Michelin Stars vs AA Rosettes

Guide Overview

When comparing the Michelin Guide and the AA Guide, probably the most common misconception we see online is that Michelin focus only on the food but the AA guide includes service and other factors when awarding rosettes. Whilst there may be an element of historical truth in that, nowadays this is categorically not the case.

The AA are clear that their criteria for awarding rosettes is based on the food on their official awards website and explain clearly that whilst service and other factors should compliment a good restaurant, they can't affect the rosette award given. Michelin famously say you can serve the food on paper plates and still win a star. So from the outside at least, all major UK food guides have adopted the same approach and base their key awards solely on the food.

Guide Scoring

Below is a breakdown of how the two main UK restaurant guides (Michelin Guide and AA Guide) officially score and rate the leading restaurants included in their guides.

Michelin Award	Criteria
	3 Michelin Stars: Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.
	2 Michelin Stars: Excellent cooking, worth a detour.
	1 Michelin Star: Very good cooking in its category.
	Michelin Bib Gourmand: Good cooking at moderate prices.
	Standard Michelin Listing: Fresh ingredients, capably prepared: simply a good meal.

AA Award	Criteria
	5 AA Rosettes: The pinnacle, where cooking compares with the best in the world. These restaurants have highly individual voices, exhibit breathtaking culinary skills, and set standards to which others aspire to, yet few achieve.
	4 AA Rosettes: Among the top restaurants in the UK, where the cooking demands national recognition. These restaurants exhibit intense ambition, a passion for excellence, superb technical skills, and remarkable consistency. They will combine appreciation of culinary traditions with a passionate desire for further exploration and improvement.
	3 AA Rosettes: Outstanding restaurants that achieve standards that demand recognition well beyond their local area. The cooking is underpinned by the selection and sympathetic treatment of the highest quality ingredients. Timing, seasoning and the judgment of flavour combinations will consistently be excellent. These virtues tend to be supported by other elements, such as intuitive service and a well-chosen wine list.
	2 AA Rosettes: Excellent restaurants that aim for and achieve higher standards and better consistency. A greater precision is apparent in the cooking, and there will be obvious attention to the selection of quality ingredients.
	1 AA Rosette: These restaurants achieve standards that stand out in their local area. They serve food prepared with care, understanding and skill, using good quality ingredients. The same expectations apply to hotel restaurants, where guests can eat in with confidence and a sense of anticipation.

Scoring Comparison

Although it's very difficult to equate the scoring of one guide to another, using our experience of restaurants at all levels in the various guides (and factoring in the number of restaurants in each guide holding key awards), we've produced the following chart indicating how the ratings in each of the major food guides (Michelin Guide and AA Guide) roughly compare to each other. Obviously there are plenty of restaurants that don't fit this criteria, but most restaurants recognised with higher awards in the two major guides do correspond to this.

Guide Politics - Michelin

Although every guide outwardly claims to judge restaurants only on food, it's safe to say there's often a little bit more going on behind the scenes in the decision making process.

For the Michelin Guide, the claim that they only judge on food seems reasonably well enacted at one star level. However in our experience achieving two and certainly three stars in the UK guide without a supremely high level of service and comfort is very unlikely, but then why would anyone serve food at that level in a less than stunning environment. There's no doubt also that politics plays a part in certain restaurants (in certain areas) continually being overlooked for a star and other longstanding and favoured restaurants perhaps retaining stars longer than they otherwise might. One major advantage the Michelin Guide has over other UK guides is the ability to call on expert inspectors from other countries for specialist restaurants due to the international reach of the guide; an example of putting this reach to good use would be for The Araki in London, which both the AA Guide and Good Food Guide (perhaps wisely) did not commit to rating. However that same restaurant swiftly had it's entire listing removed as soon as the original chef left. Did the food really go from 3* level to not even being worthy of a mention in the guide overnight? It seems unlikely, but such is the political nature of the Michelin guide.

Although at star level, Michelin are reasonably consistent and competent in their inspections, for restaurants not holding a star, the standard of inspection seems far, far lower. There are some very poor restaurants that hold a standard listing (and consequently don't feature in any other guide) and even as recently as May 2024, Michelin awarded a standard guide listing to Wilding in Oxford after the restaurant had already closed, then swiftly tried to update their social media to remove all mention of the award. We would guess some restaurants holding a standard listing are inspected less than every two years (if not longer) by Michelin. That said, a standard listing is also awarded to restaurants just below star level (some of which really should have a star) meaning it's a very wide ranging and ambiguous award.

In 2021, Michelin started releasing some new guide entries monthly throughout the year to generate interest, however the principle awards ceremony (where stars are awarded) remains a once per year affair. In addition, despite only having been introduced in 2016, Michelin strangely retired the Michelin Plate award in October 2021. These restaurants (that don't hold a star or bib gourmand) now appear in the guide with no associated award.

Guide Politics - AA

The AA Guide is constantly updated throughout the year (although three to five rosette awards are only awarded twice per year). The AA Guide is longstanding and respected, but does also have a considerable number of quirks readers may not be aware of. The principle reason we used to see quality restaurants not in the AA guide is because those restaurants have rooms (e.g. hotel/B&B). If a restaurant has rooms, it's only eligible to be awarded rosettes if it also participates in the AA hotel classification scheme; the AA's literature states "You will only be eligible for special AA Awards, (e.g. AA Hotel of the Year, Rosettes for food etc.) if you have full AA recognition through annual AA inspection".

However in addition to this, in early 2020 the AA started charging restaurants for inclusion in the guide (prior to this, it was free). This consists of an initial assessment fee and then a yearly renewal fee (the yearly renewal fee does not guarantee a yearly inspection). This unfortunately in our view does seriously devalue the achievement of being listed in the guide; if any fantastic new restaurant doesn't pay for an assessment, they will never appear in the guide. At the opposite end of the scale this causes some issues also; we consistently see (and eat in) restaurants where the standards have fallen massively over time, yet they continue to retain their rosettes. This seems to be driven by the fact if a restaurant is removed from the guide, the AA can of course no longer charge their yearly fee, so there's a major conflict of interest there.

There are also some fairly serious concerns with the quality of assessment now from the AA; this can be demonstrated in multiple ways. Perhaps the biggest problem currently with the AA guide is the lack of difference between one and two rosette awards. Since around 2020, the AA has allowed a situation to develop where there are now significantly more two rosette restaurants in the guide than one rosette restaurants; it doesn't make any logical sense. They should have shifted the judging criteria accordingly to prevent this, but they haven't. It's fair to say some inspectors have been a bit too eager to give out two rosette plates and consequently, many of the two rosette restaurants we visit aren't worthy of the award in our view. An opposite quirk of the AA guide is that many outstanding pub restaurants (often holding Michelin Stars) are deemed only worthy of two rosettes seemingly because of the environment (even though the AA state rosettes are based only on the food), despite the food really being worthy of three (or more) rosettes. Having said that, since around 2022 we have seen more outstanding pub restaurants now receiving three AA rosettes.

As well as some over-zealous awarding of two rosette plates (so many two rosette restaurants we eat in nowadays don't justify the award in our view), standards do seem to have dropped at the top end of the scale also. Around ten years ago (2015) there were two restaurants holding four AA rosettes in the whole of the UK and Ireland that didn't also hold at least one Michelin star. There are currently (as of May 2025) eleven AA four rosette restaurants with no Michelin stars; Michelin have certainly not become more stringent in that time period, however in our view AA standards even for the top awards have become less demanding, which is a real shame. There's no doubt achieving three AA rosettes has become far easier in the last few years also, with well over one-hundred and fifty AA three rosette restaurants in the UK not holding a Michelin star.

It's often said that AA inspectors are not 'as good' as Michelin inspectors and at the higher levels, that was long thought to be true (although we've never had a bad meal at a five rosette restaurant). However with the number of less than stellar restaurants being awarded, and crucially retaining, one and two rosette plates, there does now seem to be a major inspection quality issue at the lower end of the scale also. It's hard to see how that can't be impacted by the now pay-to-play nature of the guide.

Although the AA guide historically listed restaurants in the Republic of Ireland, since March 2022, the AA now only lists UK based restaurants in their guide.

Guide Comparison Stats

Below is a comparison of the average number of Michelin Stars versus AA Rosettes for restaurants that hold both; the tables show the Average AA Rosettes per Michelin Star and Average Michelin Stars per AA Rosette respectively.

Michelin Stars	Average AA Rosettes
	4.50
	4.00
	3.32

AA Rosettes	Average Michelin Stars
	2.00
	1.31
	1.13