A three-star itinerary / 162 restaurants / newest first, one a week
Worth the Journey
Three MICHELIN stars mean “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”. This is the journey: every restaurant holding three stars on 23 September 2026, all 162 of them, visited one a week in the order each earned its third star, newest first. It opens at Xin Rong Ji in Chengdu, promoted in September 2026, and works back through the guide’s history to Troisgros – Le Bois sans Feuilles, which has held three stars since 1968.
How the order works
Each restaurant is placed by the day its current run of three stars was announced. Where a restaurant lost its third star and later won it back, the comeback date counts; the earlier spell is noted on its stop.
Restaurants promoted at the same ceremony share a date. Those ties are ordered to keep the travelling short.
Reading the numbers
Distances are great-circle, “as the crow flies”, between restaurants, so real journeys will be longer. Dates before about 2005 are only as precise as the guide edition. Where only the year is known, the stop shows the year.
Flight links open a one-way business-class search on Google Flights for the Monday of each stop’s week, from the previous stop’s airport. The first flight leaves from your home airport. Each restaurant uses the closest airport with year-round flights to a hub. Hops under 450 km, or within one airport’s area, link to road and rail directions instead.
Stars change every year. New three-star restaurants announced during the trip aren't in this plan, and a few on it will lose a star before you get there.
What it costs
The estimate covers every three-star dinner with its wine pairing, a room at the first hotel under Where to stay, business-class flights and first-class trains, and other meals. It follows the plan’s settings: travellers share rooms two to a room, and one stop every two weeks doubles the nights.
Sources
The list comes from the MICHELIN Guide’s own three-star listing. Award dates come from the guide’s ceremony announcements, Wikipedia’s year-by-year star tables and press coverage; each stop links to its source. Coordinates come from OpenStreetMap.
Where to stay lists two or three hotels near each restaurant, first the one the restaurant is in, if it's in one. Stars are the official national rating where a country has one. Elsewhere (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US) they're the equivalent named in the hotel's tooltip. Every restaurant and hotel website was checked when it was added.
A personal trip plan. Not affiliated with or endorsed by MICHELIN.