There are many ways to measure the value of a restaurant. One, of course, is simply to eat there, and decide what you think – but in these gleamingly modern days of the 21st century, trusting the evidence of your own tastebuds is very old-fashioned.

So you can, instead, gauge the piping-hot temperature of opinion by checking what the social-media universe thinks of a particular establishment ("TOO TRENDY"; "NOT TRENDY ENOUGH"; "MORE NAPKINS NEEDED!"; "I LIKED THE GRAVY!!"). Or you can be high-minded and chew on the considered advice of the Michelin Guide – which, last month, awarded a wealth of fresh stars to the culinary scene in California.

Or you could also – if the haute-cuisine, white-linen sophistication of Michelin and its inspectors is too genteel for your liking – go for the gets-to-the-point ranking system that is The World's 50 Best Restaurants. This accurately-named awards fandango (theworlds50best.com) publishes its latest ranking every summer – and has just unveiled its crucial countdown for 2019. Knives, forks, spoons and plates at the ready.

And passports at the ready too. The joy of The World's 50 Best Restaurants is that it casts its edible confetti fairly equally across the planet. Unusually, Australasia (where Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, in particular, have highly developed dining scenes) is missing from 2019's hallowed half-century – but otherwise, five continents are represented. North America sits at the top table via restaurants in (unsurprisingly) New York, San Francisco and Chicago, Asia has Tokyo and Shanghai in its corner, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Santiago and Lima are present and correct for South America, and Cape Town completes this sentence's mixed metaphor by coming out to bat for Africa.

But it is Europe which dominates the list – providing temples of fabulous food in Spain, France, Denmark, Russia, Austria, Sweden, the UK, Germany and Portugal. 

A good enough reason for a long weekend away? Absolutely. Telegraph Travel has boiled the list down (or, this being a piece pinned to uber-gastronomy, lightly poached it, before dousing it in truffle oil) to create a ranking of Europe's top five foodie cities. The methodology? Overall number of restaurants included in the list as the first factor, then by highest-ranked establishment if there's a tie. Who says numbers can't be tasty? 

And if all those rich (and expensive) flavours are too rich for you, we've also suggested a restaurant that won't cost as much as its World's 50 Best "rival". Bon appetit...

1. Paris

Number of restaurants featured: Four

Highest ranked: Arpège (alain-passard.com) (8)

It should be no surprise to find the French capital at the top of this particular gourmet tree. If ever there were a city which believes itself to be the king of all things culinary, it is Paris (even though Lyon, in France alone, has a superior food scene). And who is the World's 50 Best Restaurants list to dissuade it of this notion? Arpège, which sits close to the Musée Rodin in the Seventh Arondissement, is no stranger to polls of this type – it boasts three Michelin stars under the gaze of chef Alain Passard. Signature menu treats include a langoustine carpaccio with caviar, and lamb served with pigeon.

"Cheaper" alternative: L'Ami Jean (lamijean.fr/en), a haven of Basque-French cuisine, helmed by chef Stéphane Jégo, which defies the rule about restaurants in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower being tourist clichés by having a Michelin star of its own.

Weekend away: A three-night stay at the four-star Hotel Bourgogne & Montana – in the Seventh, and on the Left Bank - costs from £768 per person, including flights, breakfast and transfers, through Kirker Holidays (020 7593 1899; kirkerholidays.com).

2. Copenhagen

Number of restaurants featured: Two

Highest ranked: Noma (noma.dk) (2)

The last decade has seen the Danish capital build an unimpeachable reputation as a place of high-quality food – and Noma has been an essential part of this rise to the fore; a mould-breaker selling a brave world of "New Nordic" cuisine. Chef René Redzepi continues to be a pioneer, drafting menus based on small dishes and seasonal ingredients, even though his restaurant has upped sticks from its original location in Copenhagen's Christianshavn district to a less central address on Refshalevej island.

"Cheaper" alternative: BOB (Biomio Organic Bistro; bobbistro.dk) – which, as its name suggests, keeps things organic in Copenhagen's trendy former meat-packing district Vesterbro. For added urban cool, it sits under the neon sign of the city's old BOSCH building, and serves an excellent Danish veal in red wine for 195 krone (£23).

Weekend away: Three nights at the five-star 71 Nyhavn Hotel (in, inevitably, the waterfront Nyhavn part of Copenhagen), flying from Stansted on July 25, costs from £507 per person, including breakfast, with Expedia (020 3684 2907; expedia.co.uk). 

3. Barcelona

Number of restaurants featured: Two

Highest ranked: Disfrutar (disfrutarbarcelona.com) (9)

The battle for perceived cultural superiority between Madrid and Barcelona will still be raging long after the end of the world – and Catalonia's capital strikes a blow by claiming two entries in the 2019 World's 50 Best Restaurants list (to the actual Spanish capital's none). Of these, Disfrutar is perhaps the most idiosyncratic. The joint effort of a triumvirate of chefs – Eduard Xatruch, Oriol Castro, Mateu Casañas, all of whom once laboured at the Catalan gastronomic icon El Bulli – it revels in a menu which the latest "50 Best" guide calls "hyperactive and avant-garde". This translates into dishes like pesto with smoked eel, and hare bonbon.

"Cheaper" alternative: Els Quatre Gats (4gats.com/en), a Catalan classic on Carrer de Montsió which brings the region's food down to a simpler style. It is known particularly for its rice dishes – its gloopy Mediterranean lobster rice is doled out at €65 per person. The restaurant featured in the 2008 movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Weekend away: A three-night stay at the four-star Barcelona Universal hotel (which has a rooftop pool above Las Ramblas), flying from Gatwick on July 18, costs from £523 per person through British Airways Holidays (0344 493 0787; ba.com/holidays).

4. Moscow

Number of restaurants featured: Two

Highest ranked: White Rabbit (whiterabbitmoscow.ru) (13)

Moscow's occasionally austere, drab image is somewhat undermined by its making two shining contributions to the World's 50 Best Restaurants countdown (whereas every traveller's favourite Russian city, St Petersburg, is notable by its absence). White Rabbit sits west of the centre, on Smolenskaya Square, in rapidly gentrifying Arbat – and maintains the idea that it is part of a 21st century Russia in a menu guided by the country's most feted chef, Vladimir Mukhin. Swan liver pâté with torched marshmallow? Step this way, sir.

"Cheaper" alternative: Quadrum, which pairs Italian dishes with fine French wines in the Four Seasons hotel (fourseasons.com/moscow), but comes with views towards Red Square and the Kremlin to guarantee that your dinner is always rooted in Moscow.

Weekend away: Russia specialist Steppes Travel (01285 601 771; steppestravel.com) can arrange a five-night break at the Four Seasons hotel from £1,975 per person, including flights from London, private guide, transfers, and visa-application assistance.

5. London

Number of restaurants featured: Two

Highest ranked: The Clove Club (thecloveclub.com) (27)

A city of London's size, wealth and taste should really expect to pop up somewhere on a list of the planet's 50 top restaurants. And so it proves in 2019, with The Clove Club (louchely) waving a flag for hipster Shoreditch. "The Clove Club's interpretation of 'modern British' is refreshing and full of surprises," notes the "50 Best" guide, praising chef Isaac McHale for delights such as his signature raw Orkney scallop with truffles.

"Cheaper" alternative: Luca (luca.restaurant), McHale's (relatively) more down-to-earth eatery in (vaguely less trendy) Clerkenwell – where you can order a "Tamworth pork chop with smoked apricot, bobby beans and green almonds" for a "mere" £32.  

Weekend away: You can't stay at the refurbished Shoreditch Town Hall – in which The Clove Club sits. But you can slumber just down the road, amid the Edwardian grandeur and 1910 stylings of the former Bethnal Green Town Hall, which lives on as the Town Hall Hotel (020 7871 0460; townhallhotel.com). Double rooms from £162.