Monaco's restaurant grading system is being updated.
Since 1944, Monaco's 100 or so restaurants have been rated with a system of 1 to 5 diamonds. The categories take into account comfort, facilities, maintenance of equipment, cutlery, crockery and furnishings. But things have changed in the past 60 years and the DEE has decided to review the system and is considering rejecting some criteria and modernizing others. For example, many restaurants no longer use tablecloths, and two establishments remain unclassified due to lack of cloakrooms, coat hooks and the availability of jugs of tap water.
Additionally, the category of "5 diamonds luxury" is being defined, to distinguish Monaco's Michelin starred restaurants (1), which are all situated in luxurious, prestigious settings. Unlike Michelin, the diamond ranking doesn't reflect the quality or presentation of restaurant food (read our previous explanation of Monaco's diamond/lozenge restaurant rating system).
Forms have been sent to eating establishments and reclassifications are to be submitted to the Commission de l'Hotellerie in May or June. Following this, the updated categorizations must be approved by the Government. In just a few more months, the two unclassified restaurants, Beefbar and Baobab will finally receive their diamonds.
(1) Monaco's Michelin starred restaurants are Louix XV (3 stars), Joel Robuchon (2 stars), Yoshi (1 star), Vistamar (1 star) and Mandarine (1 star).
