As we say every year, it’s very hard to know exactly what makes a restaurant deserving of a third Michelin star. By the time a restaurant is cooking at a two-star standard, we’re already talking about something close to culinary perfection, so it really is minuscule details that can tip the balance. The past few years however, have seen more new three-star restaurants in the UK than ever before, with L’Enclume the most recent restaurant to join the esteemed list in 2022 of just eight restaurants, so could we see another this year or will will Michelin be wanting to make a statement by not announcing any new three stars? If any restaurants are to win a third this year, we reckon that Mark Birchall’s Moor Hall, Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen in Dublin, and Claude Bosi at Bibendum are in with a shout. We also think there’s an outside chance that Jeremy Chan will win a third at Ikoyi, after the acclaimed restaurant moved to a brand-new site last year.

The Michelin Guide describes a restaurant deemed worthy of two stars as somewhere worth a detour, serving up excellent cooking, but given the vast array of one-star restaurants already serving excellent food, it’s fair to say that an extra sprinkling of magic is needed for two. Given that there are well over a hundred one-star restaurants in the UK, it’s highly likely that a few will gain a second star this year and we reckon that we could even see a couple of new restaurants making the jump straight to two.

Few restaurant openings this year have been more hyped than that of of former executive chef of The Greenhouse, Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal, and if the reviews are anything to go by, he’s more than matched expectations. This shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Dilling has previously held two stars, but going straight into the guide with the double would certainly cement him as one of the UK’s top talents.

To this day, The Hand and Flowers is still the only two-star pub in the whole of the UK, but we wouldn’t be surprised if that changed this year. Since Michael Wignall took over The Angel at Hetton – regarded by many as the UK's original gastropub – in 2018, he’s been delighting diners with the refined style of cookery that previously won him two stars, and with one already to his name at The Angel, he seems to have only elevated his menu even further in the past couple of years. Could this be the year that he’s rewarded for his efforts?

Although technically a reopening rather than a brand-new restaurant, the return of The Ledbury has the feeling of something new following its extensive refurbishment. Brett Graham’s much-lauded restaurant formerly held two Michelin stars before it was forced to close in 2020, and now with its stunning new interiors and the same inventive approach to cooking as before, we’d be surprised not to see it return to its former position in the guide.

Some pretty magical things have been happening at The Ritz over the past few years, since Spencer Metzger took over as head chef in 2021. Though his food is still as classically grounded as you might expect at such an institution, the level of flare and detail on show in his food is surely worthy of a second star.

And so, to perhaps the most interesting and certainly the busiest part of the announcement, where we’ll find out which restaurants have been awarded or regained a first star. Last year, nineteen spots were given the nod but this can vary hugely year to year. However hard we try to guess, there are always going to be a few surprises thrown in but that’s what makes the announcement so exciting. We’ve chosen eight of the restaurants that we think are most likely to win a prestigious star.

With four AA rosettes already to its name and having been rated amongst the best new restaurants of 2022 by many guides, we think it’s highly likely that David and Anette Taylor’s Grace and Savour will be awarded its first star in 2023. Built into the walls of a garden in Hampton Manor where much of the produce used is grown, the restaurant’s fifteen-course menu showcases sustainable ingredients and we wouldn’t be surprised to see it pick up a green star too for its focus on organic and regenerative farming methods.

A shipping container may not seem like the most likely of locations for a Michelin-starred restaurant but ever since Luke French opened Sheffield’s Jöro in 2016, he’s been making waves with his Asian and Nordic-inspired food. You sense that French has taken things up a further notch in the past couple of years, so 2023 could be his time.

Mayfair sushi restaurant The Araki made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2019 when it lost all three of its Michelin stars in one fell swoop, but this was largely due to founder Mitsuhiro Araki returning to Japan and handing over the reins to Marty Lau. This did seem incredibly tough at the time but it has given Lau the chance to build a reputation of his own at the restaurant, and now after four years at the helm, we think that he’s likely to regain the first of these stars.

It was always going to be a tricky task for the new restaurant at Shoreditch’s Blue Mountain School to fill the boots of the Michelin-starred Maõs, which closed last year but Cycene has done a fantastic job. As was the case with its predecessor, its menu takes you to different parts of the restaurant, including the kitchen, to eat different courses of the meticulously thought-through tasting menu. And Theo Clench’s menu really is impeccably crafted. On our visit, highlights included a fantastically fresh oyster, cucumber and caviar dish, and an unexplainably light chocolate cake paired with fermented milk. Surely a star isn’t far off for Clench?

Kenny Atkinson may already be one of Newcastle’s best-known chefs thanks to his much-lauded, one-star restaurant House of Tides, but that hasn’t stopped him from opening another top-class restaurant this year in the form of Solstice, which Grace Dent described as serving ‘special food’ in her review last year. With the track record Atkinson has, it seems a given that Solstice will win a star at some point, but will it be this year?

It felt like last year’s Michelin announcement maybe just came slightly too soon for Chet Sharma’s Bibi, which was unquestionably one of the openings of 2021. Having now moved away from an à la carte menu during the evenings in favour of a tasting menu, all diners are now able to see the full range of Sharma’s talents, and we reckon that might include the Michelin inspectors…

It hasn’t been open for long but the early reviews coming out of Ireland are saying that chef Vincent Crepel is doing something rather special at his new restaurant Terre in County Cork. The former-Arzak chef is serving an ultra-refined menu that highlights Ireland’s incredible natural larder but in a manner which wouldn’t be out of place in San Sebastián. It seems like Terre is a shoo-in for a first star this year and we wouldn’t even be surprised to see it make the jump straight to two.

After the highs of finally being awarded his third star at L’Enclume in last year’s guide, you may be wondering where Simon Rogan can go next. Well, we think we could see the Rogan empire adding another star to its collection this year in the form of its Soho chef’s table restaurant Aulis. Every evening (and on Saturday lunchtimes) head chef Charlie Tayler cooks a tasting menu for just eight diners, focused around the exceptional produce grown at Rogan’s Our Farm. We predicted a star for Aulis last year to no avail but could 2023 be its year?

It’s only been a couple of years since Michelin first introduced its green star, given to the restaurants at the forefront of sustainability, but already a flurry of restaurants have been awarded one. We’re still learning exactly what’s required to win a green star, but the key seems to be in actively building a restaurant concept around sustainable practices, rather than simply using it as a buzzword on a menu. These are just a couple of restaurants, who we think are doing just that and are therefore worthy of a green star this year.

Dan Cox took over Crocadon Farm in Cornwall back in 2017, having previously been a key part of establishing L’Enclume’s biodynamic farm for Simon Rogan, and since then has put all of his time into restoring the farmhouse and immersing himself in organic farming. The result is the ultimate, self-sufficient, farm-to-fork restaurant Crocadon, which champions the organic ingredients produced on-site. Everything has been thought about when it comes to reducing wastage too, with even excess bones from stocks turned into ash and used in pottery glazes – now, if that isn’t worthy of a green star, we’re not sure what is.

One restaurant that we’ve been a little surprised not to see on the list of new green stars in the past few years is Osip in Somerset, but that could be set to change this year. Merlin Lebron-Johnson’s farm-to-fork restaurant offers a largely vegetarian tasting menu, which changes every day depending on what’s available from local suppliers and the chef’s nearby vegetable garden.