Cape Town's La Colombe restaurant was last night placed at number 12 in the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards. This was 26 places higher than it achieved in last year's listing of this well-recognised award, and in fact the highest placing for any restaurant outside Europe or the USA. As the press release has it, "La Colombe effortlessly combines Asian influences with a modern French style of cooking under the artful eye of British born Luke Dale-Roberts."

The only other South African restaurant to have made the Top 50 list this year is Le Quartier Francais with head chef Margot Janse. Rust en Vrede came in at number 74.

For a change, this year the overall winner is not El Bulli in Spain, but Copenhagen's Noma. "Run by 32 year-old head chef Rene Redzepi, Noma has taken the coveted top slot with the most votes from an Academy of over 800 international critics, journalists and food experts in the awards organised by the UK's Restaurant Magazine."

Click here for the full list.