THEWORLDS50BEST EXCLUSIVE 2025 /PART 4 /  Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025: The 51-100 List Revealed / By Rachael Hogg / Publisher TheWorlds50Best

PART 4

No.68 Farmlore 

Bengaluru
@farmlore.in

There are a lot of farm-to-table restaurants in the world, but Farmlore stands apart with its truly immersive experience on an actual working farm.

The brainchild of chef Johnson Ebenezer and entrepreneur Kaushik Raju is driven by seasonality, sustainability and local produce.

The farm-to-table restaurant only seats 18 people and features large floor-to-ceiling glass windows offering views of lush greenery: banana and bay trees, and swathes of lemongrass, which was planted to ward off mosquitos. Fresh produce includes jackfruit, mulberry and coconut, as well as five varieties of mango.

No.67 Esquisse
Tokyo
@esquisse_inside

The name translates as ‘sketch’, but nothing is left to chance in Corsican-born chef Lionel Beccat’s precise Japanese-inspired French cuisine.

Recent iterations of Beccat’s set menus, which change daily, have featured dishes including Silence, made with curdled sheep’s milk, squid and caviar; A Gentle Strength, with turnip, fir needles and truffle; and Animality, with duck, fermented grape and beetroot.

The surroundings are just as sophisticated as the cuisine: nine floors up in the fancy Ginza district.

No.66 Naar – NEW ENTRY
Kasauli
@restaurantnaar

Naar looks and sounds like every chef’s wildest fantasy: a 16-seater, chef-driven experimental restaurant with views of the Himalayas.

Here, chef Prateek Sadhu – who made his mark at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants regular Masque in Mumbai – and his crew can breathe in crisp mountain air, stroll to the two-acre farm less than a kilometre away and forage wild herbs along the banks of nearby brooks and rivers.

The multi-course menu follows the six distinct seasons of the Himalayas, with wine, cocktail and non-alcohol drinks pairings available.

No.65 Gaa
Bangkok
@restaurant_gaa

Inspired by her father’s home cooking as a child, Mumbai-born Garima Arora recognised her calling as a chef at a young age.

Most notably, she spent two years in Copenhagen cooking at Noma. Melding flavours from India and Thailand, Arora builds progressive dishes with ingredients dictated by the seasons. Guests enjoy a tasting menu – which changes every three months – in a 60-year-old traditional Thai house featuring curved ceilings and a string art installation that represents the spiritual connection and bliss shared by those gathered in the space.

No.64 Ta Vie
Hong Kong
@ta_vie_hk

Located in the boutique Pottinger Hotel, Ta Vie translates to ‘your life’ in French and ‘journey’ in Japanese.

In line with this, the tasting menu juxtaposes East and West. Pure, simple and seasonal sums up the character of the cuisine – accentuating the purity of the seasonal produce through simple yet precise cooking, seasoning and presentation.

Japanese chef Hideaki Sato worked at the renowned Nihonryori RyuGin in Tokyo and moved to Hong Kong to open Tenku RyuGin (now closed), before launching Ta Vie in 2015. His wife, Hiromi, runs the front of house.

No.63 Cenci
Kyoto
@cenci.kyoto

Combining Japanese precision with Italian techniques and flavours, chef-patron Ken Sakamoto surprises and delights diners with his ever-changing tasting menu filled with hyper-seasonal and local produce which ensures no guests has the same experience twice. 

The restaurant, which opened in 2014, has strong ties to the city of Kyoto and its heritage. Located in a century-old Japanese house near the Heian Shrine, the dining room is accessed through a red-brick tunnel built by Sakamoto and his team.

No.62 Kwonsooksoo
Seoul
@kwonsooksoo

Kwonsooksoo is a modern Korean restaurant with a traditional name: ‘sooksoo’ is an old word for a professional cook.

The dialogue between ancient and modern informs every aspect of chef-owner Kwon Woo Joong’s cooking, which is a creative and contemporary take on Korean cuisine that never loses sight of time-honoured techniques. The menu features dishes such as steamed blue crab, truffle bean noodles and Korean beef tteokgalbi (minced and grilled beef ribs).

No.61 Alla Prima
Seoul
@restaurant_allaprima

Stylish and compact, Alla Prima only hosts 28 diners, with a number of house rules to follow, from no videos and no strong perfumes to no flip flops and no small children.

As long as you stick to these parameters, you’re in for a great time – there’s a reason so many Seoul-dwellers choose to celebrate their birthdays here.

The menu (and its price) changes constantly based on seasonality and the quality of produce available, ranging from six to 11 courses which demonstrate some delightful touches of whimsy from chef Jin-hyuk Kim.

No.60 Testina – NEW ENTRY
Hong Kong
@testinahk

Milan restaurant Trippa and Hong Kong-based ZS Hospitality joined forces to create Testina, a stylish homage to modern northern Italian cuisine.

The name is taken from its signature pig’s head dish served with salsa verde, but executive chef Marco Xodo’s love of offal doesn’t stop there.

The Italian wine list is worth exploring too, with a hand-picked flight of the team’s favourite bottles available alongside a choice by the bottle or the glass. And, in true Italian style, there’s homemade limoncello to round off your meal.

No.59 Ru Yuan – NEW ENTRY
Hangzhou
@ruyuan_hangzhou

Housed in a minimalist, three-storey pinewood property, this award-winning restaurant is the work of chef-owner and Hangzhou native Fue Yue Liang.

The tree-enveloped spot – complete with a ground floor of stylish, low seating, eight, glass-wrapped private dining rooms and a dramatic whisky bar upstairs – has become the city’s premier dining destination.

Ru Yuan reinvigorates old-school Hangzhou cuisine, pairing heritage recipes and ingredients. The restaurant’s reinterpretation of the Zhejiang traditional dish of braised pork belly in an intricate, pyramid-shaped presentation has become a TikTok sensation.

No.58 Ministry of Crab
Colombo
@ministryofcrab

Set in a preserved 400-year-old Dutch Hospital in Colombo with a minimalist but huge open kitchen, Ministry of Crab is a haven for crustacean fans, celebrating the Sri Lankan crab in everything from the food to the crab-claw plants that serve as the restaurant’s only decor.

The restaurant was set up by the country’s leading chef-restaurateur Dharshan Munidasa together with Sri Lankan cricket legends Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara. As the name suggests, there is crab, crab and more crab on the menu.