Japanese restaurants took the top two spots in a ranking of the 50 best restaurants in Asia at an awards ceremony Monday in Singapore.

Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa's French restaurant Narisawa in Tokyo's Minami Aoyama district took the top spot, while Seiji Yamamoto's restaurant Nihonryori RyuGin in Tokyo's Roppongi district came in second in the inaugural "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" list organized by Restaurant magazine.

China had 16 on the list, Singapore had 10 and Japan had nine.

"It is exciting to see so many innovative and creative chefs pushing Asia's culinary boundaries and supporting Asia's growing influence on the global culinary stage," William Drew of William Reed Business Media, the British publisher of Restaurant magazine, said in a statement announcing the winners.

"There is no doubt that Asia provides the ideal ingredients to foster a rich and diverse list of culinary excellence, and an impressive exploration ground for food lovers."

The company has been producing a list of the world's top 50 restaurants since 2002, but this year launched a list for Asia due to the growing number of Asian restaurants making it to the world's top 50 list.

The top restaurants were selected based on votes by more than 900 experts.