A look at the winners and losers of the World's Best Restaurants Awards

The epicurean world feted the best in fine dining Monday night, further solidifying chef René Redzepi's Noma restaurant as the paragon of gastronomy, inducting a few new faces and nursing a few wounds among sliding restaurateurs.

This year marks the second year in a row that Copenhagen's Noma was crowned the world's best restaurant by the 800 food critics, restaurateurs, chefs and 'gastronomes' who make up the academy at the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants.

Hailed for its "fanatical approach to foraging," the kitchen's flawless execution, and for providing an emotive, intense and liberating way of eating, Noma was called a beacon of excellence that has yet to be matched in its class.

When announced as the winner at Guildhall in London last night, Redzepi and his flag-waving team took to their feet in congratulatory hugs and stepped on stage in Viking hats.

After taking a swig of drink from a Viking horn, Redzepi turned to the rest of his team onstage and addressed them in a voice choking with emotion.

"I'm grateful, I'm happy that you're with me. Most of you have been here since day one. And we did it. Again. Together.  And I can't thank you enough. And I hope that you're going to do it one more year again, alright fellas?"

Monday night's win likely comes as a relief to the chef who suffered a disappointing blow last month when the latest Michelin guide snubbed his restaurant of a third star.

Also noticeably missing from this year's list was Ferran Adrià's restaurant El Bulli, which held the No. 1 spot for four years and is widely recognized as the gold standard in fine dining. The academy said they decided to leave the Spanish restaurant out of this year's running as it closes in July. Adrià plans to create a culinary research center in its place.

Another noticeable omission in the top 50 list is Thomas Keller's California restaurant French Laundry, which slid from the No. 32 spot last year to No. 56. It's been a precipitous slide down the ranks for his Napa Valley restaurant, as the year before it also plummeted 20 spots.

His New York restaurant Per Se, however, managed to keep hold of its tenth spot position, which it held last year as well.

Celebrity British chef Heston Blumenthal's restaurant The Fat Duck also slid two spots from the No. 3 position in 2010 to No. 5 this year.

While Chef Grant Achatz's new restaurant Next has stolen a bit of Alinea's thunder since opening earlier this month, his first-born establishment proved its precedent-setting stature, moving up one spot from seventh to sixth place this year.

Meanwhile, the highest riser this year was Japan's Nihonryori RyuGin, which climbed 29 spots from last year to secure the 20th position, a restaurant judges praised for respecting Japanese traditions with creative, innovative cuisine.

This year's list was hailed by industry observers for being more inclusive of gastronomy outside Europe and the US - a criticism it faced in years past, since first running in 2002. The top 50 restaurants includes a few first-timers like Moscow and Peru. Brazilian restaurant DOM appears in the seventh spot. Likewise, Mexico boasts two restaurants on the list, while mainland China also got a nod for the first time.

The results will be published in the May issue of Restaurant Magazine.

To watch the Noma team's reaction to their win, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcvVJXbzs4

Here are the Top 20 World's Best Restaurants for 2011

1 Noma Denmark

2 El Celler de Can Roca Spain

3 Mugaritz Spain

4 Osteria Francescana Italy

5 The Fat Duck UK

6 Alinea USA

7 D.O.M Brazil

8 Arzak Spain

9 Le Chateaubriand France

10 Per Se USA

11 Daniel USA

12 Les Creations de Narisawa Japan

13 L'Astrance France

14 L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon France

15 Hof van Cleve Belgium

16 Pierre Gagnaire France

17 Oud Sluis Netherlands

18 Le Bernardin USA

19 L'Arpège France

20 Nihonryori RyuGin Japan