One of the culinary world’s most popular rankings, World’s 50 Best Restaurants returned this year after taking a pandemic-induced break in 2020. Three of Tokyo’s most renowned restaurants, all of which are Michelin-starred, are featured on the list.
Modern Japanese restaurant Den, known for its contemporary take on kaiseki traditions, is the highest-ranking Japanese restaurant on the list, at No 11. Narisawa followed suit at No 19 with its modernist cuisine influenced by Japanese, Chinese and French cooking. French-Japanese restaurant Florilège in Jingumae took the No 39 spot.
While the organisers set a new rule in 2019 excluding previous No 1 restaurants from reappearing on the annual list – they will be inducted into a separate ‘Best of the Best’ category instead – Noma took the top honours again this year after being named the No 1 Best Restaurant in the World in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. This is seemingly because the organisers considered this incarnation to be ‘Noma 2.0’, since Rene Redzepi closed the previous restaurant in 2016 and reopened it in its current Copenhagen location in Refshalevej 96 in 2018. For the full 2021 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, check the website here.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking is based on votes by over 1,000 judges. Even though there wasn’t a list for 2020, the votes that were cast last year were taken into consideration, along with an additional round of voting conducted earlier this year. However, for this year’s votes, judges could only evaluate the restaurants in their respective regions.
Aside from the top 50, World’s 50 Best also announced an addendum list of 50 more restaurants. Here, five restaurants in Japan made the cut, with four in Tokyo and one in Osaka:
51. Nihonryori RyuGin (Tokyo)
73. Il Ristorante Luca Fantin (Tokyo)
75. Sazenka (Tokyo)
76. La Cime (Osaka)
99. L'Effervescence (Tokyo)
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