I like it Joe . Had this one circled myself . <| sep |> Only been to 3 places across Asia and the USA , some hatted places in Australia that would be Michelin material if they had a guide , haven ' t been to Europe in a long time fwiw I ' m based in HK and there ' s a huge variance from city to city , to be honest . NYC Michelin 3 is not the same as Tokyo 3 is not the same as Hong Kong 3 in a number of ways , but you could chalk that up a city ' s culture and attitude , any backdoor money Michelin has gotten and won ' t disclose , any sympathies or grievances they may have with the industry in that particular city . I ' ve probably gone to 100 starred restaurants , maybe more , I ' ve not really kept track , nor do I blog or anything like that but there aren ' t many starred restaurants left that I am dying to go to that I am aware of this year , so I feel I must ' ve been to quite a few at this point . There ' s Consistency this honestly applies to 123 as a nominal basis , IMO if a restaurant can ' t be consistent and they have even one star , it ' s probably undeserved Where this may be apparent is that in the up and coming 1 places where chefs are bringing their own menus out , you might come across one or two plates or even the whole meal where the ideas might sound nice but just don ' t agree with your palate . I ' ve had some honestly disgusting food at times in starred places , maybe put together with care , yes but revolting in taste . I don ' t know what the impetus was exactly , but there was definitely a boom 810 years ago where suddenly all these tasting menu courses just started seeming like unfinished collages that came off a whiteboard , and with the rise of the counter restaurants that meant the addition of a chef watching you as you ate . In a 2 and 3 type place you ' re much less likely to come across these halfformed collage courses . Creativity Not to the extreme , but enough to establish a personality for the restaurant . A reason to go . Could be some very apparent and inventive technique trying to wow you with each course , or it could be far more subtle in the guide , the former might end up being labeled ' Innovative ' and the latter just labeled in a traditional ' Frenchetc ' category . Modernist cooking isn ' t at all the only answer to that . Sometimes , a newcomer could and probably should , at least as far as it has been traditionally go from 1 all the way to 3 on this basis . Maturation . There can be some definite questions in the 2 echelon where some are closer to the bottom and just esoterically better than a 1 while some 2 are just knocking it out of the park and you wonder why they don ' t have 3 . And those guys often do eventually get 3 over time . Refinement certainly helps . Wine is a huge part of the Michelin experience by and large , as there are hardly any 3 in the world that don ' t do wine Sukiyabashi Jiro is one example , and possibly a couple other quite strict Japanese places , maybe tempura or kaiseki , you could count this number on one hand A well selected wine list is obviously to be expected . They wouldn ' t ding you for your markups as much as they would provenance and condition of your big dollar bottles . What brand is the crystal ? Zalto ? Riedel ? Lohbmeyr ? I ' ve been to 3 Tokyo sushi places with hinoki wood counters and just a few seats , eating the very good food with my hands but when wine is ordered , a suited sommelier appears from seemingly nowhere and places a Christofle wine bottle coaster down and pours the wine into some oldworld brand of mouth blown Austrian crystal ware , which would be just as good wine service if not better than you ' d get at a French 3 so every little bit of sterling , porcelain , and crystal they give you the inspectors are definitely taking note . If you wanted to max out at 2 you likely wouldn ' t need to go to such great lengths in this aspect and that is a matter of hundreds of thousands of dollars at open , often not to mention the need for full time silver polishers , crystal polishers , etc Also , it seems some of the newer 3 places are not prioritizing servicewares as much as they used to back in the noughts and previous to that , so there again . FOH needs to move pretty flawlessly , and above all , know their shit . They honestly need to be able to tell you pretty much succinctly how every single element on the plate is cooked or prepared , and why it is there on your plate . If it was a really good 3 they ' d even know where each part has come from , maybe even a farmer ' s name , why chef has chosen this particular piece of food . Is it a long retired 30 year old dairy cow which has been renurtured and on your plate in the name of sustainability , making something traditionally less favored more favorable ? Is it a unique unmarbled Japanese beef that goes against the norm , where chef just really wants you to try something new ? I ' ve seen both in goodperforming 2 places and they were able to explain all of this . On the other hand , many 2 who aren ' t holding their breath for the third star are sometimes more lax in this aspect , maybe they even wear more casual uniforms and speak more casually . It really depends on the genre of cooking as well . If you need to go to the bathroom in a 3 you generally can expect someone will have just wiped the bathroom down and tidied it up , and when you ' re done , they ' ll wipe it down once again . Above all , the cooking and preparation must be good , obviously . Shuzo Kishida of Quintessence in Tokyo is still quite young but has had 3 more or less since the first Tokyo guide , and a lot of that had to do with what he had learned cooking for Pascal Barbot in the early noughts . The perfectly cooked fish , and the really emotionally cooked meats , definitely . Now 8 years later , he has 3 or 4 alumni with their own restaurants , and each of them have at least one star of their own as well . And they ' ve really honestly gotten their stars because the cooking basis they learned off Kishida is that good , he ' s created his own minidynasty in Tokyo . That kind of cooking is something definitely worth going out of your way to find , and they do define it as something like that in the guide . The food isn ' t always foie gras , white truffles , and caviar . Those help , but the produce is definitely going to need to the best , and then handled in the best way possible . 3 sushi ? No foie gras or truffles there , but the fish is babied and then put down to dry age for quite a long time , and then chef usually has the paranormal skill of knowing exactly when it ' s the right time to bring it up and serve it . This kind of innate knowledge passed down or not is where you really see the difference between 1 , 2 , and 3 , IMO . The handling , the care , the harvest or the fish and getting it on the plate as envisioned .