World's 50 Best Restaurants 2019: Mirazur wins, as London’s The Clove Club and Lyle’s climb rankings

Two London restaurants have climbed up the rankings at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards this year – and both of them are from Shoreditch.

Lyle’s and The Clove Club rose five and six places respectively in the global rankings, announced today at a ceremony in Singapore. The Clove Club was named the 27th best restaurant in the world, while its east London neighbour Lyle’s came 33rd in the list. The restaurants formerly held places at 33 and 38 respectively.

Mirazur was named the best restaurant in the world, climbing from third position on last year’s list.

The restaurant, from Menton in France, takes over the accolade from Osteria Francescana in Modena. A new rule change meant that Massimo Bottura’s Italian restaurant was disqualified from this year’s competition along with all previous winners, who are now placed in a “hall of fame”-style position in a category called The Best of the Best.

Having moved locations this year, acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant Noma was the only previous winner permitted to re-enter the list. It did so in second place, having been hotly tipped to win.

Last week, the World’s 50 Best organisation announced that four London restaurants had been announced in the longlist, which numbers up to 120. St. John dropped places from 84 in 2018 to 112 in 2019, while The Ledbury also lost places, moving from 42 to 64.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal also dropped 38 places, having been temporarily closed in the past year following a fire at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge.

The only new restaurant from the capital in the list was Notting Hill spot Core by Clare Smyth – who won last year’s Best Female Chef award – which was controversially placed at number 66.

Chiswick restaurant Hedone was placed in 82nd place in 2018, but was ineligible for this year’s list following the announcement of its closure earlier this month.

Fellow British restaurant The Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant in Bray crashed out of the list altogether having been placed at 74 in 2018. It was ranked at number one in 2005.

Other notable accolades include the highest climber award, which went to Azurmendi in Spain, which moved up from 43 to 14. The only restaurant from Africa to be honoured was The Test Kitchen in Cape Town, which climbed to 44 from 50th place. Fellow South African restaurant Wolfgat, which was named the best in the world at the World Restaurant Awards, did not make an appearance on the list. The controversial Best Female Chef award was given to Mexican chef Daniela Soto-Innes.