Today at 8:30 a.m. Dallas time, the Michelin Guide Texas will release its list of best restaurants, one of the biggest culinary announcements in Dallas-Fort Worth in a year. At stake is the chance for Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants to win 1, 2 or 3 Michelin stars, the gold standard for gastronomic achievement across the world.
The company will also award Bib Gourmands, an honor for value-driven food, as well as Recommended statuses, which signify restaurants worthy of a visit but not quite star quality, according to Michelin’s anonymous inspectors.
No Fort Worth restaurant has received a Michelin star so far.
Stay tuned for the 2026 results, which will be released on this page. After The Dallas Morning News reports the list of winners, we will analyze whether Michelin got its picks right.
Michelin has not spotlighted every foodie’s favorite spot — far from it. Still, Michelin’s presence in Texas legitimizes Dallas-Fort Worth’s culinary scene, said Mark Thompson, senior vice president of tourism and operations of Visit Dallas, the city’s not-for-profit tourism group.
Thompson spent more than 10 years talking with Michelin executives, trying to entice them to a city where dining, shopping and sports are our biggest pleasures.
Tourism groups do not have control over which restaurants are included in Michelin’s Guide, and the company is famously secretive about its review processes.
As the contract expires at the three-year mark, is paying for Michelin worth it, I asked Thompson?
He thinks about that often. “Because we are funded by hotel taxes,” he said of Visit Dallas, “we constantly have to ask and answer, ‘Is this a good use of funds?’”
The answer is an easy yes, Thompson said. Michelin’s maps now include Dallas, which means tourists find hotels and restaurants they may never have been looking for before. Michelin helps “cut through the clutter” among D-FW’s 16,000 restaurants, Thompson said.
“Michelin is top of the list for me. I can’t think of a better way to spend our money.”