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Published Friday, June 26, 2009 | 5:26 p.m.
Updated Friday, June 26, 2009 | 5:26 p.m.
Count Las Vegas out for the Michelin Guide in 2010.
A spokeswoman for the company said it will temporarily discontinue guides for Las Vegas and Los Angeles next year because of the economy, though it has plans to resume publishing for both cities in 2011.
"Everybody knows we're in a difficult economic climate right now," she said. "It's based on the economy.
"Michelin is a very conservative company, and we've taken a very conservative approach to spending during this economic environment."
Guides for New York and San Francisco in 2010 will still be published, the spokeswoman said, and the company is further pursuing guide developments in Asia, including Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Macau.
Andre Rochat, owner of Andre's at Monte Carlo, said he received a notice from Michelin about the guide's cancellation. His restaurant received one Michelin star this year.
"It's too bad," he said. "Unfortunately, it reflects what's going on in the country."
Rochat said the lack of a guide for Las Vegas would not hurt business "because there is no business pretty much in general.
"I don't think we've seen the worst yet," he said.
The Michelin Guide hires inspectors to anonymously critique the best hotels and restaurants on certain criteria. According to its Web site, the guide ranks based on the quality of the products, mastery of the flavor and cooking, "personality" of the cuisine, price, value and consistency between visits. One star represents "a very good restaurant in its category." Two stars mean "excellent cooking and worth a detour." Three stars honor a restaurant with "exceptional cuisine" that's "worth the journey."
Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand is the only restaurant in Vegas to earn three Michelin stars.
Seventeen Las Vegas restaurants were ranked by the guide in 2009. They are:
Three Michelin stars:
Two Michelin stars:
One Michelin star:
i'll take the pad thai with shrimp at satay over these places any day of the week.
The question I would ask you two picky gentlemen (ladies?) would be, have you ever eaten at any of the restaurants listed? Because some of them are truly amazing places. Or is this the reverse elitism we see so much of on this site?
I'd rather pay my a/c bill than eat at a restaurant rated by a tire company. And yes, I've eaten at one, thanks.
Well, in case you haven't noticed, the diners that eat at these restaurants do care.
Read a bit more about Michelin and you will realize that they are to Europe what AAA is to America. Their ratings bring tourists, the wealthy, and the curious to Vegas. Something we could always do with more these days.
We get it, you would rather spend your hard-earned lettuce on something a little more reasonable, maybe even necessary. However, the taxes these places bring in go toward paying for our schools, our roads, our public systems, etc. I'm sure you know all this, but why oh why do locals in this town insist that we should be biting the hand that feeds us.
If one more high-influence company is taking their eyes off the Vegas market, even for just this year, can't we all agree that that's not a good thing?
oh, solar
shut uuuuup!
i would bet less than 1% of the people that come to vegas have ever looked at a michelin guide.
i'll take the $9.00 pad thai at satay and stack it next to a $19.00 entree' at one of those silly places on the strip and invite 100 people to taste both of them and nobody...NOBODY would see any difference in taste or quality between the two.
Silly, Stevey... just because the majority eats at McDonalds doesn't mean that it's better. :)
I must be a one percenter... I travel to vegas from overseas a couple of times a year and my whole visit is planned around which Michelin starred restaurants we're eating at.