Observations on the Michelin Restaurant guide
Despite its eccentricities,
for French food Michelin is generally very reliable
at the top of the tree. Infuriatingly, there is no index
to the Guide Michelin, and nothing that might tell you
what all the 3 star places are, or anything useful like
that. To save you trawling through endless books I have
brought all this information together on this site,
together with reviews of the restaurants, which in 2004
included every 3 star establishment that had 3 stars
at the time – just think of the devotion to duty
that entailed. It is a telling sign of the respective
interest in food that my journey around the 3 star places
was reported in the local free London paper the Metro,
but in France I was in Le Figaro and on national television.
There seemed to be more interest in Australia than in
the UK.
Michelin has several flaws –
it is very slow to react to change at a restaurant,
so it is tardy both to give stars and to take them away.
Outside of French cuisine, it is much less reliable
– as can be witnessed by some of the surreal recommendations
and omissions in the London section for the “bib
gourmand” i.e. the level below one Michelin star.
Michelin only gives four types of recognition to restaurants:
3 star (the best) two star, one star and the “bib
gourmand” (there is a peculiar “rising star”
rating introduced in 2005 for certain places that aren’t
3 stars yet but might be one day; go figure) . Michelin
offers no notes or description, just the address of
the establishment and sometimes a one-liner on any specialities
of the chef.
This guide is brought to you by Andy
Hayler, a professional food writer based in London.
Please visit andyhayler.com
to read my restaurant reviews.
My eternal thanks to talented photographer
and travel writer Tomasz Smiarowski, who has supplied many of his superb photos of 3 star Michelin
restaurants to this site. If a photo looks good then
it is his; if not, it is one of mine.
This site is entirely independent of, and in no way affiliated with, Michelin.
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