Gaggan Tops Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025

Gaggan, the Bangkok restaurant of chef Gaggan Anand, was named The Best Restaurant in Asia at the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 awards, held on 25 March 2025 at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul. It was the fifth time Anand has topped the list. His original restaurant held the No.1 position for four consecutive years, from 2015 to 2018, before it closed in 2019; the present Gaggan, which opened later that year, serves a single theatrical tasting menu of progressive Indian cooking to a small number of guests seated around the kitchen.

Hong Kong took the next two places, with The Chairman at No.2 and Wing, Vicky Cheng’s contemporary Chinese restaurant, at No.3. Sézanne in Tokyo, the previous year’s winner, was No.4, and Mingles in Seoul No.5.

Bangkok dominated the top of the ranking, with four restaurants in the first ten, ahead of Tokyo and Hong Kong with two each and Seoul and Singapore with one. Sixteen cities were represented in the list of 50, and seven restaurants appeared for the first time.

The biggest move of the year belonged to Macau. Chef Tam’s Seasons, the Cantonese restaurant at Wynn Palace, rose 40 places to No.9 and won the Highest Climber Award. The Highest New Entry was Eatanic Garden in Seoul, at No.25.

Chudaree ‘Tam’ Debhakam of Baan Tepa in Bangkok was named Asia’s Best Female Chef. Dej Kewkacha, of Gaggan at Louis Vuitton in Bangkok, was best pastry chef, and Kazutaka Ozawa of Crony in Tokyo best sommelier. Locavore NXT in Ubud, Bali, won the Sustainable Restaurant Award. The Icon Award was given posthumously to Margarita Forés, the Filipino chef and restaurateur who had died the previous month.

William Drew, director of content for 50 Best, described the list as a remarkable tapestry of dining establishments that celebrated the talent and innovative spirit of the region.

It was the second year running that the ceremony was held in Seoul, a sign of the Korean capital’s growing weight as a food city. Travellers planning around the list will find the highest concentration of ranked tables in Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong.