https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Michelin_3-star_restau...
It has a stunning 25 restaurants. For a population of 126 million. The runner up, USA, has 15 restaurants with twice the population.
As a frequent traveler Japan, I can say from personal experience, it is hard to find a bad meal in Japan.
I believe I read that Michelin doesn't really evaluate most of the USA as part of its starring guide. For example, this [1] indicates that LA is not in the coverage area for the Michelin star system. Smaller cities like Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, etc. are therefore invisible despite having tons of people in aggregate. (Apparently the size of geographic regions and cost are factors.)
Would be interesting to see the US ratio compared with population in the cities actually covered here.
1 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2016/06/01/did-t...
I know of at least one place in Minneapolis that is now shooting for a star or two. There's a lot of preparation involved, far beyond the food alone.
I know of at least one place that is actively trying to earn one, but I'm not naming names...
The fancier places would be something like Spoon and Stable and Bellecour, who have the same chef. Their quality would probably be on par with a mention in the Michelin guide but no star. I have a tendency to go with cheaper food at home and splurge when I'm traveling, so I do not have a good sample of the fine dining restaurants in MPLS.
There's a pretty good kaiseki restaurant in the north loop, but I can't remember the name. They have a very good Japanese whisky bar above, if you are willing to pay through the nose for Japanese whisky.
Big Daddy's BBQ, iPho (aka Saigon), Bull's Horn, Sandcastle (summer only), Gandhi Mahal, Eat Street Social, Harry Singh's Caribbean, Pimento, Sen Li Sen Lek, Tongue in Cheek, Travail, Ngon Bistro, Black Sheep Pizza, Hai Hai, Spoon and Stable, Bachelor Farmer, Revival, Brasa, Zen Box Izakaya, Manny's Tortas, Moroccan Flavors, Matt's Bar, Al's Breakfast, Lindey's, Bar La Grassa, 46th St Patisserie...
I can probably come up with more, but that should keep you busy for months.
EDIT: Small change, looks like there are few Chinese restaurants!
There are obvious factors that contribute to a restaurant being visited by Michelin judges, not the least of which is its location relative to other restaurants that are visited. There is also the matter of judges needing to be familiar with a cuisine in order to judge it properly. Without extensive knowledge of ingredients, preparation methods and presentation patterns it is difficult to issue a Michelin rating. If they do not know the culinary landscape how do you imagine they will issue a rating? Doing so would destroy their credibility as a knowledgeable school of critics.
There used to be zero stars in Japan but that has changed over time as the Michelin system has embraced the cuisine and visa versa. It is easy to point out that many cuisines are not represented in the Michelin guide but what are the alternatives? That a limited number of people learn everything there is to know in an instant? That the ratings become so arbitrary that they are meaningless? There is nothing in the Michelin guide that claims that good food cannot be found elsewhere. I fail to see the controversy in a publication that is seemingly doing what it can to stick to what it knows while progressively broadening its horizons.
By hiring more inspectors?
I'm not saying there is cultural bias or something like that. I'm just pointing out the fact that they have certain cuisines that are not represented.
If you consistently claim to be - "the world’s best known independent restaurant and hotel guide" with proudly boasting 100 odd year history, then you better show gastronomic variety. Else it just seems weird.
[1] From their twitter handle description - twitter.com/MichelinGuideUK
Rather than resenting the Michelin system for not representing the kind of restaurants we love, maybe just recognize that it's not supposed to do that, and find other ways to find and measure restaurants that don't fit the Michelin data model?
Michelin stars are awarded based on food "quality" alone [1]:
> the quality of ingredients used, the skill in food preparation, the combination of flavours, the value for money, the consistency of culinary standards.
[1] https://guide.michelin.com/hk/en/hong-kong-macau/features/5-...
This is not to say they aren't improving. But it does say that they didn't always live up to their own stated standards.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-27/asian-food-fine-dinin...
Also, Michelin gives awards for fine dining, meaning a specific style of service. Any type of restaurant that meets the service requirements can be awarded Michelin stars, there's a Nigerian restaurant in London that's recently been awarded a star.
The Michelin Guide itself disagrees: “The Michelin Guide isn't in any of the Indian cities but that doesn't mean the red book is void of the subcontinent’s cuisine. In fact, Indian restaurants are listed in most of the territories with the Guide, some of which are in truly surprising cities. Tokyo for instance, is home to three Bib Gourmand rated Indian eateries, while the first Indian restaurant awarded with a Michelin star in Asia happens to be in Macau.”
https://guide.michelin.com/hk/en/hong-kong-macau/travel/8-mi...
Also:
https://guide.michelin.com/us/san-francisco/indian-pakistani...
Two 1-star, One “The Plate”, and Five “Bib Gourmand” in SF Bay.
> South American
Alex Atala’s D.O.M.in São Paolo is a two-star “contemporary Brazilian” restaurant, the first counterexample I could find.
> Mediterranean
https://guide.michelin.com/us/san-francisco/mourad/restauran...
> Thai
https://guide.michelin.com/us/san-francisco/kin-khao/restaur...
EDIT: On review, you might have been referring to geography rather than cuisine, so we’ll do that again from that perspective to cover all bases.
> Indian
As noted above, geographically, that's correct
> South American
https://guide.michelin.com/br/rio-de-janeiro
https://guide.michelin.com/br/sao-paulo
> Mediterranean
Also a valid point, geographically.
> Thai
https://guide.michelin.com/th/bangkok
> Chinese
But hey, at least you got the til (~ diacritic) right. A lot of people don't even know that's a thing.
>Also a valid point, geographically.
Surely there must be loads of michelin-starred restaurants within the various Mediterranean culinary regions.
But there is no Michelin coverage for Africa or for Asia outside of East Asia. Unless I haven't found the right secret path into the guide.
[1] Butter Chicken - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_chicken
A Michelin star doesn't just come from the literal taste of the food (or the presentation), it comes from every aspect of the restaurant and staff - down to the very cleanliness of the curtains.
And then there's Nirvana in Manhattan, at penthouse level on on Central Park South. Beautiful cityscape at night. But it's really Bangladeshi, and they don't do Vindaloo.
Or are you arguing that Michelin just wouldn't rate traditional Japanese, Indian or Chinese restaurants highly?
Unfortunately I'm not super familiar with nicer Chinese food, but I'd presume that it's not incompatible with drinks either.
I'm not saying that you need to have a sommelier, I'm just saying that the lack of a sommelier is usually a pretty good sign that a restaurant isn't even trying for a star (extremely few restaurants are!).
I don't think Michelin would tend to rate any "traditional" restaurants very highly, to get stars you need to offer the specific Michelin experience.
You'll notice too that Japan (along with other Asian locations) received their first Michelin star in only 2008.
European restaurants have stars dating from the 1960s, so this is really just the beginning for the East.
When they finally get around to surveying Bangkok I've little doubt we'll see our first street-food Michelin star.
My sense is that it's more that the Michelin inspectors have only started to explore the East (Tokyo in 2007). I've always felt that Michelin inspectors were late to the scene.
Excellent restaurants have probably existed in the East long before this. I've visited many Asian countries and the food culture and passion for food there exceeds that of many European countries (and I've eaten at Basque restaurants).
I'm a fan of the food and dining experience in Japan but I disagree with this blanket statement. Okonomiyaki is pretty awful. Ramen is rubbish (cheap, non-nutritional noodles remain cheap, non-nutritional noodles however you dress them up). Japanese curry is pretty repulsive stuff and an insult to the sub-continent tradition. I could go on.