Rank | Restaurant | Country |
| 1 | Noma - is best known for its fanatical approach to foraging but there is much more to this ground-breaking restaurant than the mere picking of Mother Nature's pocket. | Denmark |
| 2 | El Celler De Can Roca - is possibly the least well-known restaurant to have ever held the much-vaunted number-two spot on the list, a quirk which, far from being a hindrance, has allowed the three brothers Roca to get on with what they do best. Their 'emotional cuisine' with different ingredients and combinations can trigger childhood memories or take you back to a specific place in your past. | Spain
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| 3
| Mugaritz - has two dégustation menus that change daily according to what chef Andoni Luis Aduriz can get his hands on at the street markets and what's growing in the restaurant's herb garden. | Spain
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| 4 | Osteria Francescana - Much of the food at Osteria Francescana takes its inspiration from the art world, but this is only half the story. | Italy |
| 5 | The Fat Duck - Heston Blumenthal's world-famous, but still tiny restaurant in Bray, has blazed a trail for experimental cooking in this country, but one of its enduring features is also that it is brilliant fun. Sure, guests' sensory perceptions are challenged, their notion of possibility expanded, but never in a po-faced way. | UK |
| 6
| Alinea - represents one of the most radical re-imaginings of fine food by any chef in American history and has propelled Grant Achatz to chef superstardom. | USA
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| 7
| D.O.M - has become a priority destination for all globe-hopping gastronomes, not that chef Alex Atala is resting on his laurels. Instead he scours the Amazon to pepper his with indigenous ingredients, from the staple manioc tuber and its tupuci juice to Amazonian herbs and the huge white-fleshed pirarucu fish to ensure his restaurant is unlike any other on the list. | Brazil
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| 8
| Arzak - If you like your food pretty, this is the place. Father-and-daughter team Juan Mari Arzak and Elena Arzak Espina's plates look fantastic: striking, colourful and imaginative, yet for the most part unfussy. | Spain
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| 9
| Le Chateaubriand - It's hard not to be excited by Le Chateaubriand. It is effortlessly cool, understated yet accomplished, democratic, affordable and, perhaps most importantly, fun. Its lack of airs and graces – hard chairs and bare tables, the take-it-or-leave-it five-course fixed-price menu and the championing of natural wines – is not to everyone's tastes, but Le Chateaubriand doesn't really care. | France
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| 10
| Per Se - Thomas Keller's "urban interpretation” of his French Laundry in California, has changed its menu every day of its nearly eight years – that's something like 30,000 different dishes, some re-introduced from prior seasons but continuously refined. | USA
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| 11
| Daniel - Boulud's desire to meld unexpected ingredients and create dishes you won't see on any other menu make for one of Manhattan's most exquisite eating-out experiences, with nothing is beyond the Frenchman's imagination. Today his restaurant empire is blossoming, with opening across the world, but for a true taste of the Lyonnaise lion, to Manhattan you must go. | USA
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| 12
| Les Creations de Narisawa - Much has been made of the fact that the first Japanese restaurant to make this list has a distinct French accent, but chef-owner Yoshihiro Narisawa is not just producing Gallic haute cuisine with a Pacific edge. | Japan
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| 13
| L'Astrance - Pascal Barbot opened L'Astrance after making his name at Alain Passard's L'Arpège. That was back in 2000, and since then he has built up a serious reputation and is now regarded as one of the most innovative and distinct chefs in France. There's no menu as such – just tell him what you can't or won't eat and he'll prepare a bespoke succession of wildly creative dishes. | France
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| 14
| L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - With its emphasis on conviviality, L'Atelier moved Joël Robuchon from fine dining into fun dining. Interaction between diners – seated at a sushi-bar – and chefs, who performed in an open-plan kitchen, was encouraged and kitchen theatre quickly became the rage. That the original remains so popular is largely the result of Eric Lecerf and Philippe Braun, two of Robuchon's most trusted lieutenants, who man the Parisian fort while Robuchon trots the globe. | France
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| 15
| Hof van Cleve - Chef-patron Peter Goossens lives and breathes local produce, and a meal at Hof van Cleve shows both the considerable extent of his regional larder and his talent at exploiting it. Fish and shellfish feature prominently, suiting Goossens' style of cuisine, in which he highlights freshness of flavour and reminds you of the source of your food. That said, he's no one-region pony and has an increasing interest in Asian cuisine. | Belgium
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