These Are the 10 Best Restaurants in the World

Correction appended, Dec. 14

What’s the greatest restaurant in the world? Top chefs and those who fork over their fortunes to eat their food are fascinated with the question. Now a new ranking has emerged to provide some extra fodder to the debate.

According to La Liste, a group convened by the France’s Foreign Minister and supported by the country’s tourism board, the top restaurant in the world is the Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, Switzerland. New York City’s Per Se has grabbed the number two spot, according to the new ranking. Tokyo’s Kyo Aji comes in third.

The ranking’s creators shared their global top 10 and top 100 American restaurants with TIME.

Top 10 Best Restaurants in the World

RANK LA LISTE SCORE RESTAURANT LOCATION 1 82.35 Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville Switzerland, Crissier 2 82.30 Per Se United States, New York 3 82.00 Kyo Aji Japan, Tokyo 4 81.44 Guy Savoy France, Paris 5 81.37 Schauenstein Switzerland, Fürstenau 6 81.17 El Celler de Can Roca Spain, Girona 7 79.88 Kyubey Japan, Tokyo 8 79.81 Maison Troisgros France, Roanne 9 79.80 Auberge du Vieux Puits France, Fontjoncouse 10 79.77 Joël Robuchon Japan, Yebisu Garden Place

American Restaurants Ranked

U.S. RANK RANK LA LISTE LA LISTE SCORE RESTAURANT CITY STATE 1 2 82.30 Per Se New York NY 2 20 77.44 Le Bernardin New York NY 3 51 74.53 Jean-Georges New York NY 4 241 68.83 Eleven Madison Park New York NY 5 268 68.29 Joël Robuchon Las Vegas NV 6 275 68.17 Saison San Francisco CA 7 282 68.05 The Restaurant at Meadowood St Helena CA 8 307 67.37 Atera New York NY 9 312 67.31 The French Laundry Yountville CA 10 322 67.12 Daniel New York NY 11 333 66.95 Grace Chicago IL 12 343 66.76 Alinea Chicago IL 13 373 66.12 42 Grams Chicago GA 14 402 65.47 Benu San Francisco CA 15 435 64.78 Manresa Los Gatos CA 16 447 64.50 Melisse Santa Monica CA 17 459 64.24 Ichimura New York NY 18 464 64.15 Blanca New York NY 19 474 63.74 Momofuku Ko New York NY 20 507 62.82 Masa New York NY 21 511 62.68 Del Posto New York NY 22 533 62.21 Guy Savoy Las Vegas NV 23 535 62.19 NAOE Miami FL 24 553 61.74 Kyo Ya New York NY 25 554 61.73 Studio Laguna Beach CA 26 555 61.58 The Inn at Little Washington Dining Room Washington VA 27 559 61.50 Sushi Nakazawa New York NY 28 560 61.47 Sushi Yasuda New York NY 29 563 61.42 Cafe Boulud New York NY 30 566 61.33 The Modern New York NY 31 583 60.84 Jungsik New York NY 32 585 60.77 Aquavit New York NY 33 601 60.26 Sixteen Chicago IL 34 604 60.22 Coi San Francisco CA 35 614 60.03 Quince San Francisco CA 36 620 59.81 Boulevard San Francisco CA 37 622 59.79 Twist by Pierre Gagnaire Las Vegas NV 38 630 59.63 Bouley New York NY 39 633 59.56 Menton Boston MA 40 638 59.52 Acquerello San Francisco AL 41 644 59.39 Chef’s Table Brooklyn Fare New York NY 42 659 58.94 Babbo New York NY 43 676 58.59 Marea New York NY 44 681 58.49 Blue Hill New York NY 45 685 58.41 Ai Fiori New York NY 46 688 58.37 Dovetail New York NY 47 694 58.27 Betony New York NY 48 695 58.27 Gramercy Tavern New York NY 49 721 57.77 Baumé San Francisco CA 50 724 57.65 Picasso Las Vegas NV 51 732 57.47 Fiola Washington DC 52 733 57.46 Nomad New York NY 53 735 57.40 Gary Danko San Francisco CA 54 742 57.22 Atelier Crenn San Francisco CA 55 770 56.40 Cosme New York NY 56 775 56.33 Gotham Bar and Grill New York NY 57 795 56.06 Frasca Food and Wine Boulder CO 58 805 55.83 Auberge du Soleil Restaurant Rutherford CA 59 812 55.63 Chef Mavro Honolulu 60 814 55.61 Carbone New York NY 61 815 55.58 August New Orleans LA 62 821 55.47 Husk Charleston SC 63 824 55.43 Annisa New York NY 64 826 55.42 Everest Chicago IL 65 832 55.30 Craft New York NY 66 833 55.28 L’Espalier Boston MA 67 843 55.16 Tru Chicago IL 68 848 55.01 Blue Hill at Stone Barns Tarrytown NY 69 853 54.91 Michael Mina San Francisco CA 70 854 54.88 Providence Los Angeles CA 71 866 54.34 Bâtard New York NY 72 868 54.28 L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Las Vegas NV 73 875 54.17 Bacchanalia Atlanta GA 74 879 54.08 Clio Boston MA 75 886 54.00 Chez Panisse Berkeley CA 76 887 53.98 Victoria & Albert’s Orlando FL 77 893 53.76 Esca New York NY 78 894 53.75 Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek Dallas TX 79 901 53.61 Patina Los Angeles CA 80 902 53.57 Colicchio & Sons New York NY 81 903 53.56 Brushstroke New York NY 82 909 53.47 minibar by José Andres Washington DC 83 912 53.40 Le Cirque New York NY 84 914 53.35 La Belle Vie Minneapolis MN 85 920 53.18 Soto New York NY 86 930 52.79 Le Cirque Las Vegas NV 87 933 52.75 Chefs Club by Food & Wine Aspen CO 88 935 52.60 Fore Street Portland ME 89 939 52.50 Dining Room at Blantyre Lenox MA 90 949 52.35 Alizé Las Vegas NV 91 951 52.30 Campton Place Restaurant San Francisco CA 92 957 52.17 Commander’s Palace New Orleans LA 93 962 51.94 Cut by Wolfgang Puck (Beverly Hills) Beverly Hills CA 94 963 51.85 Wallse New York NY 95 979 50.83 Ame restaurant San Francisco CA 96 982 50.73 Fearing’s Dallas TX 97 984 50.36 Cafe Boulud Palm Beach Palm Beach FL 98 987 50.13 Blackbird Chicago IL 99 989 49.74 Andrea’s Las Vegas NV 100 993 49.45 Geronimo Santa Fe NM 101 1,000 48.95 Lemaire Richmond VA

Devoted five-star diners will note that only one restaurant in La Liste’s top 10 can be found on the current leading ranking of top restaurants, the World’s 50 Best list. And there’s good reason. No French restaurant has broken into the top 10 of that list, sponsored by water-maker San Pellegrino, in the last four years. La Liste featured three French restaurants in its top ten. France’s exclusion from the upper rungs of the World’s 50 Best has angered leading French cultural figures proud of their country’s culinary tradition. Partly in response to this disappointment, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius launched the new initiative to promote French tourism and fine dining.

“The angle was not to promote French [restaurants] per se,” says La Liste’s Antoine Ribaut, “but to be objective, because we trust we have the good fine dining.” Ribaut says the World’s 50 Best list is not objective. Several media outlets have pointed out that the lack of transparency does raise questions about how that list, sponsored by San Pellegrino, is decided. (Ribaut has consulted for Time Inc. His father Jean-Claude, the long-time food critic for Le Monde, contributed to the project.)

“Given that this list is based on personal experiences it can never be definitive, but we believe it is an honourable survey of current tastes and a credible indicator of the best places to eat around the globe,” the World’s 50 Best says on the organization’s web site.

“The thing with 50 Best is that the French were underrepresented, for sure,” Antoine Ribaut says, “but the reason why they were underrepresented was because there was a murky financial pressure for restaurants.” The funding for La Liste, it should be noted, came largely from private French cultural institutions. Swiss food giant Nestle is also a supporter.

Unlike the World’s 50 Best list, which is drawn from private surveys of chefs and those who frequent leading restaurants, La Liste is sourced from publicly available data, aggregating scores from 200 food guides and online review sites to produce what it hopes will be seen as an accurate, unbiased report of the best in the world.

The ranking is based on scores and reviews from a wide range of international sources: Michelin stars, yes, but also New York Times and Washington Post reviews, Zagat and Yelp ratings, Forbes and AAA travel guides and James Beard awards in the U.S., plus the cultural equivalents of these institutions in other countries (with help from foreign advisers).

Ribaut and his team then created an algorithm to assign these scores a value on a scale of 100; food factored in as 80% of the score, while ambiance, décor and wine combined factored in as 20%. If there was a positive review that didn’t include a numeric score, Ribaut counted it as a small bonus.

The full list of 1000 restaurants will be released Thursday at LaListe.com.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the location of Manresa; it is in Los Gatos, Calif.