London boasts five restaurants on the Elite Traveler Top 100 Restaurants in the World placing the city as the third most coveted in this year’s awards behind only New York with 10 and Paris with eight restaurants.

Knightsbridge’s Dinner by Heston Blumenthal leads the London charge, jumping up 12 places to number 13 in this year’s list.

Blumenthal said: “It’s an absolutely amazing achievement for Ashley and the entire team. The opinion of every one of our guests is important and for Elite Traveler readers to take the time to vote for us is simply quite humbling. Of course, it’s an honor to come top in the UK, but awards or accolades are not a race.

“We want our guests to enjoy what we do, but going out to eat is really so subjective. I recognize that people want different restaurants for different things.”

Two other London restaurants make the top 25. Gordon Ramsay’s flagship Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was named 18th in this year’s rankings and Notting Hill based The Ledbury was named 22nd. It was a double whammy for Ramsay with the chef also being awarded the accolade of “Chef of the Year”.

Ramsay said: “It's nice to be recognised by your customers, it means you are doing something right. But behind Restaurant Gordon Ramsay there is a team of amazing talent who all work closely together and know exactly what’s needed and help manage all of the various pieces that make a restaurant run.”

For the fifth year in a row the number one place went to Chicago’s Alinea, a molecular, gastronomy-led restaurant. Other restaurants representing London further down was Amaya (90) and Michel Roux Jr Le Gavroche (95).

The addition of Gleneagles based Restaurant Andrew Fairlie’s helped the UK come out as the joint fifth best country for fine dining tied with Japan and China after USA, France, Spain and  Italy.

1. Alinea, Chicago, USA
2. Azurmendi, Larrabetzu, Spain
3. Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA
4. Per Se, New York, USA
5. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
6. Robuchon au Dome, Macau, China
7. Le Bernardin, New York, USA
8. Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy
9. D.O.M, Sao Paulo, Brazil
10. Restaurant Guy Savoy, Paris, France