Michelin said Tuesday it has awarded three stars to nine restaurants in Tokyo in the second edition of its culinary guide to the capital, giving Tokyo and Paris the largest number of top ratings among the world's major cities.
In the 2009 version of the Michelin Guide, due to be released Friday, Tokyo will also continue to boast the highest number of total stars in the world with 227. Some 173 restaurants in the city have been awarded stars in the guide — 36 received two stars and 128 one star, in addition to the nine with the top rating.
Of the top nine, Ishikawa, a Japanese-style restaurant in Shinjuku, was awarded three stars for the first time, while the other eight retained the top rating from last year.
They are Kanda, Koju and Hamadaya, which serve Japanese cuisine, sushi restaurants Sukiyabashi Jiro and Sushi Mizutani, and French restaurants Quintessence, Joel Robuchon and L'osier.
"The world's largest number of 227 stars shines in the sky over Tokyo in 2009," Michelin Guide Director Jean-Luc Naret said at a news conference in Tokyo. "This city has a selection that the world should envy."
Naret noted that the current global economic slowdown makes the Michelin Guide more useful. People should be able to avoid the risk of visiting the wrong restaurant by paying ¥2,415 for the guide, he said.
Michelin said it expanded the area of research this year.
More than 60 percent of the selected restaurants offer Japanese cuisine, while the rest are mostly French restaurants.
