2019s<\/a> new series of maps reveals the oldest eatery you\u2019ll find in nearly every country in the world. We searched websites, forums, and eating guides to identify the longest-running restaurant businesses that are still serving today. And we made sure to find out what their signature dish is \u2013 to give you a flavor of the national culture.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to view this map in full size <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no picnic keeping a restaurant in business across centuries of war, changing tastes, and economic turmoil<\/a>. Restaurateurs and the descendants or investors who follow them need the right combo of location, kitchen wizardry, insight, and luck. These are the 10 of the world\u2019s oldest restaurants still serving food today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year founded<\/strong><\/th>\nCountry\u00a0<\/strong><\/th>\nRestaurant<\/strong><\/th>\nSpeciality dish<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
803<\/td>\nAustria<\/td>\nSt. Peter Stifts Kulinarium<\/td>\nTafelspitz (boiled beef with minced apple and horseradish).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1146<\/td>\nGermany<\/td>\nWurtskuchl<\/td>\nCharcoal-grilled sausages and sauerkraut.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1147<\/td>\nWales<\/td>\nThe Old House<\/td>\nOld House Pie – Individually made pie served with chips & peas,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1153<\/td>\nChina<\/td>\nMa Yu Ching’s Bucket Chicken House<\/td>\nBucket of chicken.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1198<\/td>\nIreland<\/td>\nThe Brazen Head<\/td>\nBangers and Mash.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1273<\/td>\nPoland<\/td>\nPiwnica \u015awidnicka<\/td>\nPierogi (filled Polish dumplings).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1345<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\nLa Couronne<\/td>\nPressed duck, standing rib roast, and classic escargot.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1360<\/td>\nScotland<\/td>\nThe Sheep Heid Inn<\/td>\nPrime Steak with rustic chips, roasted mushroom, confit tomato and parsley butter.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1380<\/td>\nLiechtenstein<\/td>\nHotel Gasthof L\u00f6wen<\/td>\nSliced veal \u201cZurich style\u201d with R\u00f6sti and vegetables.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1465<\/td>\nJapan<\/td>\nHonke Owariya<\/td>\nSoba with shiitake mushrooms, shredded thin omelet, sesame seeds, shrimp tempura, wasabi, nori, Japanese leeks and grated daikon.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

North America\u2019s Oldest Eateries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A local pirate named William Mayes<\/a> established today\u2019s oldest restaurant in North America in 1673. The White Horse Tavern in Newport, RI., became a meeting place for the Colony\u2019s General Assembly and Criminal Court. Mayes\u2019 son followed his father into both the piracy business and the hospitality game. Their extended family ran the restaurant for over 200 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s Auberge Saint-Gabriel was the first tavern on the continent to receive a liquor license<\/a>, in 1754. \u201cIn the middle of Old Montreal sits this massive, extremely old building,\u201d writes one contemporary diner<\/a>. \u201cDark, stone walls, fireplace, Cornish hens cooking on a spit.\u201d The hen is the specialty, served with vin jaune<\/em> and cep sauce and wood fire grilled vegetables.<\/p>\n

\"North<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s Oldest Eateries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

St. Peter Stifts Kulinarium in Salzburg, Austria is Europe\u2019s (arguably, the world\u2019s) oldest restaurant. Its first trace is in a poem by Alcuin of York, in 803. It may also be the only restaurant to have served both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Clint Eastwood. The Stifts Kulinarium opened as an inn within St. Peter\u2019s Abbey and today offers \u2018upscale\u2019 cuisine amidst a celebration of Austrian tradition.<\/p>\n

Sobrino de Bot\u00edn in Madrid, Spain, claims to be Europe\u2019s longest continuously running<\/em> restaurant. French cook Jean Bot\u00edn opened the restaurant in 1725<\/a>, when restaurants were only permitted to prepare food the guests brought. Bot\u00edn\u2019s original wood oven is still in use today. The romantic painter Francisco Goya washed dishes here as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\"Europe<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Middle East & Central Asia\u2019s Oldest Eateries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A\u015f\u00e7\u0131 Bacaks\u0131z has passed along generations of the same Turkish family in Afyonkarahisar since 1840. You can expect to be greeted by a member of the family before sitting in a chair that is 100 years old or more. The lamb kebab<\/a> is famous in the region: it takes three days to prepare.<\/p>\n

Edmond Barakat opened a staff cafeteria for an automobile company in 1953, and it soon became a popular destination for the general public. The restaurant\u2019s name changed from \u201cAlghanim Mess\u201d (as in \u2018mess hall\u2019) to Mais Alghanim in 1987. Today, Barakat\u2019s children and grandchildren run Mais Alghanim as Kuwait\u2019s oldest restaurant. The umm ali<\/em><\/a> (sweet pastry) comes highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"Middle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

South America\u2019s Oldest Eateries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

La Puerta Falsa is situated in an old colonial house in Bogota. Just 20 diners can fit in the bar area and discreet wooden mezzanine. Colombia\u2019s longest-serving restaurant<\/a> opened in 1816 as a hole-in-the-wall to serve street food \u2013 such as its famous tamales – to passers-by.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s oldest is El Imparcial in Buenos Aires. It was named \u201cThe Impartial\u201d in the hope that nobody would spoil the atmosphere with talk about politics or religion. El Imparcial opened in 1860<\/a>, with signs promising \u201cBoiled chicken stew with carl\u00f3n wine.\u201d The restaurant thrives as a reliable local eating place, with paella that always satisfies.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s Oldest Eateries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The oldest restaurant we could identify in Africa is Tunisia\u2019s El M’Rabet. Ali Thabit – a minister for the bey of Tunis \u2013 founded it as part of Zaytouna Mosque around 1630. El M\u2019Rabet boasts \u2018sublime\u2019 views of the bustling, historic Jem\u00e2a Ezzitouna marketplace.<\/p>\n

A British colonist, Thomas Hartley, opened the Bathurst Inn<\/a> in South Africa in 1832. The Bathurst flourished thanks to the hospitality of Hartley\u2019s wife, Sarah, who took charge after her husband\u2019s death. A Royal Air Force unit homesick for their local UK pub later renamed it Pig & Whistle Inn. Today\u2019s menu of pies and roasts is inspired by traditional British pub food.<\/p>\n

\"Africa\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest of Asia & Oceania\u2019s Oldest Eateries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ma Yu Ching opened China\u2019s oldest business, a restaurant in Nanjing, China, in 1153. His descendent, Ma Youren, brought Ma\u2019s traditional sauce back to the family\u2019s ancestral home of Kaifeng in 1864, re-opening as Ma Yu Ching’s Bucket Chicken House.<\/p>\n

Honke Owariya opened as a confectionary shop in Kyoto, Japan, in 1465, and branched out into soba noodles from around 1700. Previously, only Zen monks produced noodles, but Owariya stepped in when the temples couldn\u2019t keep up with demand. The restaurant was later designated \u201cpurveyor of soba noodles to the Imperial Palace<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Asia\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everybody knows that the best food in the world is \u201cMama\u2019s cooking.\u201d But these long standing restaurants show that we are the sum of generations of mamas and papas in the kitchens of the world\u2019s meeting places. Familiar yet special, the food served by the oldest restaurants on Earth is nothing less than a map of our cultural past.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Methodology & Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

To create these maps, we searched for \u201coldest restaurant in [country].\u201d If no result could be found we searched for the capital city of that country. We also searched for other cities within the country to make sure we explored all avenues. If still nothing came up, we searched comments on TripAdvisor and other similar sites to find information from people talking about historic restaurants. If trustworthy information couldn’t be found, we marked the country \u201cno data\u201d.<\/p>\n

We also searched for the oldest cafe or bar, and used translated words in the relevant language for the country we were searching for. In some cases, we contacted the business owner to find out when they were founded to double check the information.<\/p>\n

To search for speciality dishes, we first looked to see if each restaurant listed any signature or speciality dishes on their website. If the restaurant did not list any, we searched for \u201c[restaurant] signature dish\u201d to see if we could find any new articles about the restaurant. If that didn\u2019t produce results, we searched comments on TripAdvisor to find the most popular dish.<\/p>\n

For the full list of sources behind this map visit: https:\/\/bit.ly\/WorldsOldestRestaurants<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good food is a cultural treasure that is handed down through generations. Many of the world\u2019s oldest businesses are restaurants …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[626],"tags":[669,6,670],"class_list":["post-13487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improving-finances","tag-around-the-world","tag-infographic-2","tag-restaurants"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","pp_post_mime_type":"publish","yoast_head":"\nThe Oldest Restaurant In (Almost) Every Country - NetCredit Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many of the world\u2019s oldest businesses are restaurants for the simple reason that delicious, familiar food never goes out of fashion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.netcredit.com\/blog\/oldest-restaurant-in-every-country\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Oldest Restaurant In (Almost) Every Country - 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