(Bloomberg) -- Change is glacial at the top of a Michelin list. It takes a team of inspectors with a wrecking ball to topple a three-star ranking. Likewise, adding a third shiny star is like accessing a very private club where the members speak only French and Japanese.
But this week, a Korean spot has crashed the party: Jungsik, the modern Tribeca restaurant that originated in Seoul, has been elevated to the three-star club. On Monday, Michelin announced its rankings for New York, as well as Chicago and Washington. Chef Yim Jungsik’s $295 tasting menu includes luxe takes on the Korean sushi roll kimbap, which he serves with fresh yellowtail infused with house aged soy sauce (and tweezers so you can assemble the dish yourself). His galbi, a famed marinated beef dish, features wagyu, cooked over binchotan charcoal.
It’s the first Korean restaurant in the US to get the top ranking. (The Seoul location of Jungsik has two stars.) In New York, it joins four immovable three-star restaurants: Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin, Masa and Per Se.
This year there are also three newly minted two-star spots in New York, including a pair that are interrelated. In a sequence of events that would play well on a culinary reality show, chef César Ramirez’s brand-new spot César was given two stars just a few months after opening. Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, which chef team Max Natmessnig and Marco Prins now run, also won two stars. “We achieved something great, not even open five months and and to get two stars is a great achievement,” said Ramirez about César’s award, after the rankings were announced.
For many years, Ramirez ran the kitchen at Chef’s Table, before leaving in 2023 during a dispute with ownership that ended up in legal filings. During that era of the restaurant, Chef’s Table was one of the immovable three-star stalwarts on Michelin’s list.
Sushi Sho, the highly anticipated midtown outpost of the dazzling Honolulu omakase counter that started in Tokyo, also got a pair of stars after quietly opening earlier this year.
But Michelin doesn’t deliver good news to everyone. Restaurant Daniel, Daniel Boulud’s flagship canteen, had two stars until today; now it has one. (In 2015 the celebrity-packed dining room was demoted from three stars to two.) “We look forward to revisiting Daniel and ascertaining any evolution for future selections,” said the chief inspector of the Michelin Guide North America in an email about the ranking; he spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his position. He adds, Michelin “is sensitive to the fact that the restaurant industry is very dynamic, which is why the distinctions are annual.”
On Instagram, Boulud responded to the loss of a star with a post that said in part: “While I don’t agree with the rating of Restaurant Daniel, we look forward to continuing to delight our guests and create unforgettable experiences for years to come.”
Still, Boulud got a lift from the reopening of another of his Upper East Side spots, Café Boulud, one of this year’s eight new one-stars. Other new spots also include Nōksu, where the Korean tasting menu from chef Dae Kim is served in an underground dining room in a crowded New York subway station. “All the sacrifices we made while trying to figure out the challenges of turning a 1,000-square-foot-space in a subway station into a fine dining restaurant paid off,” said Nōksu co-owner Bobby Kwak.
Not far away, Joo Ok, which relocated from Seoul to the 16th floor of a Koreatown building this year, also has a new star. On the Lower East Side, chef Fidel Caballero’s Corima was recognized for his inspired Mexican food including sourdough tortillas. And north in Westchester, La Bastide by Andrea Calstier, serves a modern French menu in a farmhouse.
In total, there are 74 starred restaurants in New York, up from 71 last year. The guide also named 91 places as Bib Gourmands, or cheap eats. New to this year’s list is yet another Korean spot, the highly hyped, high-style Korean fried chicken and Champagne spot, Coqodaq (which not everyone would call cheap).
It’s the second year that Michelin combined three of its stalwart US cities—New York, Chicago and Washington, DC—in one announcement. Its focus is on expansion across the country, which has become a notable source of income for the company. In November it announced their inaugural Texas guide; a total of 15 restaurants were given a star. State and local tourism boards paid $2.7 million for the guide to rank restaurants there over a three-year period.
Chicago has lost some of its star power in this year’s edition. It now has 19 starred restaurants, down from 21 last year, and there’s one fewer two-star spot: Moody Tongue is now a one-star. Inspectors added one new one-star, Cariño which offers inspired Mexican dishes.
Likewise in Washington, there wasn’t much change; there are still 26 starred dining rooms, though one of the area’s notable two-star spots, Pineapple and Pearls, is down to one star. The two restaurants given a shiny new accolade are Mita, where Tatiana Mora and Miguel Guerra serve creative Latin American vegetarian cooking, and Omakase @ Barracks Row, from Sushi Nakazawa alum Yi Wang. Michelin has also been hyping its green, or eco-friendly, star rankings. In DC the award went to Oyster Oyster, where chef Rob Rubba runs a no-waste kitchen and turns spent cooking oil into candles.
Following are the Michelin-starred restaurants in New York. An asterisk (*) denotes a new listing.
Three Stars
Eleven Madison Park *Jungsik New YorkLe Bernardin Masa Per Se
Two Stars
Aquavit Aska Atera Atomix Blue Hill at Stone Barns*César*Chef’s Table at Brooklyn FareGabriel Kreuther Jean-Georges The ModernOdoSagaSushi Noz*Sushi Sho
One Star
63 Clinton*Bar MillerBōm*Café BouludCasa Mono Clover Hill *CorimaCoteCrown ShyDanielDirt CandyEssential by Christophe Estela Family Meal at Blue Hill The Four Horsemen Francie Frevo Gramercy TavernIcca Jeju Noodle Bar *Jōji*Joo OkJuaKochi KosakaL’Abeille *La Bastide by Andrea CalstierLe CoucouLe PavillonMariMejuThe Musket RoomNoda*NōksuNoz 17 Oji Mi One White Street Oxomoco Red Paper Clip Restaurant YuuRezdora Semma Shion 69 Leonard Street Shmoné*Shota Omakase Sushi Amane Sushi IchimuraSushi Nakazawa Tempura MatsuiTorienTorrisiTsukimiTuome *YingTaoYoshino
(Updates with quotes from Michelin star recipients throughout.)
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