It boasts an outward-looking food culture that absorbs influences freely, while its culinary traditions have been reinvented by chefs like Fergus Henderson at St John and Rowley Leigh at Le Cafe Anglais.

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The Four Seasons won best restaurant, Babbo won for best new restaurant, Union Square Cafe for outstanding wine service and Le Bernardin for outstanding service.

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Just a short walk from the tourist hoards of Montmartre, Le Bal is a cultural photography centre on an out-of-the-way mews, with a cafe on the ground floor facing out onto a small park.

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