The 2011 World's 50 Best Restaurants

[Jeanette]

The 2011 World's 50 Best Restaurants are...

Restaurant magazine and S. Pellegrino's annual "World's 50 Best Restaurants" list was released on Monday at an awards ceremony in London's Guildhall - and it seems the Danes have done it again.

The number one spot goes to Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark for the second year straight.

Last year's top ranking catapulted Noma and chef René Redzepi's Nordic cuisine into the international culinary spotlight. According to Redzepi, the day after the list came out in 2010, Noma received more than 100,000 requests for a table.

The top honor is just another indication it's been a delicious year for the small European country. Denmark also beat out 23 other countries to take home gold in the 2011 Bocuse d'Or cooking competition - often referred to as the "culinary Olympics."

One visible omission from the list is the five-time "World's Best Restaurant," elBulli. Chef Ferran Adrià withdrew himself and the storied molecular gastronomy restaurant from the awards because elBulli will serve its last meal as a restaurant on July 30, 2011. It will reopen as a nonprofit "think-tank for creative cuisine and gastronomy" in 2014.


The notable list, now in its tenth year, is compiled by The World's 50 Best Restaurants Academy - an 837 member panel of the world's food and drink glitterati - including celebrated chefs, food writers, restaurateurs and other influential industry experts.

“The original aim still stands, that is to promote and celebrate brilliant restaurants,” said Restaurant magazine editor, William Drew.

Six of the restaurants crowned this year - Alinea in Chicago, Illinois; Daniel, Per Se, Le Bernardin, Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Eleven Madison Park (up 26 spots from 2010) in New York - are on American soil. D.O.M. in Brazil jumped from number 18 to number 8, making it the only South American restaurant to grace the top ten. The highest climber, Nihonryori RyuGin, moved up 28 spots.

Here is the full list:

1) Noma (Copenhagen, Denmark)

2) El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain)

3) Mugaritz (Errenteria, Spain)

4) Osteria Francescana (Modena, Italy)

5) The Fat Duck (Bray, England)

6) Alinea (Chicago, Illinois)

7) D.O.M. (São Paolo, Brazil)

8) Arzak (San Sebastián, Spain)

9) Le Chateaubriand (Paris, France)

10) Per Se (New York)

11) Daniel (New York)

12) Les Créations de Narisawa (Tokyo, Japan)

13) L'Astrance (Paris, France)

14) L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (Paris, France)

15) Hof Van Cleve (Kruishoutem, Belgium)

16) Pierre Gagnaire (Paris, France)

17) Oud Sluis (Sluis, Netherlands)

18) Le Bernardin (New York)

19) L'Arpege (Paris, France)

20) Nihonryori RyuGin (Tokyo, Japan)

21) Vendôme (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany)

22) Steirereck (Vienna, Austria)

23) Schloss Schauenstein (Fürstenau, Switzerland)

24) Eleven Madison Park (New York)

25) Aqua (Bath, England)

26) Quay Restaurant (Sydney, Australia)

27) Iggy's (Singapore)

28) Combal Zero (Rivoli, Italy)

29) Martín Berasategui (Lasarte-Oria, Spain)

30) Bras (Laguiole, France)

31) Biko (Mexico City, Mexico)

32) Le Calandre (Rubano, Italy)

33) Il Ristorante Cracco (Milan, Italy)

34) The Ledbury (London, England)

35) Chez Dominique (Helsinki, Finland)

36) Le Quartier Français (Franschhoek, South Africa)

37) Amber (Hong Kong, China)

38) Dal Pescatore (Mantova, Italy)

39) Il Canto (Siena, Italy)

40) Momofuku Ssäm Bar (New York)

41) St. John (London, England)

42) Astrid y Gastón (Lima, Perú)

43) Hibiscus (London, England)

44) La Maison Troisgros (Roanne, France)

45) Alain Ducasse Au Plaza Athénée (Paris, France)

46) De Librije (Zwolle, Netherlands)

47) Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville (Crissier, Switzerland)

48) Varvary (Moscow, Russia)

49) Pujol (Mexico City, Mexico)

50) Asador Etxebarri (Atxondo-Bizkaia, Spain)

 

[Rosemary]

I have been to one for lunch! Number 40. I wandered in by myself last year, clueless. And bully for elBulli for withdrawing. Ethics are beautiful.

 

[JEK]

24 many times!

 

[Rosemary]

24s menu format has intrigued me.

 

[Dennis]

I live within walking distance of #6.

I wonder if they take walk ins?

 

[Petri]

#35 ! A nine course "Icelandic Dust" for $100, not a bad deal. CD runs a wed-fri lunch menu for 27-29 € (2-3 course), one of the best deals one can find in such a highly ranked restaurants.


Noma is a weird place but it's part of the reason why it's consistently at the top. They're not french, not molecular, and not really even scandinavian although they use plenty of nordic ingredients. They're different..

The first snack are the flowers on the table, with a swedish snail.

I don't "get" the food compared to a nice neighborhood bistro but it's more about the experience, like comparing Cirque Soleil and a sporting event.

 

[JEK]

I live within walking distance of #6.

I wonder if they take walk ins?

I seen to remember a former poster buzzed in there from time to time.

 

[Dennis]

I live within walking distance of #6.

I wonder if they take walk ins?

I seen to remember a former poster buzzed in there from time to time.

He was swatted away.

 

[nicholas]

answer on 6 is no.but great if you like your pheasent served on a burning maple branch.

 

[JEK]

24s menu format has intrigued me.

Years after we were there my kids still talk about one thing -- the butters!

The ordinary shines when you least expect it. For example, the most memorable part of a recent meal at Eleven Madison Park was the bread and butter. By that I don’t mean to diminish the rest of the meal. It’s just that the bread course was particularly notable.


It arrived between a series of amuse bouches and the first course. (That way, as the chef Daniel Humm later explained, it’s a thoughtful presentation of tastes rather than a filler at the beginning of the meal.) Two small silver servers filled with a sweet yellow cow’s milk butter, Beurremont from Vermont, and a goat’s milk butter, Meyenberg from California, were placed before us. The goat’s milk butter was like nothing I’d tasted: as white as lard, with a tangy flavor of barnyard goat cheese and the soft, creamy texture of butter.

The folks at Patches of Star Dairy, makers of goat cheese in Pennsylvania, informed me that goat’s milk butter is less common because goat’s milk is naturally homogenized. As a result, the cream doesn’t rise to the top like cow’s milk. Extracting the cream solids from the milk requires a costly centrifuge.

A few days later at Zabar’s, I spotted Meyenberg’s goat’s milk butter. It’s not one of those impossible-to-find chef ingredients. At $5.98 for 8 ounces, though, it is pricey — best for an occasional indulgence. Take Eleven Madison’s lead: the butter tastes better when served in a silver vessel with a delicious ficelle.

 

[rivertrash]

18 -- my favorite restaurant. Period.