A Dominican restaurant is now on the same list as some of the world's most celebrated kitchens. Aguají by Chef Tita, the Santo Domingo project of chef Inés Páez Nin, picked up the Tres Fuegos distinction — the top tier of Los Fuegos 2026 — at the first Fine Dining Table International Gala, hosted at the National Palace of El Salvador.

The award matters because of the company it keeps. Tres Fuegos went to only a handful of restaurants, and Aguají now sits alongside Central and Maido in Peru (both have been named the world's best restaurant), Boragó in Chile, Don Julio in Argentina and Leo in Colombia. It was the only Dominican establishment to reach that category.

The gala closed out Fine Dining Week El Salvador 2026, which recognised 508 restaurants and gastronomic experiences from 16 countries across Latin America, Spain and the United States. Judges assess far more than the plate: cuisine, hospitality, service, design, identity, ambience, consistency and the emotional pull of the whole experience all count towards the score.

Chef Tita didn't just take home a restaurant award. She also received a personal honour for more than two decades of championing Dominican gastronomy — digging up ancestral recipes, cooking with local ingredients and keeping the country's culinary traditions alive. Through Aguají and her IMA Foundation, she connects high-end cooking with farmers, fishermen, artisans and rural communities, using food as an engine for economic opportunity. "We continue to pave the way for Dominican Republic gastronomy, and that fills me with great pride," she said after the ceremony.

So what does this mean for travellers? Dominican food has long lived in the shadow of its Caribbean neighbours, known mostly for beach fare and hearty classics like sancocho and mofongo. Aguají's recognition puts the country firmly on the fine-dining map, and it's a genuine reason to build a food-focused stop into a Dominican Republic trip. If restaurants of this calibre are being evaluated on identity and emotion as much as technique, you're getting something you can't find elsewhere: Dominican ingredients and history, plated with serious ambition.

For anyone who plans holidays around restaurant reservations — the kind of traveller who books Central or Don Julio months ahead — Aguají is now a name to add to the list. And the award is also a nudge to explore the wider Dominican food scene beyond one restaurant, from coastal seafood shacks to the country's cacao, coffee and rum producers.

A little patience may be required: with this level of international recognition, tables at Aguají are likely to get harder to book. Worth planning ahead.

Story via Dominican Today.