Ready for a speedy summary of the 2016 Michelin Guide to New York City restaurants? Nothing to see here.
That’s because the latest edition of the guide — the 11th year it has rated the city’s eateries — differs little from the 2015 edition. The same six restaurants that held three stars last year held on to their honours. Per Se, Masa, Le Bernardin, Eleven Madison Park, Jean Georges and Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare retained their top notch status, which they’d already held four years running.
The only real tension in this year’s guide was whether Daniel Boulud’s Daniel would regain its third star, which it lost when it was demoted to two stars in last year’s edition. It didn’t. In fact, the roster of two-star eateries remained mostly unchanged except for the addition of Abram Bissell’s The Modern, which favours modern-inflected dishes such as warm watermelon with caviar and cured fluke.
The remaining two-star eateries include Matthew Lightner’s Atera; Sotohiro Kosugi’s sushi bar, Soto; David Chang’s Momofuku Ko; Michael White’s Marea; Jungsik Kim’s Jungsik; Carlos Mirachi’s Blanca; Emma Bengtsson’s Nordic-inspired Aquavit; and Eiji Ichimura’s sushi at Ichimura.
Michelin guides, which cover 24 countries, are considered one of the premiere ratings of the restaurant world. Based on the experiences of anonymous inspectors, the guides award ratings of one, two or three stars using criteria including quality of ingredients, mastery of technique, how the chef’s personality is expressed in the food, and consistency.
A total of more than 900 restaurants are included in the 2016 edition of the New York City guide; 76 of them got star ratings, up from 73 last year. New York is one of three American cities that have Michelin guides to their restaurants. The others are Chicago and San Francisco.
