How many inspections might a restaurant expect in a year?
All establishments listed in the guide are visited on average every 18 months and as a general rule the higher up the tree you go the more inspections are carried out. For example, there are only three restaurants in Great Britain with three stars at the moment and if we don’t get those addresses absolutely right then our readers would soon tell us about it. Is there a process for promotions to One Star, or from One to Two or Two to Three? Yes there is. The inspector designated with responsibility for that particular area would propose candidates for promotion. Another inspector would then be sent to those restaurants for a second opinion. If the second meal was equally as good then we would arrange a further series of inspections to test the consistency. There would be a guaranteed minimum of three very strong visits to make a first star and at the other end of the spectrum we’ve been known to visit eight, nine or even ten times in a year. At the end of our working year we discuss all
