Summary
A Michelin star is an award for the cooking at a restaurant. The Michelin Guide’s inspectors give one, two or three stars, and three is the highest. The stars are judged on the food alone, jump to Who decides, and they are reviewed every year, so a restaurant can lose them, jump to Losing a star. Ten restaurants in Great Britain and Ireland hold three stars, jump to UK three stars in the 2026 Guide.
A Michelin star is an award for the quality of the cooking at a restaurant. It is given by the Michelin Guide, which sends its own inspectors to eat there without saying who they are. A restaurant can hold one, two or three stars, and three is the highest.
Most restaurants in the Guide have no star at all. The 2026 Guide to Great Britain and Ireland lists 1,210 restaurants, and fewer than one in five holds a star.
What do one, two and three Michelin stars mean?
Each level has a short definition.
One star
Michelin’s definition is “high-quality cooking, worth a stop”. The kitchen uses very good ingredients and cooks them to a consistently high standard.
Two stars
The definition is “excellent cooking, worth a detour”. Michelin says the personality and talent of the kitchen team show in the dishes.
Three stars
This is the highest award, for cooking that is “worth a special journey”. Michelin says cooking at this level becomes an art form, and that some of the dishes are destined to become classics.
The star itself is drawn as a small flower with six petals.
A star doesn’t need a formal dining room. The Coach, a pub in Marlow, holds one.
The wording comes from the Guide’s early life as a handbook for drivers. A stop, a detour and a special journey are all measures of how far you would drive for a meal.
Who awards Michelin stars, and what do they judge?
Michelin’s inspectors award the stars. They are full-time employees of the Guide, and Michelin describes them as former restaurant and hospitality professionals.
An inspector books a table and eats like any other customer, without telling the restaurant. Michelin pays for the meal. The restaurant never does. Several inspectors visit the same restaurant at different times of year, at lunch and at dinner. The decision is then made by the team together.
Michelin says the inspectors judge five things.
Ingredients
The produce has to be of high quality.
Flavour
The flavours on the plate have to work together.
Technique
The cooking has to be carried out with skill.
Personality
The chef’s own character should come through in the food.
Consistency
The standard has to hold across the whole menu and from one visit to the next.
Michelin says the decor, the style of the restaurant and how formal it is have no bearing on the award. The style of service doesn’t count either. The Hand and Flowers in Marlow is a pub, and it holds two stars.
Why does a tyre company rate restaurants?
The Guide is published by Michelin, the French tyre company. The brothers André and Édouard Michelin brought out the first edition in 1900, when France had fewer than 3,000 cars on its roads. It was a free handbook for drivers. It had maps, instructions for changing a tyre and lists of mechanics, hotels and petrol stations. The brothers hoped it would encourage people to drive more, which would wear out more tyres.
Michelin gave away nearly 35,000 copies of that first edition. It started charging for the guide in the early 1920s.
The restaurant listings proved popular, so the brothers recruited inspectors to visit restaurants anonymously. The Guide awarded its first stars in 1926. The scale of one, two and three stars followed in 1931, and the definitions were published in 1936.
A Michelin guide to the British Isles first appeared in 1911. The current series for Great Britain and Ireland dates from 1974.
Does the star belong to the chef or the restaurant?
The star belongs to the restaurant. Michelin is explicit that it awards stars to restaurants and not to chefs. “Michelin-starred chef” is shorthand for a chef whose restaurant holds a star.
One chef can therefore have several starred restaurants at once. Gordon Ramsay’s name is over the door at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, which holds three stars. It is also on Le Pressoir d’Argent in Bordeaux, which holds two.
Can a restaurant lose a Michelin star?
Yes, it can. The stars are annual awards, and Michelin reassesses every starred restaurant each year. If the cooking is no longer at the same level, the star is taken away.
Le Gavroche in London was the first restaurant in the UK to hold three stars, from 1982. It lost the third in 1993.
Some chefs have stepped away by choice. Marco Pierre White became the first British chef to win three stars in 1995. He retired from the kitchen in 1999 and handed his stars back.
Stars can also be kept for a very long time. The Waterside Inn at Bray has held three stars every year since 1985.
Which restaurants in the UK have three Michelin stars?
Ten restaurants hold three stars in the 2026 Guide to Great Britain and Ireland. All ten are in England, and all ten kept the award from the year before.
London
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, CORE by Clare Smyth, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, The Ledbury, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Sketch (The Lecture Room and Library).
Bray, Berkshire
The Fat Duck and The Waterside Inn.
Cartmel, Cumbria
L’Enclume.
Aughton, Lancashire
Moor Hall.
Bray is a village on the Thames, and it has two of the ten.
Two stars is a high bar as well, and one of the holders is a pub. The Hand and Flowers in Marlow won its second star in the 2012 Guide. That was the first time a pub had held two.
What are the Bib Gourmand, the Green Star and Michelin Keys?
Michelin gives other awards alongside the stars.
Bib Gourmand
This is a separate award from the stars. Michelin has given it under this name since 1997, to restaurants it considers good value. It is named after Bibendum, the Michelin Man.
Green Star
This award was for restaurants with strong environmental practices, and it was introduced in 2020. In May 2026 Michelin said it would retire the Green Star by the end of the year. Its replacement, Mindful Voices, is a series of articles and not an award.
Michelin Keys
This is the equivalent award for hotels, which Michelin began giving in 2024. A hotel can hold one, two or three Keys.
Starred restaurants you can visit with us
We arrange stays built around starred restaurants. Two of them cover all three levels of star between them.
Marlow: The Hand and Flowers and The Coach
You stay a night at The Hand and Flowers, Tom Kerridge’s two-star pub. Dinner is seven courses at the chef’s table in The Shed, its private dining room with an open kitchen. The table seats ten, so a smaller party shares it with other guests.
The next day you have a three-course set lunch at The Coach, his one-star pub on the same street. This suits a couple or a small group who want to eat at both pubs without travelling abroad.
San Sebastián: Amelia and Martín Berasategui
You stay three nights at the Hotel Maria Cristina. On the first day you have the tasting menu at Amelia by Paulo Airaudo, which holds two stars and is inside the hotel. A tasting menu is a set run of small courses chosen by the kitchen.
The next day you have the tasting menu at Martín Berasategui, which holds three stars and is in Lasarte-Oria, just outside the city. Both come with selected wine pairings, which are wines chosen to match the courses. You share a table with other guests at both restaurants.
A guided walk also takes you round the city’s pintxos bars. Pintxos are the small bar snacks the city is known for. You fly from London, and a coach takes you to Martín Berasategui and back. This suits a group that wants to taste the difference between two stars and three on consecutive days.
Two more questions about Michelin stars
Who has the most Michelin stars?
Stars are awarded to restaurants, so a chef’s total adds together the stars held by the restaurants that chef runs. The name usually given is Joël Robuchon, the French chef who died in 2018. His restaurants held more than 30 stars between them at their peak.
When are Michelin stars announced?
In Great Britain and Ireland the stars are announced once a year at a ceremony. The 2026 stars were announced in Dublin on 9 February 2026.
Sian Jones
Sport Events Operations Manager
Sport Events Operations Manager at Imperial Corporate Events. She’s the one on the ground making sure your day runs, from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to Royal Ascot.
