So Michelin went to Asia...

[Louis VI the Fat]

Tokyo 'top city for good eating'

The home of haute cuisine just got taken down a peg with an authoritative judgement that Paris is not the world's top city for good eating. That distinction now goes to Tokyo, according to the bible for foodies everywhere, the Michelin guide.

In its first ever edition devoted to an Asian city, it awarded restaurants in Tokyo a total of 191 stars. That was nearly twice as many as Paris can boast, and more than three times New York's total.

Tokyo is becoming the global city with the finest cuisine, the city in the world with the most stars. Eight of Tokyo's restaurants won the maximum three stars - only two fewer than Paris itself. Another 25 got two stars and 117 one star.

To add to Paris's embarrassment, three of the top eight restaurants in Tokyo serve French food. Three more offer traditional Japanese fine dining, and the other two are sushi houses.

"Tokyo is becoming the global city with the finest cuisine, the city in the world with the most stars," said Michelin guide director Jean-Luc Naret.

Michelin's plans to assess Tokyo restaurants had caused controversy in Japan, where some commentators had doubted whether it would be up to the job.

As an aside, Lyon is France's culinary capital, not Paris like this BBC article implies. Not that that changes anything.

Booming economies, better cars, computers, public transport, fine. But now all is lost. Asia has won and we are the new Third World.

[Fragony]

"To add to Paris's embarrassment, three of the top eight restaurants in Tokyo serve French food."

You could consider that a compliment for your cuisine. The only restaurant having one in my town lost his

[KukriKhan]

Perhaps Michelin's Anonymous Inspectors were impressed with Tokyo's deployment of

Le Ketchup

I'll get my coat.

[Ironside]

Isn't Tokyo something like 3 times larger than Paris?

And I agree with Fragony about the stars for French food.

[lars573]

If you go by metro area (35,327,000 to 9,854,000) it's 3.6:1
If you go by the cities proper (8,483,050 to 2,110,400) it's 4.02:1

[Vladimir]

Tokyo, much bigger, not a fair comparison. I do love Japanese food though.

[Husar]

If you go by metro area (35,327,000 to 9,854,000) it's 3.6:1
If you go by the cities proper (8,483,050 to 2,110,400) it's 4.02:1

And yet Paris has more with three stars it says.
But then this is just a good thing anyway because it means that french people going to Tokyo do not need to eat inferior food.