Michelin: Las Vegas Has Sunk to a Culinary Basket-Case.

by Andrew Chalk

When the Michelin Guide last inspected Las Vegas restaurants (in 2009) it awarded stars to 17 restaurants, including three stars to Restaurant Joël Robuchon. Last week, for 2026, it announced just four. And no 3-stars. The highest ranking restaurant was Joël Robuchon again, but with only two stars.

That is an appalling fall from grace. By way of comparison, Mendoza, Argentina, a city of 126.000 people (less than one fifth the size of Las Vegas) has seven Michelin-starred restaurants.

Probably because of its decline, Las Vegas doesn't get its own guide this year (it would be so thin it would get lost slipping between the floorboards). The city of the $50 per night hotel 'destination fee' is subsumed in a Southwest USA Guide that covers Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Only Utah, outside Las Vegas, gets any stars (just one, for Monte in South Salt Lake).

Almost as an emblem to Michelin's incorruptability, the Arizona Office of Tourism spent $200,000 just to get coverage in the Guide. Pay-for-judging is not pay-for-play in this case and the investment may still be highly profitable in promoting Arizona restaurants.

What Is In Store For Dallas in 2026?

Photo: Mamani

Dallas is under a similar pay-for-judging scheme and has tons of scope for improvement. Just two stars in a metro area of 8.4m people is poor. But lots of work from aspiring chefs and investors is going on to change that. One benchmark, Madrid has 32 starred restaurants and about 6.8m people in its metropolitan area.

Results for Texas will be announced in a spectacular digital press release on October 8th. Stand by!