The 50 best restaurants in the world

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards are the Oscars of the food industry. To make this list is the pinnacle of success for both chefs and wait staff.

As restaurants faced an uncertain future in 2020, the awards took a hiatus. But a brighter outlook saw their return in 2021 with a ceremony and after-party in Antwerp on October 5.

This year the top two restaurants on the list are both in Copenhagen: Noma and Geranium.

Watch the reaction as Noma is named the best restaurant in the world.

What an incredible moment for us all in Copenhagen.

We are so happy and proud of our team being voted the no. 1 restaurant in the world. #Worlds50Best pic.twitter.com/v0mH09WdaW
— restaurant noma (@nomacph) October 5, 2021

It’s important to note that the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards changed the rules in 2019 to render previous winners ineligible for the list. That might have excluded Noma. Danish chef René Redzepi’s three-Michelin star restaurant opened in Copenhagen’s in 2003 and took the top spot on the list in 2010.

However, the restaurant shut in 2016 and opened in a new location two years later, making it once again eligible.

The rule did exclude Eleven Madison Park in New York, The Fat Duck near London, Italy’s Osteria Francescana, and Mirazur in Menton, France.

The winners of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants now compete for the “best of the best” awards, which Noma will now enter.

No Australian or New Zealand restaurants made the cut.

Members of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, comprising more than 1000 international restaurant industry experts, with a 50/50 gender balance determine the list each year. The members include food writers, chefs, restaurateurs and well-travelled gourmets and each person has 10 votes.