Are we really surprised by the 8 Bangkok restaurants on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024?

In an illustrious ceremony held tonight at the Grand InterContinental in Seoul, the highly anticipated ranking for Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 was unveiled. One of the key players in Southeast Asia, Thailand saw 8 Bangkok restaurants on the list, including one in the top three. Following the announcement of 7 more on the 51-100 ranking, this leaves the Thai capital with an impressive 15 restaurants in the top 100. However, whilst we are proud as can be, how surprised are we really?

50 Best gets a round of applause or a round of eye rolls depending on the circles in which you find yourself. Launched in 2002, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants set out to review and rank the best dining experiences around the world. They expanded in 2013 to host separate awards for Asia and Latin America, before acquiring The World’s 50 Best Bars in 2017, and launching Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2016.

Since then, the spotlight is working overtime, as viewers and voters wait eagerly for the annual list to be unveiled. In fact, depending on the host city, many even make the trek and climb to be part of the happenings. Like at an art fair, there are events throughout 50 Best Week, mostly celebrating pop-ups and guest shifts for those on the list and for the groupies they’ve amassed. To put it in related pop-culture terms, it’s akin to an Eras Tour for food, and can have similar effects on the local economy, albeit not so Swift-level monumental.

This year, the ceremony took place outside of the brand’s comfort zones of Hong Kong or Singapore, and was hosted in Seoul for the very first time. It signalled that change was in the air, though upon (rightly) guessing who we might see on the list, it fell a little flat. Not necessarily a good or a bad thing, but like the Oscars in 2024, the ranking came with an almost too obvious predictability. If that makes Gaggan Anand Oppenheimer, who might Barbie be? Here are our thoughts.

Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024

Tokyo’s Sézanne claimed the top spot as the Best Restaurant in Asia this year, ranking at no. 1 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024. It is followed by Florilège, also in Tokyo, and Bangkok’s Gaggan Anand at no. 3.

Whilst Singapore snagged no spot in the top three, it leads the rankings with 9 entries, followed by Japan with 8 entries, Thailand also with 8 entries, and Hong Kong with 6 entries. Seoul and Shanghai saw four entries on the list each, while India was represented by three cities, one restaurant in each.

Bangkok on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list 2024

Whilst it was definitely a big night for Japan and for Tokyo especially, there was plenty of praise for Thailand, too. The 8 entries on the list this year include: Baan Tepa (no.42), Samrub Samrub Thai (no. 29), Potong (no. 17), Le Du (no. 12), Sorn (no. 11), Sühring (no. 7), Nusara (no. 6), and Gaggan Anand (no. 3). The Thai capital was also the honoured recipient of various special awards, including the Art of Hospitality Award presented to Nusara, the Sustainable Restaurant Award presented to Haoma, and the Best Female Chef Award presented to Chef Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij of Potong.

If you were in the audience, there’s no way you didn’t feel at least an ounce of pride here. We offer all the winners our warmest congratulations.

Nevertheless, the winners are no strangers to us.

Chef Gaggan Anand especially was the most fun one to watch, given that his now-closed Gaggan restaurant in Langsuan was once named Asia’s Best Restaurant for four years in a row. After shutting that one down and reopening with a new(ish) name and in a new location, it is both incredibly nostalgic and hats-off-impressive to see the progressive Indian chef top the list again. His more casual dining outlet, Ms. Maria & Mr. Singh, also ranked on the greater list at no. 54.

Gaggan Anand isn’t the only one playing doubles, either. Chef Thitid ‘Ton’ Tassanakajohn is a big name on Thailand’s food scene, and last year his fame went international when his restaurant Le Du was crowned the Best Restaurant in Asia 2023. Another one of his restaurants, Nusara, followed at no.3 on last year’s ranking. This year, both of chef Ton’s restaurants maintain a high position on the list, with Nusara even overtaking Le Du (no. 12) by placing at no. 6.

Gaggan Anand and Nusara are in good company on the list, surrounded by many of their friends. Practically veterans, Sorn and Sühring have been on the list for many years now, and it is commendable that they have managed to maintain their standing. Newer openings are also proving to be mainstays, with Baan Tepa, Samrub Samrub Thai, and Potong keeping a strong presence on the overall list in the last years. Interestingly, those on ground in South Korea will notice that almost all of #TeamThailand seems very close, like an inner circle that knows the secret sauce.

Who is Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants’ Barbie?

Of course, Christopher Nolan knows the secret sauce too, and this is why Oppenheimer won. The director followed a formula that has long proven to be fruitful, wooed the right audiences, and connected with the right people. Along that tangent, the film and the food academies don’t seem too different.

Nevertheless, viewers love a rags-to-riches story; a tale of the underdog who becomes the top 50 Best dog. Sadly, if that was what you were seeking from this year’s awards, you will have left with a sour taste in your popcorn. We’ll never know what applause for Greta Gerwig would have sounded like, nor which Bangkok restaurant would have given us that same element of surprise and righteousness. Unlike Michelin’s stars or other awards with single-category winners, a numbered ranking begs for movement, and the movement at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants this year felt mostly internal.

Again, this doesn’t take away from the excellence of the individual restaurants, but it begins to give viewers a skewered sense of the scene.

We saw no new Bangkok restaurants on the top 50 list this year, and the restaurants we did see on the list all share a few similarities. Thai cuisine is predominant, and a budget of at least THB 4500/person is required to dine at almost all of the restaurants on the list. All restaurants boast famous chef-owners, and many have long been friendly with the 50 Best circle — the cult around which is already divisive in itself. Is it more equality that we crave? Or is it?

Of course, a good restaurant doesn’t become a bad restaurant from one year to the next. An old restaurant may not suddenly become a relevant contender from one year to the next. A new restaurant need not be one of the best restaurants in the first year of its opening. It is all a little more complicated than that.

Before we question the restaurants, it is far more important to take a step back and question the structure. The coverage (yes, kettle, pot, black, we know), the voters, and the fandom are all part of this. Restaurant rankings are not movies, so perhaps we shouldn’t even expect an element of surprise. Yet much like movies, everybody is welcome to form an opinion, or a conversation, maybe. “Who’s on your top three? What did you think? Do you agree?”

Only you and I know where and why we’re heading to our restaurant of choice tonight. Unless we’re dropping the THB 12,000 for that non-refundable deposit at Gaggan Anand, no matter how much you loved Oppenheimer, let’s call that place Barbie, Maestro, or even Poor Things.