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The 2025 edition of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, saw the finest chefs, restaurateurs and food lovers from across the region head to the South Korean capital for five days of events. Here are some of the highlights.
A very traditional welcome
It was a special opening to Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 at Korea House, where everyone was welcomed with an impressive samgomu performance, which is derived from one of the oldest traditions of Buddhist drum dance. Cocktails featured local ingredients and flavours, including the Slow Pace, made with The Glendronach whisky, omija cordial and lemon juice.
Guests were honoured to have dinner cooked by the Godmother of Korean cuisine, Hee-sook Cho. Dishes included a royal hot pot with white fish, shiitake mushrooms, shrimp, water dropwort, walnut, ginkgo nut, beef brisket and Lee Kum Kee condiments and sauces; and a variety of hangwa (desserts), including a fried buckwheat sweet dipped in Valhrona chocolate.
It seems like everyone in Seoul is drinking iced americanos right now, but Lavazza took it up a notch to close the evening, serving an iced La Reserva de Tierra Colombia speciality coffee.
Riding the Asian Wave at #50BestTalks
At Floating Island Convention, the chef-owner of Wing in Hong Kong, Vicky Cheng, took to stage along with Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij of Potong in Bangkok, newly crowned as The World’s Best Female Chef 2025. They were joined in the line-up by Fabrizio Ferrari – professor, YouTuber and chef-owner of Fabri Kitchen in Seoul – Ellia Park, co-owner of Na:eun Hospitality in New York, and Jay Khan, the founder of Coa and The Savory Project bars in Hong Kong. Each discussed what the Asian Wave means to them.
Culinary Class Wars comes to Chefs' Feast
The night before Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025, chefs had the chance to relax and party at Peaches, while sipping cocktails from Alice bar and Pine & Co, tasting Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, and enjoying Dassai sake.
Food came from local Culinary Class Wars legends: chef Hyun-seok Choi from Choi Dot, chefs Do-yun Kim and Hong-yun Song from Yun Seoul, and chef Jun-tak Oh from Namyeong Chicken. And we saw plenty of people making multiple stops to pick up more slices of Cinco Jotas jamón Ibérico de Bellota.
#50BestConnects brings women in hospitality together
Leading women from Asia’s hospitality sector met at Charles H bar at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul to share experiences and talk about their influences and inspiration. It was a great opportunity to make new connections and catch up with colleagues and friends while sipping Garibaldi mocktails.
Not so normal noodles – reinventing a classic at Soul x Baan Tepa
Freshly crowned Asia’s Best Female Chef 2025 Chudaree ‘Tam’ Debhakam brought her indigenous produce obsession and love of sustainability to Soul for a 50 Best Signature Session. Teaming up with Hee-eun Kim and Dae-hyun Yoon, the chefs cleverly reinvented classic Nongshim Shinramyun instant noodles as one of the dishes at their four-hands Signature Session.
Nerves were running high ahead of the awards ceremony
As tension and excitement in the room grew, chefs from Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 were given their signature Aspire Lifestyles scarves.
First class service
Before finding out where each restaurant ranked on the list, there was plenty to distract and entertain guests, including a first class cabin experience with Korean Air.
Farmlore wins the American Express One To Watch Award
The team from Farmlore, an 18-seater dining experience on a 37-acre farm near Bengaluru, India, made its debut at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025, having won the American Express One To Watch Award. The restaurant is the brainchild of chef Johnson Ebenezer and entrepreneur Kaushik Raju and embodies a farm-to-table ethos, driven by seasonality, sustainability and local produce.
Vicky Cheng from Wing flies high
Vicky Cheng, the pioneer of French x Chinese cooking, looked rather surprised as he won the Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award. The award is the only peer-voted accolade in the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants programme. It honours a chef who has made a positive contribution to the culinary scene over the last year and is chosen by the teams behind the restaurants in this year’s list.
Gaggan in Bangkok is The Best Restaurant in Asia 2025 for a record fifth time
The eponymous restaurant of culinary rock star Gaggan Anand took the No.1 spot of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna. Moving up two places from 2024, the Bangkok-based restaurant, which blends progressive Indian cuisine with influences from Japan, France and Thailand, is back at the top for a record fifth time. Read our exclusive interview with Anand.
Savoury cocktails come to Paris Bar
Jay Khan, founder of The Savory Project in Hong Kong, brought a taste of the unexpected to the Paris Bar at the Grand Hyatt hotel. On the menu was Gari Gari, made with Woodford Reserve bourbon, gari (ground cassava root), passion fruit, ponzu and seltzer; Mala Punch, made with a clarified mix of Gin Mare, Sichuan pepper, mint, peat, passion fruit, fermented beans and milk; and Thai Beef Salad, with rum, beef, peanut, coconut, chilli, kaffir lime and beef jerky.
The night after the night before
Closing Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 on a high, the final 50 Best Signature Session, in partnership with Catchtable, took place at the Grand Hyatt Seoul. The evening began with a Hibiki whisky cocktail reception before a lavish dinner between Teppan and Koan in Copenhagen.
Discover the full list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
