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.

Contact us at letters@time.com.