Tokyo – The new culinary capital

Yesterday Michelin released its selection of recommended hotels and restaurants in the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2009. The new edition features 203 establishments in all, a number that includes 173 restaurants and 30 hotels. Tokyo is tied with Paris for the number of three-star eateries.

“Tokyo’s gastronomy has improved and evolved in the course of the year and the rise in stars shows that,” said Jean-Luc Naret, Director of Michelin Guides. “There is great potential in Tokyo and it can get even more stars.”

In the 2009 selection:

- Ishikawa joins the three star selections.
- 14 restaurants join the selection of two-star and 35 restaurants join the one-star.
- With 227 stars in all, Tokyo strengthens the position of world leader in gourmet dining with more "stars" than any other city. This is 36 more stars than the 191 awarded to Tokyo last year.

Michelin updates its guides every single year in order to provide readers most reliable information possible. All the restaurants and hotels selected in 2008 edition are re-examined, and establishments which are not selected and which could be interesting for Michelin readers are also inspected. Just after the launch of 2008 edition, specially assigned inspectors, both Japanese and European, full-time employees of Michelin, have been anonymously evaluating restaurants and hotels.

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