The Michelin Guide for restaurants made its highly anticipated Lone Star State debut Monday night with a ceremony and cocktail reception at 713 Music Hall in downtown Houston. 

The globally influential dining and travel guide from the French tire company honored 117 Texas restaurants with a variety of distinctions.

Austin had the biggest night of the five major Texas cities represented, taking home 7 of the 15 coveted Michelin Stars awarded to Lone Star restaurants.

Here’s how Texas restaurants fared.

LIST: 7 Austin restaurants awarded Michelin Stars

Seven Austin restaurants were awarded one-star distinctions:

Dai Due and Emmer & Rye, two Austin restaurants that serve American cuisine, were also awarded Michelin Green Star. The distinction highlights restaurants that lead the industry in their sustainability practices.

Read more on Austin restaurants: Austin restaurants earn 7 of the 15 Michelin Stars awarded in Texas and 15 Bib Gourmand

LIST: 6 Houston restaurants awarded Michelin Stars

With the second-largest one-star contingency, six Houston restaurants claimed the distinctions:

Dallas, San Antonio restaurants each receive a Michelin Star

Tatsu Dallas (Japanese cuisine) and Mixtli (Mexican cuisine) in San Antonio also received one-star distinctions.

No restaurant in Texas received two or three stars. There are currently only 13 restaurants in the United States with three stars and 33 with two stars. About 200 restaurants in the U.S. claim one star. Michelin and its inspectors review star designation annually, with new stars being assigned, and restaurants fighting to hold onto existing stars while often striving for more.

What is The Michelin Guide?

The Michelin Guide is a renowned international restaurant rating system managed by the French tire manufacturer. It was first published in 1889 in the small French town of Clermont-Ferrand by brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, founders of the now world-famous tire company. The guides, which were originally free, were created to encourage travel and thus boost care and tire sales.

What do Michelin Stars mean?

Michelin’s anonymous inspectors and employees have been reporting and ranking Texas restaurants since this summer. The company ranks each restaurant based on five universal criteria:

• quality of products
• harmony of flavors
• mastery of cooking techniques
• voice and personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine
• consistency of food between each visit and throughout the menu

A restaurant may be awarded one, two or three Michelin Stars, used to indicate those deemed to be among the best in the world. Michelin’s site explains what the number of Stars represents:

• One Star, “worth a stop”: The restaurant uses top quality ingredients, where dishes with distinct flavors are prepared to a consistently high standard.
• Two Stars, “worth a detour”: The personality and talent of the chef are evident in their expertly crafted dishes; their food is refined and inspired.
• Three Stars, “worth a special journey”: As the highest award, three Stars are given for the superlative cooking of chefs at the peak of their profession; their cooking is elevated to an art form and some of their dishes are destined to become classics.

What is the Bib Gourmand award?

“The Bib Gourmand is our award for great value, and highlights simple yet skillful cooking at an affordable price,” according to the Michelin website.

See the full list of Bib Gourmand award-winning restaurants at guide.michelin.com.

Why did the Michelin tire company rate restaurants?

Emerging in 1900, the Michelin Guide initially served as a comprehensive guidebook for France, aiming to inspire drivers (particularly those using the company’s tires) to explore the country by road. It gradually expanded throughout Europe, but its publication was interrupted during World War I.

After the war, the guide resumed its operations and underwent a significant shift in focus in 1926, transitioning from a general travel guide to a specialized rating system for fine-dining establishments.

The Michelin Guide’s renowned one- to three-star rating system was fully established in 1931, providing a comprehensive evaluation framework for discerning diners.

Missed out on one of the coveted invites for Monday night’s ceremony that will reveal which Texas restaurants are included in the state’s first ever Michelin Guide? Fear not.

The event will be streamed live on YouTube beginning at 7 pm. We’ve embedded it below.

As CultureMap haspreviously reported, restaurants from Texas’ five largest cities — Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin, as well as points in between — have been invited to the ceremony that’s being held at Houston’s 713 Music Hall. They’re eligible for one of four designations:

• Michelin stars: rated at one, two, or three for restaurants that offer exceptional experiences
• Bib Gourmand: described as “restaurants that offer great quality food at good prices”
• Recommended: for restaurants that serve good food but are not quite star worthy
• Green stars: for “restaurants that are leaders in sustainable gastronomy”

Considered to be the most prestigious restaurant review site in the world, Michelin uses five criteria to evaluate restaurants. They are: product quality; mastery of cooking techniques; harmony of flavors; the personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine; and consistency over time and across the entire menu.

The guide’s famously anonymous inspectors had already been spending time in Texas when Michelin announced its presence in July. It seems like they’ve been busy.

Texas Monthlyreported that at least 16 barbecue restaurants statewide have been invited to the ceremony, including Austin’s Franklin Barbecue, LeRoy and Lewis BBQ, Interstellar BBQ, and Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, as well as the meteorically successful Lockhart joint Barbs B Q. In the article, barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn speculates that at least one barbecue restaurant could receive a star, which would be a first for America.

Austin’s relatively casual dining scene and inconsistent performance with other food awards (not too shabby, but showing alternating periods of obsession and being overlooked) makes it a bit hard to predict how it will fare in this inaugural year of recognition.

Some Austin restaurants like Pasta|Bar have sibling restaurants in other states that already have stars; others like El Naranjo and Nixta Taqueria already have chef wins from the James Beard Foundation under their belts. There are also some obvious contenders given their ongoing local prestige: Uchi, Hestia, Barley Swine, and Olamaie come to mind. So do newer restaurants that are doing something truly unique, riding huge waves of media praise, or both, like Canje, Birdie’s, and Fabrik.

Of course, CultureMap will be in attendance. We’ll have full coverage of the results later.

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CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri adapted this story with local commentary.

It’s finally here: Michelin — the tire company behind the international dining review system — announced the awardees of its first-ever Texas guide on November 11, spanning Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth. The ceremony was presented in Houston and live-streamed on YouTube.

Michelin Guide Texas includes 15 Bib Gourmands; 23 recommended designations. The full Austin list follows below; check out Houston’s and Dallas’s lists on their respective sites.

The first Michelin award of the evening went to Dallas cocktail bar Rye manager Julian Shaffer for the Exceptional Cocktails Award. For San Antonio, Mexican tasting menu restaurant Mixtli’s Hailey Pruitt and Lauren Beckman won the Service Award. Beckman shared that she was “panicking a little bit but completely honored” on stage. The first Austin award went to Edgar Rico of Mexican restaurant Nixta Taqueria for the Young Chef Award. Emmer & Rye’s San Antonio dessert menu restaurant Nicosi got a recommended designation. Only two Austin chefs won the Michelin Green stars — Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due and Emmer & Rye’s Kevin Fink.

Well before Michelin’s Texas announcement in July, its famously anonymous inspectors have been on the ground in the state reviewing restaurants in the five cities and determining which dining establishments are worthy of its stars. Their criteria is based on the quality, creativity, and consistency of the food, ingredients, and dishes. Notably, the website notes that they “do not look at the interior decor, table setting, or service quality.”

Michelin’s star designations breaks down as follows:

• Three Michelin stars indicate restaurants that serve “exceptional cuisine” that is “worth a special journey,” per its website.
• Two stars are given to restaurants that offer “excellent cooking” that is “worth a detour.”
• Single stars are awarded to restaurants that have “high quality cooking” that’s “worth a stop.”

Then there are Michelin’s Bib Gourmands, which are typically given to what the organization describes as places with “good cuisine at reasonable prices,” which is basically just comparatively more affordable and casual restaurants than starred ones. Then there are its Michelin Green Stars given to restaurants that implement highly sustainable and/or eco-friendly practices. And finally, there are its recommended list, which includes restaurants that are good, but not good enough for any of the labels above.

To bring Michelin to Texas, for three years, the state and respective cities’ tourism boards are paying a collective $2,700,000 (Visit Austin’s share of that is $90,000 per year, using the city’s hotel occupancy tax).

Young Chef Award

Edgar Rico of Mexican restaurant Nixta Taqueria (and Eater Award-winning restaurant)

One Star Austin Restaurants

Bib Gourmands in Austin

• Lockhart barbecue restaurant Barbs B Q (and one of Eater’s best new restaurants)
• Biscuit barbecue truck Briscuits
• Food truck Cuantos Tacos
• New Texan restaurant Dai Due
• African American barbecue truck Distant Relatives (and Eater Award-winning food truck)
• New Texan restaurant Emmer & Rye (and Eater Award-winning restaurant)
• Barbecue restaurant Franklin Barbecue
• Japanese Texan izakaya Kemuri Tatsu-ya (and Eater Award-winning restaurant)
• Egyptian Texan barbecue truck KG BBQ (and Eater Award-winning food truck)
• Barbacoa food truck La Santa Barbacha
• Barbecue food truck (turning into a physical restaurant later this winter) Micklethwait Craft Meats
• Mexican restaurant Nixta Taqueria (its second of the evening)
• New Texan restaurant Odd Duck (and Eater Award-winning restaurant)
• Mexican Japanese restaurant Ramen del Barrio (and Eater Award-winning restaurant)
• Mexican restaurant Veracruz Fonda & Bar (from the Veracruz team)

Michelin Recommended Austin Restaurants

Michelin Green in Austin

• New Texan restaurant Dai Due (its second of the evening)
• New Texan Emmer & Rye (its third of the evening)