The 50 best restaurants in the world 2021 from William Reed Media

An annual list of the world’s 50 best restaurants is back — and for the first time, one city dominated the top two spots.

Two restaurants in Copenhagen, Denmark — Noma and Geranium — ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, at “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” awards ceremony held Tuesday in Antwerp, Belgium.

This marks Noma’s fifth time to top the list since 2010.

Since the list’s inception in 2002, European — and occasionally American — restaurants have produced the world’s top restaurant. This year keeps that streak intact.

The annual ranking, which is organized by the U.K.-based William Reed Media, wasn’t published last year due to the pandemic.

Helmed by Chef Rene Redzepi, Noma is known for its “new Nordic cuisine” that relies on foraged and fermented foods.

Redzepi produces three menus every year — there’s the ocean season, the vegetable season, and the game and forest season — the latter which is currently being served for 2,800 Danish krones ($436) per person. Wine pairing is an additional $280, and each menu includes around 20 courses.

The menus within each “season” change, and no two experiences at the restaurant are said to be the same.

“In 2010, when we stood at this stage and the words from the speaker blasted out that Noma was No. 1, it was truly a shock to my system — to everybody’s system — and certainly a shock to our reservation system…our website crashed multiple times,” said Redzepi at yesterday’s awards ceremony. “Suddenly everyone was asking: ‘What’s going on in Denmark?'”

After the same restaurants dominated the top rankings for more than a decade, the 50 Best organization announced in 2019 that No. 1 winners could not be voted onto subsequent years’ lists. Noma closed in 2016 and reopened in a new location in 2018, making it eligible to compete again.

Previous No. 1 winners are called “The Best of the Best.” Noma will soon join the seven restaurants on that list, which include El Bulli in Spain, The Fat Duck in the United Kingdom and The French Laundry in the United States, as well as “Noma (original location),” as it is written on the list.