My predictions for the enjoyable nonsense that is the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World thungummyjig which takes place in London tonight:

1) I suspect Noma will retain the top spot, partly as a poke in the eye to Michelin's recent petulant snub but partly because, since being named No.1 last year, just about every chef and food writer in the world has passed through its doors, virtually all of them approving and many of them on the jury for the Restaurant Magazine poll. Although the same could be said of el bulli, which is closing (so would be a weird but sentimental choice). And Heston Blumenthal's new place, Dinner, has also had perhaps the most positive reviews of any new opening ever, so that' might be a rank outsider (although it would be stretching it to claim it was better than the Fat Duck – I don't think even Blumenthal would go that far).

(Below: the famous 'radish in soil' at Noma)

2) Expect big moves from Japanese restaurants following the barrage of criticism the 50 Best list has had in the past for, for instance, claiming the best Japanese restaurant in the world was the London Nobu. Narisawa in the top three? Ryugin in the top ten? Maybe even a post-tsunami sympathy vote pushing a Japanese place to the very top? I can think of about ten Japanese restaurants (actually in Japan) which deserve it on merit…

(Below: Narisawa's wonderful and bonkers 'soil soup')

3) My hottest tip – as it comes literally from the horse's mouth (not that literally, of course, it wasn't a horse that told me, but a human) – is that the two-star Stockholm restaurant, Frantzen/Lindeberg, will get one of the special awards (I think its called the Rising Star?) and make an entry very high up in the list.

(Below: Frantzen/Lindeberg on a recent, very cold Stockholm night)

4) And I think Alinea and, more controversially, Chateaubriand, will rise too, while we're at it.