Among a stately cohort it’s still considered one of the must important guides for fine dining, having spent years finding the most elusive and unique restaurants from around the world. Today, the Michelin guide rates thousands of restaurants across 33 countries and is continuing to expand.
But among Millennials it lacks much of a reputation; Grit Daily interns counted as “Gen Z” hadn’t even heard of it.
Nonetheless — foodies that we are — on the Michelin guide website we discovered thousands of entries within this guide, so in an attempt to cut the list down we decided to find out which restaurants are the very best.
The Best of the Best
Any restaurant that holds a three-star title is, by definition, one of the best in the world. However, with 137 three-star restaurants, the list needs to be cut down slightly.
To cut down the list of restaurants we cross-checked each establishment with their Trip Advisor ratings and only included entrée’s with at least 1,000 user reviews. We then ordered the results by the highest overall percentage of ‘excellent reviews’, which is when a reviewer gives the establishment a 5-star rating on Trip Advisor. Restaurants with identical review ratings have been ranked by total number of reviews.
Interestingly, Spain have occupied the top two spots, with El Celler de Can Roca in first and Restaurante Martin Berasategui in second. France’s Epicure and Maison Lameloise sit in third and 4th respectively, and Italy’s Uliassi slips in to take 5th position.
The UK seems to be shedding its reputation for terrible food: Three British establishments popped into the top 10. Meanwhile, the US only had two entries in the top 20 – Alinea in Chicago and Le Bernardin in New York City.
The Best Cities for Food Lovers to Visit
With France being home to the Michelin Guide, we expected to see Paris at the top of our list. Surprisingly, it’s been knocked off the top spot by Japan’s Tokyo. Japan also takes 3rd place for total number of 3-star restaurants per city with Kyoto.
Japan is one of the newest members of the Michelin Guide; they were given their first 3-star rating in 2007. Today, Japan holds thirty-five three-star ratings, adding up to a total of 731 stars across the entire country. As one of the smallest countries that holds the most star ratings, it shouldn’t be too surprising to see Tokyo take first place for the most three-star Michelin restaurants in a single city.
Star Ratings by Countries
Over the course of its 119-year history, the Michelin Guide, created by French tire salesmen Andre and Edouard Michelin, has spanned 33 countries. The guide was originally created as a marketing stunt which listed useful information such as where to find gas, get repairs or find hotels and restaurants, all of which was devised to persuade motorists to travel more regularly and, in turn, wear out their tires faster.
Getting the star rating is simply one part of the process. You then have to keep up the great work so that you retain the star rating – Michelin judges can visit your restaurant at any time and won’t let you know about it until it’s too late to prepare for them. Spanning 33 countries, the guide has given out just 3,190 stars and each iteration of the guide could cause a restaurant to lose their star ratings. This means that chefs have to be on the ball at all times.
However, there are a small number of restaurants that have proved their quality for decades at a time. For example, Restaurant Paul Bocuse has held its three-star title for over half-a-century, or an incredible 54 years in total.
The Michelin Guide doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. in fact, Michelin recently announced that California would receive a guide, showing an unprecedented expansion with their first state wide guide in the US.
