These Are the World's 50 Best Restaurants for 2015

... plus how much dinner at the top 10 will set you back.

by Ryan Sutton Jun 1, 2015, 6:09pm EDT

Via The World's 50 Best Restaurants List (and Its Flaws), Explained [E] and All World's 50 Best Coverage [E]

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Spain's El Celler de Can Roca has again unseated Noma, Rene Redzepi's New Nordic establishment, for the coveted (if controversial) title of World's Best Restaurant 2015. The award, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, was announced tonight at a ceremony in London. The modernist El Celler, in Girona, Catalonia, first dethroned Noma from the number one spot in 2013. This time, Noma fell two places to no. 3 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, with Massimo Bottura's impossible-to-get-into Osteria Francescana in Modena advancing to no. 2. This is the lowest ranking that Noma has held since 2008.

The two highest-rated U.S. restaurants on the list both slipped in the rankings from their 2014 positions; Daniel Humm and Will Guidara's neo-classical American spot, Eleven Madison Park, fell one place to no. 5, while Grant Achatz's Alinea, America's most celebrated bastion of avant-garde gastronomy, with its helium filled taffy balloons, fell to no. 26, down from ninth place.

The year's biggest surprise was surely Moscow's White Rabbit (no. 23), signaling the return of Russia to the list. The venue, whose dining room is located under a glass dome, serves a tasting menu featuring products from Southern Russia and Crimea, which Vladimir Putin reclaimed from Ukraine in 2014. That menu costs 5,500 rubles, or about $102 USD. Another unexpected entry was Shanghai's Ultraviolet, signaling the return of mainland China to the top 50.

It was a good year for South America, occupying two spots in the top ten. Peru's Central, with its high-low-altitude tastings, came in at no. 4; the wildly varying elevations the ingredients are harvested from are listed next to each course. And Alex Atala's DOM in Sao Paolo, which focuses on the indigenous bounty of Brazil and the Amazon, came in at No. 9. The addition of Maido to the list (No. 44), a Japanese-Peruvian fusion spot in Lima, as well as Borago, Rodolfo Guzman's tasting menu venue in Santiago, Chile (No. 42), brings the South America tally to six, a full 12 percent of the list.

There were no new female chefs in this year's list; that number remained at two — or four percent of the list — with Spain's Elena Arzak placing at no. 17 for her three Michelin-starred restaurant in San Sebastian (down from no. 8 last year), and Brazil's Helena Rizzo coming in at no. 41 for Mani in Sao Paolo. There was also no Indian or Middle Eastern representation on this year's list, and the only restaurant to make the list from Africa was the Test Kitchen, an internationally-inclined venue from Cape Town that serves foie gras, duck confit, and Mozambique langoustines.

This year's voting process was adjudicated by the global consulting firm Deloitte. Members, which include food writers, gastronomes, and chefs and restaurateurs in equal parts, are required to have dined in restaurants they vote for within the past 18 months. And while many professional critics and Michelin inspectors are required to pay for their meals for reasons of objectivity and journalistic integrity, "the World's 50 Best Restaurants places no restrictions on whether voters of the Diners Club® Academy pay for their meals or how they pay for travel to restaurants outside or inside of their territory," group editor of the 50 Best guide William Drew told Eater in an emailed statement this morning.

Included below is the cost, in local currency (as well as USD), of dinner tasting menus (i.e. five or more courses) at the World's 50 Best Restaurants. In the case of the a la carte Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, we added the prices of the highest and lowest priced starters, mains, and desserts, and created a range. Many of the prices below, for Europe especially, account for service or tip, but some of those prices — particularly in the U.S. — do not account for such supplementary costs.

Here's the full list: