The Michelin Guide has cut the number of Tokyo restaurants with its top rank by one, reducing the city's three-star winners for the second year in a row.
Tempura restaurant 7chome Kyoboshi was removed from the list, leaving 14 three-star restaurants in the Tokyo area, which includes Yokohama and the Shonan area, the France-based publisher said Tuesday.
The Tokyo area, which had 17 three-star establishments in the 2012 list and 15 in the 2013, still has more top-ranked restaurants than any other city covered by Michelin. Paris is second with 10 and New York has seven, based on previously published guides. The French volume has traditionally been the last to appear each year, usually in February.
The guide's goal is to "communicate to many people the greatness of gastronomy," Bernard Delmas, president of Nihon Michelin Tire Co., said Tuesday at a ceremony in Tokyo to unveil the 2014 area guide.
7chome Kyoboshi, located in Ginza, has been reduced to two stars. Delmas declined comment on the lower rating and said "stability" can be among the hardest things to maintain for restaurants.
Quintessence, a three-star French restaurants in Tokyo, was awarded three stars for the seventh time.
"To French chefs, three stars is a dream everybody dreams of," said Shuzo Kishida, chef at Quintessence. "We have to try our best for whoever comes to our restaurant. It's getting harder and harder every year" to get three stars.
Michelin gave three stars to 28 restaurants in Japan, including in Kyoto and Osaka, in the 2014 edition.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.