One of them is in Italy: curious to find out where? From duck neck to sheep’s heart, offal has never been so gourmet! Here are all the places where you can enjoy it at its best.
On the cover: Camille and La Tasqueria
From Camille in London to Bangkok, via Madrid, New York, São Paulo, and Milan, these restaurants have transformed offal and so-called “lesser” cuts into signature dishes, proving that in nose-to-tail cuisine, even the most challenging parts can take center stage. “It would be dishonest toward the animal not to use every part of it”. Indeed, 50 Best itself recalls the words of Fergus Henderson, when he wrote in 1999 what would become the guiding principle of nose-to-tail cuisine—an approach that calls for using the entire animal, minimizing waste. But the tradition of offal dates back much further than the definition the movement has taken on in the English-speaking world. In Japan, there is “horumon,” which since the 1950s has brought a wide variety of cuts and grilled offal to the small eateries of the yokocho. In France, on the other hand, brains, sweetbreads, and other offal have long been a natural part of traditional bistro cuisine. And so, alongside the great masters of contemporary cuisine, restaurants have emerged that have chosen precisely the less conventional parts of the animal as their field of exploration.
Camille, London
In London, Camille effectively carries on the legacy of St. John, Fergus Henderson’s restaurant, where chef Elliot Hashtroudi also worked. His current restaurant has a French flair, but the nose-to-tail philosophy is evident in the use of pig’s trotters to enrich the sauces and, above all, in the seven or eight offal dishes that change with the seasons.
Among these, fried veal brains have become one of the restaurant’s signature dishes: a soft, creamy texture encased in a thin, crispy breading, served with a Café de Paris sauce made with butter and herbs, a curry sauce, and a small salted anchovy. The menu also features beef udder and rooster combs, while the duck neck sausage is stuffed with Tamworth pork and duck offal.
100 Mahaseth, Bangkok
At 100 Mahaseth, chef Chalee Kader brings the traditions of Isan—a region in northeastern Thailand where the practice of using every part of the animal stems from the need to avoid wasting resources—to contemporary Bangkok.
Here, duck hearts are marinated in fish sauce and grilled, then served with a Thai chimichurri. The menu also features larb enriched with offal, crispy intestines, dry-aged beef tongue, blood rice, tripe chips, pig’s ear salad, and grilled bone marrow seasoned with perilla seeds, lime, fish sauce, green chili, and lemongrass.
Cordero, Caracas
At Cordero di Caracas, the nose-to-tail philosophy focuses entirely on lamb. Chef Issam Koteich, of Syrian descent, uses animals from the partner farm Proyecto Ubre and builds the menu around every part of the carcass: bones, tongue, neck, and offal are served alongside more common cuts like the shoulder.
Among the most signature dishes is a trio of heart, kidney, and liver, served with sheep’s milk yogurt and tahini, along with crispy pork rind. This is followed by fried lamb brain with lime gel and Venezuelan sweet pepper, and lamb tongue with tuna sauce, capers, pita, annatto oil, and grapefruit.
La Tasqueria, Madrid
In Madrid, La Tasqueria has made casquería—offal—its mission. Chef Javi Estévez focuses primarily on rediscovering ingredients that are part of Madrid’s culinary tradition but are in danger of being forgotten.
One of his signature dishes features suckling pig heads, confit until they’re crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, then separated into cheeks, tongue, brain, eyes, and snout. The snout also appears in other dishes, such as a taco with pickles and anchovy butter. The menu also features beef testicle and Comté tartlets, rabbit kidneys Stroganoff-style, veal tendons with egg yolk and Iberian ham, and braised venison tongue with yucca and mushrooms.
Ha’s Snack Bar, New York
On New York’s Lower East Side, Ha’s Snack Bar blends French techniques with Vietnamese ingredients. The small eatery owned by Sadie Mae Burns and Anthony Ha regularly features offal, prepared with a bright, herb-forward, and often very bold culinary style.
The menu features a pork trotter terrine, duck hearts with sweet chili, a blood sausage tartlet with kumquat, and veal brains served with soft scrambled eggs and Maggi seasoning. Among the most ambitious dishes is a lobster and sweetbread vol-au-vent, where seafood and offal come together in a single dish.
At Casa do Porco, São Paulo
At A Casa do Porco in São Paulo, Jefferson Rueda takes the “nose-to-tail” principle to the extreme, using every part of the pigs raised on his own farm.
The restaurant, ranked 25th on the 2025 Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list, alternates between contemporary dishes such as pork cheek sushi, glazed with an Amazonian sauce made from fermented cassava, and pork loin seasoned with anchovies and fermented mustard. The meal culminates in the Porco Sanzé, a whole pig slow-cooked for six hours. But you don’t necessarily have to choose a tasting menu here: the restaurant is also famous for its simple pork sandwich served from the takeout window.
Manári Taverna, Athens
In Athens, Manári Taverna embodies the new wave of “neo-taverns” through a cuisine strongly focused on making full use of the meat. In addition to linguine in smoked meat broth and lamb chops with rich, fatty edges, the menu features crispy kokoretsi—offal skewered and wrapped in intestine.
Among the most interesting dishes are also lamb kidneys with a pink center served on sourdough bread and thin slices of beef liver immersed in a fragrant tomato consommé.
Trattoria Trippa, Milan
Italy also has a place on this international map, and it’s in Milan. At Diego Rossi’s Trattoria Trippa, tripe is naturally a staple and is transformed into a surprisingly light dish: cooked until tender and then fried, it takes on an almost impalpable texture, similar to that of tempura.
The menu also offers options for those who prefer to steer clear of the more extreme offal dishes, but Rossi continues to encourage customers to explore this aspect of the cuisine. Over the years, the menu has featured grilled bone marrow, pig’s ear salad, lampredotto with salsa verde, and—among the most unusual offerings—rabbit tongue with garlic sprouts.
Because the true luxury, when it comes to nose-to-tail dining, doesn’t seem to lie in choosing the most prized cut. It lies in finding a reason to savor even those parts that, until recently, were far more likely to be forgotten.
