find out everything you need to know about the michelin guide, a restaurant directory first published by the French tyre company in 1900. Looking for the list of Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK and London? Take a look at the Michelin Guide For Great Britain and Ireland 2026.

How many Michelin star restaurants are there in the UK?

In the 2026 Guide for Great Britain and Ireland, there are 10 three Michelin-star restaurants, 28 two Michelin-star restaurants and 192 one Michelin-star restaurants, as well as 37 Michelin green stars.

Additionally, there were 37 new additions to the Bib Gourmand list, total the total to 168. Overall, 1,210 restaurants are listed as recommended in the Michelin Guide UK.

Who are the Michelin Guide inspectors and how to get a Michelin Star

Envied by many for having one of the best jobs in the world, the Michelin Guide’s inspectors are all full-time employees of the Michelin Group. They dine out often - sometimes twice a day - in order to find and recommend the world's best hotels and restaurants.
 
Most of them have received an education in hospitality, are widely travelled and have lived and worked in various countries around the world.
 

The Michelin Guide didn't start out as the iconic restaurant guide to Michelin star restaurants it is today. It was originally conceived to encourage more motorists to take to the road, and over time, its 3 Michelin stars became the highest accolade a chef can hope to achieve.

"This Guide was born with the century, and it will last every bit as long," were the words written in the very first edition of the Michelin Guide published in August 1900.
 
The turn of the 20th century edition contained information for French motorists including maps, lists of petrol stations, mechanics and hotels.
 
Nearly 35,000 copies were printed (despite there being less than 3,000 cars on the road in France at the time), but brothers André and Eduardo Michelin were confident their free guide would increase the demand for cars (and therefore, for their tyre manufacturing business).
 
Acknowledging the growing influence of the guide’s restaurant section, the Michelin brothers also recruited a team of mystery diners - or restaurant inspectors, as we better know them today - to visit and review restaurants anonymously.
 
Aside from the success of its restaurant guide, Michelin continues to exist as a purveyor of maps, tyres, and has its own route planner, ViaMichelin.
 

The restaurant inspection process

Historically, the Michelin Guide has been a cryptic, secretive, almost mystical institution, unveiling its accreditation process to no-one for fear of jeopardising its independence. 

But in September 2018, a new international director, Gwendal Poullennec, took the reigns, and his approach differs to his predecessors'.  He believes that in order to ensure the guide's international expansion, restaurants must be given some clarity on how stars are awarded. 
 

What is a Michelin Green Star?

In February 2020, the Michelin Guide introduced a green star accreditation to reward sustainable initiatives in the hospitality industry. The first green-starred restaurants appeared in the 2020 French Michelin Guide. 

In the UK, the first restaurant to receive a sustainability award was one Michelin-starred Loam, owned by chef Enda McEvoy in 2020. Subsequently 37 Restaurants hold a green star in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland 2026.

Michelin Core Values 

The guide names its six core values below, justifying every accolade handed out (or rescinded) since the guide was launched:

 

ANONYMITY
Although our “inspectors” work for the Michelin Guide, they are above all customers like any other, testing restaurants in complete anonymity in order to ensure that they do not receive any special treatment.

INDEPENDENCE
All our inspectors are employees of the Michelin Group, who always pay for their meals in the restaurants they are testing to ensure that they do not receive any special treatment.

EXPERTISE
Our inspectors are also real experts in the catering and hospitality industries, sectors in which many of them have previously worked.

RELIABILITY
The different categories awarded by the guide are never just the result of one person’s judgement; they are formed by a collective decision which is the result of a long process.

PASSION
What would be the point of so much work and such a strict approach if our inspectors did not enjoy eating?

QUALITY
Any restaurant can be recommended by our guide as long as its food is of high quality.

The first restaurant in the UK to gain a Michelin star was Albert and Michel Roux's Le Gavroche, in London. It went on to become one of the first UK restaurants to win a second star in 1977, and the first to win a third, in 1982.  

Up until Le Gavroche's closure in 2023,  it held two Michelin stars restaurant, in more recent years Le Gavroche was run by Albert's son, Michel Roux, Jr. 

In 2010, the Roux family's second restaurant, the Waterside Inn, became the first restaurant outside France to have held three Michelin stars for 25 years. The Roux family was also influential in training and influencing other chefs who themselves have gone on to win Michelin stars; Pierre Koffmann, Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay all went on to open restaurants which earned three Michelin stars after working with the Roux brothers.

Le Gavroche founder Michel Roux passed away in March 2020, and his brother Albert passed away in January 2021. Both left behind a legacy that will long outlive them.

Michelin star restaurants in the UK

Michelin star restaurants in London

Learn about The Michelin Man and other fun facts about the guide here