Michelin Announces 2021 Stars for Tokyo

Tokyo is the latest stop on Michelin’s international dining guide tour, and the French tire company continues to be particularly generous with its starred designations in the Japanese city, which has more Michelin-star restaurants than any other. In the 2021 guide there are two new restaurants with three stars, two with two stars, and 18 restaurants earning their first Michelin stars.

Sazenka becomes the first Chinese restaurant in Tokyo to earn three Michelin stars. According to Michelin, the restaurant led by chef Tomoya Kawada “combines traditional Chinese flavors with Japanese techniques.” L’Effervescence, a French restaurant that earned two stars back in 2015, joins Sazenka at the three-star level, bringing the total number of three-star restaurants in Tokyo to 12.

There are now 42 two-star restaurants in the city, thanks to the addition of Japanese cuisine restaurant Kutan and Sushi Kanesaka, which offers customizable omakase, while the one-star total jumps to 158 restaurants. It’s a relatively diverse group that includes sushi, Japanese and Chinese cuisines, as well as a few representatives of European cuisine, including four French-influenced restaurants and one Italian.

Michelin also awarded six restaurants its new sustainability award the Green Star, including new three-star restaurant L’Effervescence. As always, the guide also covers more reasonably priced Bib Gourmand restaurants. There are 35 additions this year and another first: New Bib Gourmand restaurant Enrique Marruecos becomes the first Moroccan restaurant to appear in Tokyo’s Michelin guide. See below for the full list of Tokyo’s new Michelin stars.

New three-star restaurants

L’Effervescence

Sazenka

New two-star restaurants

Kutan

Sushi Kanesaka

New one-star restaurants

Akasaka Ogino

Au Deco

Azabu Wakei

Esterre

Faro

Makiyaki Ginza Onodera

Hato

Itsuka

L’Intemporel

Juko

Onarimon Haru

Oryori Katsushi

Series

Shigematsu

ShinoiS

Sushi Murayama

Sushi Sugaya

Sushiya Shota

• These Are The Newly Starred Restaurants In The MICHELIN Guide Tokyo 2021 [Michelin]