A legendary Kyoto restaurant serving kaiseki, Japan's exquisite multicourse haute cuisine. A traditional grilled-eel specialist in Tokyo with roots dating to the days of the shoguns. An irreverent fast-food joint where fish burgers rule. The newly opened offshoot of one of Scandinavia's most innovative restaurants. And a rustic inn that has reinvented the origins of sushi.
These five very different restaurants have little in common, other than that they're located in Japan. And that each is in the running for laurels and fame when the inaugural World Restaurant Awards are announced in Paris next month.
Conceived as a radical alternative to existing gastronomic prizes and guidebooks, The World Restaurant Awards (WRA) were first unveiled last May. As Creative Director Joe Warwick declared at the time, "The aim is to celebrate the depth and diversity of the restaurant world."