The Red Guide, all of it

Michelin Star Restaurants of the World

A tire company set out to sell more tires by telling drivers where to eat. A century and a quarter later, chefs spend whole careers chasing its stars. Here are all 3,890 restaurants that hold one, two or three of them, along with 3,743 Bib Gourmand picks and 11,989 Plate restaurants, and the story of how the whole thing started.

162 worth a special journey
547 worth a detour
3,181 worth a stop
335 green stars
Bib
3,743 Bib Gourmand
Plate
11,989 Plate
51
countries and territories with stars, across 1,743 towns and cities

How it started

Two brothers, a tire and a free guidebook

France had about 2,800 registered cars in 1900.1 The more people drove, the more tires they would wear out, so André and Édouard Michelin gave motorists a reason to hit the road: a free guide packed with what a long drive needed, from maps and road conditions to changing a tire, finding a garage or fuel, and where to eat and sleep along the way.1,2

The Michelin Man came first. At the Lyon Universal Exhibition in 1894 the brothers spotted a heap of tires that looked like a body without arms.3 In 1898 the artist O'Galop turned the idea into a poster: a man built from tires, lifting a goblet of nails and broken glass beneath the Latin line Nunc est bibendum, "now is the time to drink". The joke was that a Michelin tire could swallow anything the road threw at it, and the character took his name, Bibendum, from that motto.4

  1. 1900

    The first guide

    Handed out free to motorists in France, with the practical stuff a long drive needed: mechanics, fuel, food and a bed.1,2

  2. 1920

    Seven francs

    André walked into a tire shop and found a stack of his free guides holding up a workbench. His conclusion was that people value what they pay for, and from then on the guide cost seven francs.5,6

  3. 1926

    A single star

    Restaurants worth seeking out started getting a star. For the first few years that one star was the only level.5,6

  4. 1931

    One, two, three

    A second and third star were added, giving the ranking the shape it still has.5,6

  5. 1936

    The rules in print

    Michelin published the criteria behind each level.6 Today's labels for them, worth a stop, worth a detour and worth a special journey, still read like advice to a driver deciding whether to leave the main road.7

  6. 1957

    Good food, fair price

    The guide began flagging places serving "good meals at moderate prices".5 In 1997 that became the Bib Gourmand, with a symbol of its own: Bibendum licking his lips.5,8

  7. 2005

    Across the water

    New York was picked as the first North American city to get its own guide.9 Tokyo's first guide came out in 2007 as the first in Asia, and today Tokyo holds more stars than any other city in the world.10

  8. 2020

    The green star

    The 2020 French guide introduced Michelin's first symbol for chefs committed to the environment,11 now the Green Star. Inspectors look at where the ingredients come from, what gets wasted, and the footprint the kitchen leaves behind.12

The rankings

What the stars mean

Stars are about the cooking and nothing else. Décor, service and the wine list play no part, which is how a hawker noodle stall in Singapore can hold the same star as a grand dining room in Paris.13

Worth a stop7

Excellent produce and cooking you can count on, meal after meal. If you are in the area, go.

3,181 restaurants

Worth a detour7

Polished, inventive cooking with the chef's own style written all over it. Change your route for it.

547 restaurants

Worth a special journey7

The top of the craft, with dishes people keep talking about for years. Plan a whole trip around the meal.

162 restaurants

Green star

For kitchens that take sustainability seriously. It can go to a starred restaurant, a Bib Gourmand, or a restaurant with no other award.12

335 starred restaurants hold one
Bib Gourmand

Good food, fair price

Michelin's mark for very good cooking at a moderate price. It is an award in its own right, separate from the stars.8,13

3,743 restaurants
Plate

A good meal

Introduced in the 2016 Paris guide15 for restaurants in the guide without a star or Bib Gourmand: good produce cooked with care, a notch above average but short of either award.16

11,989 restaurants

The five criteria

Inspectors everywhere judge against the same five, so a star in Bangkok is meant to carry the same weight as one in Lyon.13

  1. How good the ingredients are
  2. Command of cooking technique
  3. How well the flavors work together
  4. The chef's personality, as it comes through on the plate
  5. Consistency, across the whole menu and from one visit to the next

The inspectors

Every inspector is a full-time Michelin employee who came from restaurants or hotels.7 They reserve under assumed names, settle the check in full, and never tell the restaurant who they are.14

Stars are settled at meetings where the inspectors who ate at a restaurant sit down with the local editor and the guide's international director and decide together.14 The stars belong to the restaurant rather than the chef: if the chef leaves and the cooking holds up, the stars stay put.7,13

By the numbers

Where the stars are

France still leads by country, but by city the crown belongs to Japan. Each bar counts starred restaurants; the figure in red is how many of them hold three stars.

Countries with the most starred restaurants
  1. France 647 30★★★
  2. Italy 382 15★★★
  3. Japan 359 20★★★
  4. Germany 338 12★★★
  5. Spain 299 16★★★
  6. United States 275 16★★★
  7. United Kingdom 198 10★★★
  8. Chinese Mainland 156 4★★★
Cities with the most starred restaurants
  1. Tokyo 159 11★★★
  2. Paris 122 9★★★
  3. Kyoto 97 6★★★
  4. London 84 6★★★
  5. Osaka 81 3★★★
  6. Hong Kong 77 7★★★
  7. New York, NY 62 5★★★
  8. Shanghai 50 1★★★

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Every starred, Bib Gourmand and Plate restaurant

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Restaurant data from the Michelin Guide. Stars change every year, and a few restaurants listed here are marked temporarily closed; check the Guide or the restaurant before you book. Michelin, the Michelin Guide and Bibendum are trademarks of Michelin, which has no connection with this site.

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