The world's 50 best restaurants: near your business destination?

The world's 50 best restaurants have been announced for 2011 in the annual Restaurant magazine competition.

With only one -- Sydney's Quay from Peter Gilmore -- in Australia, Australian airline celebrity chefs Luke Mangan (for Virgin Blue) and Neil Perry (for Qantas) didn't rate a mention. 

But many of the best restaurants in the world are easy to get to if you're travelling internationally for work, with many of them around a half-hour's taxi ride from major airports. 

Interestingly, Spain is strongly represented, with three of the top ten: more than any other country. Unfortunately, they're not easy to get to. Girona, home to number 2, Roca, is a two-hour journey by train from Barcelona, while Errenteria -- on the French border and the location of number 3, Mugaritz -- isn't convenient either. 

Here's a distilled list of the best restaurants in the world that are feasible to reach on your next business trip abroad.

The number one restaurant in the world is Noma in Copenhagen, which is a hub for SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Foodies heading to Europe can transit through the Danish capital as part of a Star Alliance ticket, returning to Australia via Singapore's Changi airport on Singapore Airlines, but otherwise a weekend in Copenhagen is feasible from just about any major European city.

In the UK, the best restaurant is still The Fat Duck, celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's experimental laboratory of cuisine. Fortunately for travellers, the world's number 5 restaurant is just a half-hour drive from London Heathrow.

Grant Achatz's Alinea in Chicago comes in at number 6, and is only half an hour's taxi ride away from Chicago's enormous O'Hare International Airport, one of the largest hubs in the United States. Ripe for a well-managed connection at dinnertime, we reckon.

Across the English Channel in Paris is Le Chateaubriand at number 9, just a thirty-minute cab ride from Charles de Gaulle airport.

New York's Per Se (the "New Yorkified" version of the legendary French Laundry in California) from Thomas Keller is in Midtown and easily reachable from just about anywhere. Per Se came in at number 10, just in front of Daniel Boulud's eponymous Daniel -- also in NYC -- in eleventh place.

Check out the full list of winners to see whether your next business trip could include a meal at one of the world's best restaurants.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.