Photo by Rick 

In November 2007, Michelin inspectors sprinkled 191 Michelin-stars on 150 restaurants in Tokyo, which is by far the highest amount of stars Michelin has awarded any city. While just about any city in Europe and the US would market itself as a gastronomical powerhouse if it had received just a few of those stars, Tokyo renounces the honour from Michelin. Instead, the Michelin-guide has received heavy criticism from the city’s many food aficionados.

Prominent figures such as food critics, magazines and even the governor of Tokyo have questioned the guide’s choice of restaurants and ratings, and a handful of chefs have proudly announced that they turned down chances to be listed in the guide.

The rationale behind the opposition against the Michelin-guide is, that it is only Japanese people who really understand Japanese food. “How can a bunch of foreigners show up and tell us what is good or bad?”, says Tokyo chef Toshiya Kadowaki according to The New York Times.

The fact that two out of the five Michelin inspectors who did the guide were Japanese, doesn’t seem to have appeased the critical Tokyoites, who claim that the guide gave high ratings to unremarkable restaurants. 

A business man tells how he spent about $200 at the three-star Japanese-style restaurant Kanda and was dismayed to find what he called egregious violations of Japanese cuisine’s minimalist tenets, like an overly large slice of eel sushi that disrupted the dish’s balance."You needed a knife and fork to eat that,” Mr. Nagatomi said according to The New York Times. “I can see why it would appeal to Frenchmen who don’t use chopsticks.”

One restaurateur explains that he refused a listing in the Michelin for fear of turning off customers seeking authentic Japanese cuisine, and another said he turned down a Michelin rating because the idea of ranking restaurants offended Japanese sensibility against bragging and putting others down.

The Tokyo-guide is Michelin’s first guide outside Europe and the United States. The French tyre company says it chose Tokyo because it was the largest and one of the most sophisticated restaurant markets in the world. The Tokyo metropolitan area, with some 30 million residents, has roughly 160,000 restaurants, versus about 25,000 in greater New York City and 13,000 in Paris, according to Michelin.

See the Michelin rankings in Tokyo here [PDF].

Michelin’s new France 2008 Red Guide came out on March 3. To see the full details on the new rankings click here [PDF].

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The Michelin restaurant-guide has been extremely generous towards Tokyo. In the Tokyo-guide – Michelin’s first guide outside Europe and the United States – nothing less than 191 Michelin-stars are awarded to 150 Tokyo-restaurants. No city has ever been awarded this many Michelin stars, and Tokyo totally outbattles Paris on the gastronomical battlefield. Previously, Paris had the most stars, at 97.

"Tokyo is a shining star in the world of cuisine," Michelin Guides Director Jean-Luc Naret said at a news conference in the Japanese capital. He declared Tokyo "the world leader in gourmet dining."

Eight restaurants in Tokyo, including two sushi eateries, received Michelin’s highest three-star rating. About 60 percent of the restaurants in the Michelin guide serve Japanese food, while a majority of the other restaurants are French.

It has been hard work doing the research for the Tokyo-guide. Five Michelin inspectors (three European and two Japanese) went undercover in Tokyo for a year and a half and eat their way through 1,500 of the city's estimated 160,000 restaurants to decide on the ratings. Bad job!

Tokyo’s 3-star restaurants are:

Joel Robuchon, French
Sushi Mizutani, sushi
Kanda, Japanese
Hamadaya, classic Japanese
L'Osier, French
Koju, Japanese
Quintessence, French
Sukiyabashi Jiro, sushi

See all the Michelin rankings in Tokyo here [PDF].

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Tokyo doesn’t want Michelin-stars

Paris hits back on the gastronomical battlefield 

Author David Rich Momondo