
Four restaurants from Japan earn spots on World's 50 Best list
In Tokyo,French restaurant Sezanne earned the No, 7 spot, climbing eight places from its previous position of No. 15 in 2024, while Narisawa returned to the top 50 club at No. 21 after being ranked at 56 last year. Florilege , which previously ranked No. 21, fell to No. 36
Modern French eatery La Cime in Osaka also fared well, jumping from No. 66 to No. 44 in this year's rankings.
This year's top honor went to Maido , a Lima-based restaurant run by chef-owner Mitsuharu Tsumura. The eatery, which specializes in Nikkei cuisine, was ranked No.5 on the 2024 list.
In a press statement, William Drew, director of content for The World's 50 Best Restaurants, said Tsumara 'demonstrated remarkable dedication, seamlessly incorporating Japanese techniques with traditional Peruvian ingredients to create dishes that captivate and surprise diners.'
Lima-based Maido, run by chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, is the winner of this year's best restaurant accolade. |
WORLD'S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS 2025
With six restaurants cited on the list, Bangkok emerged as the city with the most entries, underscoring the Thai capital's growing influence in the culinary world: Gaggan , which was crowned this year's top restaurant at the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards, was ranked No. 6. Thai fine diner Sorn captured the No. 17 position, while Thai-Chinese fine dining restaurant Potong earned the Highest New Entry award, debuting at an impressive 13th place. German restaurant Suhring landed itself at No. 22, while modern Thai eateries Le Du and Nusara claimed 30th and 35th spots respectively.
Other notable entries from Asia on the top 50 list include Hong Kong's Wing (No. 11) and The Chairman (No. 19), Singapore's Odette (No. 25) and Seoul's Mingles (No. 29).
Meanwhile, South America's restaurants continue to demonstrate their rising clout, with four of the top 10 entries comprising restaurants from the region: Mexico City's Quintonil and Lima's Kjolle improved on their previous rankings, climbing from No. 7 to No. 3, and No. 16 to No. 9, respectively. Buenos Aires' Don Julio kept its No. 10 position.
'This year's list celebrates culinary excellence across 22 territories, with 10 new entries making the 1-to-50 rankings,' Drew added, 'underscoring the growing global appreciation for diversity, creativity and excellence in hospitality.'
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The works are arranged not only on stands but emerge from the walls and sway from the ceiling using transparent strands. 'We've done many architecture exhibitions at Mori Art Museum,' says museum director Mami Kataoka, 'but we wanted to do something different than just displaying models and drawings.' 'I conceptualized this exhibition from scratch,' Fujimoto adds. 'In fact, I was working on the layout until yesterday. It was very difficult, but I am grateful for the challenge.' Winding through the 'Forest of Thoughts' section, the experience evokes the feeling of stepping inside the architect's mind. The inspiration for Fujimoto's building designs is made tangible through items such as a loofah, potato chips, a stack of matchboxes and a scrunched metal sieve — juxtaposed with the models of buildings that have since materialized, including the Shiroiya Hotel in Gunma Prefecture and the House of Music Hungary in Budapest. 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In 'Book Lounge of Awai (In-Between),' curated by book specialist Haba Yoshitaka, 40 titles that resonate with Fujimoto's work are placed in small wooden chairs that were inspired by church furniture. Visitors are invited to sit down and read if the mood strikes them. "This lounge is a space that exists between reading and not reading,' Yoshitaka writes in a statement. 'It is a space for gently rethinking the contours of the act of reading.' Placed in the only room in the exhibition with a view of Tokyo's sprawling skyline, this section is also an invitation to gaze out the window and read the very cityscape that Fujimoto likens to a forest. Architecture for humans Fujimoto's work is created with people in mind. He recalls designing his father's psychiatric clinic and discussing the needs of the patients who would use the space. His father believed that conventional hospital architecture was too uniform, failing to account for the diverse needs of individual patients. Imagining human activity is standard in architecture, and throughout the exhibition there is an abundance of tiny human figurines in all models (and even on the potato chips and loofah) to give a sense of scale. One section, 'Animated Forest,' is entirely dedicated to larger scale models that serve as canvases for video projections of crowds moving across. It shares the space with 'Open Circle,' which consists of drawings and a 1:5 scale model of the Grand Ring you can walk through, becoming the human figure, albeit out of scale. 'You'll probably feel like a giant,' says curator Kenichi Kondo. 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He's not trying to micromanage chaos, believing instead in 'loose order amid the confusion,' a lesson he traces back to his childhood experiences playing in the woods. In Fujimoto's philosophy, we should be able to adjust our space depending on our needs at different times. In L'Arbre Blanc (The White Tree) mixed-use residential tower, one of his biggest projects in France, he positioned balconies asymmetrically so residents could see one another, and incorporated public spaces into the building's design. For him, architecture must provide privacy and shelter, but it must also leave room for connection. 'There is something to be said about shared experiences — something essential to human society,' Fujimoto says in a video that's part of the exhibition. 'If architecture can create spaces like that, then it's doing its job.' Future cities Although 'Primordial Future Forest' surveys the architect's career to date, it doesn't dwell too much on the past. On the contrary, it looks forward, justifying the 'future forest' in its title. 'Forest of Thoughts' includes ongoing projects such as Tokyo's Torch Tower, which, upon completion in 2028, is set to become Japan's tallest skyscraper. The penultimate section, 'A Forest / Many Forests,' is dedicated to another major project currently under construction: the International Center Station Northern Area Complex in Sendai. This multipurpose complex will serve as both a memorial to the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and a concert hall. The model, constructed in 1:15 scale, is lifted off the ground so it can be viewed from all sides. The seating areas are broken apart and hanging in the air, but without barriers and in the same hall, listening to the same music, which embodies Fujimoto's philosophy of coming together for a moment of connection. "Diverse and unified is the thinking of this project, too," Fujimoto says. The exhibition visualizes inspiration for design by juxtaposing the architectural models with mundane objects such as a sieve, a loofa and a stack of matchboxes or potato chips. | ZORIA PETKOSKA Architectural models are displayed in both expected and unexpected ways, with some hanging from the ceiling or stuck to the walls. | ZORIA PETKOSKA While these buildings are set for completion in the near future — the Sendai building is set to be completed in 2031 — the exhibition ventures further into speculative territory. Titled 'Forest of Future, Forest of Primordial — Resonant City 2025,' it presents a vision of a floating city composed of latticed spheres. Developed in collaboration with Hiroaki Miyata, data scientist and university professor, the model imagines a world of personal drones that would eliminate the need for elevators and stairs. To produce the intricate 3D-printed model, Kondo says the team needed to purchase 20 3D printers. "The models in the first room were in the air, too,' adds Miyata with a laugh. 'I think Fujimoto—san wants to float and fly! This is not an answer, but a question for the future." Fujimoto later adds that this design is 'a trigger to keep imagining.' The future, however, is never disconnected from the past. When asked what he thinks about the neglect and loss of Metabolist architecture in Japan, Fujimoto maintains that its ideas remain vital to architects' thinking. '(Ideas) of organic design and sustainability come from there,' he says before gesturing to his Resonant City 2025 model. 'In fact, I think this is something like updated Metabolism." It's a continuation of his signature style — airy structures with organic shapes that don't fight surrounding nature, but don't completely blend in, either. There's room for bold design, innovation and experimentation. In Fujimoto's utopian architecture, we can have it all: the forest and the metropolis, the public and the private. 'With the rise of computers and the internet, I started to wonder what would happen to physicality,' he says. 'The conclusion I reached was that it would likely grow in importance.' 'The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto: Primordial Future Forest,' is on view at Mori Art Museum through Nov. 9. For more information, visit