Tokyo beats Paris again as world food capital

tmarie, how do you think cheese was 'discovered'? I am sure blue cheese wasnt an intentional development. Then there is the whole idea of salting; cured meats etc. ALL born out of necessity when times were tough and now a regular part of the western diet. And why is kani-miso so disgusting when lambs brains are served in restaraunts in the west?

I am sorry to hear that you are unable to appreciate fine Japanese delicacies. Lucky for you there are lots of western fast food here too :)

Still planning to visit one of these 3 star restaurants soon.

tmarie if you are so disgusted by Japanese food then why are you still living in Japan?

Having only been to Japan and not to Paris nor New York, I cant give a fair judgement, but I have to say Japan has a LOT of different kinds of food and I love it. Back home we only have Italian, Thai, Chinese and Thai. Not much fun there. Plus its not only the food, its also the service that makes it so great.

Crab brains are good! So is ikura! It's not food snobbery, just an appreciation for genuinely good food! Some people simply have more adventurous and eclectic tastes than others. While for some, McDonalds may do the trick, for others, a succulent steak with foie gras and a well prepared raspberry vinaigrette sauce may be the golden ticket. Try not to be too judgemental. I thinks it's great to try everything at least once. Now, it will be interesting to see how the French will react this year to the Michelin Guide's decisions. In the meantime, I'll be starving here at work till lunchtime comes along.

“Japan is a unique country with many cities full of high level cuisine,”

This says it all. I grew up in NY and there was great food. Been to Paris with friends that live there...soso food.

But Japan! This place is amazing with choice, quality and superb service.

And tmarie, those wonderful choices of little eggs are caviar plus! Much better than any caviar I have eaten. And crab Miso is heaven. Got to get out there and practice eating. You are missing out.

I loved the food in Paris, and loved being able to sit outside so often. Tokyo has great restaurants and is probably the best for international cuisine. Too bad about the smoking.

BUT! This is just a guide to restaurants. It is not about Japanese cuisine, it is about restaurants in Japan (including Italian, French, Chinese, etc). The food here is of very high quality in terms of taste, presentation and service, and this book points you in the direction of some of what they believe is the best. With 160,000 restaurants in Tokyo, that can be useful advice. The only drawback of the guide is that once a restaurant gets in the guide, it is often difficult to get in. Always good to have your local favourite kept quiet!

Not saying Japanese restaurants don't deserve this, but it probably helps that the French have had a raging j-fetish since before Toulouse-Lautrec.

I think some people can't accept the fact that Tokyo is the food capital of the world because they are anti-japanese and this really gets their goat up.

I'd like to know if the dishes were sampled "behind closed doors", as, in Japan, open doors usually leads to the taste of any fine cuisine being marred by some inconsiderate fool chain-smoking right next to you.

Agreed, the smoking is probably the only negative thing about dining in Japan. Can only imagine how much more amazing izakaya fare would taste without the chain smokers clogging up the senses.

Boy, Michelin sure knows how to rub that Japanese EGO! It means big $$$ for both Michelin and all of those restaurants they put in their books right?? Yes Ted Barrera, SMOKING is horrible here in Japan! The stench of stale smoke for a non smoker like me makes me want to barf!!

"Michelin three star restaurants"

Who cares!

Well, Takahiro. Define junk! The only junk food that I ever tasted is fast food from the big chains and combini bentos. Try to make a cake with olive oil (oh wait, cakes are bought in shops here). Try to fry bananas without olive taste using olive oil (how tasty...)! Butter is a very fine ingredient. However, most Japanese I've talked to don't know how to use it properly. In the same way as my use of Japanese ingredients is improvised in home cooking. Who has the authority to judge?

The Micheline guide is meaningless. It is nothing else than another means to boast on some "achievements". It is true that the Japanese are food-lovers (think about the large variety of instant ramen and their TV advertisements). It is also true that they have good restaurants (admittedly, these restaurants exist everywhere). It is also true that Japanese people tend to have strong biases towards foreign food (and Japanese food in comparison - foreign rice is MAZUI by definition). Everyone has such prejudices, but in Japan quite a few people think their biases are actual facts. Actually, not restricted to food...

Maybe one reason why there are many Michelin starred restaurants in Japan is because there is a great interest here in obtaining these stars. Maybe it is because Japanese people believe their cuisine is "exceptional" and "special" instead of just "regional". Most delicious foods in the world, most of the talented cooks in the world will never, ever be tested by the Michelin guide because it is written for a certain (wealthy) layer of society which prefers glamour to real value and tries to boast by spending money.

Try to make a cake with olive oil

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/olive-oil-cake-6167195.html http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Olive-Oil-Cake-234274 http://leitesculinaria.com/20321/recipes-portuguese-orange-olive-oil-cake.html

"Why are some of you getting so upset? I disagree with Japanese food being the food orgasm people make it out to be. Again, for me, it goes back to snobbery." Are you really that slow ? Nobody would be upset if you said you don't like certain foods, but describing something as "disgusting", yeah, i can see that would upset some people, just like you are upset over others' negative comments toward you. You might want to look into the word "snobbery", it refers to self-satisfied superiority. This is a list made by Michelin, not by Japanese people, hence it's NOT "snobbery".

It's the Michelin Tokyo-Yokohama-Shonan Red Guide... not just Tokyo. As well, there are 160,000 restaurants in this area compared to 40,000 in Paris. It's really a stupid comparison to be making.

once again, the vast majority of japanese don't care, and if explained to, wonder how gaijin can properly judge their food Michelin will go all ga-ga over some other nation one of these days

Agreed, the smoking is probably the only negative thing about dining in Japan. Can only imagine how much more amazing izakaya fare would taste without the chain smokers clogging up the senses.

Good point to note - as part of the criteria to judge the retaurant is atmosphere, you -should- be safe in assuming that the types of place you mention (and there are way too many) won't be in the guide. Smoke destroys the flavour and aromas of food, and hence you could never really appreciate it.

@tmarie You mentioned natto about 150 times but they didn't get mentioned in this article, did they ? how is it "Food snobbery" ? Japanese people didn't decide this, it's Michelin who made the ranking. I guess I should expect it from typical grumpy gaijin like you

Mr Suzuki; This is a profit run guide. If there were not more stars in Tokyo than other capital citiies it may indicate poor food especially whne looking at the number of restaurants in each city.

I guess all the foreigners who complain about natto, havent eaten Indonesian Tempeh? Take natto, and leave it for a whole lot longer, until it becomes a solid brick. Its an acquired taste, but maybe thats why my first impression of natto was "why do people hate it?" The stringy bits are annoying, but all part of the fun.

The world has ALOT of delicious food if you can manage to lose your preconceptions and learn to try things with the only judge being your tastebuds. Of course some people are pre-programmed to disagree with some tastes (i.e. many Japanese people with Coriander, some foreigners with Natto). But that doesnt make it "bad food"; just something that doesnt agree with you.

tmarie - by your judgement, yoghurt (curdled milk) and cheese (even further gone) are both BAD foods. Alcohol, oh dear, thats fermented fruit/grains/whatever! Stop putting YOUR opinions down as FACT

I can believe it. Most of us foreigners will never set foot in the best of the best places here.

Michelin is the name of a famous restaurant guide.

It is also the brand name of a tyre (tire).

Eat at the restaurants highly placed in the Michelin guide and you will soon have a spare tyre (tire) around your waist.

@Johannes

The Micheline guide is meaningless.

It is simply a guide, nothing more. If you have read the guide and tried 5 or 6 restaurants in there and disagree, then post the reasons why. If you know of places you think are fantastic that you think are better than (or at least deserving of same status as) restaurants in the guide then post them here. I love good food and use ANY reliable information I can to expand on the list of places I like going to - be warned though, because like the Michelin guide itself, if the name of a good place gets out, it gets flooded with people!

So either give us the names, or be grateful that Michelin might be keeping them away from the places you treasure! Remeber though, the guide is not about Japoanese cuisine, it is about restauarants in Japan, whatever their style of cooking.

Tokyo is the food capital of the world.

I think many people dislike too much food based on their own prejudices/preferences.

Known many ex-pats who couldn't stomach their traditional cuisine, etc when they went back home after they tasted overseas food(many more authentic than served in their home-country).

They all sang praises to their countries cooking but changed their tunes in the end.

Who cares about your profit making guide. Many brilliant little places in Japan with lovely food and atmosphere and great prices. Best pizza i ever had in Japan was handmade in a tiny joint near a train station., 880 Yen and beers for 500. There are many places making top food with good ingredients for a realistic price, not just in Japan but all over the world.

If you travel and can communicate with locals, ask them, they usually know the hidden gems.

@tmarie "Not really anything healthy about Japanese food once you take out the miso soup and grilled fish." Is this a joke ? Japanese people are some of the longest living in the world. We smoke a lot, we work long hours, what do you think makes us live long ? It's the food that is generally very healthy.

Natto is excellent, but took practice to eat it. Super healthy.

Fried foods like Tempura are not indigenous to Japan, nor any of the other fried dishes like Tonkatsu etc.

Nabe dishes chock full of veggies and little meat are healthy. So are all of the miso soup varieties. And who can complain about the fish?

Uni is a fine delicacy, and if it is not on the menu in one of the Star Restaurants, then it must not be a real Japanese restaurant.

All the variety of noodle dishes are excellent, unless you have gout or high blood pressure. Do not drink all the soup.

I could not live in Japan if I did not like Japanese real family cuisine.

I eat where I think it's oishiii, regardless of whether it's Michelin rated or not. I like KFC, , Bangkok Kitchen buffet, kaki yasu dining, Masala Kitchen, Watamin Chi food, vie du France mini Danish to name a few. They dont need Michelin certificate to offer great food & my introduction to hundreds of other customers.

Michelin rated restaurants offers snobbish Chef, Managers, employees ... go check out the Gordon Ramsey at Conrad. I don't need the rubbish.

All readers back on topic please. Posts that do not focus on the Michelin guide will be removed.

@ssway

They can bestow this "honor" on Tokyo but the fact remains that there is still a great risk with eating any food in Japan now due to radioactive contamination (both from the sea and land) as it is impossible to know with any degree of certainty where the food came from. This is just a sad and criminal attempt to drum up tourism dollars for Japan.

It isn't actually an honour, just an entry in a guidebook. If what you say is true though, every restaurant in Japan will have the same issue regadless of whether it is in the guide or not. Since the guide is in Japanese, I'm guessing that there won't be many tourists referring to it. In a way I'm kind of glad about that, because even more people trying to get into these restaurants would make it even harder to get a booking!

Anyone know how they decide which restaurants to try? Other guide books? Concierge in posh hotel? They sure as heck don't wander in off the street.

Michelin caused a rumpus in Hong Kong as half the places they starred were in top hotels, where the average person never eats (unless someone else is paying!) & the dim sum is way better in your local not famous place.

The large the Paris metropolitan are has a population of 11,769,433. Try that.

The population of Greater Tokyo has a estimated at 35 million people. This is the largest metropolitan area in the world in terms of population.

Now it's easy to know why there are more restaurants which got honored because for almost triple population you got at least triple amount of restaurants, I'm sure.

Taste in food is like taste in beauty and music; it's all in the eye (or ear or mouth) of the beholder. What one person thinks is tasty, there will undoubtedly be another who does not. Heck, I know people back home in America who swear grits is the bomb, and that chicken gizzards is a treat to behold. There is no food in the world that is perfect, but at least we should have the freedom to enjoy what we want. To say that one food is better than another is simply one person's opinion; nothing more and nothing less. After all, everyone's taste buds are different and will thus react differently to various tastes.

Any decent soul food in Tokyo? I feel like cornbread, greens and a rack of ribs.

I want to know what is the criteria for judging? Also, if its a sushi or sashimi restaurant, then the technique is more just the preparation and presentation. The taste is more due to where they get their ingredients and how they keep it is it not? Unless the chef makes the soy sauce and wasabi from scratch.

Anyway, I'll step out of this one as i like food i like. I generally find that i dont often agree with critics. just like movie critics. Plus i wont go to any michellin restaurants cause the prices are just too high for something that will be gone in a matter of moments. Sorry I'm not a foodie lol

@tmarie "the food isn't the best in the world " That's not what you said, you said it's disgusting, repeatedly. There are ways to express your opinions, just like some posters on JT do, no, you are not one of them

Michelin is trying to expand its tire business in Japan. Its restaurant guide's expansion to Japan is a part of that effort, providing cheap but effective advertising.

wipeout, you've been persistently disrespectful and obnoxious toward tmarie from the outset. Get off her case. Why she lives in Japan is none of your business. Like all of us, she likes some foods more than others. Lighten up, dude.

@cleo:

The olive oiled cake sounds fun. I must try it once. However, a chocolate-pear-cake with olive flavour is far beyond my imagination. There I'd prefer butter or margarine.

@gyouza:

The Michelin guide is meaningless because it is not about food. Instead, it is about art. Let me explain:

If I go to a restaurant, I expect to eat something, which is well prepared and thus more expensive than if I made it myself. However, I do not expect that it is sinfully expensive so that I could feed an entire family for a week for the price of just one dish, since I am a person with a social conscience and respect for money and people. Therefore, someone like me would never pay that much for one dish.

If people pay this price, there is the question why they do it. Does it taste that much better. I doubt it. Are the ingredients that much better? That much more expensive? As long as they do not put elk cheese in the meal, it is hard to accept that the price of the ingredients of one dish exceed 100$. Thus, the ingredients are not important.

The important part is the cook. She is an artist and creates a piece of art. Thus, You pay for the cook's artistry instead of the meal. It can be eaten, but is is not supposed to. It is supposed to be admired as a piece of art. If I want to see art, I go to a gallery or a museum. Or I can enjoy it in a concert or the opera. But I do not go into a restaurant for art.

This is what I intended to express by meaningless. It is not about food as something to eat, but as food to admire. Most people go to a restaurant to eat something (and have a conversation).

@Johannes Appreciate the detailed response, and an interesting point of view. I believe it is less about art and more about experience. You may argue they are similar or the same, but I feel the experience is worth it. Just to counter your argument though, if you pay to see Opera (50-100USD in Japan) do you feel the same? For example, you could save the money and watch amateurs perform the same piece somewhere for less or even for free - but wouldn't be quite the same, would it? It might be an interesting experience though! ;)

Not one decent chippie in either city.

Personally, I don't reallly like French or Japanese food. Don't get me wrong. Both have their moments but I prefer Italian or American. Japanese cuisine seems materialistic and French cuisine looks like it was made by a nail artist.

Italian food has warmth and depth when it comes to flavor. American cuisine sees to it that you are full when you walk out the door. Or as the best of the quotes go - Finger Lickin Good.

Cheese may not be getting stars on its own, but either is Natto, Kani miso or Uni. I am sure that there is blue cheese featured in the menu of at least one 3-star restaurant in Paris

While you might not like Japanese fine dining, it would seem that many do (including the Michelin judges).

And I resent you calling those foods, including Natto 'bad food'. Thats just YOUR opinion. In my opinion it is delicious, and the facts say it is healthy and enjoyed by millions.

french food is nothing but sophisticated junk food compared to japanese food. and after japanese food, spanish and italian are second best. in europe there's a saying that says it all: the french cook with butter (yuk), the spanish and italian use olive oil.

With the news of contminatef food, many people don't eat out, so the ratings are meaningless.

I personally think this is well deserved, not necessarily for the J food but for the variety in general.

Ben4Short...cant believe I am going to say this out loud given the number of times we have been at loggerheads but....if I can squeeeeze it out....."well said!" (Ouch, that hurt! ;-) !)

I should probably add just to justify my opinion - I dont have a problem with tmarie thinking J food is "disgusting". I personally quite like it, though not all the time. But I guess being a Brit I am just desensitized to peoples sensitivities about food - we Brits are used to having our food labelled as "disgusting"!

Ben4Short...cant believe I am going to say this out loud given the number of times we have been at loggerheads but....if I can squeeeeze it out....."well said!" (Ouch, that hurt! ;-) !)

Aw c'mon NIcky, it didn't hurt that much, did it?. You know that underneath all the bravado and criticism, I'm just a pussycat at heart.

Ha ha!

must be the french resteraunt in Nara because there arent any other top notch places there.

"Japan is a unique country with many cities full of high level cuisine,"

Supposing one has money enough to pay the fortune a dinner would cost at a good Japanese restaurant . Not even the high class.

Even if one has, it is better to avoid sea food in these days, bad luck as most of the Japanese cuisine is of sea food.

Good side of the Japanese cuisine, they don't like food overdone and boiled, cooked, fried for long time which is very healthy. Might come from their old routine of consuming mostly vegetables that didn't need much cooking, but carrying on this trend with modern cuisine, meet menus, serving chicken, beef, lamb etc. practically raw, is something that we better not to accept and send it back to the kitchen to be re-cooked properly.

Sushi is something else, it is prepared in an expert way by using wasaby and vinegar that totally disinfects it and is safe to consume, though only in reputed, trusted restaurants. Again, that is going to cost you a nice sum.

but you're ignoring the criteria that Michelin use to judge the restaurants.

And what exactly are the criteria?

Listing a bunch of ingredients you don't like - a very large list, I see - doesn't make bolster your arguments, it just makes you look neurotic where food is concerned. I mention a handful of food - a handful that you would be hard pressed to find in any country outside of Japan.

not for people who shudder at white rice, which is what half the world's population actually lives on. Calling something unhealthy - when it very clearly is - is not "shuddering". The drama queens on here is amazing!

Half the reviewers are Japanese, which explains why Japanese food is so overrated in those guides. Japanese children are brainwashed in believing their food is world's best. Period. Tokyo's pretty good, but I much prefer Bangkok.

Thinking that the food isn't the best in the world and I get asked why I live in Japan? Unreal.

@tmarie "the food isn't the best in the world " That's not what you said, you said it's disgusting, repeatedly. There are ways to express your opinions, just like some posters on JT do, no, you are not one of them

Perhaps your English isn't so good. Perhaps you should go waaaay back to my first post of the thread and read it again. I said "some", not all.

I think I have done a fine job expressing my opinion. Shame you can't be mature enough and accept that mine differs from yours.

Ben, well said. The notion that one must think that their country of residence has the best food is ridiculous.

Nicky, a good point. I have no idea how many times I have heard how horrible British food is by the locals - who have never even been there. I had no issues there. Give me London over Tokyo any day when it comes to food. A heck of a lot more variety and much more authentic and affordable when it comes to foreign food.

I'm going to read between the lines and guess that you dislike white rice, pickles, and salads (of the type served in restaurants in Japan).

Well you'd be reading between those lines incorrectly. There are also various reasons as to why some people don't eat certain thing - nothing to do with no liking them. Thanks for all the assumptions. Made me laugh while reading your post.

The quality of ingredients · The skill in their preparation and the combination of flavours · The level of creativity · The value for money · The consistency of culinary standards The quality of ingredients - well after Fukushima they might want to look into that. The skill and combo of flavours? Interesting as I have no idea how many times locals have told me that Japanese food is rather bland - I tend to disagree but anyway... Creativity - that made me laugh. I don't care if the chef can use his ginso knife to make a flower out of a tomato, I don't care what odd ingredients he has found and put together. What I care about is taste and texture. Value for money? Ha! I think Michelin has gotten themselves into trouble for... being snobs and suggesting places every day people can't afford. Enough said. Consistency - fair point

As many, many have pointed out, it is all a matter of opinion. I personally think some Japanese food is disgusting while others wet themselves over it. I have no idea how many times I have been told some is an "acquired" taste here. I don't want to acquire a taste for anything. If it doesn't taste good the first time, I am not putting it in my mouth a second. People can buy into this snobbery all they like - and foot the bill for it. I won't.

Why are some of you getting so upset? Unreal. It is a book. I disagree with Japanese food being the food orgasm people make it out to be. Again, for me, it goes back to snobbery.

Hide, I am not upset at all. I am laughing at how personal some of you have taken it. Saying I don't like something is okay but calling it disgusting is not? Are you the thought police?

Interestingly enough, when it comes to food, I think pretty much most people in Japan would say Osaka is the food captial, not Tokyo. Though I guess Osaka doesn't offer enough pretentiousness so....

They can bestow this "honor" on Tokyo but the fact remains that there is still a great risk with eating any food in Japan now due to radioactive contamination (both from the sea and land) as it is impossible to know with any degree of certainty where the food came from.

This is just a sad and criminal attempt to drum up tourism dollars for Japan.

I hate fancy pants places because the portions are so small I have to eat before i go or right after yet I waste all this money and then still eat cereal at home because im hungry ever after going to dinner. If the customer is still hungry after your meal then your resteraunt sucks period. Stomach is just as important as the tongue in ranking food. Give me American, or Mexican or Americanized Chinese food. I dont care what food snobs say, noting beats a huge steak. Japanese food in general sucks. There are good things but it pretty much blows chunks in fact some of it looks like blown chunks. I think there are some overly socialize people who feel the need to to ooh and ahhh over crap food as a means of proving to themselves and their peers that they are "cultural" and if you dont like eating fish eyes your just not as refined as they are or even prejudice, it couldn't possibly be because they taste like shit. Thats why McDs is in over 100 countries and fanysnobs will never be. They run on hype not customer satifaction.

Who said I found all Japanese food disgusting? Some of it is downright disgusting - which is why most other countries don't eat things - natto for example. You might want to look into the history of the "delicacies" here. Most came about because people were starving and they had no other choice but to eat what they could find - again, natto is a fine example, so it uni.

Johannes, 100% agree with you.

**tmarie, how do you think cheese was 'discovered'? I am sure blue cheese wasnt an intentional development. Then there is the whole idea of salting; cured meats etc. ALL born out of necessity when times were tough and now a regular part of the western diet. And why is kani-miso so disgusting when lambs brains are served in restaraunts in the west?

I am sorry to hear that you are unable to appreciate fine Japanese delicacies. Lucky for you there are lots of western fast food here too :)**

I don't think cheese is getting all these stars, are they? Indeed, cured meat was born out of such things and I don't eat it. Nor is it called a delicacy. Lambs brains is just as disgusting to me but the locals that serve in their countries don';t try and dress it up and called is special and the like.

I am able to appreciate good food thanks, just things like crab brains, natto, uni and the like is not good food. Why do you assume that not liking such things means I like fast food? Nothing linking them together at all. Give me good soba, udon and the like and I am more than happy to slurp it down. Give me something disgusting and I will not eat it regardless of how expensive it is, how much people talk abotu how great it is. Mutton dressed as lamb.

Good side of the Japanese cuisine, they don't like food overdone and boiled, cooked, fried for long time which is very healthy. Might come from their old routine of consuming mostly vegetables that didn't need much cooking Is this a joke? Plenty of Japanese food is fried and is very greasy. Plain white rice is not healthy. Neither is veggies that have been pickled and processed as most tsukemono has. Trying to get plain raw veggies with your meal in this country was nearly impossible 15 years old. Even now the "salads" are cooked, have far too much dressing and are not healthy. Not really anything healthy about Japanese food once you take out the miso soup and grilled fish.

Food snobbery. I don't get it. Your "average" person could walk into any French restaurant and eat what they are given (a few things may make them queasy) while your average person could walk into a Japanese restaurant and wonder what in the hell they are being served as let's be honest, Japan has some pretty disgusting food (crab brains? assorted types of fish eggs, slimy seafood things that no one else seems to eat...). Food snobbery.