Chefs and hospitality insiders are questioning whether the Michelin Guide has enough anonymous inspectors to adequately review the thousands of restaurants it includes each year, with some claiming the guide has “lost its credibility”.
Concerns over inspection coverage
The French tyre company’s famous hotel and restaurant reference book, founded in 1900 as a free motorists guide, introduced its one, two and three-star ranking system in 1931. Michelin stars are now shorthand for some of the best restaurants in the world, awarded annually, with restaurants appraised by inspectors each year to judge whether they can gain, keep or lose stars.
But chefs and hospitality insiders claim some restaurants go for years without being inspected, and fear Michelin cannot keep up with monitoring the number of restaurants in the guide – there are now 19,653 global entries, according to Michelin’s website. They say this has “undermined the reliability of the guide”.
Not all restaurants in the guide are starred. The Bib Gourmand award recognises venues with high quality food and good value, while restaurants without distinctions are “Michelin Selected”. Michelin states that every restaurant in the guide is evaluated with the same process of anonymous inspectors, but it is unclear how often they visit non-starred venues.
Growing list of starred restaurants
The guide’s rankings are decided by tight-lipped, expert reviewers employed by Michelin, who dine with fake names to maintain confidentiality. Michelin says the incognito critics judge food on consistency, flavour, quality of ingredients, culinary technique and chef personality. But with a growing list of starred restaurants in the UK and Ireland guide alone – from 185 in 2021 to 230 in 2026 – some wonder if there are enough inspectors to repeatedly visit restaurants and ensure high standards are maintained.
“It’s absolutely the case that Michelin doesn’t send its inspectors to all of their starred restaurants every year. They can’t get to them all,” said Marshall Manson, CEO of the public relations firm FleishmanHillard and author of the hospitality blog Professional Lunch.
Michelin does not publish annual numbers for all global entries, and regions are updated independently. In July 2021, the guide had at least 15,723 total entries worldwide. By August 2026, the number was 19,652.
Inspectors stretched thin
Manson worries that the guide’s growing number of entries – along with rumours of dwindling inspector numbers – is affecting inspections: “You’re trying to cover more ground with fewer people and by doing so, you’re giving less attention to the top-end places.” One chef with stars awarded by Michelin said they suspected it had been years since an inspector visited.
In a statement, Michelin said it does not publish figures on the number of inspectors, but that it “continues to invest in the extension of its inspection teams to ensure comprehensive coverage of the destinations where the guide is present”. They said inspectors are made up of seasoned and newer reviewers, representing “more than 30 nationalities, with each inspector conducting between 250 and 300 meals per year”.
An ex-Michelin inspector said they believe the organisation has a reliance on older reviewers, meaning their roster will age out of the job. “Michelin is covering almost 20,000 restaurants in five continents,” they said. “This is ridiculous. The numbers are too high, it is almost impossible to review them all properly. We knew each other. It’s a small team. It’s stretching everyone incredibly thin.”
Jonathan Downey, a hospitality entrepreneur from Manchester who has launched restaurants across London, including the Michelin-selected Town and Motorino eateries, also believes inspector numbers can’t meet demand. “I’d be astonished if they’re doing anything like the coverage they need to do,” he said. “It’s lost its credibility. The entire industry wishes they would get better.”
Calls for transparency
Some in the industry have expressed frustration that Michelin’s secretive approach makes it difficult to hold them to account on issues such as inspector numbers and the decision-making process around rating restaurants. “We can’t really pull it apart in an analytical way. We can only look at the results of their decisions and say that doesn’t make sense,” says Downey. “If their criteria for awarding stars was transparent, then I think they’d be less open to criticism.”
He added: “It’s criticising this ethereal thing. We don’t really know what Michelin is. It’s like shouting at clouds.” A Michelin spokesperson said: “We do not comment on anonymous allegations, speculation or claims attributed to unnamed sources.”
