London’s Michelin-starred restaurants — and those who seek stars — await one day per year like no other. As the Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland announced its Michelin stars for 2020, restaurants across London waited with baited breath: would Claude Bosi at Bibendum or Core by Clare Smyth get three stars? Would three-Michelin-starred omakase counter The Araki lose a star after the departure of its chef patron? Which restaurants would get their debut Michelin star, and which would lose out? Would Gordon Ramsay keep his three shiny stars?
As the dust settles and the Michelin man returns from limbering up to reveal 2020’s constellation of Michelin-starred London restaurants, Eater London tracks all the Michelin news for the 2020 guide: the Bib Gourmands, the new stars, the same old stars, and the lost stars. London has four new Michelin-starred restaurants; it has one new two-Michelin-starred restaurant, and, the Michelin Guide’s highest honour of three stars goes to a fancy French restaurant in Mayfair. One three-Michelin-starred restaurant loses them all.
And, in the middle of it all, that eternal question will be asked once again: how much, and to whom, do Michelin stars still matter?