# How Does A Restaurant Get Considered For A Michelin Star? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304 "2020-02-21T15:47:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/1 "2020-02-21T15:47:04Z")
If you open a restaurant with a view towards getting Michelin stars, is there like an application process? Do they accept submissions from the general public? Or do you just kind of have to hope the word-of-mouth gets you noticed? Also, does Michelin deliberately exclude whole cities (if not countries)? Does someone in Paris sit around in meeting rooms and be like, “What eez zees Konzas Seety? Eez too boogie. No stars for any restaurant een zees Konzas Seety?” And thus Kansas City will be devoid of Michelin stars for all time? ---
**Author:** ![Brandon\_Dennis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@Brandon\_Dennis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandon_Dennis)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/2 "2020-02-21T16:46:53Z")
As I know, Michelin consider restaurants and claim to judge “what’s on the plate and only what’s on the plate”. Their five criteria are: quality of the ingredients used, mastery of flavour and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef in their cuisine, value for money and consistency between visits. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/3 "2020-02-21T16:55:09Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Also, does Michelin deliberately exclude whole cities (if not countries)? Does someone in Paris sit around in meeting rooms and be like, “What eez zees Konzas Seety? Eez too boogie. No stars for any restaurant een zees Konzas Seety?” And thus Kansas City will be devoid of Michelin stars for all time? It’s not so much “exclude” but they only put out guides for certain countries and cities. They don’t give out stars globally. > **[Michelin Guide | Guides](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide#Guides)** > > In 2014, Michelin introduced a separate listing for gastropubs in Ireland. In 2016, the Michelin Guide for Hong Kong and Macau introduced an overview of notable street-food establishments. In the same year, the Singapore guide introduced the first Michelin stars for street-food locations, for Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle and Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/4 "2020-02-21T18:00:23Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > It’s not so much “exclude” but they only put out guides for certain countries and cities. They don’t give out stars globally. > [Michelin Guide - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide#Guides) Given that, it looks like, if a US restaurant isn’t in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington, Michelin isn’t currently evaluating them. So, no Michelin stars for Kansas City, by default. ---
**Author:** ![Saturn\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Saturn\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saturn_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/5 "2020-02-21T23:47:42Z")
To get reviewed by Michelin, you first and foremost need to be in a city or region that is covered by their guides. This means major metropolitan and tourist areas. Reviewed areas are often expanded※, or in rare cases, suspended. Ironically, candidates for new restaurants to be reviewed are gathered by looking at local reviews from food writers, restaurant critics, and more recently, food bloggers. They keep an eye on these hot restaurants and collectively decide which ones to review. Once a star has been awarded, the restaurant then gets reviewed on a regular basis (meaning every one to two years) to check on their standards, and to maintain, drop or add stars accordingly. Needless to say, it’s not that easy to earn stars. ※Apparently you can “sponsor” to have a guide made for your region as South Korea and Thailand did. If Kansas City wanted their restaurants in a Michelin guide, all they have to do is pay for the “privilege”. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/6 "2020-02-22T00:12:39Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Given that, it looks like, if a US restaurant isn’t in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington, Michelin isn’t currently evaluating them. So, no Michelin stars for Kansas City, by default. Not only that but they are specifically not considering parts of Chicago that are traditionally African American like the South and West - did not sit well with a a lot of people when it was announced ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/7 "2020-02-22T01:22:50Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Not only that but they are specifically not considering parts of Chicago that are traditionally African American like the South and West - did not sit well with a a lot of people when it was announced The fact that Michelin hadn’t been considering restaurants in those parts of the city doesn’t surprise me too much, I suppose. However, if you look at [the Chicago restaurants in the 2020 guide](https://www.choosechicago.com/articles/food-drink/guide-to-michelin-star-restaurants-in-chicago/), while it is, clearly, still primarily focused on the city center and the north side, a restaurant in Douglas Park got a star, and there are several in neighborhoods like Pilsen and Archer Heights that are on the Bib Gourmand list. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/8 "2020-02-22T02:00:52Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The fact that Michelin hadn’t been considering restaurants in those parts of the city doesn’t surprise me too much, I suppose. However, if you look at [the Chicago restaurants in the 2020 guide](https://www.choosechicago.com/articles/food-drink/guide-to-michelin-star-restaurants-in-chicago/), while it is, clearly, still primarily focused on the city center and the north side, a restaurant in Douglas Park got a star, and there are several in neighborhoods like Pilsen and Archer Heights that are on the Bib Gourmand list. Archer Heights, represent!!! (I know Birreria Zaragoza very well. Somehow, I didn’t realize they got a Bib Gourmand. Awesome!) ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/9 "2020-02-22T18:03:12Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The fact that Michelin hadn’t been considering restaurants in those parts of the city doesn’t surprise me too much, I suppose. However, if you look at [the Chicago restaurants in the 2020 guide](https://www.choosechicago.com/articles/food-drink/guide-to-michelin-star-restaurants-in-chicago/), while it is, clearly, still primarily focused on the city center and the north side, a restaurant in Douglas Park got a star, and there are several in neighborhoods like Pilsen and Archer Heights that are on the Bib Gourmand list. Interesting to see Next got a star. They’d previously said they didn’t think they could give it a star because the restaurant changes so drastically every season and they couldn’t vouch for consistency. I wonder what changed. Also…living in Logan Square with two small kids that make restaurant outings rare-to-impossible is…torture. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/10 "2020-02-22T18:06:09Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > It’s not so much “exclude” but they only put out guides for certain countries and cities. They don’t give out stars globally. Which leads to a kind of irony. If you’re the only good restaurant in your city, you’re not going to get a Michelin star. You need a bunch of other good restaurants around, which are competing against you, in order for your city to have enough restaurants to justify a Michelin guide and the awarding of stars. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-restaurant-get-considered-for-a-michelin-star/848304/11 "2020-02-25T04:41:05Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > … “What eez zees Konzas Seety? Eez too boogie. No stars for any restaurant een zees Konzas Seety?” And thus Kansas City will be devoid of Michelin stars for all time? This was hilarious!