This study on the importance and satisfaction of selection attributes for customers using Michelin restaurants. The survey was conducted on 309 respondents who had visited and used restaurants by classifying the Michelin restaurants into starred restaurants and Bib Gourmand restaurants. The data was collected and the frequency analysis, t-test verification, and IPA analysis were performed using the SPSS 25.0 statistical program. The results of the study examined the difference between the importance and satisfaction of the choice of starred restaurants. Overall, the importance was higher than satisfaction. The importance of hygiene and cleanliness was recognized by many customers that the expectation for the overall Starred restaurants was very high. Bib Gourmand, showed that the importance was higher than satisfaction. In terms of importance and satisfaction, the taste of food is the most important and the satisfaction is high. Comparing the IPA analysis of the attributes of 1) hygiene and cleanliness, food quality, convenience, and facade of food, 2) service professionalism and variety of menus, 3) food price, atmosphere and amount, and 4) the attitude and kindness of the employees were shown. This study has great significance in providing practical basic data for the management of domestic Michelin restaurants.

Customers rely primarily on peers’ restaurant reviews but also on pre-consumption ratings, provided by professional critics edited in legitimating institutions, such as dining guides. Few studies have analyzed the discourse of iconic guides describing the awarded restaurants. This study provides empirical data by examining the way culinary excellence is depicted in restaurants websites and the way dining guides report it in their own websites. The methodology of this research is a lexicometric analysis based on the exclusive club of three stars French Michelin restaurants. The results show that starred restaurants and guides websites do not approach culinary excellence the same way. The results firstly show that the restaurant websites do not emphasize on symbolic, aesthetic and hedonic values. Reversely, the Michelin guide does. Secondly they indicate that luxury products presence is exclusively anchored in the Gault Millau guide, far from the simple casual food that triggered their Nouvelle Cuisine approach. Thirdly, the chefs’ family anchoring is characteristic of the restaurants websites and their peers’ recognition of the restaurant websites and the Michelin guide. These results are discussed and recommendations for restaurant managers are formulated.