LONDON, June 8 — The US tops the leaderboard in the second half of the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, taking up nine spots on the ranking.

A week before the event's debut in New York, UK-based Restaurant magazine released the names of the restaurants ranked 51 -100.

Mani, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is the highest-ranked restaurant on the second half of the list at 51, while Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York is the highest-ranked US restaurant at 52.

A scan of the names that made the top 100 list but failed to crack the top 50 this year may raise some eyebrows.

The French Laundry, Keller's triple Michelin-starred flagship restaurant in Napa Valley, for instance, failed to crack the top 50 and is ranked in 85th place behind Le Chateaubriand, a small casual bistro in Paris that holds no Michelin stars.

Critics have called the ranking's methodology opaque and unfairly biased towards practitioners of avant-garde gastronomy.

Organisers have also been accused of favouring chefs from countries with which they built commercial ties, and made enemies of the France's high gastronomy society after failing to give French chef spots on the top 10 list.

After the US, France is the second-most represented country with eight restaurants on the list, followed by Japan (four), Spain, Belgium and the UK which tied with three each.

For the first time, The World's 50 Best Restaurants will take place in New York this year in the aim of giving the event more cachet among US audiences.

The list covers 21 countries, with 15 new entries and another four repeat appearances.

The ranking is determined by the votes of 1,000 industry experts from 27 regions around the world and vetted by consultancy group Deloitte.

Last year, a French group hit back releasing their own version of the World's 50 Best ranking calling theirs La Liste.

The ranking, they claimed, was based on a mathematical algorithm that took into account hundreds of guide books and online reviews.

Topping their list was Restaurant de L'Hotel de Ville in Geneva. Per Se ranked second.

Others in the food industry have noted that while Michelin recognises the quality of cooking, the World's 50 Best Restaurants captures the zeitgeist of the culinary world.

The winners ranked 1 to 50 will be announced June 13.

For the list 51-100 click here. — AFP-Relaxnews