Tokyo 'world's best place to eat'

Tokyo's sheer size helps explain why it has so many Michelin stars

Tokyo has leaped ahead of Paris as the city with the most Michelin three-star restaurants, confirming its status as the "world capital of gastronomy".

Tokyo now has 11 three-star restaurants compared with 10 for Paris, according to the latest edition of the Michelin guide to Tokyo.

The Japanese capital also has more of the coveted stars in total than Paris - 261 shared by 197 restaurants.

New York, by comparison, has four three-star restaurants.

After controversy over earlier Tokyo guides that used non-Japanese inspectors, Michelin said it used only Japanese inspectors for the latest edition.

Japanese restaurateurs and food critics had been sceptical that non-Japanese could adequately judge the country's cuisine.

The first Michelin guide to Tokyo came out in 2007.

International cuisine

"Tokyo remains by far the world capital of gastronomy and also has the most three-star restaurants," said Michelin guide director Jean-Luc Naret.

Tokyo's sheer size helps explain why it has so many Michelin stars. Tokyo is much bigger than Paris and has 160,000 restaurants compared with about 40,000 in Paris.

Two-thirds of the Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo serve Japanese cuisine, while the others serve a variety of foods including French, Spanish, Chinese and Italian.

But the French need not feel their cuisine has plunged completely into disrepute. France still has more three-star restaurants than anywhere else, with 25 compared with Japan's 18.

The next Michelin guide to Paris will be published in March 2010.

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