Big news for Texas chefs: The next set of Michelin star winners will be released Oct. 28, 2025.
On that date, chefs from Texas’ five biggest cities — Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio — will gather in Houston for the second consecutive year for a rapid-fire awards show crowning the best restaurants in the Lone Star State.
At the invitation-only awards at Houston’s Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, chefs and restaurant owners find out whether they’ve received a coveted Michelin honor. Awards include:
- A star — available as a 1-, 2- or 3-star award, with 3 going to the highest-achieving restaurants
- A Bib Gourmand, for restaurants that provide “good food at moderate prices,” according to Michelin
- A Green Star, for sustainability efforts
- A Recommended honor, offered to restaurants that offer a great meal but haven’t earned star status yet
- Michelin sometimes adds special awards at its discretion, like 2024’s Exceptional Cocktails Award given to Dallas bartender Julian Shaffer, who worked at Rye on Greenville Avenue.
Restaurant News
North Texas had just one restaurant, Tatsu, that received 1-star status in 2024. Fort Worth had none. A total of 15 restaurants in the state received 1 Michelin star.
No Texas restaurant received a 2- or 3- star rating in 2024.
Related:28 Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants honored in Michelin’s inaugural Texas Guide ceremony
When Michelin moves into a new territory, as it is doing in the United States more rapidly, its anonymous “inspectors,” or critics, are expected to kick off the first guide moderately.
Julian Shaffer, (center) bar manager of Rye, reacts after winning the Exceptional Cocktails Award during Michelin Guide Texas Ceremony on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 in Houston. It was Texas’ first Michelin Guide ceremony.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
It isn’t a surprise, several chefs told The Dallas Morning News, that Texas restaurants didn’t earn a 2- or 3-star award in the inaugural year.
That first year was “a milestone for the Texas restaurant industry,” said Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide, in a prepared statement. And, indeed, chefs in Dallas-Fort Worth have added tasting menus to their restaurants more in the past year than ever before.
Poullennec said Texas restaurants have “a rich heritage.” The restaurants the Michelin Guide highlights are intended to be travel destinations — in part, because Michelin is a tire company. The French company started publishing a guide about 100 years ago in an effort to get Europeans in their cars, traveling to new places.
“We look forward to unveiling our inspectors’ findings in the coming months,” the international director said. (And we look forward to seeing them.)
Related:Tatsu won Dallas’ only Michelin star. Watch owners react: nervous, surprised, elatedWhy Michelin matters
Last year marked the first-ever Michelin Guide Texas edition. It was a turning point for Texas cuisine, a signal that restaurants in the five major cities were worthy of international attention from critics and travelers.
Across Texas, 116 restaurants received some sort of recognition. In Dallas-Fort Worth, 28 took home awards, mostly in the Recommended category. Restaurants in the Austin, Houston and San Antonio metros comprised the rest.
Related:Discover every single Michelin restaurant in Texas
Dallas chef Dean Fearing holds a plate of Texas Wagyu Beef Carpaccio Elotes at Fearing’s restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Michelin, which has been reviewing restaurants in France since 1926, doesn’t guarantee any distinctions when the awards come around. But hundreds of chefs will vie to get their names added to Guide, keep their position within it — or better it.
More difficult, still, chefs do not know when the anonymous inspectors will visit their restaurants. Said another way: Every day could be an important day to shine.
Dallas chef Dean Fearing called Michelin “the monkey on your back.” His restaurant Fearing’s received Recommended status in 2024. No doubt, Fearing and his colleagues in Dallas-Fort Worth will fret over when a critic will unknowingly waltz into their restaurants.
After all, Michelin’s rating system is often considered the gold standard for global foodies.
“It’s the Olympics of food, where only the best and brightest restaurants in the world get a medal,” we wrote in 2024 when it was first announced the awards would come to Texas.
“It suddenly puts Dallas on the same level as any restaurant city in the world right now,” veteran North Texas chef Stephan Pyles told The Dallas Morning News last year.
For now, chefs will wait impatiently to see if they get an invitation to the ceremony in Houston on Oct. 28, 2025. If they do, they win something — though we won’t know what until the evening of the event.
The Michelin Guide Texas ceremony is Oct. 28, 2025 at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Houston. Invitation only. More to come at dallasnews.com/michelin.
Related:If a Dallas chef is invited to the Michelin Guide announcement, does that mean they win?