Toronto’s Michelin class of 2026 is officially here, and the biggest plot twist is actually what didn’t happen: not a single restaurant scored a brand new Star.
The Michelin Guide unveiled its 2026 Toronto & Region selection Tuesday night at the Liberty Grand, with Lincoln, Ontario’s Restaurant Pearl Morissette keeping its crown as the area’s only two-Star spot while 14 spots held onto their single Star.
That means no new one-Star restaurants, no new two-Star restaurants and still no elusive three-Star restaurant for Toronto.
And that’s a notable change from the Guide’s first few years in the city. Since Michelin launched its Toronto selection in 2022, every edition has brought some kind of new Star movement, from the four new one-Star restaurants added in 2024 to aKin earning its first Star and Restaurant Pearl Morissette moving up to two Stars in 2025.
Michelin doesn’t work on a quota, though, and restaurants aren’t guaranteed a Star simply because they’re new or buzzy. Inspectors assess restaurants against the Guide’s five criteria — ingredient quality, mastery of cooking, harmony of flavours, the personality of the chef expressed through the food and consistency — with Star decisions made collectively. Michelin says inspectors may return for additional visits when they don’t initially agree.
So while Michelin hasn’t publicly given a specific reason for the lack of new Stars this year, the message from the Guide is fairly simple: after its inspections, no new restaurant met the threshold for a Star in 2026.
A couple of spots even slipped off the list. The Star count dipped from 16 to 15 this time around. Hexagon bowed out after shutting its doors earlier this year, while Yorkville’s Aburi Hana lost the single Star it held in 2025.
The latter comes with a pretty major asterisk. Aburi Hana was closed for nearly a year following the departure of chef Ryusuke Nakagawa and only reopened Sept. 17 — five days before the Michelin ceremony — under former Frilu chef So Sakata, with a completely reworked concept. So its absence is less a straightforward demotion than a restaurant effectively starting over.
Sushi Masaki Saito, meanwhile, retains the one Star it held last year. The Yorkville omakase restaurant dropped from two Stars to one in 2025.
Also missing from the 2026 Guide is LSL — or, more accurately, its successor, Onze. The ultra-luxury collaboration between Masaki Saito and French chef Christian Le Squer entered Michelin as a Recommended restaurant in 2025. After Didier Leroy’s departure, LSL was reworked and relaunched as Onze earlier this year. Neither name appears in the new selection.
If the Star portion of the evening was unusually uneventful, the Bib Gourmands brought considerably more emotion.
Five restaurants earned the distinction, Michelin’s designation for restaurants serving particularly good food at a comparatively good value: Antylia, Golden Horseshoe Barbecue, Les Incompetents, RPM Bakehouse and The Lunch Lady of Saigon.
For Antylia chefs Aldo Camarena and Ashley McKay, it was a total double win. Beyond grabbing their very first Bib, the duo were called up to the stage as part of Michelin’s brand new “Mindful Voices” initiative, which shines a light on industry changemakers. Michelin gave a special shoutout to their close ties with local farmers and Indigenous growers. It was easily the sweetest moment of the night, with McKay holding back tears as the crowd cheered.
Golden Horseshoe Barbecue had its own very good night.
Along with picking up its first Bib Gourmand, chef Andrew Golden was named the winner of Michelin’s 2026 Young Chef/Culinary Professional Award.
For a restaurant devoted to barbecue rather than the tasting-menu formality so often associated with Michelin, it was one of the night’s more refreshing wins — and suddenly the lack of shiny new Stars mattered a little less.
Michelin handed out three other special awards. Sharon Chan of 156 ONEFIVESIX took the Exceptional Cocktails Award, Toni Weber of Restaurant 20 Victoria won the Sommelier Award and Eric Roell of Collingwood’s LORE received the Outstanding Service Award.
There were also 11 newcomers to Michelin’s Recommended list: 156 ONEFIVESIX, Bar Allegro, Bar ARDO, Bar Eugenie, Liliana, LORE, oddBird, Pho Ngoc Yen, PUNCH, Revé and Takja.
The additions continue Michelin’s expansion well beyond downtown Toronto. LORE is in Collingwood, oddBird is in St. Catharines and Revé is in Niagara-on-the-Lake, while Mississauga’s Pho Ngoc Yen makes its Michelin debut. Mississauga’s Guru Lukshmi, Mama Fatma and Tamarind Modern Indian Bistro also return to the Guide.
Altogether, the 2026 Toronto & Region Guide includes 111 restaurants representing 33 cuisine types: one two-Star restaurant, 14 one-Star restaurants, 31 Bib Gourmands and 65 Recommended restaurants.
