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.

This site is entirely independent of, and in no way affiliated with, Michelin.