Gaggan remains at top of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list while three Australian chefs slip

The chef who built a menu out of emojis has done it again.

Bangkok's Gaggan restaurant has just topped the list of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for a fourth consecutive year.

The Indian eatery, renowned for its 25-course tasting menu illustrated only with emoji symbols, eclipsed stiff competition from Tokyo's Den and Florilege, which took second and third spots respectively.

The winners were announced at a ceremony at Wynn Palace in Macau. The list is chosen by a panel of more than 300 food writers, critics, chefs and restaurateurs spanning six geographical regions. Each expert picks 10 restaurants and lists them in order of preference. They must have eaten at every restaurant on their list within the previous 18 months.

Rounding out the top five were Suhring in Bangkok and Odette in Singapore.

After his win last year Gaggan Anand shocked the food world by announcing that he would shut down his award-winning restaurant in 2020. He told Bloomberg that he planned to move to Japan and open several new restaurants, drawing on Buddhist principles.

"Every restaurant has a 10-year life," he said at the time. "After that, it becomes a brand."

Long Chim's David Thompson saw his Thai flagship Nahm in Bangkok drop from fifth position to round out the top 10. Nahm swapped places with Australian chef Dave Pynt's barbecue-based Singapore restaurant Burnt Ends, which slipped out of the top 10 to 12th spot on the list. Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda's Singapore restaurant Waku Ghin dropped out of the top 20 to 23rd position.

Asia's 50 Best Restaurants is published by William Reed Business Media. The World's 50 Best will be revealed at a ceremony in Bilbao, Spain, in June. The global restaurant list was announced in Melbourne in April last year.

Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Top 10

1. Gaggan, Bangkok

2. Den, Tokyo

3. Florilege, Tokyo

4. Suhring, Bangkok

5. Odette, Singapore

6. Narisawa, Tokyo

7. Amber, Hong Kong

8. Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet, Shanghai

9. Nihonryori, RyuGin, Tokyo

10. Nahm, Bangkok

Bloomberg