Mark	What it means
Three Stars	Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey
Two Stars	Excellent cooking, worth a detour
One Star	High-quality cooking, worth a stop
Bib Gourmand	Good quality, good value — not a star
Selected	The inspectors listed it. Not an award
Green Star	Recognition for sustainable practice, awarded alongside the above

Only the first three are stars. Bib Gourmand and Selected are frequently reported as though they were, and a restaurant described as "in the MICHELIN Guide" most often holds Selected, which certifies only that an inspector visited and listed it.

The guide publishes a selection only where it has a destination edition, and those editions are funded partly by tourism boards. A state outside every edition cannot hold a star no matter how good its restaurants are, and a state inside one can still hold none.

Edition	States covered	Status
New York City	New York	Selecting since 2005
Chicago	Illinois	Selecting since 2011
Washington DC	District of Columbia, and nearby Maryland and Virginia	Selecting since 2016
California	California	Statewide since 2019
Florida	Florida	Selecting since 2022
Colorado	Colorado	Selecting since 2023
Atlanta	Georgia	Selecting since 2023, absorbed into American South
Texas	Texas	Selecting since 2024
Northeast Cities	Massachusetts, Pennsylvania	First ceremony 18 November 2025
American South	Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee	First ceremony 3 November 2025
American Southwest	Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah	Announced, first ceremony 26 August 2026
American Great Lakes	Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin	Announced, first ceremony 2027

Twenty-four states sit inside an edition. Twenty-six sit outside every one of them.

This is the distinction that misleads most often. As of August 2026:

• Alabama is covered and holds no star — five Bib Gourmands and ten Selected.
• Mississippi is covered and holds no star — two Bib Gourmands and eight Selected.
• Maryland is covered through the DC edition and holds no star.
• Massachusetts is covered and holds exactly one, 311 Omakase in Boston.
• Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah are covered by an edition that has not held its first ceremony, so nothing has been awarded yet.
• Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin are in the same position until 2027.

Nevada is the sharpest case. MICHELIN published a Las Vegas guide from 2008 to 2010 and then discontinued it. Restaurants there still trade on those stars, but a star from a discontinued guide is lapsed, not current.

• 26 August 2026 — American Southwest, first selection.
• October 2026 — American South, second selection, in Nashville.
• 2027 — American Great Lakes, first selection.