The Michelin restaurant guide is finally coming to Philadelphia

For years, Philadelphia restaurant insiders and civic boosters have clamored for local representation in the Michelin Guide, whose stars are largely considered the most prestigious restaurant rating system in the world.

Turns out, undercover Michelin inspectors are at work in Philly dining rooms right now.

On Monday, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) will announce a partnership with the French-based guide, ensuring that Philadelphia’s restaurants and chefs will be considered for inclusion in a new edition called “Northeast Cities.” The guide will cover Philadelphia, along with restaurants from New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and another newly announced city, Boston.

The full 2025 selections will be disclosed during a ceremony on an unspecified date.

Since the Michelin Guide in North America moved to a digital format in 2020, the new selections are expected to be available on the app and web, rather than in a physical book.

Gwendal Poullennec, the Michelin Guide’s international director, will visit Philadelphia for a news conference on Tuesday as well as a familiarization tour, during which he will visit local attractions and dine at a number of woman-owned restaurants, including Casa Mexico, Her Place Supper Club, and Kalaya.

PHLCVB said Poullennec’s restaurant visits are not necessarily part of Michelin’s evaluation, but were included to showcase different cuisines, neighborhoods, and culinary styles that make up Philadelphia’s dining scene.

Michelin has been expanding its reach throughout North America in recent years. In April, Michelin and Travel South USA announced a forthcoming guide to the South with an edition covering Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee; it will fold in the existing Atlanta guide.

Local officials typically pay Michelin and work with the guide on marketing and promotional activities, but have no sway on the restaurants that are evaluated. Michelin pays for its inspectors’ meals and expenses.

The money issue has sparked debate. It’s been widely reported that some tourism boards have paid Michelin more than $1 million for a buy-in, figuring that the exposure conferred by hosting Michelin-starred restaurants is a valuable tool for attracting high-dollar tourism and conventions.

But there are no guarantees that even a city’s most vaunted restaurants will receive high honors. At the announcement in Miami in 2022, for example, attendees grumbled that Michelin had given no restaurant three stars — its top rating — and bestowed two stars on just one restaurant.

This thinking was at play in Boston only three years ago. According to Eater, the city’s tourism board had initial talks with Michelin but refused to pay on the grounds that the guide would showcase only a small portion of its restaurants. It was not immediately clear what changed minds there.

PHLCVB — a private, nonprofit membership corporation — declined to disclose the payout for Philadelphia but said that it had come directly from its budget. In 2023, the PHLCVB worked with Michelin on a Philadelphia edition of its Green Guide — an overall travel guide edited by a different team.

Michelin’s so-called Red Guides focus on restaurants. The better stops receive ratings that are 1 star (“worth a stop”), 2 stars (“worth a detour”), or 3 stars (“worth a journey”). Casual restaurants deemed “good quality, good value cooking” are labeled as Bib Gourmand selections, while some restaurants are reviewed and presented without star ratings.

Michelin has been criticized for its emphasis on traditional fine dining, a perceived tilt toward French and Japanese cuisine, and a tendency to overlook women chefs.

Michelin said its methodology is based on five universal criteria: quality products, the harmony of flavors, the mastery of cooking techniques, the voice and personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine, and consistency between each visit and throughout the menu. (Each restaurant is inspected several times a year by an anonymous Michelin inspector.)

Brothers/tire manufacturers André and Édouard Michelin began publishing their travel guide in 1900 as a promotion to encourage more people to drive and, thus, boost tire sales. Ratings were added in 1926. Michelin now covers restaurants, hotels, and attractions in about two dozen countries, predominately in Europe and Asia.

Michelin published its first North American guide in 2006 for New York. Besides Philadelphia, Boston, and the U.S. South, guides have been added for Chicago (2011), Washington, D.C. (2017), California (San Francisco in 2007, statewide 2019), Florida (Greater Miami, Orlando, and Tampa in 2022, adding Greater Fort Lauderdale, the Palm Beaches, and St. Pete-Clearwater in 2025, statewide in 2026), Toronto (2022), Vancouver (2022), Colorado (2023), Atlanta (2023), Mexico (2024), Texas (2024), and Quebec (2024).