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Icon Pierre Gagnaire, co-owner Mourad Mazouz, and chef Johannes Nuding’s The Lecture Room and Library at Sketch in Mayfair is London’s newest three-Michelin-starred restaurant. It joins Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester as the only restaurants in the capital with the highest honour, after the deletion from of 2018 winner, The Araki from the guide.
That is, then, two of the most famous French chefs in history and perhaps France’s most famous British son being recognised as serving food at the highest level in the capital. Of Sketch, the inspectors said “the array of tastes and textures... were truly memorable.” London also has a new two-Michelin-starred restaurant and four new one-star establishments.
Michelin’s international guide director Gwendal Poullennec, who was joined on stage at the bumpy live event by chef Raymond Blanc and motorsport broadcaster Amanda Stretton, said: “With three Michelin Stars, Sketch joins four other restaurants at this prestigious level.(The Fat Duck and Waterside Inn, both in Bray, are the other two.)
“This Pierre Gagnaire restaurant won its first star in 2005 and its second in 2013. Our inspectors judge the cooking here to be wonderfully complex and highly original, with each element of the meal excelling in terms of structure, composition and, above all, flavour.”
The guide’s only new two-Michelin-starred venue in the capital was Anne Sophie Pic’s La Dame de Pic. That restaurant won its first in the 2018 guide, the London debut for Pic, France’s only current female chef to preside over a three-Michelin-starred restaurant. The inspectors commended the “light and modern style” and “insightful and intuitive cooking” by chef Luca Piscazzi.
Elsewhere, there were four new one-star announcements:
Irish chef Kenneth Culhane’s restaurant Dysart Petersham, a gastropub in an Arts and Crafts house in Richmond, earns a first Michelin star. “The kitchen really cares about everything it does,” the inspectors said.
Endo Kazutoshi’s high-end, 11-seater omakase restaurant, Endo at the Rotunda at the former Television Centre in White City, which explicitly stated its ambition to win stars when it opened, has its first. “The extraordinary quality of ingredients” impressed the critics hugely.
Paulo Airaudo and Rafael Cagali’s Da Terra in Bethnal Green Town Hall in Hackney — a restaurant which arrived in London with serious credentials from the Basque Country, but which has escaped the sort of interest and scrutiny ordinarily reserved for big-name arrivals — also gets a Michelin star for its modern interpretation of Italian and Latin American cuisines. Michelin’s inspectors recognised “the harmony and contrast in flavours” and “captivating cooking.”
Finally, Nuno Mendes and Edoardo Pellicano’s creative and dynamic Portuguese tasting menu kitchen-lounge, Mãos, on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch enters the guide with one Michelin star. Michelin said it had “some great nights” at the restaurant’s 16-seater communal dining table.
Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guides, said it was a record breaking year for the guide, though a number of the most hotly tipped restaurants — a third star for Claude Bosi at Bibendum; debut stars for Cornerstone, and Kutir, among others — were overlooked.
As a reminder, Michelin’s group of anonymous inspectors award restaurants according to the following criteria: one star (“high quality cooking, worth a stop”), two stars (“excellent cooking, worth a detour”), or three stars (“exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”).
Here’s the full list of stars for London; new stars are denoted with an asterisk.
London Restaurants With Three Michelin Stars
“Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
Sketch (The Lecture Room and Library)*
London Restaurants With Two Michelin Stars
“Excellent cooking, worth a detour”
Claude Bosi at Bibendum
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
La Dame de Pic*
Le Gavroche
The Greenhouse
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught
The Ledbury
Umu
London Restaurants With One Michelin Star
“High quality cooking, worth a stop”
Alyn Williams at The Westbury
Amaya
Angler
Aquavit
A. Wong
Barrafina (Soho)
Brat
Celeste at the Lanesborough
Chez Bruce
City Social
Clove Club
Club Gascon
Da Terra*
Dysart Petersham*
Elystan Street
Endo at the Rotunda*
Five Fields
Galvin La Chapelle
The Glasshouse
The Goring (Dining Room)
Gymkhana
Hakkasan Hanway Place
Hakkasan Mayfair
Harwood Arms
Hide
Kai
Kitchen W8
Locanda Locatelli
Lyle’s
Māos*
Murano
The Ninth
Petrus
Pied a Terre
Pollen Street Social
Portland
Quilon
Roganic
Ritz Restaurant
River Cafe
St. John
Seven Park Place
The Square
Story
Texture
Trinity
Trishna
La Trompette
Veeraswamy