The world's best restaurants revealed

Spain's El Celler de Can Roca steps back into the number one position in annual top 50 list.

Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca has been crowned the world's best restaurant for 2015 by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. El Celler claims the top spot back from Copenhagen's Noma, which dropped two places to third in the annual list compiled by industry experts.

In second place came Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal dropped two places to seventh, with its London counterpart The Ledbury dropping 10 places to number 20. They are the only UK restaurants in this year's top 50.

Here's this year's top 10 in reverse order.

10) Gaggan

A graduate of the legendary El Bulli in Spain, Indian chef Gaggan Anand uses the very modern molecular gastronomy (think dry ice and foam) to add a new twist to classic Indian dishes from his home city of Kolkata. However, you’ll find his restaurant in Bangkok.

Signature dish: Free-range lamb chops, sous-vide, grilled and finished with green herb oil

9) D.O.M.

Brazilian DJ turned chef Alex Atala regularly forages in the Amazon for ingredients for his São Paulo restaurant. For example, one of the things you might see on the menu now is priprioca, a root that was only previously used in the cosmetics industry.

Signature dish: Palm heart fettuccine with mushrooms

8) Narisawa

Yoshihiro Narisawa’s Tokyo restaurant blends unusual Japanese ingredients such as sea snake with French influences and encourages diners to experience its food with all five senses. Its wine list also showcases the very best of Japanese wine.

Signature dish: Bread of the forest 2001 (bread fermented and baked at the table using candelight)

7) Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Heston’s fine dining establishment in central London hasn’t received as much press as the Fat Duck but Ashley Palmer-Watts has quietly got on with the job of celebrating 600 years of British food with fascinating modern reinventions.

Signature dish: Meat fruit (a ball of chicken liver parfait encased in mandarin jelly)

6) Mugaritz

There is no menu at this restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain. Instead, chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, who also trained at the legendary El Bulli, presents 24 dishes tailored to diners’ desires, often including edible cutlery and table centrepieces.

Signature dish: Ice shreds, scarlet shrimp perfume

5) Eleven Madison Park

Another restaurant praised for its imaginative menu, this New York establishment features a ‘Name that Milk’ dessert, where diners are given four chocolate bars and asked to identify which animal supplied the milk for each. This was cited as just one example of how they put “the fun into fine dining”.

Signature dish: Honey lavender duck with apple and rutabaga

4) Central

“Chef Virgilio Martinez has taken Peruvian cuisine to a whole new extreme elevation” the judges said about this restaurant in Lima. Ingredients include cushuro, a caviar-like bacteria found in the mountains after rain; tunta, a tuber; and airampo, a member of the cactus family.

Signature dish: Octopus in purple coal

3) Noma

The 2014 winner, revered for its use of unusual ingredients including pine and moss, slips to third place this time around, but head chef René Redzepi and his team still do the most incredible things with both local and global foods.

Signature dish: Sweet shrimps wrapped in ramson leaves

2) Osteria Francescana

Run by Massimo Bottura, who you may remember from this year’s MasterChef, Osteria Francescana is found in Modena, Italy. It features imaginative dishes inspired by both Italian food classics and artworks and music.

Signature dish: The crunchy part of the lasagne (triangles of Parmigiano-Reggiano and spinach pasta on top of two spoonfuls of ragu and bechamel with a slither of tomato terrine)

1) El Celler de Can Roca

Run by the Rica brothers Joan (head chef), Jordi (pastry chef) and Josep (sommelier) in Girona, Spain, the judges said it “has never forgotten its humble roots, its familial warmth or the need to serve remarkably delicious dishes and outstanding wines.”

Signature dish: Mackerel with pickles and mullet roe

You can see the full list at The World's 50 Best Restaurants website

Have you eaten at any of these restaurants? Do you think this list gets it right? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.

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