(The 2015 Michelin Guide for Spain is now announced and could be found here)
Guide Michelin is today (i.e. November 21, 2013) releasing its restaurant guide for 2014 in regards to Spain and Portugal. The main focus for me is usually the 3-star restaurants and this year one additional restaurant is awarded with three stars, namely DiverXO in Madrid.
I first recognized DiverXO when Anthony Bourdain visited Madrid in an episode of the No Reservations series in 2010. At that time it held on star in Guide Michelin. When I a year later in 2011 visited Madrid it was still holding “only” one star and I opted for some other restaurants at that time (namely the four 2-stars restaurants La Terraza del Casino de Madrid, Ramon Freixa, El Clud Allard and Sergi Arola Gastro). But now (end of 2013) it has three stars so it has “progressed” well…
All other 3-star restaurants kept their stars so Spain now has a total of eight restaurants in this category. They are:
- Quique Dacosta (in Dénia)
- Akelare (San Sebastian)
- Arzak (San Sebastian)
- El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)
- Azurmendi (outside of Bilbao)
- Martin Berasategui (Lasarte, close to San Sebastian)
- DiverXO (Madrid)
- Sant Pau (Sant Pol de Mar about 50km north of Barcelona)
Personally I have visited six (i.e. Quique Dacosta, Akelare, Arzak, El Celler de Can Roca, Azurmendi and Martin Berasategui) of those eight restaurants but the two “remainders” are definitely on my “to-do list”. So far I think I value Azurmendi most.
The 2-stars restaurants in the Spain 2014 Guide Michelin guide are (two new entries for 2014):
- Casa Marcial (Arriondas)
- ABaC (Barcelona)
- Enoteca (Barcelona)
- Lasarte (Barcelona)
- Moments (Barcelona)
- Atrio (Cáceres)
- Mugaritz (Errenteria)
- El Portal Echaurren (Ezcaray/Rioja) – awarded its second star 2014
- M.B (Guía de Isora/Tenerife) – awarded its second star 2014
- Miramar (Llancà)
- El Club Allard (Madrid)
- Ramón Freixa Madrid (Madrid)
- Santceloni (Madrid)
- Sergi Arola (Madrid)
- La Terraza del Casino (Madrid)
- Calima (Marbella)
- Les Cols (Olot)
The 2-stars restaurant in Spain I have visited are ABaC, Lasarte, Mugaritz, El Club Allard, El Portal, Ramón Freixa, Sergi Arola and La Terraza del Casino. But I still have many more to do…
The complete list of all Guide Michelin and Bib Gourmands restaurants in Spain and Portugal can be found here: Guide Michelin 2014 – Spain and Portugal
blog4foodies 
I read in a comment you enjoyed Osteria Francescana,I was there last wednesday and I was really dissapointed,don’ t want to be chauvinist,but in my land Catalonia there are at least 20 at the same level or much more
Hi David! I agree that you have a lot of good restaurants in Catalonia and I had for instance two very good dining experiences there this summer, namely Rafa´s and Compartir. However, I also had a quit bad experience in regards to El Celler de Can Roca a couple of years ago and that was not in regards to the food but that on the topic of the service. We were actually treated kind of badly and this affected the overall experience in a very depraved manner. On the other hand, the service on Osteria Francescana was excellent and Massimo Bottura was for instance visiting our table four times and discussed the food and asked if everything was fine etc and this is something that I highly appreciate. Contrary, none of the Roca brothers did not even say hi or visit our table when we at there (but visited neighboring tables…), so even though I consider the food “better” on El Celler de Can Roca the overall experience at Osteria Francescana was “better” (that is at least how I and my dining buddies felt). I do not have Francescana in the top league of my list but I still think it is an interesting restaurant and question if Catalonia has 20 restaurants “at the same level” though Osteria Francescana is a little bit of one of a kind and it depends on what you mean with “level”. However, If you have 20 “better” restaurants, that I leave to someone else to judge but arguable the 50 best list has it as number three (worldwide…) and it has three Guide Michelin Stars. That said, El Celler can Roca is ranked as number one and Noma as number two (after three consecutive years as number one) and none of those three restaurants are on my top three list. I am neither from Catalonia (or Spain…) or Italy so I have no “patriotic” perspectives in my opinions and will (as every year…) schedule a new trip to Catalonia next year though I like the area and its food a lot. I will then try to get a table at San Pau but I have not yet planned that much more (and I guess that restaurants like Tickets and 41 are even harder to schedule now when they also have got their first star). As you can see from my last trip to Catalonia I am not just interested in 3-stars restaurants so maybe you have some good restaurants to recommend in Catalonia?