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Four Japanese restaurants have stormed the annual ‘guide of guide’ La Liste with two sharing the top-ranked spot, one in second and one in ninth place.
They say that 2019 was the year that Japanese cuisine conquered the world of fine dining and this is confirmed by the 2020 La Liste ranking. News of the ranking broke on Les Echos ahead of La Liste 1000 being formalised at a ceremony in Paris on December 2nd.
The annual restaurant ranking, which is known as being very French centric, maintained Guy Savoy Monnaie de Paris and Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin at the top of the list, but the top spot, with a score of 99.5, is shared with Tokyo restaurants Nihonryori Ryugin by chef Seiji Yamamoto (pictured above) and Sugalabo, by chef Yosuke Suga, which gained the same score.
Ripert and Savoy, exchanged places from last year’s La Liste putting them in number one and two respectively. However innovative Japanese restaurant Ryugin in the Japanese capital run by chef Seiji Yamamoto jumped 30 places to also reach the shared number one spot.
The other Tokyo star, Sugalabo, which has only 20 tables, does not even have a Michelin star and didn’t even feature in La Liste 2019 edition, stormed into top place alomgside esteemed company.
South African Chantel Dartnall at Mosaic in Pretoria, was one of the few women to have made her way into the list
Fourth place was shared by Alain Passard’s L'Arpège, Paris, Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV, Monaco, Martín Berasategui, Lasarte-Oria, Sushi Saito, Tokyo and Mauro Colagreco’s Mirazur. Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant shared fifth place.
Japan (130) and China (126) have the greatest share of the best restaurants in the world according to the ranking, China’s rise is explained in part by the high number of restaurants in the country and the boom in local guides. France comes in third with 116 and the United States in fourth with 113.
Italian food is still the most popular on the planet after Japanese cooking, said La Liste's co-founder Jorg Zipprick, according to what was being cooked in the 20,000 establishments on La Liste's database.
La Liste - Top 10 Restaurants in the World 2020
- Guy Savoy Monnaie de Paris / France (Paris) / Chef: Guy Savoy / Score: 99.5
- Le Bernardin / USA (New York) / Chef: Eric Ripert / Score: 99.5
- Nihonryori Ryugin / Japan (Tokyo) / Chef: Seiji Yamamoto / Score: 99.5
- Sugalabo / Japan (Tokyo) / Chef: Yosuke Suga / Score: 99.5
- Kitcho Arashiyama / Japan (Kyoto) / Chef: Kunio Tokuoka / Score: 99
- Arpège / France (Paris) / Chef: Alain Passard / Score: 99
- Louis XV - Alain Ducasse / Monaco / Chef: Alain Ducasse / Score: 99
- Martín Berasategui / Spain (Lasarte-Oria) / Chef: Martin Berasategui / Score: 99
- Sushi Saito / Japan (Minato-ku) / Chef: Takashi Saito / Score: 99
- Mirazur / France (Menton) / Chef: Mauro Colagreco / Score 99
