Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland Arrives

On Wednesday January 20 the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland goes on sale, with one new three-star restaurant and one new two-star restaurant included within its pages. These London based establishments join 18 new one-star premises, including three in Scotland and one in Wales.

“Last year was clearly a difficult year for hotels and restaurants but those establishments who reacted by being more flexible and creative appear to be riding the storm,” said editor Derek Bulmer, commenting on the 2010 guide. “Value for money has also been an important factor and we have awarded 28 new Bib Gourmand awards – ‘good food at moderate prices’ – which reflects this.

“Chefs have had to be more resourceful and restaurants have had to adapt to changing eating habits. Some have even introduced ‘credit crunch’ menus to help fight the recession. Long-established restaurants have proved to be resilient but we have also seen plenty of new openings.
 
“There is now a greater geographical spread of starred restaurants and the inspectors will continue to seek out establishments serving particularly good food, wherever they are situated.
 
“As we head into this new decade, the hotel and restaurant industry appears to be leaner and fitter. Greater emphasis is being placed on satisfying customers’ needs; diversity continues to be one of the UK’s greater strengths and the public’s interest in chefs, food and cooking shows no sign of abating.”

The 2010 guide, which retails for £15.99 (€18.99 in Ireland), recommends more than 1,900 hotels and guesthouses and around 1,900 restaurants and pubs. All are regularly and anonymously inspected by Michelin’s own team of professional, full-time inspectors and inclusion in the guide is free of charge.

Launched at the same time is the Michelin Guide London 2010, also launched priced at £9.99 (€11.99 in Ireland). This guide forms part of Michelin’s collection of city guides. It features additional descriptive text, and two entries per page for non-starred restaurants and one entry per page with photographs for starred restaurants.