Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants: Winners Announced for 2018

Today, the restaurant-ranking World’s 50 Best organization announced its list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. For the fourth year in a row, Gaggan Anand’s eponymous Bangkok restaurant takes the no. 1 spot. The winning streak won’t last forever: Anand plans to close in 2020 to focus on some new projects.

The list comes from the same organization responsible for the annual World’s 50 Best restaurants list. But, that ranking tends to favor European restaurants, and the organization highlights establishments that are often overlooked with its region-specific lists for both Asia and Latin America.

In this year’s Asia 50 Best list, Den in Tokyo moved up from no. 11 into the second place position, replacing Singapore’s Restaurant André, which closed in February. Florilège, a French tasting menu restaurant in Tokyo; Sühring, a German restaurant in Bangkok; and Singapore restaurant Odette, which won the “Highest New Entry Award” last year, round out the top five.

This year, Osaka restaurant La Cime, which serves French cuisine prepared with Japanese ingredients, won that “Highest New Entry” designation, making its first appearance on the list at no. 17. Elsewhere, there was a fair amount of movement. Hong Kong’s 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana dropped to no. 13 from no. 4, and Nahm, which once held the top spot, fell to no. 10 from no. 5 last year.

The World’s 50 Best organization is consistently criticized for failing to include women in its fine-dining rankings and for creating a separate award for “best female chef.” In 2018, Asia’s Best Female Chef, Bee Satongun, is one of just two women to be included on the list at all. Her Bangkok restaurant Paste debuted on at no. 31 this year. Duangporn “Bo” Songvisava shares the award for Bo.Lan, at no. 37, with her husband Dylan “Lan” Jones. The striking gender ratio is exactly the same as last year when Bo.Lan appeared at no. 19 and Taiwan restaurant Le Mout, led by chef Lanshu Chen, was at no. 28.

Here, now, the full list:

No. 1 GAGGAN, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 2. DEN, Tokyo, Japan
No. 3 FLORILEGE, Tokyo, Japan
No. 4 SUHRING, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 5 ODETTE, Singapore
No. 6 NARISAWA, Tokyo, Japan
No. 7 AMBER, Hong Kong, China
No. 8 ULTRAVIOLET BY PAUL PAIRET, Shanghai, China
No. 9 NIHONRYORI RYUGIN, Tokyo, Japan
No. 10 NAHM, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 11 MINGLES, Seoul, Korea
No. 12 BURNT ENDS, Singapore
No. 13 8 1/2 OTTO E MEZZO BOMBANA, Hong Kong, China
No. 14 LE DU, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 15 RAW, Taipei, Taiwan | Best Restaurant in Taiwan
No. 16 TA VIE, Hong Kong, China
No. 17 LA CIME, Osaka, Japan
No. 18 MUME, Taipei, Taiwan
No. 19 INDIAN ACCENT, New Delhi, India
No. 20 L’EFFERVESCENCE, Tokyo, Japan
No. 21 LOCAVORE, Bali, Indonesia
No. 22 THE CHAIRMAN, Hong Kong, China
No. 23 WAKU GHIN, Singapore
No. 24 LUNG KING HEEN, Hong Kong, China
No. 25 MINISTRY OF CRAB, Colombo, Sri Lanka
No. 26 JUNGSIK, Seoul, Korea
No. 27 SUSHI SAITO, Tokyo, Japan
No. 28 IL RISTORANTE LUCA FANTIN, Tokyo, Japan
No. 29 LES AMIS, Singapore
No. 30 FU HE HUI, Shanghai, China
No. 31 PASTE, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 32 NEIGHBORHOOD, Hong Kong, China
No. 33 EAT ME,Bangkok, Thailand
No. 34 HAJIME, Osaka, Japan
No. 35 JADE DRAGON, Macau, China
No. 36 CORNER HOUSE, Singapore
No. 37 BO.LAN, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 38 QUINTESSENCE, Tokyo, Japan
No. 39 ISSAYA SIAMESE CLUB, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 40 Belon, Hong Kong
No. 41 RONIN, Hong Kong, China
No. 42 TOC TOC, Seoul, Korea
No. 43 THE DINING ROOM AT THE HOUSE OF SATHORN, Bangkok, Thailand
No. 44 JAAN, Singapore
No. 45 NIHONBASHI, Colombo, Sri Lanka
No. 46 CAPRICE, Hong Kong, China
No. 47 SHOUN RYUGIN, Taipei, Taiwan
No. 48 LA MAISON DE LA NATURE GOH, Fukuoka, Japan
No. 49 WASABI BY MORIMOTO, Mumbai, India
No. 50 WHITEGRASS, Singapore