Best restaurant in the word

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The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is a list produced by the UK company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine Restaurant in 2002. The list and awards are no longer directly related to Restaurant, though they are owned by the same media company.^[1][2]

In addition to the main 1–50 ranking, the organisation awards a series of special prizes for individuals and restaurants, including the One To Watch Award, the Icon Award, the Best Female Chef Award ^[3] and the Chefs’ Choice Award, the latter based on votes from the fifty head chefs from the restaurants on the previous year’s list. In specific regions the organisation also pre-announces a 51–100 list, showcasing more venues in the area.^[4] Often working as a barometer of global gastronomic trends, the list showcases a variety of cuisines from all over the world.^[5]

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has earned its legitimacy as providing guidance to aspiring gourmets, inspiring diners to travel and explore restaurants and bars, unveiling up-and-coming chefs and culinary trends, and showcasing various cuisines from around the world.^[6]

History[edit]

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list first appeared as a feature in the British magazine Restaurant in 2002. Shortly afterwards, an awards night was established to celebrate the release of the list that soon became a major event in the culinary world.^[7] The results are now published via the World’s 50 Best Restaurants social media channels and on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants website on the awards night.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list is the result of a poll of over 1,000 independent experts, who each cast votes for establishments where they have enjoyed their best restaurant experiences. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy is gender-balanced and contains 27 regions around the world. Each region has a chairperson (Academy Chair), and that chairperson assembles 40 people (including themselves) to vote. This panel is an equal mix of leading chefs and restaurateurs in that region, food journalists and critics, and well-travelled gourmets. Under usual circumstances, at least 25% of the panellists from each region change each year.^[8][9]

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ voting process and results are subject to independent adjudication by Deloitte.

There are no criteria for voting, what is ‘best’ is left up to each voter to decide – as everyone’s tastes are different, so everyone’s idea of what constitutes a great restaurant experience is different. The organisation allows the 1,080 expert voters to make up their own minds, and simply collates their votes to create the list.^[7]

Since 2013, William Reed has also published regional restaurant lists Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, and launched Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants in February 2022.^[2]

A rule introduced in 2019 disqualifies previous winners from competing. Noma qualified again in 2021 because it closed in 2016 and reopened in a new location and concept.^[10]

Best restaurants[edit]

World’s Best Restaurants

Year	1st	2nd	3rd
2002	elBulli	Gordon Ramsay	The French Laundry
2003	The French Laundry	elBulli	Le Louis XV
2004	The French Laundry	The Fat Duck	elBulli
2005	The Fat Duck	elBulli	The French Laundry
2006	elBulli	The Fat Duck	Pierre Gagnaire
2007	elBulli	The Fat Duck	Pierre Gagnaire
2008	elBulli	The Fat Duck	Pierre Gagnaire
2009	elBulli	The Fat Duck	Noma
2010	Noma	elBulli	The Fat Duck
2011	Noma	El Celler de Can Roca	Mugaritz
2012	Noma	El Celler de Can Roca	Mugaritz
2013	El Celler de Can Roca	Noma	Osteria Francescana
2014	Noma	El Celler de Can Roca	Osteria Francescana
2015	El Celler de Can Roca	Osteria Francescana	Noma
2016	Osteria Francescana	El Celler de Can Roca	Eleven Madison Park
2017	Eleven Madison Park	Osteria Francescana	El Celler de Can Roca
2018	Osteria Francescana	El Celler de Can Roca	Mirazur
2019	Mirazur	Noma	Asador Etxebarri
2021	Noma	Geranium	Asador Etxebarri
2022	Geranium	Central Restaurante	Disfrutar

Best of the Best[edit]

As of 11 August 2022^[11]

In 2019, the Best of the Best category was created, a hall of fame for restaurants that have reached the pinnacle of the No.1 position in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. With the creation of this list, No.1 winners are no longer eligible to be voted on new editions of the list.

The new iteration of Noma was eligible for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 list due to three key changes from the original restaurant: its location, concept and ownership. As such, it was considered a new restaurant and eligible for the No.1 position in 2021. The previous version of Noma topped the 50 Best list on four occasions, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

The following restaurants have been named No.1 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants since the list’s inception and were therefore no longer eligible for voting:

• El Bulli (2002, 2006–2009)
• The French Laundry (2003–2004)
• The Fat Duck (2005)
• Noma (2010–2012, 2014, 2021)
• El Celler de Can Roca (2013, 2015)
• Osteria Francescana (2016, 2018)
• Eleven Madison Park (2017)
• Mirazur (2019)

See also[edit]

• The World’s 50 Best Bars
• William Reed Ltd
• List of Michelin 3-star restaurants
• Lists of restaurants
• La Liste

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website

Each year, fine diners, restaurateurs and food writers—I’m in the last group—try to read the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurant list like tea leaves, searching for trends, or at the very least, a coherent theme. But as in previous years, the 2014 edition, which was announced in London late last month, defies unifying logic. The restaurants that made the full list of 100 range from David Chang’s decidedly informal and unsedate Momofuku Ssam Bar, to Alain Ducasse’s paragon of plushness, Louis XIV, in Monaco. That said, in the past several years, the highest-ranking positions have tended to go to restaurants that balance at least a degree of luxury (although not always formal, none of them are cheap) with an embrace of innovation.

Such is the influence of the 50 Best that once a restaurant reaches the upper echelons of the list, its already sparse reservations become exceedingly difficult to come by. Several of the top places only allow bookings well in advance (for Noma it’s 3 months; for Eleven Madison it’s 28 days), and reservations disappear within minutes, so it helps to be online or on the phone as soon as they’re released. But if a quick hand with reservations website OpenTable or the cellphone doesn’t yield the desired results, there’s another possibility: Email the restaurant, give a range of dates when you’re available (the more flexible you are, the better your chances), and ask politely to be put on the wait list. Even the best restaurants frequently get cancellations.

Here’s a quick look at the top ten on this year’s 50 Best List. In most cases, the descriptions are based on my personal experience, but research and—the reports of colleagues—have filled in the details for the restaurants I haven’t visited.

1. Noma, (Copenhagen, Denmark). Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $600.

After losing the top ranking in 2013 (it had held the No. spot for the three previous years), Noma is firing on all cylinders these days. Located in an old whaling warehouse, the restaurant is the birthplace of “new Nordic” cuisine, which relies solely on ingredients available in region. But today, the restaurant is pushing far beyond its early days of foraged sea buckthorn and reindeer lichen. Dinner these days might start with a whole kohlrabi, filled with its fermented juice and bored with a straw, so that it looks and tastes like a coconut drink. The meal might then proceed through aebleskivers –a traditional Danish kind of fritter—brushed with a sauce made from fermented grasshopper, and end with a dessert of potato, almond, and plum purée. It sounds wacky, but somehow Redzepi and his crew manage to make it all delicious. As well as deeply pleasurable: Noma continues to offer what may well be the most engaged—and engaging—service in the world.

2. Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain. Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $390-480.

Celler de Can Roca is run by three brothers — head chef Joan, sommelier Josep, and pastry chef Jordi — who came by their trade honestly: they learned it from their parents. But it’s hard to imagine anything further from your average mom and pop cooking. In what may very well be the most beautiful dining room in Europe, a Roca meal dazzles with its wizardry (a starter called Eat The World that encapsulates, in five distinct bites, the tastes of the five different cuisines; a dessert called Messi’s Goal, that recreates, with a candied pitch, flying white chocolate balls, and a plateside iPod playing the roars of the crowd, what it feels like when Barcelona’s soccer hero Lionel Messi scores), while remaining firmly rooted in the flavors of the Mediterranean. Josep brings lucky guests on a tour of his cellar, where favorite wines have been singled out for multi-sensory treatments.

3. Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy. Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $360-525.

Behind a stately exterior, the world’s most emotive chef, Massimo Bottura, cooks flights of fantasy and memory. The first sign that this is not your ordinary upscale Italian restaurant comes from the abstract contemporary paintings on the wall, but the art continues on the plate. The mortadella sandwich of every Italian child’s memory is turned into an impossibly light mousse, a Magnum ice cream bar becomes a sophisticated, foie-gras stuffed bite. And like his spectacular lacquered eel, which Bottura serves with saba and polenta to represent the apples and corn the eel would encounter on its way up the nearby Po river, his dishes are made more evocative by the stories that accompany them.

4. Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA. Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $450.

In this hushed yet theatrical dining room, Swiss-born chef Daniel Humm takes the whole farm-to-table movement, imbues it with a bit of French savoir-faire, and, like an alchemist, comes out with the quintessential New York restaurant. Indeed, the sense of place here comes not just from the locally grown and produced ingredients, but from Humm’s knowing nod to New York’s culinary culture. Pristine carrots, for example, get turned into a lightly whimsical take on steak tartare; sturgeon (brought to the table under a smoke-filled cloche) is served with the restaurant’s take on an everything bagel. Excellent service — graceful, attentive, modern — adds to the sense of supreme well-being.

5. Dinner. London, England. Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $230.

Heston Blumenthal took his fascination with English culinary history and turned it into something unexpectedly interesting for the rest of us. At the fashionable Dinner, located at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London and overseen by chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, traditional (if quirkily named) dishes like Salamugundy and meat fruit are transformed into modern-day marvels (the latter into a light but rich chicken liver parfait, made up to look exactly like a mandarin orange) Is it indeed the U.K.’s best restaurant? Probably not. But as history lessons go, this one goes down extremely easily.

6. Mugaritz, Errenteria, Spain. Cost of meal for two, without wine: $470.

Andoni Luis Aduriz is the Aristotle of contemporary cuisine, a philosopher-king tucked away in the rolling hills of the Basque Country, about 20 minutes drive from San Sebastian. Cerebral, technically accomplished dishes like the Bloody Mary tomato (which looks and feels like a fresh tomato, but tastes of the cocktail), or his famous potato stones (whose river rock appearance gives the diner the uncomfortable sensation of being about to break her teeth), he manages to consistently surprise and delight his customers, all while maintaining a deep, almost pantheistic reverence for the nature around him.

7. D.O.M. Saõ Paulo, Brazil. Cost of meal for two, without wine: $400.

Given the media’s predilection for depicting chef Alex Atala standing thigh-deep in his much-loved Amazon, bare-chested and draped with a giant fish like some kind of latter-day Tarzan, it comes as something of a surprise that his restaurant is so refined. But the delicacy of signature dishes, like a pappardelle made from hearts of palm or a ceviche crafted of indigenous flavors, belies the wallop of their unusual flavors — and has helped Brazilians discover the bounty of their native terroir. Even the Amazonian ants he serves, redolent of lemongrass and placed gently atop a cube of pineapple, seem elegant.

8. Arzak. San Sebastian, Spain. Cost of meal for two, without wine: $530.

Juan Mari Arzak is one of the great geniuses of Spanish gastronomy, among the first to bring modern techniques and flavors to bear on regional cuisine — in his case, that of his native Basque Country. The kitchen of his restaurant, which is housed in a quaint-looking building but is surprisingly sleek inside, is now run largely by his daughter Elena. She continues the Basque-inflected innovation, with dishes like “waves” (they’re created with molds) of local spider crab and anise or monkfish cooked in a balloon of edible green papier-máche that manage to feel both regionally grounded and whimsical.

9. Alinea, Chicago, Illinois. Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $420.

Grant Achatz did a brief stint at Ferran Adrià’s elBulli, and ever since has been out avant-garding what was once the most avant-garde restaurant in the world. The 18-or-so-course tasting menu carries titles like “Scallop Acting Like Agedashi Tofu” and the tableware — some of it lovely, some of it looking like it was lifted from the spike-and-pincer collection of the Spanish Inquisition— is tailor-made for each course. Dinner in this Chicago restaurant consists of carefully-scripted experiences more than dishes: one course requires the diner to fold her own ravioli from a sheet of tomato pasta that, moments before, looked to be a decorative flag, while the final dessert, a mix of dark chocolate and about a hundred other things, is painted, drizzled and scattered by a chef directly on the table itself.

10. The Ledbury, London, England. Cost of a meal for two, without wine: $270.

Among the top ten restaurants, the Ledbury is probably the most classical, which is to say that its chef, Australian-born Brett Graham, is more interested in pleasure than wizardry. The dishes served in this London restaurant may not be as visually striking as in other places, but their flavors are deep and layered. Case in point: a buffalo milk curd, spread creamily onto crisp toasts that are topped with Iberico ham and served with a rich onion broth. Or grilled mackerel, its oily brine mellowed with cured avocado and brightened with shiso. And with a chef who hunts his own wild birds, this is the place in London to try game.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

This story was originally published on April 5, 2017, and has been updated to reflect the 2021 results.

Noma, the acclaimed tasting menu restaurant helmed by chef René Redzepi in Copenhagen, landed at No. 1 on the 2021 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

In 2019, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list declared previous No. 1 winners ineligible. This means that the No. 1 restaurant in 2021 is not one of the eight tasting menu spots below that have taken turns in the highest spot over the past 18 lists. Except it kind of is.

Because Noma is actually new Noma — it opened in its current location in February 2018 with a tasting menu that now rotates a few times a year — the wins from 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 do not count. Noma 2.0 debuted on the 2019 list at No. 2. And now that Noma 2.0 has won, it should actually be off the list next year, unless Redzepi does another reboot, or unless the 50 Best organization changes its rules again. Noma also now ties with Ferran Adrià’s legendary restaurant El Bulli for the most wins ever. No other restaurant will be able to match their tallies given the changed eligibility requirements.

Although the change in eligibility rules was at first billed as a diversity initiative, reporting from Lisa Abend in 2019 revealed that chefs fearing a ding to their reputations as they fell from the top spot lobbied for the change, and it seems a diverse winners group is still at least a few years away.

Below, a comprehensive look at all of the restaurants that the World’s 50 Best have deemed best in the world. You’ll note that nearly all of the restaurants that have been ranked first are located in Europe; those that aren’t in Europe serve European-style tasting menus; and all of the restaurants are helmed by men.

Jason Loucas/Noma

Noma, Copenhagen
Years at No. 1: 2021, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010
Vital Intel: René Redzepi, famed for his foraging expeditions and fermenting techniques, redefined what it means to be a locavore with Noma. The restaurant’s new Nordic, hyper-local cuisine made Copenhagen a global dining destination and served as a training ground for a number of notable chefs. In 2016, Redzepi closed Noma. He opened a new Noma in Copenhagen in early 2018. That restaurant was considered eligible for the 2019 list, landing at No. 2. And after 2020 pandemic hiatus, the restaurant won the top honors on the 2021 list.

Mirazur, Menton, France
Years at No. 1: 2019
Vital Intel: Mirazur, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, isn’t known for being particularly influential, but Colagreco has been building his reputation for years. The Italian-Argentine chef honed his approach to French cuisine working along side chefs Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse. He opened Mirazur in 2006 serving a tasting menu inspired by three themes: sea, garden, and mountain. That menu, which includes dishes like anchovies with fried skeletons and lemons; oysters with tapioca, shallot cream, and pear; and salt-crusted beetroot with caviar cream, currently costs €260, or around $295 USD, per person.

Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy
Years at No. 1: 2018, 2016
Vital Intel: Osteria Francescana had been hovering near the top spot before making it to no. in 2016. Massimo Bottura’s Italian restaurant was ranked second in 2015, and third the year before that. The first Italian restaurant to reach the top of the list, Osteria Francescana has a reputation for being near-impossible to get into, thanks in part to chef Bottura’s whimsical menu items, like “Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano” and “An eel swimming up the Po River.”

Nick Solares/Eater

Eleven Madison Park, New York
Years at No. 1: 2017
Vital Intel: Daniel Humm and Will Guidara vied for the top spot on the World’s 50 Best list since their restaurant made it into the top 50 in 2010, a year before the chef and general manager purchased EMP from Danny Meyer. The restaurant, which serves a seasonal tasting menu and also has three Michelin stars and four from the New York Times, is just the second American restaurant to be named best in the world by this particular list. In 2017 the restaurant shut down for a period of months, which didn’t remove it from eligibility, but did perhaps lead to its fall three spots to no. 4 in 2018.

Encantadisimo/Flickr

El Celler De Can Roca, Girona, Spain
Years at No. 1: 2015, 2013
Vital Intel: In 2013, the modernist Spanish restaurant became the second restaurant from the Girona region of Spain to make it to the top of the list. At El Celler De Can Roca, Roca brothers Joan, Josep, and Jordi serve an avant-garde tasting menu for around $300 per person. Since being named the world’s best, the brothers have been as committed to international outreach as they are to innovation, becoming Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Development Program and embarking on a 2014 worldwide tour.

elBulli, Girona, Spain
Years at No. 1: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2002
Vital Intel: The first restaurant to nab the top spot, elBulli ties with Noma for most years spent at number one. The Spanish restaurant pioneered modernist, molecular gastronomy techniques, and elBulli chef Ferran Adrià trained several renowned chefs early in their careers, including José Andrés and fellow World’s 50 Best chef René Redzepi.

Wikimedia

The Fat Duck, Bray, England
Years at No. 1: 2005
Vital Intel: At the time the Fat Duck topped the list, it was unusual to appear for just a single year. At the time, chef Heston Blumenthal’s 10-year-old restaurant was lauded for its highly innovative multi-course tasting menu, which included the now-retired snail porridge and egg and bacon ice cream. In 2017, Blumenthal was recognized by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for lifetime achievement.

The Braineack/Flickr

The French Laundry, Yountville, CA
Years at No. 1: 2004, 2003
Vital Intel: Thomas Keller’s the French Laundry was the first American fine dining establishment to make it to the no. 1 spot on the list. The restaurant, which featured Keller’s French cooking in a picturesque Napa Valley setting, was also the first on the World’s 50 Best list to take the spot two years running. In the years since, the French Laundry remained stubbornly on list of back 50 restaurants, ranking no. 86 in 2018. It’s now, of course, off the list for good.

• The World’s 50 Best Restaurants List (and Its Flaws), Explained [E]

Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen has once again been named the best restaurant in the world at The Word’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 ceremony in Antwerp, Belgium.

Wearing a shirt designed by his daughter, Rene Redzepi, the chef and owner of the restaurant, thanked his team, and said this would never have happened without them.

Noma had previously topped the list four times, but after closing in 2016 and reopening in a new location in 2018, the restaurant was deemed to be an entirely new entry on the list. This makes them the only restaurant to have topped the list in two different locations, and comes just weeks after Noma finally received its third Michelin star.

«This is a celebration and a goodbye at the same time,» Redzepi said, referring to the new Best of the Best category, which means Noma cannot take the number one spot again without relocating for a third time.

«When Noma opened I was 23-years-old… our dream was to simply make a living from what we loved. I want to recognise all the restaurant and industry people who have fought for survival during this period. For us at Noma, we are now entering different cycle. A post-Covid cycle. But what is our future? How do we want to cook? What principles form the foundation of what we do? We spent the last year and half dreaming of something, we are ready to go build it now. Thank you for a wild ride and goodbye.» 

_{Rasmus Kofoed of Geranium, Copenhagen. Image courtesy of World’s 50 Best} 

Second place on the list went to Geranium, also in Copenhagen, while third was held by Asador Etxebarri in Spain. The world’s best female chef, still a separate award within the list, went to Pía León from Peru. The One to Watch Award was awarded to Ikoyi in London, and best pastry chef went to Will Goldfarb. The Sustainable Restaurant award went to Boragó in Chile.

This was the first edition of the list since 2019, as last year’s event was unfortunately cancelled because of Covid restrictions around the world.

Below you can see the full list of all the restaurants that made The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2021.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021

1. Noma, Copenhagen (Denmark)

2. Geranium, Copenhagen (Denmark)

3. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo (Spain)

4. Central, Lima (Peru)

5. Disfrutar, Barcelona (Spain)

6. Frantzén, Stockholm (Sweden)

7. Maido, Lima (Peru)

8. Odette, Singapore

9. Pujol, Mexico City (Mexico)

10. The Chairman, Hong Kong (China) I Highest Climber Award

11. Den, Tokyo (Japan)

12. Steirereck, Vienna (Austria)

13. Don Julio, Buenos Aires (Argentina)

14. Mugaritz, San Sebastian (Spain)

15. Lido 84, Gardone Riviera (Italy) I Highest New Entry

16. Elkano, Getaria (Spain)

17. A Casa do Porco, São Paulo (Brazil)

18. Piazza Duomo, Alba (Italy)

19. Narisawa, Tokyo (Japan)

20. Diverxo, Madrid (Spain) I NEW ENTRY

21. Hiša Franko, Kobarid (Slovenia)

22. Cosme, New York (USA)

23. Arpège, Paris (France)

24. Septime, Paris (France)

25. White Rabbit, Moscow (Russia)

26. Le Calandre, Rubano (Italy)

27. Quintonil, Mexico City (Mexico)

28. Benu, San Francisco (USA)

29. Reale, Castel di Sangro (Italy)

30. Twins Garden, Moscow (Russia)

31. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin (Germany)

32. The Clove Club, London (UK)

33. Lyle’s, London (UK)

34. Burnt Ends, Singapore

35. Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet, Shanghai (China)

36. Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoutem (Belgium)

37. SingleThread, Healdsburg (USA)

38. Boragó, Santiago (Chile) 

39. Florilège, Tokyo (Japan)

40. Sühring, Bangkok (Thailand)

41. Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, Paris (France)

42. Belcanto, Lisbon (Portugal)

43. Atomix, New York (USA)

44. Le Bernadin, New York (USA)

45. Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin (Germany) I NEW ENTRY

46. Leo, Bogotà (Colombia)

47. Maaemo, Oslo (Norway)

48. Atelier Crenn, San Francisco (USA)

49. Azurmendi, Larrabetzu (Spain)

50. Wolfgat, Paternoster (South Africa) I NEW ENTRY