The list of the best 50 restaurants in the world has been released this month, here, unsurprising is noma 1st and El Celler de Can Roca 2nd. the fat duck, 1st for many years, has dropped to 47th.
1) Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark: This two Michelin star restaurant is run by chef René Redzepi. The restaurant has aimed to reinvent Nordic cuisine and serves dishes such as sea urchin toast and beef tartar with live ants.
2) El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain: The family-run, three Michelin star restaurant is managed by brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca and serves traditional Catalan dishes with ‘creative’ twists. It is known for its unusual presentation of dishes, such as caramelised olives served on a bonsai tree.
3) Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy: Massimo Bottura runs this three Michelin star restaurant in Modena. The restaurant’s menu has a lyrical twist, advertising dishes like An Eel Swimming Up The Po River, Snails Under The Earth, All The Tongues Of The World, and A Potato Waiting To Become A Truffle.
4) Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA: This restaurant is run by co-owners Daniel Humm and Will Guidara, and offers a tasting menu. The maitre d’ of the famous restaurant, Justin Roller, revealed to New York magazine earlier this month that he spends hours looking up the restaurant’s patrons on the Internet before they arrive so he can tailor their experience to their needs.
5) Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London, UK: Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal opened this restaurant in 2011 and it received its first Michelin star within a year. It features traditional British dishes dating back to the 1300’s, including Meat Fruit and Rice & Flesh.
6) Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain: This two-Michelin star restaurant was established in 1998 and is under the management of chef Andoni Luis Aduriz.
7) D.O.M, Sao Paulo, Brazil: D.O.M. won the award for best restaurant in South America. The Brazilian restaurant is run by chef Alex Atala and incorporates native ingredients such as Tucupi juice, the jambu herb and pirarucu into its four or eight dish degustation menu.
8) Arzak, San Sebastian, Spain: The three Michelin star restaurant is run by Juan Mari Arzak. The restaurant is family-run, with kitchen duties shared between Juan and his daughter Elena and serves Basque cuisine .
9) Alinea, Chicago, USA: Alinea opened in 2005 and has three Michelin stars. It serves patrons a 25-course degustation, including dishes such as sweet potato bourbon with brown sugar and smouldering cinnamon, and its signature dish, the black-truffle explosion.
The Ledbury in Notting Hill was ranked the tenth best restaurant in the world
10) The Ledbury, London, UK: Australian Brett Graham is the head chef of this two Michelin starred restaurant, which opened in 2005. It features dishes such as buffalo milk curd with truffle toast and a broth of grilled onions.
11) Mirazur, Menton, France: This two Michelin star restaurant operates under head chef Mauro Colagreco, from Argentina. Colagreco took over as head chef in 2006.
12) Vendôme, Bergisch Gladbach, Vendôme, Germany: Run by head chef Joachim Wissler. The restaurant features ‘New German Cuisine’, and is known for its exquisite presentation of dishes.
13) Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand: Nahm was voted best restaurant in Asia and is run by Australian chef David Thompson. Opened four years ago, the restaurant serves dishes that draw on ancient Thai cookbooks for inspiration.
14) Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan: Narisawa opened in 2003 under head chef Yoshihiro Narisawa. The restaurant serves a 10-course tasting dish ‘designed to express the flow of the changing seasons’, which it encourages patrons to enjoy ‘with an open mind’.
15) Central, Lima, Peru: Central Restaurante is run by Peruvian chef Virgilio Martínez Véliz and is known for providing a contemporary twist on traditional Peruvian cuisine and for using relatively unknown Peruvian ingredients, such as arracacha, a root vegetable, and arapaima, a freshwater fish from the Amazon River.
16) Steirereck, Vienna, Austria: Steirereck is located in Stadtpark, a park in the middle of Vienna. Featuring traditional Viennese and international cuisine, the restaurant is housed in a revitalised dairy farmhouse and features a terrace and river-side garden.
17) Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand: Chef Gaggan Anand brings Indian cuisine to downtown Bangkok at Gaggan. The restaurant serves a surprise 10-course tasting menu to patrons, with dishes including Norwegian diver scallops baked with Malabar curry.
18) Astrid y Gastón, Lima, Peru: Chef Gastón Acurio serves a tasting menu based on the five different landscapes of Peru: The Pacific Ocean, The Desert, The Andes, The High Plain and The Amazon. The restaurant, which is named for the chef and his wife, moved to a new location earlier this year, to a centre which has an event space, botanic garden and research facility, as well as a restaurant.
19) Fäviken, Järpen, Sweden: Fäviken is one of the world’s most isolated restaurants and serves rustic Scandinavian cuisine. Head chef Magnus Nilsson often hunts and forages for ingredients from the 20,000-acred hunting estate on which the restaurant sits.
Amber in Hong Kong features a striking chandelier made of more than 400 bronze rods
20) Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico: Pujol is run by Mexico’s most famous chef, Enrique Olvera, and serves modern Mexican cuisine. Ingredients include frogs’ legs, 20-day-old banana, and dried insects, such as those used in the grasshopper salsa that accompanies the hidden egg in inflated tortilla.
21) Le Bernardin, New York, USA: Le Bernardin is a three Michelin star French seafood restaurant. It was started in Paris in 1972 and moved to New York in 1986, the current head chef is Eric Ripert, who took over in 1994. Signature dishes include sustainably-raised Bluefin tuna and Kobe beef.
22) Vila Joya, Albufeira, Portugal: Vila Joya is a two Michelin star restaurant, which is part of a luxury spa and beach resort in Portugal. The head chef Dieter Koschina is originally from Austria and worked there before settling in Portugal more than twenty years ago. The fusion of Portuguese and northern European cooking techniques create innovative dishes.
23) Restaurant Frantzén, Stockholm, Sweden: Frantzén dropped from 12th position on last year’s list to 23rd this year. The restaurant strives to provide modern Scandinavian cuisine, often belding Swedish ingredients with Asian flavours. The restaurant serves small ‘prologue’ bites, such as confit of pig’s head on pork skin, and blood and liver pancake with cherries and violet.
24) Amber, Hong Kong, China: This two Michelin star restaurant opened in 2005 and is headed up by Dutch chef Richard Ekkebus. Amber serves French cuisine with Hong Kong influences. The striking dining room was designed by Adam Tihany, and features a chandelier made up of more than 4,000 bronze rods.
25) L’Arpège, Paris, France: A large amount of food served at Alain Passard’s landmark restaurant is grown in a 2.5 hectare garden outside the city. Passard is so committed to fresh local produce that a decade ago he removed red meat from the menu, though it has since been reinstated in small amounts.
26) Azurmendi, Larrabetzu, Spain: Azurmendi is remarkable for its eco-friendly design, with solar capture, geothermal heating, an internal greenhouse and rainwater harvesting. Chef Eneko Atxa has worked with the local university to develop new cooking methods, such as using ultrasound to alter the texture of ingredients. These methods create some remarkable dishes such as truffled egg ‘cooked inside out’, which involves placing a hot truffle stock into the yolk so that the remaining egg cooks from the inside.
27) Le Chateaubriand, Paris, France: Le Chateaubriand is headed up by self-trained chef Inaki Aizpitarte. The décor and menu are unpretentious and the dishes change each day depending on ingredients available at the market.
28) Aqua, Wolfsburg, Germany: Aqua is headed up by former pastry chef Sven Elverfeld, who plates up modern takes on traditional German peasant food. Dishes include jellied veal tail with sour cream and caviar, and the restaurant is famous for its exquisite desserts.
29) De Libreije, Zwolle, Netherlands: Chef Jonnie Boer serves up French cuisine with Dutch influences at De Librije, which is housed in a 15th century Dominican abbey. The dishes are bold and unusual, as is the dining experience. For instance, diners can be served a dish of basil mayonnaise, tartare of beef and cream of oyster, directly onto their hands.
30) Per Se, New York, USA : American-French restaurant Per Se, opened in 2004. It offers a nine-course tasting menu for $US310 and has been awarded three Michelin stars.
31) L’Atelier Saint-Germain de Joël Robuchon, Paris, France: L’Atelier Saint-Germain de Joël Robuchon is the Parisian installation of the French chef’s restaurant empire, with versions in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. The restaurant features sushi bar-type seating and patrons are served small dishes, such as foie gras burger and gyoza chicken dumplings with aromatic her and flower-scented broth.
Attica in Melbourne was the only Australian restaurant to make the top 50
32) Attica, Melbourne, Australia: Attica, which is run by New Zealand chef Ben Shewry, is the top-ranked restaurant in Australia and slipped to 32nd place, after receiving the highest-ever debut ranking last year, coming 21st. Attica serves an eight-course tasting menu with creatively-titled dishes such as: Snow Crab And Sour Leaves, Ten Flavours Of St Joseph’s Wort, and Red Kangaroo With Herbs Tended By The Hands Of Our Cooks.
33) Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo, Japan: Chef Seiji Yamamoto is passionate about traditional Japanese cooking techniques and the restaurant features a daily-updated menu of small Japanese dishes, including a candied fruit dessert, which is frozen to minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit using liquid nitrogen and then filled with a hot liquid version of the same fruit. The restaurant also asks guests not to wear strong perfumes or to use their mobile phones at the table, so as not to compromise the dining experience.
34) Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain: Asador Etxebarri is tucked into the foothills of Mt. Anboto and serves rustic, wood-fired Spanish cuisine. The restaurant, under chef Victor Arguinzoniz, uses specially-designed grill-cookers, which are only fed with certain types of firewood to enhance flavour. The menu is dependent on seasonal produce, but a meal generally consists of a series of tiny dishes, followed by a large slab of steak on the bone, before a succession of light desserts are served.
35) Martin Beragategui, San Sebastian, Spain: Martín Berasategui in San Sebastian, is the eponymously titled restaurant for the Basque-born French-trained chef. The tasting menu plated up by the team includes modern Spanish dishes such as a mille-feuille of smoked eel, foie gras, spring onions and green apple.
36) Mani, Sao Paolo, Brazil: Husband and wife team Helena Rizzo and Daniel Redondo opened Mani in 2006 after meeting while working at second-place-holder El Celler de Can Roca. The couple use local ingredients using modern techniques, with reference to Brazilian flavour combinations. Rizzo was also named the Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef.
37) Restaurant Andre, Singapore: Chef André Chiang is guided by ‘Octaphilosophy’, a term he has trademarked, which describes the eight guiding characteristics of his cooking – Unique, Pure, Texture, Memory, Salt, South, Artisan, and Terroir. Each dish uses only a handful of ingredients, and Chiang champions the use of food from local producers, served in unfamiliar textures and flavour combinations.
38) L’Astrance, Paris, France: Pascal Barbot’s three Michelin star restaurant, has no menu. Upon arrival guests simply declare dietary requirements as well as how many courses they would like and the chefs do the rest. The menu is influenced by Barbot’s time cooking in the South Pacific, and so employs flavours such as lemongrass, coriander, jasmine, soy sauce, and ginger, and uses minimal cream and butter.
39) Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy: The three Michelin star restaurant from Enrico Cippa started in 2005. The restaurant features simple seasonal dishes and is located in the heart of truffle country with an entire menu devoted to truffles.
40) Daniel, New York, USA: Daniel Boulud has cafes and restaurants around the world, but his eponymous New York restaurant is an institution. It was opened in 1993 and features French cuisine with an American flavour. It is now managed by executive3 chef Jean Francois Bruel.
41) Quique Dacosta, Denia, Spain: Quique Dacosta’s restaurant serves up modern Spanish cuisine served in elaborate and intricate ways. One dish consists of a single rose, with a painstakingly-constructed pickled apple centre, or a black truffle mocha cake, stuffed with a creamy cheese filling and dusted with black truffles.
42) Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark: The Geranium is located on the eighth floor of Denmark’s soccer stadium and features light dishes that incorporate natural materials such as wood and stone. Its head chef in Rasmus Koefed and it has two Michelin stars.
43) Schloss Schauenstein, Furstenau, Switzerland: Schloss Schauenstein is located in an 18thh century castle in the Swiss Alps where chef Andreas Caminada plates up creative modern French cuisine. It has been awarded three Michelin stars.
44) The French Laundry, Yountville, USA: The French Laundry is the second Thomas Keller restaurant to make the Top 50 list this year, following the success of Per Se. It features high-quality local ingredients, as well as produce from its own garden, with classics such as salmon cornets, sweet butter-poached Maine lobster, and coffee and doughnuts.
45) Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoutem, Belgium: Chef Peter Goossens is a champion of Belgian cuisine and is housed in a farmhouse on the fields of Flanders. The menu features Belgian beer, smoked eel and witlof (chicory), wile still incorporating international flavours and ingredients.
46) Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy: Le Calandre, run by Massimiliano Alajmo, is a family business with Massimiliano’s brother Raffaele overseeing the dining room. The restaurant features modern Italian cooking, with suckling pig and saffron risotto, the restaurant’s signature dishes.
47) The Fat Duck, Bray, UK: The Fat Duck is one of Heston Blumenthal’s restaurants, which features a tasting menu made of dishes including snail porridge, jelly of quail with crayfish cream, oak moss and truffle toast, and a dish called Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, which includes mock turtle soup.
48) The Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa: The Test Kitchen opened in 2010 and is directed by British chef Luke Dale-Roberts, who was trained in Europe and Asia. The meals are presented in theatrical ways, for instance the TK Concrete Ball, sees Mozambican langoustine cooked inside a concrete ball at the table over burning star anise before being served up to the diner.
49) Coi, San Francisco, USA: Chef Daniel Patterson brings together contemporary cooking methods with local produce, such as Dungeness crab and beef tendon soup, with finger lime, Asian pear and cilantro.
50) Waku Ghin, Singapore: Waku Ghin is the new venture from Tetsuya Wakuda, whose Sydney restaurant Tetsuya’s was an institution in the country, and made regular appearances on this list, before he moved to Singapore to create a restaurant with a more intimate dining experience.
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