Chef Benoît Sinthon’s restaurant is still the only one to twinkle in Madeira.
It was in Santiago de Compostela that the Il Gallo D’Oro restaurant accomplished the feat of maintaining its Michelin Star for the eighth consecutive year.
Chef Benoît Sinthon’s restaurant, part of The Cliff bay, remains as the only hotel in the region to be a part of the distinguished guide.
The Michelin Guide 2016’s awards ceremony was held in Parador dos Reis Católicos, the world’s oldest hotel, in the presence of 400, 100 of which belonged to the media.
In this year’s edition Portugal kept the same number of awarded restaurants, 14, for a total of 17 stars.
This year’s big news is the inclusion of Chef Rui Silvestre’s Bon Bon (Carvoeiro), replacing Chef Miguel Laffan’s L’And Vineyards (Montemor-o-Novo) that lost its star. Keeping their two star are the Belcanto (Lisbon), Vila Joya (Algarve) and Ocean (Porches) restaurants. The other owners of a single star in Portugal who will keep their spot in next year’s guide are the Pedro Lemos (Oporto), São Gabriel (Almancil), Willie's (Vilamoura), Henrique Leis (Almancil), Casa da Calçada (Amarante), Fortaleza do Guincho (Cascais), The Yeatman (Vila Nova de Gaia), Feitoria (Lisbon), and the Eleven (Lisbon) restaurants.
Assessment is done in secret since the inspectors do not identify themselves and do visit the restaurants more than once. While stars are given to the restaurants, they are inseparable from chefs who are also looked at during the process. The awarding of stars is based on six criteria related to food: product quality; quality of the food’s preparation; flavor; creativity; price/quality ratio and the regularity of the restaurant’s offer.
A restaurant with one star is ‘very good in its category’. The second star, however, is trickier to obtain and is related to creativity in the kitchen. It means that the restaurant has ‘excellent cooking, worth a detour’. The coveted three stars, atop the list, signify ‘an exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey’.
Complete List of Portuguese Restaurants in the Michelin Guide 2016.
Two Stars:
Belcanto (Lisbon), José Alvillez
Vila Joya (Algarve), Dieter Koshina
Ocean (Porches), Hans Neuner
One Star:
Il Gallo d'Oro (Funchal), Benoît Sinthon
Bon Bon (Carvoeiro), Rui Silvestre
Pedro Lemos Oporto), Pedro Lemos
São Gabriel (Almancil), Leonel Pereira
Willie's (Vilamoura), Willie Wurger
Henrique Leis (Almancil), Henrique Leis
Casa da Calçada (Amarante), Vítor Matos, replaced in July by André Silva
Fortaleza do Guincho (Cascais), Vicent Farges, replaced in May by Miguel Vieira
The Yeatman (Vila Nova de Gaia), Ricardo Costa
Feitoria (Lisbon), João Rodrigues
Eleven (Lisbon), Joachim Koerper
