Michelin Pulls Gourment Guide

Michelin has removed one of its gourmet guides from sale after it emerged that it carried a top review for a restaurant that had not yet opened.

The Ostend Queen in Belgium had been awarded a “Bib Gourmand” even though it opened several weeks after publication of the Benelux Red Guide 2005, the BBC has reported. The owner of the restaurant told a Belgian newspaper he got into the guide via his “good relations” with Michelin.

Michelin, whose image has been dented of late, has admitted the blunder. The French company said it would publish a new version of the guide, which covers restaurants and hotels in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, within “around two months.”