For practical restaurant customers, it's worth being aware that most of the "meat" in Michelin Guides isn't in the "Star" or even "Bib-Gourmand" sub-lists at all, but the far larger group of restaurants recommended and reviewed by the Guide -- still a select group, a percent or two of all the area's restaurants. (That's my experience from using all editions of the Bay-Area Michelin and before that, in other regions.)

A small fraction of those restaurants recommended by this guide are chosen for extra attention and publicity via stars or Bib-Gourmand. Those two sub-lists appear annually, in advance, as press releases to stir interest. This has caused a weird annual ritual of people online, who know very little about the Michelin, talking up JUST the sub-lists, like a horse race. The Guide can be much more practically useful than that, but to see this, it helps hold the new Guide in your hand (as most users have done for most of its history). Unless policy has changed, MOST of its reviews (the ones not in the special lists) appear online, if at all, only after a delay -- completely off the radar of those who see only the special lists and the online talk.

Most Bay-Area restaurants and talented cooks that later got Michelin stars (for instance the Village Pub, this week's Embarcadero review Web Link ) first appeared in the Guide without stars, among the general reviews, unnoticed in online star-chatter. That can make it possible for alert readers, who check out the whole Guide, to enjoy exceptional cooking, with fewer crowds and lower prices, by not waiting until "everyone" is buzzing about the place because it is starred and hyped. The stars only honor the talent that often was present, and working hard, for years.