RESTAURANT NEWS | FLORIDA
Eight North Florida Restaurants Earn Michelin Honors
Michelin’s red plaques have reached Northeast Florida, recognizing barbecue, breakfast sandwiches, ramen, and two of Florida’s newest Bib Gourmands.
By Eric Barton
6:26 a.m. ET, Aug. 6, 2026
Lotus Noodle Bar
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Michelin honors eventually come with hardware. A little more than two months after eight Northeast Florida restaurants joined the guide’s first statewide Florida edition, its unmistakable red plaques began arriving this week.
Mayor Donna Deegan and Visit Jacksonville presented plaques Wednesday to The Bearded Pig, Rue Saint-Marc, and Eggboy during a ceremony at Jacksonville City Hall.
The ceremony came four years after Michelin first arrived in Florida, limiting its coverage to Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. The guide now recognizes eight restaurants across Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Amelia Island, and St. Augustine. Six received Michelin recommendations, while two earned Bib Gourmands, the guide’s nod to good cooking at prices that leave enough money for the valet.
The Bearded Pig
Jacksonville landed two spots, both in San Marco. The Bearded Pig, opened by Chad Munsey and Michael Schmidt, has spent the past decade building its reputation around brisket, ribs, and sausages smoked over oak. A few blocks away, chef Scott Alters’ Rue Saint-Marc serves French-influenced cooking and a nightly prix fixe menu.
At Eggboy in Atlantic Beach, chef Raymond Johnston has built what he calls “the new American diner,” with breakfast sandwiches, burgers, and burritos. The Michelin Guide once seemed to him roughly as attainable as professional sports. “Imagine you’re playing football in middle school and you’re thinking about going to the NFL,” Johnston told Jacksonville Today. “We never even thought the Michelin Guide would come here.”
Eggboy
Amelia Island’s lone selection, Salt, occupies the other end of the spending spectrum. The tasting-menu restaurant inside The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, also had its restaurant manager, Christopher Tegreeny, receive Michelin’s Outstanding Service Award, giving Northeast Florida one of the guide’s four statewide professional honors.
Salt
Asado Life
St. Augustine collected half of the region’s honors. Michelin recommended Lotus Noodle Bar, led by former Le Bernardin sous chef Barry Honan, and Asado Life, Nick and Christie Carrera’s waterfront restaurant centered on live-fire cooking.
The city also claimed Northeast Florida’s two Bib Gourmands. One went to Bar Citra, Andrew Deming and Rachel Gant’s cafe, wine bar, and restaurant along U.S. 1. The other went to Sunday, the Uptown coffee shop, bakehouse, and restaurant that has now given brunch in America’s oldest city a French tire company’s approval.
Bar Citra
Taken together, the selections give Michelin its first draft of Northeast Florida dining, and St. Augustine emerged with the strongest opening chapter. The starred restaurants stayed farther south, although eight restaurants now give the region a place on Michelin’s map and a benchmark for whatever comes next. For diners, the message is simpler: North Florida can now turn breakfast, barbecue, ramen, and a tasting menu into a Michelin-approved road trip.
