The move into Texas meant a shift in the type of restaurants long recognized by the French guide. For the first time in the guide’s long history, Michelin granted stars to barbecue restaurants. Three Austin spots — Interstellar BBQ, La Barbecue and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue — were among the first to earn stars.
The guide — long the bastion of fine dining and French and Japanese cuisine — has expanded its star-granting elsewhere, too. A market stall in Thailand and a taco stand in Mexico City earned stars in previous years.
The stars in Texas also went to more traditional restaurants with elevated service and plating, with Hestia, Barley Swine, Craft Omakase and Olamaie earning stars.
In Denver, a city similar in size to Austin, five restaurants earned a single star in 2023, its first year with a list. One earned a star in 2024 and another three in 2025. In the third year of the Colorado guide’s existence, one Denver restaurant earned two stars.
Operating off of Denver’s performance, I think it’s reasonable to expect one to three additional restaurants will receive a star. I assume all seven Austin restaurants will keep their stars as part of the review process that takes place annually for such designated restaurants.
I also won’t guess as to who will join the ranks of the Bib Gourmand restaurants, of which there are currently 15 in Austin. There are only 35 restaurants in America with two stars, almost all located in the dining hubs of California, New York and Chicago, so I don’t expect an Austin restaurant to receive a second star in just the second year of the Texas guide.
Again, these are the restaurants we think might earn a star. As for our favorite restaurants in Austin, you can see our Best Restaurants in Austin list, which came out this week.
Suerte: Michelin has shown that it has respect for one of Austin’s major food groups — barbecue — and I expect a Mexican restaurant will be honored this year. This is Austin’s best Mexican restaurant.
Nixta Taqueria: See above regarding my thinking about Michelin recognizing Mexican food with a star this year. Nixta also has something unique working in its favor: It’s an outdoor taqueria serving exceptional tacos that also offers an elegant tasting menu for dinner inside several nights a week. That dinner is one of the most exciting in town.
Birdie’s: If Michelin is in the habit of singling out restaurants that might not be of the traditional Michelin mold, it might very well consider a counter-service restaurant, and there’s no better counter-service restaurant in town than this East Austin gem.
Franklin Barbecue: With all due respect to the three deserved barbecue winners of stars in 2024, Michelin would not even be considering barbecue as a genre worthy of a star had it not been for Aaron Franklin completely changing the way the world thinks about barbecue more than 15 years ago.
Tune in Tuesday night to the Michelin livestream and follow along with our live blog to see how close we came with our guesses and to find out who else won a star or was otherwise honored by Michelin.