# The best TV series set in kitchens and restaurants

Fiction only, no cooking contests: from The Bear and Boiling Point to Kitchen Confidential and Midnight Diner, the restaurant series picked by Yardbarker and LBB.

- 129 votes · 14 items
- Mar 20, 2026 · showrunner_atlanta
- https://even.best/en/l/4312/the-best-tv-series-set-in-kitchens-and-restaurants

## Top 12

1. **Boiling Point (2023)** (14 · ▲15 ▼1) — The BBC series following the one-take film: a London kitchen on the edge.
2. **Julia (2022)** (9 · ▲10 ▼1) — Julia Child and the making of her TV cooking show.
3. **The Bear (2022)** (8 · ▲12 ▼4) — A fine-dining chef takes over his late brother's Chicago sandwich shop.
4. **Kitchen Confidential (2005)** (8 · ▲11 ▼3) — Bradley Cooper as a chef in the Fox series based on Anthony Bourdain's memoir.
5. **Gentefied (2020)** (8 · ▲9 ▼1) — Cousins try to save their grandfather's taco shop in Boyle Heights.
6. **Sweetbitter (2018)** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — A newcomer learns the ropes at an upscale New York restaurant.
7. **Midnight Diner (Shinya Shokudō, 2009)** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — A Tokyo diner open from midnight to 7 a.m. and the stories of its regulars.
8. **Samurai Gourmet (2017)** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — A newly retired man discovers the joys of eating out.
9. **Whites (2010)** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — BBC comedy: Alan Davies as a head chef who has lost interest in cooking.
10. **Bob's Burgers (2011)** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — The Belcher family and their struggling burger joint.
11. **Pushing Daisies (2007)** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — A pie maker who can bring the dead back to life with a touch.
12. **Party Down (2009)** (2 · ▲5 ▼3) — Failed actors working for an L.A. catering company.
13. **The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023)** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — Hirokazu Kore-eda: a teenage cook for the maiko of Kyoto.
14. **2 Broke Girls (2011)** (0 · ▲4 ▼4) — Two waitresses at a Brooklyn diner dream of opening a cupcake shop.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.