The Michelin guide for 2009 gives Tokyo restaurants the highest number of total stars in the world with 227? Do you think Tokyo is the best dining city in the world?

I think some people might be confused on what exactly the Michelin guide rate or say. It doesn't say "Japanese food is the best" or that food Japanese food is great compared to that of others, eg it doesn't say Sushi is better then Lambchops. All it does is rate individual restaurants based on various criteria. You can have good tasting food and not get a Michelin star. Tokyo just happens to have lots of restaurants that meet the Michelin criteria to issue a star (or stars). There's lots of dining in Tokyo, and there's more in a city like NY with variety, but Michelin doesn't rate a city based on variety, it rates it based on each individual restaurants performance with a large bias towards French restaurants (even on other city guides) so variety has nothing to do with it.

No Tokyo is not the best. 227 Japanese restaurants paid good money to get their stars.

Aggregate number of stars doesn't count for crap! Would you say a town with 3 two star restaurants has better eating than a town with 1 five star restaurant?

xfc: Try New Orleans and San Francisco

Yes, I think Tokyo is the best dining city in the World. Eating out is reasonable, clean, and no tippings...:)

gyouza: my suggestion is Masala Kitchen. Check it out!

No, Kansai food is not good. Only Kansai people think it is the best.

They need to come to Kansai! :-)

Tokyo has great food and a lot of good restaurants, but could hardly be called the best.

Quality and variety wise Seattle is a better city for food. Great Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Senegalese, Greek, Turkish, and just about any other country or region you can think of.

NY has the best variety of authentic global foods anywhere. Most ethnic food here is dulled down to fit Japan. Thai food here is pretty terrible compared to just about anywhere else. And just try finding a good variety of African or Central Asian food in Tokyo.

So Tokyo wins for volume of good restaurants. But Seattle crushes Tokyo for variety of high quality places and NY crushes everyone for actual selection.

I believe Tokyo is the best. You can find just about anything here EXCEPT a really good Indian restaurant (suggestions most welcome!).

The taste, preparation, and presentation are second to none. I say this in respect to the number of establishments recognised by Michelin being a lot higher than other cities - there is some dross too, don't misunderstand that!

NY? Oh my dog, I tried to find good restaurants in NY (and there are some excellent ones) but not nearly enough to say it is better than Tokyo. Of course, if you are talking volume of food over taste then that is a different matter ;)

There are SO many good restaurants here that it must be impossible to judeg them all. If Michelin doubled their staff, they probably double the number of stars!

I agree that Singapore has the best food in Asia - colorful, vibrant dishes. Japanese food always seems a little cold in nature to me.

Tourists? I live here and I can eat delicious, reasonably priced food. I never go to any tourist styled places. My homeland in America has grease laden large portions of chemical dishes. Bet most never even saw a raw scallop in the shell on the grill.

No way Tokyo has the best dining in the world. I gotta go with New York on that one. Much wider variety of cuisine as well as a wider range of prices. Singapore has the best food in Asia.

God no ! Only Japan and France take this guide seriously anyway.Shanghai,Singapore,HongKong...Vietnam,Malaysia,that is where all the really good restaurants are.Tokyo can't compete on a tourist level.

I've seen some of these restaurants on TV. I wouldn't pay huge prices for tiny little portions no matter how delicious they are.

The restaurants are excellent, undoubtedly, but they have to be to make up for the paucity of foods available in the supermarkets. It is near impossible to find the ingredients needed to cook standard dishes in the supermarket. All of the dairy produce, for example, is factory produced muck and extremely overpriced. The selection of herbs and spices is lamentable and the variety of fruit and vegetables on offer very limited. The restaurants are great, though expensive, but home cooking is terrible.

I agree with rurika ;)

Not necessarily, but it's the largest dining city in the world, so...

I haven't read it yet.

Interesting. Japan is a food obsessed nation so not surprised, wondering what kind of ethnic cuisines got the stars.

A recent have your say debate was "What does Japan need to do in order to attract more tourists?". Let's target rich foreigners who can afford to eat in Michelin-starred restaurants! Food in Japan is delicious, from the simplest everyday dishes to kaiseki. Foreign food is excellent too and sometimes better and fresher than in its country of origin. Japan is a foodie paradise, except for strict vegetarians.