Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek and La Colombe in Constantia have both been selected on to the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards list, being ranked in 37th and 38th position, respectively, reports Bloomberg. The awards were presented two days ago.
Top honours have once again gone to El Bulli on the Costa Brava, at which chef Ferran Adria is renowned for his unusual food preparation. He has held the top position for three years in a row. He recently visited Cape Town, and spoke about his passion for cooking.
Surprisingly Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck retained its second place for the fourth year running, after having closed for more than a month earlier this year when hundreds of its patrons became sick after eating at the restaurant.
Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants have shown a steady decline in the ranking on the Top 50 list, having come second in the inaugural year of the Top 50 list in 2002. Last year it was placed at 13th position, and this year only maze was on the list, at 91 st position. Ramsay opened his first African maze at the One&Only Cape Town earlier this month. His PR company’s comment about his poor performance this year was as follows: ” Gordon takes all these sorts of surveys with a pinch of salt. As always, Gordon regards his thousands of customers as his most valued critics. They are his judge and jury.”
Nobu, which has also opened in the One&Only Cape Town, came in at 34th position for its UK restaurant. Eight French restaurants are on the Top 50 list.
Noma in Copenhagen won third place, having been at tenth place last year, and its chef Rene Redzepi won the Chef’s Choice Award.
The restaurants ranked from 51st – 100th position are also revealed, and the Cape can be proud to have a further three restaurants on the top list, being Jardine at number 79, Aubergine at number 96 and Rust & Vrede in Stellenbosh at number 98. Jardine and Rust & Vrede are on the Eat Out Top Ten list, while Aubergine is not.
Given the South African elections taking place today, and a surefire win for the ANC, the restaurant Zuma in China, which made the 51st position, and the Zuma restaurant in London, which came in at number 92, may increase in popularity when Jacob Zuma becomes the President of South Africa next month.
The full list of top 100 restaurants, chosen by 837 food writers, critics and commentators, follows, with the change in position from the previous year indicated in brackets:
1 El Bulli, Spain (=) 2 The Fat Duck, U.K. (=) 3 Noma, Denmark (+7) 4 Mugaritz, Spain (=) 5 El Celler de Can Roca, Spain (+21) 6 Per Se, U.S. (=) 7 Bras, France (=) 8 Arzak, Spain (=) 9 Pierre Gagnaire, France (-6) 10 Alinea, U.S. (+11) 11 L'Astrance, France (=) 12 The French Laundry U.S. (-7) 13 Osteria Francescana, Italy (New Entry) 14 St. John, U.K. (+2) 15 Le Bernardin, U.S. (+5) 16 Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville, Switzerland (+11) 17 Tetsuya's, Australia (-8) 18 L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, France (-4) 19 Jean Georges, U.S. (-2) 20 Les Creations de Narisawa, Japan (New Entry) 21 Chez Dominique, Finland (+18) 22 Ristorante Cracco, Italy (+21) 23 Die Schwarzwaldstube, Germany (+12) 24 D.O.M., Brazil (+16) 25 Vendome, Germany (+9) 26 Hof van Cleve, Belgium (+2) 27 Masa, U.S., (Re-entry) 28 Gambero Rosso, Italy (-16) 29 Oud Sluis, Netherlands (+13) 30 Steirereck, Austria (New Entry) 31 Momofuku Ssam Bar, U.S. (New Entry) 32 Oaxen Skaergaardskrog, Sweden (+16) 33 Martin Berasategui, Spain (-4) 34 Nobu U.K. (-4) 35 Mirazur, France (New Entry) 36 Hakkasan, U.K. (-17) 37 Le Quartier Francais, South Africa (+13) 38 La Colombe, South Africa (Re-entry) 39 Asador Etxebarri, Spain (+5) 40 Le Chateaubriand, France (New Entry) 41 Daniel, U.S. (=) 42 Combal Zero, Italy (Re-entry) 43 Le Louis XV, France (-28) 44 Tantris, Germany (+3) 45 Iggy's, Singapore (New Entry) 46 Quay, Australia (New Entry) 47 Les Ambassadeurs, France (-2) 48 Dal Pescatore, Italy (-25) 49 Le Calandre, Italy (-13) 50 Mathias Dahlgren, Sweden (New Entry) 51 Zuma, China 52 Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, U.K. 53 Spondi, Greece 54 L'Arpege, France 55 L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, China 56 Hibiscus, U.K. 57 Aqua, Germany 58 Le Gavroche, U.K. 59 Chez Panisse, U.S. 60 Les Amis, Singapore 61 El Poblet, Spain 62 Maison Pic, France 63 Cafe Pushkin, Russia 64 Le Meurice, France 65 Bukhara, India 66 Varvari, Russia 67 Schauenstein, Germany 68 RyuGin, Japan 69 La Maison Troisgros, France 70 Wasabi, India 71 The River Cafe, U.K. 72 Enoteca Pinchiorri, Italy 73 Le Cinq, France 74 Allegro, Czech Republic 75 Quintessence, Japan 76 Restaurant Dieter Mueller, Germany 77 Geranium, Denmark 78 Caprice, China 79 Jardines, South Africa 80 Amador, Germany 81 Biko, Mexico 82 L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon U.S 83 Fasano, Brazil 84 Mozaic, Bali 85 Obauer, Austria 86 Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee, France 87 L'Ambroisie, France 88 Maison Boulud, China 89 De Librije, Netherlands 90 Babbo, U.S. 91 Maze, U.K. 92 Zuma, U.K. 93 Manresa, U.S. 94 Pier, Australia 95 De Karmeliet, Belgium 96 Aubergine, South Africa 97 Bo Innovation, China 98 Rust en Vrede, South Africa 99 Del Posto U.S. 100 Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire, UAE