Ahead of the announcement of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, in Valencia on Tuesday 20th June, 50 Best reveals the restaurants ranked from 51 to 100 for this year.
Spread across 22 destinations, the extended list features some of the most esteemed dining destinations from around the world, with exciting new entries from Istanbul, Quito and beyond. Prepare your palate as you feast on the 51-100 list 2023
No.100 Maito – NEW ENTRY
Panama City
@maitopanama
Named The Best Restaurant in Panama for seven consecutive years and ascending to No.6 in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2022, Maito is the home of chef Mario Castrellón’s diverse new Panamanian cuisine. With seldom-used ingredients from local producers across a tasting menu of dishes like smoked short rib and crunchy corn, Maito showcases Panama’s melting pot of Afro, Creole and even Cantonese influences. An à la carte option is available too.
No.99 Fu He Hui
Shanghai
@fuhehui
Part of executive chef Tony Lu’s celebrated Fu Group, Fu He Hui (meaning ‘fortune and intelligence’) offers an education in China’s diverse plant kingdom, highlighting lesser-known vegetables and fungi within a zen-like space. Alongside sophisticated Chinese tea pairings, the tasting menu includes intricate, artful dishes such as porcini mushrooms served in a glass jar, and a ‘lotus pond’ of lily bulbs, goji berries and guanyin leaves assembled to look like a lagoon. Fu He Hui has been a regular in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants since 2015.
No.98 Saison – RE-ENTRY
San Francisco
@saisonsf
From its humble beginnings as a pop-up in 2009 to one of the world’s best restaurants, Saison has built a reputation as the go-to dining establishment for wood-fire cuisine in California. Led by co-founder and beverage director Mark Bright, culinary director Paul Chung and chef de cuisine Richard Lee, the San Francisco restaurant serves a tasting menu of dishes celebrating California’s rich and evolving terroir, like 14-day dry-aged Sonoma duck. The food is accompanied by one of the US’s most impressive selections of Old and New World wines, and there’s also a bar serving world-class cocktails and uni toast.
No.97 Labyrinth – NEW ENTRY
Singapore
@restaurantlabyrinth
Rising rapidly up the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list since its debut in 2021, LG Han’s Singapore restaurant is an ode to street food and the chef’s childhood memories, transformed into surprising, playful modern creations that beg to be photographed. Don’t miss the pandan deli waffle with faux foie paté in a customised paper bag, and the signature chilli crab, where a lifelike tempura soft shell crab is presented on a sandy ‘beach’ made from powdered Chinese steamed buns (mantou), alongside chilli ice cream.
No.96 Ricard Camarena Restaurant – NEW ENTRY
Valencia
@ricardcamarena
Recognised as one of Valencia’s top restaurants, Ricard Camarena is the jewel in the crown of the eponymous chef, whose group also includes 50 Best Discovery-featured Habitual. Offering a series of tasting menus of different lengths, the restaurant inside the fascinating Bomba Gens art gallery focuses on vegetables from in and around Valencia – think fried eggplant miso, roasted onion with eel and hollandaise, and rice whose growth supports the sustainable balance of Albufera natural park, the place where paella was invented.
No.95 Ceto – NEW ENTRY
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
@restaurantceto
Mauro Colagreco may be best known for Mirazur, named The World’s Best Restaurant in 2019, but recent venture Ceto is fast making waves among global gastronomes. Perched high on the rocky peninsula of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin inside the luxury Maybourne Riviera hotel, Ceto’s dining room offers magnificent views over the Mediterranean Sea just as Mirazur does, a little further up the coast. Ceto offers a set lunch menu, à la carte and a tasting menu, all focused on sustainable seafood and seasonal produce. Highlights include tuna belly served simply alongside seaweed sabayon and asparagus, and langoustine tartare with caviar and marinated ginger.
No.94 La Colombe
Cape Town
@lacolombect
A regular on the 50 Best lists since 2006, La Colombe has long been a celebrated global dining destination, both for its stunning location within the Silvermist organic wine estate on the mountain slopes of the Cape Peninsula and for its elegant, French- and Asian-influenced tasting menus. Led by executive chef James Gaag, the multi-course menus feature signatures like the playful Tuna La Colombe, where a customised can is opened to reveal tuna tataki with a special-recipe broth and seasonal garnish. La Colombe caters well to vegetarians, with a degustation featuring highlights like aubergine with miso and corn.
No.93 Kei – NEW ENTRY
Paris
@restaurantkei
Named after chef Kei Kobayashi, who left his native Japan for France almost 25 years ago, Kei brings together French and Japanese cuisines in an opulent dining room around the corner from the Louvre. A series of tasting menus focuses on the best quality seasonal ingredients, with signatures such as a garden salad featuring smoked salmon, lightly cooked vegetables and a delicate foam. After a long stint at former 50 Best regular Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée, Kobayashi opened Kei in 2011, earning a series of accolades and building a reputation as one of the finest chefs in Paris.
No.92 Neighborhood
Hong Kong
@davidtlai
A must-visit haunt that books out weeks in advance despite having no website or social media presence, Neighborhood is the home of chef David Lai’s indulgent, French-leaning food. The star of the show is a sharing dish of salt-baked whole chicken served with rice in a creamy yellow wine and morel mushroom sauce, while other highlights include lentils with gooey Taoyuan egg and caviar. Sharing dishes should be ordered in advance, or diners can pick from an ever-changing specials menu.
No.91 Kadeau – RE-ENTRY
Copenhagen
@restaurantkadeau
With the original Kadeau and its onsite farm located on the Baltic Island of Bornholm, this Copenhagen offshoot focuses on the same island terroir and New Nordic cuisine championed by chef Nicolai Nørregaard. In a slick dining room laden with wrought iron, Scandi wood and pickling jars, Kadeau serves a tasting menu with highlights like hot and cold smoked salmon with onion and lavender, and Queen scallop with blueberries and milk ice cream. A meal here is an education in foraged island ingredients, preserved produce and fermentation.
No.90 Wing
Hong Kong
@wingrestaurant_hk
Entering the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list within a year of opening in 2022 and debuting on the extended World’s 50 Best list the same year, Wing has made a global impact in a short space of time. Led by Vicky Cheng, the chef behind Asia’s 50 Best regular Vea, located in the same building, Wing translates different styles of Chinese cuisine in a seasonal tasting menu informed by daily market trips. Signatures include claypot rice with seafood and pork, succulent Cantonese crispy chicken, and Chinese white cabbage in ginger broth.
No.89 Mingles
Seoul
@mingles_restaurant
Mingoo Kang’s Seoul dining spot held the title of The Best Restaurant in Korea within Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants from 2016 to 2022, with the chef-owner himself also winning the Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award in 2021. It’s all thanks to the way he transforms traditional Korean flavours, ingredients and recipes into elegant modern creations on his 10-course seasonal tasting menu. Focusing on fish and vegetables and with plenty of fermented sauces and vinegars, the degustation might include zucchini flowers with shrimp tartare, or a signature main of bansang, a Korean meal with rice, soup, kimchi and jang sauce.
No.88 Potong – NEW ENTRY
Bangkok
@restaurant.potong
Chef Pichaya ‘Pam’ Utharntharm has been raking in the accolades since opening Potong in 2021 in the generations-old property that once housed her family’s herbal medicine business. On the second floor of the narrow five-storey building that’s also home to her Opium Bar cocktail haven and a series of eclectic rooms, the chef and her team serve a 20-course tasting of innovative Thai-Chinese cuisine. Starting with kombucha and Chinese cold tofu, the menu works through chef Pam’s memories via grated shrimp yolk with egg noodles and caviar, and 14-day-aged, five-spiced duck.
No.87 Ossiano – NEW ENTRY
Dubai
@ossianodubai
Debuting at No.4 in the second edition of Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2023, Ossiano is as impressive as its location in the iconic Atlantis The Palm resort. Guests enter via a dramatic sweeping staircase to an aquarium-like space surrounded by sharks and colourful fish, before sitting down to French chef Gregoire Berger’s expertly choreographed tasting menus. The seafood-focused cuisine features everything from a melting ‘candle’ of foie gras to clams with yuzu presented inside a semi-hollowed, burnt leek.
No.86 Lyle’s
London
@lyleslondon
A global hit since opening almost a decade ago, Lyle’s is home to the micro-seasonal, modern British cooking of chef James Lowe, who trained under industry greats Heston Blumenthal and Fergus Henderson. With a short tasting menu at dinnert and à la carte options at lunch, Lyle’s explores British delights like green asparagus with nettle and egg yolk in spring, or duck breast with preserved wild mulberries in autumn. Everything is served in a spacious, light-filled dining room in the historic Tea Building, once a Lipton factory, in the foodie-favourite neighbourhood of Shoreditch.
No.85 Enrico Bartolini – NEW ENTRY
Milan
@chef_enricobartolini
Just like its location on the third floor of Milan’s modernist Mudec Museum of Cultures, Enrico Bartolini’s eponymous restaurant blends experimentation and research with Italian style and elegance. Two tasting menus – the Best Of and the Mudec Experience – deliver contemporary, classic Italian dishes such as Piedmont veal sweetbread with turnip, truffle and tarragon, and black cod with buckwheat and perilla, while the warm, spacious dining room is a cosy spot in which to enjoy the theatre of the meal.
No.84 Meta
Singapore
@metasingapore
Recognised as the American Express One To Watch as part of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021, Meta blends chef Sun Kim’s Korean roots with Japanese and global ingredients, plus techniques and influences from his French and Japanese culinary training under Tetsuya Wakuda in Sydney. In a beautiful, intimate dining room filled with warm wood and welcoming leather, Kim serves a tasting menu focusing on seafood and vegetables, starting with small bites – like a fine dining twist on a tuna sandwich – and building up to his interpretation of a Korean barbecue: a stunning spread of wagyu beef short rib, kimchi and claypot rice.
No.83 Sazenka
Tokyo
@sazenka
Serving traditional Chinese cuisine in individual, elegant plates, Sazenka highlights the flavour and beauty of some of its best-loved dishes – a single spicy spare rib comes encased in vibrant Sansho flowers on pristine porcelain, while a delicate tea-smoked quail arrives on its own, and a solo wonton is presented in a cup-full of broth. These dainty dishes by chef Tomoya Kawada are served in an elegant room with just 12 seats, though there are also two private rooms ideal for special occasions.
No.82 Enigma – RE-ENTRY
Barcelona
@enigma_albertadria
Like any restaurant from the world-famous Adrià brothers, Enigma opened in 2016 to great fanfare, with guests enjoying a three-plus-hour tasting menu that was shrouded in secrecy to ensure a series of surprises for the guests. Having closed during the pandemic in 2020, Enigma reopened in 2022 with a completely different ‘fun dining’ à la carte concept. In 2023, the restaurant returned to its original tasting menu format, albeit with an exciting new menu of creations from former World’s Best Pastry Chef Albert Adrià. Over 25 courses divided into ‘ephemerals’ like Earl Grey liquid ravioli, ‘tapas’ like thin squid slices with Ibérico ham fat and caviar, a ‘hare sequence’ featuring hare three ways, and a series of desserts, Enigma delights its diners now more than ever.
No.81 Azurmendi
Larrabetzu
@azurmendi_atxa
Basque chef Eneko Atxa’s flagship restaurant is a long-time member of the 50 Best family, having first appeared on the list in 2014. A two-time winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award, Azurmendi was built to be planet-friendly, with a vegetable garden through which guests travel to eat a series of snacks before settling in the beautiful main dining room. The tasting menu is a voyage through Atxa’s playful, seasonal creations, which include everything from rose and nectar from the garden to grilled tuna with vegetable stew and pig trotter reduction.
No.80 Flocons de Sel
Megève
@floconsdesel
An attraction to rival Megève’s ski slopes, Flocons de Sel draws diners from all over the world. Set within a luxurious Alpine hotel and spa resort, Kristine and Emmanuel Renaut’s cosy yet elegant restaurant reflects the surrounding nature, with untreated wood floors, natural materials and windows that look out onto both mountain and greenery. The menu too is influenced by nature and the seasons, with chef Emmanuel working with everything from forest mushrooms to Lake Geneva whitefish in his artistic creations.
No.79 Nuema – NEW ENTRY
Quito
@nuema_restaurante
Unstoppable husband-and-wife team Alejandro Chamorro and Pía Salazar have put Ecuador on the global gastronomic map with Nuema, the Quito-based restaurant that celebrates their country’s biodiversity. Chamorro’s tasting menu covers endemic ingredients like Galapagos crayfish and mashua, an Andean tuber, in his colourful avant-garde savoury courses. Salazar follows with surprising desserts that incorporate vegetables and have won her the title of Latin America’s Best Pastry Chef 2022.
No.78 Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen
Paris
@allenoparis_
The jewel in the crown of celebrated chef Yannick Alléno, Alléno Paris sits at the heart of the neo-classical Pavillon Ledoyen, in a grand yet cosy setting filled with details like large picture windows that look onto horse-chestnut trees, and velvet-upholstered chairs. Alléno’s menu is a boundary-pushing adventure through modern French cuisine, with globally influenced dishes like frozen artichoke with oscietra caviar and hazelnut chips, and Belon oyster au gratin with champagne. From the author of Sauces: Reflections of a Chef, it goes without saying that Alléno’s accompaniments are superlative – think yellow wine sauce with lobster, or Viennese sauce over Dombes duckling.
No.77 Tantris
Munich
@tantris_maison_culinaire
Open since 1971, Tantris has long been a go-to gastronomic pilgrimage, as much for its food as for its iconic red-and-black-themed dining room in a monolithic, brutalist structure in Munich’s outskirts. Under chef Benjamin Chmura, the culinary institution serves a series of seasonal, prix-fixe menus focused on the highest quality products made with French technique. A meal here might include poached duck liver terrine with smoked breast and Austrian truffle cream, or asparagus with smoked eel.
No.76 Oteque
Rio de Janeiro
@albertolandgraf
A high-flyer in the Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Oteque is the seafood-focused restaurant of chef Alberto Landgraf. With influences from his Japanese heritage combined with the freshest Brazilian seafood, he puts together ingredient-forward plates like mussels in carrot escabeche sauce, accompanied by natural wines. Everything takes place in one big room in an historic house, with the open kitchen at one end and a hip cocktail bar and lounge area at the other. Landgraf has also just launched his first London restaurant, Bossa, one of the most exciting openings of 2023.
No.75 Fyn
Cape Town
@fynrestaurant
Pronounced ‘fayn’, Fyn tells African stories with a Japanese accent on the fifth floor of a 19th-century silk factory in Cape Town. Using fish, poultry and meat from the best local suppliers, chefs Ashley Moss and Peter Tempelhoff serve a tasting menu with dishes such as the signature springbok with squash, pumpkin, shiitake and caramelised onion jus. General manager Jennifer Hugé runs the dining room, underneath which the team now also oversees a casual ramen bar called Ramenhead.
No.74 Nusara – NEW ENTRY
Bangkok
@nusarabkk
Chef Thitid ‘Ton’ Tassanakajohn is the hottest chef in Bangkok right now, with his flagship restaurant, Le Du, at No.1 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, and its 10-seat sister restaurant, Nusara, at No.3. An homage to his grandmother, Nusara serves traditional Thai dining with a twist, updating Tassankajohn’s family recipes and culinary traditions in a 12-course tasting menu that covers intricate snacks like mackerel with coconut and cucumber, and a signature crab curry on a crispy betel leaf. Nusara is a family affair, with Ton’s brother Tam acting as sommelier and maître d’.
No.73 Cosme
New York
@cosmenyc
Shooting to success under co-founding chefs Daniela Soto-Innes and Enrique Olvera, Cosme now has Soto-Innes protégé Gustavo Garnica at its helm. With the trademark modern Mexican style of cuisine championed at Pujol, Olvera’s Mexico City flagship, Cosme offers flavoursome, spice-filled à la carte options like conch tostadas with XO sauce, and duck carnitas with all the trimmings. Don’t miss the signature corn husk meringue dessert, and be sure to stop at the bar for a mezcal cocktail.
No.72 Sühring
Bangkok
@restaurant_suhring
Led by twins Mathias and Thomas Sühring, this eponymous Bangkok restaurant is based on the memories and experiences they had growing up in Germany, as well influences from Thailand and beyond. Set in a renovated villa with a verdant garden offering a slice of calm in busy Bangkok, the restaurant serves a three-chapter tasting menu with bites like a currywurst street food tribute, and spaetzle egg noodles topped with Alba truffle. Riesling fans will delight in Sühring’s wine pairings, which include labels from Mosel and Alsace.
No.71 Core by Clare Smyth – RE-ENTRY
London
@corebyclaresmyth
After working under Gordon Ramsay for 13 years and becoming the first woman to run a three-Michelin-star restaurant in the UK, Clare Smyth MBE left to open Core in 2017. She took the time to work on every single detail, from the British art on the walls to the tables made with Irish wood and the British-influenced tasting menu, which has included her signature baked potato with roe since day one. Her hard work paid off, with Smyth being named The World’s Best Female Chef in 2018, and the restaurant earning three Michelin stars. Smyth also runs Oncore by Clare Smyth, overlooking Sydney Harbour in Australia.
No.70 Sud 777
Mexico City
@sud777mx
With a taste for vegetables from a young age, chef Edgar Núñez has been ahead of the restaurant curve for a while now, having focused on what he calls ‘Mexican vegetable cuisine’ for many years. Using produce largely from the restaurant garden, he delivers veg-forward dishes like leek with seaweed and anchovies, and pineapple with mezcal and worm salt. Since its opening in 2008, the restaurant in Pedregal in the south of Mexico City has been a must-go Mexican institution, with a series of rooms offering both intimate and more vibey tables, and an eclectic global wine list to accompany the regular and vegan tasting menus, and the à la carte.
No.69 Zén
Singapore
@restaurantzen.sgp
The Singapore offshoot of Björn Frantzén’s chart-topping restaurant group, Zén specialises in Nordic kaiseki in a series of spaces – there’s the kitchen for snacks and aperitifs, the second-floor dining room for the mains and the upper-floor living room for digestifs and desserts. Executive chef Tristin Farmer presents dishes such as grilled turbot and razor clams with goat’s butter, while the meal can be accompanied by a carefully curated wine and sake pairing, or a juice pairing that takes in oxidized apple with Oolong tea.
No.68 SingleThread
Healdsburg
@singlethreadfarms
The well-loved culinary dream team of chef Kyle Connaughton and farmer Katina Connaughton run this destination restaurant with rooms in the Sonoma wine region. Katina’s farm produce meets her husband’s unique Japanese cuisine in a kaiseki-style 11-course menu that begins with an array of small snacks and runs through dishes like wagyu beef with shiso and potato – plus a strong wine selection, of course. If possible, stay in one of the luxurious rooms inspired by ancient Japanese ryokans, or inns, and enjoy a breakfast of cedar-roasted salmon, tamago, donabe rice and other delicacies.
No.67 Le Clarence
Paris
@leclarenceparis
In a breath-taking 19th-century Parisian townhouse just off the Champs Elysées, chef Christophe Pelé serves a series of tasting menus that blend Asian influences with French technique – dishes might include cuttlefish tentacle tempura with oyster and ginger, or pigeon pie with foie gras and spinach. The food is paired with prestigious wines including the rare vintages of Domaine Clarence Dillon in a truly opulent setting replete with chandeliers and antique paintings and furniture.
No.66 Turk Fatih Tutak – NEW ENTRY
Istanbul
@turkfatihtutak
After earning a stellar reputation at The Dining Room at The House on Sathorn in Bangkok, chef Fatih Tutak returned to his native Istanbul to launch his signature restaurant, which has quickly won accolades since opening in 2019. A love letter to Turkish cuisine and produce, Turk Fatih Tutak offers a single tasting menu of micro-seasonal dishes using ingredients preserved through pickles, misos and garums. Highlights include egg with morels and Thrace cheese, and lamb curry with potatoes and buffalo yoghurt. The setting is as well-thought-out as the food, with a strong Turkish ethos throughout the warm, wood-filled dining room with back-lit glass cabinets filled with colourful pickles and preserves.
No.65 Burnt Ends
Singapore
@burntends.sg
Singapore barbecue institution Burnt Ends is the work of Australian chef Dave Pynt, whose team cooks everything in a series of custom-built, four-tonne wood-fire ovens and grills. The go-to dish is the Burnt Ends Sanger, a juicy burger of pulled pork, while other highlights include leek with hazelnut and brown butter, and Western Australian marrons with black truffle. Now in a new location on Dempsey Hill, the restaurant boasts a bakery, standout wine cellar, cocktail bar and sumptuous private dining room in addition to the (much larger) main restaurant.
No.64 Aponiente – RE-ENTRY
El Puerto de Santa María
@aponiente_angel_leon
Sustainable seafood is at the heart of Aponiente, where fisherman-chef Ángel León’s approach helped bag the Flor de Caña Sustainable Restaurant Award in 2022. In tasting menus of up to 15 courses, the restaurant serves world-class dishes like shrimp ‘tortilla’ while championing overlooked ocean produce like plankton and sea rice, with a commitment to sustainable fishing practices, marshland stewardship and water conservation. Seafood even features in the desserts, with moreish sweet creations such as a seaweed tarte tatin of kombu, seaweed caramel and gelato.
No.63 Neolokal – RE-ENTRY
Istanbul
@neolokal
With chef Maksut Askar at the helm, Neolokal spins Turkish heritage produce into global and local dishes like bulgar wheat kofte dumpling, and olive-oil-braised pumpkin with tangerine sauce and walnuts. Everything is inspired by nature, which is also reflected in the tableware and crockery. The setting is a glamorous spot with jaw-dropping views over Istanbul – be sure to make time for a cocktail on the rooftop.
No.62 Arpège
Paris
@alain_passard
The French king of vegetables, Alain Passard has amassed followers all over the world for the veg-forward approach to fine dining he has championed since long before it became en vogue. While he does serve meat and seafood at Arpège, the menu seeks to elevate the vegetable, with produce from Passard’s own farms and local suppliers. The Land and Sea tasting menu features white asparagus in salted butter, and an impressive beetroot tartare.
No.61 Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare
New York
@chefstableatbf
Located at the back of an ordinary-seeming grocery store in Hell’s Kitchen, Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare itself is anything but conventional. The 18-seat counter restaurant serves the multi-course tasting menu of chef César Ramirez, which is inspired by Japanese cuisine with French technique and features the most luxurious ingredients, from A5 Miyazaki wagyu beef to Hokkaido sea urchin with black truffle on brioche toast. Oenophiles will love the 7,000-label wine list, which highlights the best of Champagne, Burgundy, Rhône, Germany and Austria.
No.60 La Cime
Osaka
@lacime_official
La Cime is French for ‘summit’ or ‘peak,’ and Yusuke Takada’s Osaka restaurant has certainly ascended in popularity since opening in 2010, rising through the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The restaurant combines fine, modern French cuisine with Japanese touches and playful humour in dishes like a spherical black boudin dog, a cross between blood sausage and hot dog.
No.59 Mérito – NEW ENTRY
Lima
@meritorest
After opening in 2018 and entering Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants at No.37 in 2020, Mérito climbed to No.10 in 2022 and now makes its debut high in the extended global ranking, signalling its rapid ascent as a favourite in Lima’s already booming dining scene. Here, Venezuelan chef Juan Luis Martínez combines his roots with Peruvian cooking in dishes like yuca root quesadilla made with goat’s cheese, and scallop tiradito. The restaurant,located in trendy foodie district Barranco, also boasts a brilliant cocktail list.
No.58 Lasai
Rio de Janeiro
@restaurantelasai
Chef Rafa Costa e Silva’s award-winning cooking combines with his wife Malena Cardiel’s artful service to create something truly special at Lasai, a regular in the upper echelons of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. With many ingredients coming from the restaurant’s own farms, Lasai serves standout snacks and dishes like a tartlet of chickpeas, avocado, ikura, cucumber and marigold leaf, and Jerusalem artichoke with cashew nuts, while the wine and cocktail lists are among the best in Brazil. Costa e Silva also recently opened Crypto Kitchen, where diners can pay with cryptocurrency.
No.57 Jordnær
Copenhagen
@restaurantjordnaer
Led by couple Tina and Eric Vildgaard, Jordnær is the place to be in Copenhagen for the finest seafood, from chunky langoustines with sea buckthorn and yuzu to turbot, king crab and a serious amount of caviar, one of Eric’s passions. Located inside a hotel, this isn’t your average hotel restaurant, with artful hospitality from Tina and a superlative wine list featuring top-marque Champagnes.
No.56 Sorn
Bangkok
@sornfinesouthern
The brainchild of chef Supaksorn ‘Ice’ Jongsiri, Sorn takes diners on a culinary trip through the ingredients, flavours and stories of Southern Thailand, with influence from ancestral recipes and techniques. In a beautifully restored Thai home, the restaurant has a series of dining rooms, each adorned with traditional and modern art, with menus featuring everything from river prawn with rambutan and salted egg to a family-style main of several curries (southern beef, crab, vegetable yellow curry) alongside an array of different sides and condiments.
No.55 Ernst
Berlin
@ernst.berlin
An eight-seat counter restaurant in Berlin’s Wedding neighbourhood, Ernst explores the regions and climates of Berlin and elsewhere in Europe, with Japanese-influenced cuisine and a focus on sourcing the best produce. Canadian chef Dylan Watson-Brawn serves a 25-course menu of plates such as raw cuttlefish with white peach and squash, and Austrian wagyu with beef fat and bone marrow. There’s also an excellent drinks pairing majoring on natural wines.
No.54 Alcalde
Guadalajara
@restalcalde
First entering Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants via the One To Watch Award in 2016, Paco Ruano’s restaurant in Guadalajara has steadily risen in popularity on the global gastronomic scene. Based on Ruano’s ‘frank’ Mexican cooking, Alcalde serves down-to-earth yet elegant fare such as green aguachile with prawn and apple, and octopus with Japanese aubergine. There are both à la carte and tasting menu options, and the setting is a stylish, warm, unpretentious space featuring plenty of wood and an open kitchen.
No.53 Brat
London
@bratrestaurant
A cult favourite in London, Brat is the home of Tomos Parry’s exquisite, Basque-inspired cuisine. At the heart of the restaurant in buzzy Shoreditch is the grill, where Parry and his team cook whole turbot and Mangalista pork chops. Must-try appetisers include the grilled bread with anchovies, and it’s practically criminal not to finish with the Basque burnt cheesecake. Later in 2023, Parry is set to expand his offering with a new wood grill and wine bar called Mountain in London’s Soho.
No.52 Hof Van Cleve
Kruishoutem
@hofvancleve
Inside a sleek space decorated with Belgian art, furniture and crockery, chef Peter Goossens serves a seven-course tasting menu showcasing the best of local produce, while his wife, Lieve, runs an immaculate dining room service. Previously a working farm, the restaurant in East Flanders has developed its reputation as a dining destination over the last 30 years, with guests travelling from all over to try Goossens’ creative dishes and flavour combinations, like caviar with young leek, shrimp and dashi. After a glittering career, the Goossens will retire at the end of 2023, leaving Hof Van Cleve in the hands of talented chef de cuisine Floris Van Der Veken.
No.51 Narisawa
Tokyo
@restaurantnarisawa
No.1 in the first ever Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2013, Narisawa has been a benchmark of Japanese cuisine for two decades, symbolising the finest of Tokyo dining experiences. At its helm is the deeply respected culinary wizard Yoshihiro Narisawa, who centres his cuisine around the traditional satoyama farming system of premodern Japan, which highlights flatland cultivation, husbandry of the nearby forests and hunting and foraging in the mountains. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023, Narisawa is undergoing a restaurant refresh, so get set for an even more beautiful dining experience.
The 21st edition of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will be announced on 20th June 2023 in Valencia. Tune in to the livestream of the awards ceremony on YouTube or Facebook from 20:40 local time. To stay up to date with the latest news and announcements ahead of the ceremony, browse the website, join the community on Instagram, find us on Facebook, visit us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube channel.