Asia's 50 best restaurants for 2025
A Bangkok restaurant has reclaimed the number one spot at the annual Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Awards.
Gaggan, named the best restaurant in Asia in 2025, is known for its boundary-pushing fine-dining experience that serves progressive Indian cuisine with influences from around the world.
It was the first time the eponymous restaurant by chef Gaggan Anand had snatched the top prize since he redefined his restaurant concept and moved to a new location in 2019 following wins in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. It ranked third on the list last year.
'When we started as a restaurant, it was not about me but it was about Asia. Everyone in this room is a winner. Today, I'm taking the podium, but that doesn't mean that one of us from Asia will not take it next time,' said Anand as he accepted the award during the ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday evening.
'When I was young, I never imagined that Asia could be a gastronomic hub. And today, look who we are. We are not just one city, one country. We are a family of so many people from Asia, representing our culture, our family and our cuisine.'
Two Chinese establishments in Hong Kong, The Chairman and Wing, took second and third spots, respectively. Both restaurants moved up two spots (from fourth and fifth) from last year's awards. Vicky Cheng of Wing (no.3) also earned the peer-voted 'Chefs' Choice Award.'
Last year's winner Sezanne — a neo-French restaurant residing within the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo by English chef Daniel Calvert — came fourth this year.
Mingles, which showcases contemporary Korean food with local ingredients and international techniques, rounded out the top five of this year's Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Awards. It was the top-rated restaurant in Korea and won a huge round of cheers from the hometown crowd.
Which city has the most restaurants on the list?
The list — part of the global 'World's 50 Best' brand — is compiled by the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Academy, which is made up of more than 300 food critics, writers, chefs and restaurateurs, all selected for their knowledge of Asia's restaurant scene.
This year, Bangkok and Tokyo have the most entries on the top 50 list — both boasting nine restaurants in the rankings. Nusara, helmed by chef Thitid 'Ton' Tassanakajohn, was another Bangkok restaurant that made it to the top 10 this year, ranking number six.
Hong Kong and Singapore each had seven entries.
Host city Seoul, like Shanghai, bagged four spots in the 2025 awards, including Eatanic Garden — a menuless fine-dining concept that highlights ingredients using five senses — at 25th place, which was the highest new entry on the list.
For local chefs and foodies, hosting the event in Seoul for the second year in a row was a sign that Korean food has truly earned a place of global influence.
'Because (this) event has happened in Korea, I was able to participate and interact with many chefs,' Kim Jae-ho, chef at the Andaz Seoul Gangnam, told CNN Travel at the event.
'Korean culture is becoming popular abroad. I will work to become a chef who can play a role in further spreading Korean dining culture to overseas.'
It's also the second year Bangkok brought home the award for 'Asia's Best Female Chef.' Chudaree 'Tam' Debhakam, this year's awardee, is known for her farm-driven cuisine highlighting the beauty of Thai produce. Her restaurant Baan Tepa was named 44th on the list this year. Last year's winner, Pichaya 'Pam' Soontornyanakij, and her Thai-Chinese restaurant Potong secured 13th place this year.
Chef Tam's Seasons in Macao, which came ninth, was the winner of this year's 'Highest Climber Award,' dramatically ascending 40 spots from 49th in 2024.
Kazutaka Ozawa from Crony (no.30) in Tokyo was recognized as the best sommelier in the region.
Asia's 50 best restaurants for 2025 – The full list
1. Gaggan (Bangkok)
2. The Chairman (Hong Kong)
3. Wing (Hong Kong)
4. Sezanne (Tokyo)
5. Mingles (Seoul)
6. Nusara (Bangkok)
7. Odette (Singapore)
8. La Cime (Osaka)
9. Chef Tam's Seasons (Macao)
10. Onjium (Seoul)
11. Sühring (Bangkok)
12. Narisawa (Tokyo)
13. Potong (Bangkok)
14. Meet the Bund (Shanghai)
15. Fu He Hui (Shanghai)
16. Sorn (Bangkok)
17. Florilège (Tokyo)
18. Caprice (Hong Kong)
19. Masque (Mumbai)
20. Le Du (Bangkok)
21. Neighborhood (Hong Kong)
22. Den (Tokyo)
23. 7th Door (Seoul)
24. Mono (Hong Kong)
25. Eatanic Garden (Seoul)
26. Logy (Taipei)
27. Ling Long (Shanghai)
28. Les Amis (Singapore)
29. 102 House (Shanghai)
30. Crony (Tokyo)
31. Gaggan at Louis Vuitton (Bangkok)
32. Estro (Hong Kong)
33. Sushi Saito (Tokyo)
34. Sazenka (Tokyo)
35. JL Studio (Taichung, Taiwan)
36. Goh (Fukuoka, Japan)
37. Labyrinth (Singapore)
38. Burnt Ends (Singapore)
39. Meta (Singapore)
40. Seroja (Singapore)
41. Ando (Hong Kong)
42. Toyo Eatery (Manila)
43. Maz (Tokyo)
44. Baan Tepa (Bangkok)
45. Myoujyaku (Tokyo)
46. Indian Accent (New Delhi)
47. Samrub Samrub Thai (Bangkok)
48. Euphoria (Singapore)
49. August (Jakarta)
50. Lamdre (Beijing)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Erie Zoo hosts Equipment Day
The Erie Zoo held one of its most beloved annual events on Saturday. It was Equipment Day. Massive trucks, tractors and construction equipment were all on display. Kids had the opportunity to get up close, snap photos and explore 15 different types of machinery. Tickets now available Erie Zoo's centennial Mane Event Hali Hartley, the special events manager for the zoo, said both kids and adults love to enjoy this event. 'This event is sort of the kick-off of our summer,' said Hartley. 'It's the most popular event, everyone loves this event, they come every year, so we just make sure to try to make it better and bring more machines each year.' And visitors have just over a week to view their Chinese lantern festival, Glow Wild. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Eater
2 hours ago
- Eater
Meet the Asian-Blasian Winemaking Duo Shaking Up Tradition in Wine Country's Backyard
It's fall 2020. Shoes still dusty from a morning hike in Redwood Regional Park, Tiffani Patton and Jonathan Yang — strangers just hours earlier — ducked into EM Deli, a cozy Korean grocery store in Montclair, to refuel. The blast of cold air was a welcome break from the sun and sweat. They stocked up on soondae, pajeon, and gimbap, then headed to a mutual friend's backyard for an afternoon of wine sipping, snacking, and swapping stories. Somewhere between the belly laughs and second pours, something clicked between them. 'We bonded over the highs and lows of having Asian moms, and the shared chaos of both being Geminis,' Patton says. 'We were constantly talking over each other. One of our friends joked, 'You gems are always laughing over there!'' That joke is the origin story of Patton and Yang's natural wine label, Laughing Gems. Patton, who is half-Korean and half-Black, and Yang, who is Chinese American, began as two friends chasing the kind of wine culture they wished existed: one that nodded to the bold flavors they grew up loving. And after one too many nights staring down sparse wine lists at no-frills Asian restaurants — and growing weary of Euro-centric wine pairing norms everywhere else — Patton and Yang decided to redefine what counts as 'pairing-worthy.' The duo has now bottled three different wines, each created and marketed to shine alongside Asian dishes. There's fizzy Muscat Pet-Nat Super Fresh, which recalls golden summer afternoons and pairs best with white fish. Florascent — an aromatic and acidic orange muscat sourced from family-run Hartwick Vineyards in Lodi, California — is made from juice that flows naturally from the grapes and spends two days on the skins. It cuts cleanly through rich, fatty dishes like Beijing duck and Korean barbecue (and even received a sound bath by sound healer Jade Barrett before aging for six months in barrel). The third wine, Lunisolar, is a fruity French Colombard pet-nat with just enough residual sugar to tame spice, whether it's the numbing heat of Chongqing noodles or the fiery kick of Korean stews. Like a few emerging winemakers in the Bay Area, Patton and Yang began their journey tinkering at Richmond's Purity Wine, where they got to know owners Noel Diaz and Barrie Quan, who nudged them from sipping to making. Pep talks and hands-on training from Diaz turned into 4 a.m. U-Haul runs, delicately transporting grapes that were harvested before sunrise to shield farmworkers from the heat. What followed were 20-hour days of de-stemming, juicing, fermenting, and nursing new flavors to life. Friends eagerly jumped in to stomp on grapes that Patton described as 'walking in a giant vat of boba.' Blending cultural homage with creativity and play, the duo also tapped emerging local artists, bringing them into the fold: from Jill Wong's grounded logo design inspired by oracle bone script, China's earliest form of writing, to Aaron Gonzalez's cheeky bottle label featuring a Buddha by the beach, printed next to Laughing Gems' irreverent tagline: ' please, chill .' Patton and Yang are no strangers to scrutiny. They often find themselves among just a handful of winemakers of color in the room, and have encountered remarks that leaning into their cultural identities is just a branding tactic, something to be boxed and sold. At one of their first events, a seasoned winemaker raised an eyebrow watching them unload more than a few crates. But after selling 12 cases that day, Yang remembers the guarded energy shifting towards something more like, ' Oh, maybe we should partner up .' The tight shoulders and imposter syndrome still linger after these events, but Patton and Yang see being invited to them as a win. 'A rising tide lifts all boats, and part of lifting that tide is making sure people of color are truly seen in the winemaking space,' Patton says. 'Our parents had to assimilate to survive, but they paved the way so that we can show up more fully as ourselves.' They're not alone in reclaiming space. Winemakers like Coral Wang of Maison des Plaisances — a Chinese American winemaker based in Sonoma — have been shining a spotlight on the long-overlooked histories behind wine country's origins. 'Chinese laborers made up 80 percent of the workforce who built Napa and Sonoma wine country into what it is today, but their contributions were minimized because of the historical backlash against the Chinese,' Patton says. 'Asians aren't new to the wine space at all. We helped create it in the first place.' Still, Patton and Yang are clear about what they're not here to do: they're not interested in being anyone's token Asian. 'I don't want to be this beacon of Asian-ness or Asian American-ness, or tell people how to be,' Yang says. 'I'm American and this is what America looks like for me.' Today, the Laughing Gems pair is hard at work on their next round of wines, which are dropping this summer. One of them is an almost fluorescent orange, health tonic-style, lower-ABV piquette they teased as 'a wine your moms and aunties would actually drink.' With more people leaning into low-alcohol drinking, they're happy to create options for folks who want to day drink without getting wrecked by mid-afternoon. Yang's earliest memories often pull him back to the sensory world of his family's former Chinese restaurants in Chicago — fragrant steam swirling off the lazy Susan, the clinking of chopsticks and porcelain, and an unspoken rhythm of eating at a communal table. 'Coming from a restaurateur family, my parents are really proud of me,' Yang says, smiling. 'My mom keeps a bottle of our wine in her fridge and sips a little every night before bed. Yeah, we ultimately want our wine to be sold everywhere, but we love that Asians and other people of color are really vibing with what we're doing. That's why we do it.' Laughing Gems will pour at the Big West Wine Fest on June 14 and 15, 2025 in Guerneville, California. Follow @laughing_gems_wine for updates. Sign up for our newsletter.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Joe Manganiello, Who Starred in ‘Pee-wee's Big Holiday,' Chokes Up Remembering Late Friend Paul Reubens: 'I Was His Biggest Fan'
There's renewed interest in the life and career of Paul Reubens thanks to the critically acclaimed two-part documentary Pee-Wee as Himself from HBO Max. The film, from filmmaker Matt Wolf, recently hit the streamer after a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Wolf worked closely with Reubens in pulling together the project, culled from more than 40 hours of on-camera interviews and 1,000 hours of archival footage and shaped over what turned out to be an emotional rollercoaster lasting four years. More from The Hollywood Reporter Matt Wolf Says Filmmaker Buddies Convinced Him to Re-Cut 'Pee-wee as Himself' to Include ... Himself Netflix EMEA Content Boss Touts 'Adolescence,' Debunks a "Myth," Talks Ted Sarandos' Acting Debut 'Lost in Starlight' Director Han Ji-won on Blending Romance and Sci-Fi for Netflix's Breakthrough Korean Animated Feature On the heels of Sundance revealing the 2025 lineup last December, The Hollywood Reporter happened to be on Zoom with Joe Manganiello to discuss the latest season of his buzzy new reality competition series Deal or No Deal Island. As the interview was winding down, THR asked Manganiello about the documentary and Reubens, someone he got to know quite well when he filmed a starring role in Netflix's 2016 film Pee-Wee's Big Holiday. As it turned out, Manganiello had been thinking a lot about his friend, who died on July 30, 2023, following a private battle with cancer. 'I love Paul and I miss Paul a lot,' Manganiello said, adding that he had recently woken up after having a dream about Reubens. 'Paul showed up and pranked me with a practical joke in my dream. It was one of those dreams when you wake up and it feels really real. It was so vivid. I just thought, gosh, if there was anyone on the planet who would use the afterlife to figure out how to play a practical joke on his friends and prank them in their sleep, it would be Paul. He was so generous.' As has been well-documented, Reubens loved birthdays and would never let one slip by without making it special. 'When he found out when your birthday was, he would bombard you with birthday cards, birthday messages, birthday texts, birthday videos the entire day,' Manganiello recalled. 'Friends of mine who just met him in passing through me, he would get their numbers and do it to 'em, too.' In the film, Manganiello plays himself and the actor recalled that Reubens wrote the part specifically for him, calling the gesture 'a validation that one of the great comedic geniuses would call me up' to be his partner on the film. 'He was such a genius, but he didn't demand that you treated him that way. I remember when we went to set the first day, I said, 'Paul, when we get there, am I calling you Paul or am I calling you Pee-wee? Are you in character?' He said, 'No, I'm Paul.' When I got there, he was there in a full-on suit and bow-tie [like Pee-Wee] but he was still Paul. He really wanted to set you up to win.' Starring Reubens as the iconic Pee-wee Herman, the John Lee-directed Pee-wee's Big Holiday follows the adventures of the title character after a fateful meeting with a mysterious stranger inspires him to take his first-ever holiday in this epic story of friendship and destiny. The cast also includes Jessica Pohly, Alia Shawkat and Stephanie Beatriz. Reubens co-wrote the film with Paul Rust and produced it alongside Judd Apatow. As for the doc, at the time of THR's interview, Manganiello hadn't yet seen Pee-Wee as Himself, but he was excited by the fact that it exists. 'It's a good time for it and I think it's going to be really effective since it comes from his perspective,' said the veteran star. 'I think there's a lot of confusion with people about out what he was in trouble for and what he wasn't in trouble for, and that narrative has gotten really muddy. I think that he really did get a raw deal, and it really hurt him deeply. He was someone that felt things really deeply, and it's sad for me because I look back and I think about what the world would've been like had he not had to go into this self-imposed exile or this kind of society-imposed exile. It was dumb.' Manganiello, like so many of Reubens' close friends and collaborators, did not know about his years-long battle with cancer. And speaking about him in the interview caused him to get choked up and fight back tears, an emotional moment that he later discussed with People Magazine. 'I think about him all the time. I miss him a lot. He was like a family member. He would come over for Thanksgiving, he would come over to the house all the time, or I'd go to his [house],' recalled Manganiello, getting teary. 'He sent me a video before he passed away. It was just him talking about how much he loved me and how great I was in the movie and how funny he thought I was, how great of an actor he thought I was. It was just this glowing, unbelievable video. I didn't realize that he was sending that because he knew that his time was going to be short. I still have it in my phone and it's hard knowing that it's in there, but that's just the kind of person that he was. He let everybody that he loved know that he loved him all the time. I just feel so privileged to have had the chance to work with him on that intimate of a level and to get to know him as a person. I was his biggest fan. I loved him. I'll always miss him.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Harvey Weinstein's "Jane Doe 1" Victim Reveals Identity: "I'm Tired of Hiding" 'Awards Chatter' Podcast: 'Sopranos' Creator David Chase Finally Reveals What Happened to Tony (Exclusive)
