UK Michelin Star Restaurants That Closed or Lost Their Stars

Updated 9 October 2026 · Star counts and prices checked October 2026

The 2026 MICHELIN Guide Great Britain & Ireland, published on 9 February, dropped 13 UK restaurants, 10 of them because they had closed or were about to. Since then 4 more starred restaurants have shut, including Simpsons in Birmingham and Sorrel in Dorking. Checked October 2026.

This page lists every Michelin star restaurant in the UK that closed, changed hands or lost its star in 2026, with what each restaurant said at the time. Stars come only from the MICHELIN Guide, and the dates and notes come from the same restaurant files as our UK Michelin star restaurants page, so the two always agree. Each name opens that restaurant’s entry on our page for its town.

Michelin star restaurants closed in 2026

These are the starred restaurants that closed, changed or lost their star this year, newest first. A restaurant that closes between guides keeps its star on paper until the next edition, usually in February, but you can’t eat there.

Starred restaurants in the UK that closed, changed hands or lost their MICHELIN stars in 2026, newest first, from our restaurant files. Each name opens its entry in the “No longer starred” list on our page for its town. Last checked October 2026.

Mark Poynton at Caistor Hall, Norfolk

Mark Poynton stepped down as chef-patron in early August, after four and a half years, when Caistor Hall, a Georgian hotel outside Norwich, was sold to Quadmark Group, which plans to turn it into a learning centre. The team then closed the restaurant, with a final service on 22 August. It had won its star in February 2025 and kept it in 2026. Poynton is now concentrating on his Cambridge restaurant, The Ancient Shepherds (Restaurant Online). Our Norfolk Michelin star restaurants page has the ones still open.

Sorrel, Dorking

Steve Drake’s Sorrel served its last meal on 28 July. Drake said rising costs and a hard trading climate had made it unsustainable: the restaurant had stopped breaking even, and he had put it up for sale in May without finding a buyer. Sorrel opened in a Grade II-listed building in 2017 and won its star in the 2019 guide, and Alex Payne had run the kitchen as chef-patron for the past year (The Staff Canteen). For what’s left nearby, see our Surrey restaurants with Michelin stars.

Somssi by Jihun Kim, Mayfair

The shortest-lived star of the year. Somssi, a 14-seat Korean chef’s table at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, won its star at the February ceremony and closed about five weeks later, when Jihun Kim announced on 17 March that he was leaving. He gave no reason, and the hotel closed the restaurant with immediate effect (Restaurant Online). The room had been Dosa by Akira Back, which held a star of its own until the hotel and Akira Back parted in 2025.

Club Gascon, Smithfield

Pascal Aussignac and Vincent Labeyrie told regulars on 3 February that Club Gascon would close after dinner on 28 March, ending 28 years of south-west French cooking by Smithfield Market. It had held a star since 2002, but the 2026 guide, published six days after the announcement, left it out. Neither owner gave a reason (Restaurant Online). Our London Michelin star restaurants page lists every starred table still open, with prices.

Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire

Raymond Blanc’s hotel at Great Milton closed in January for an 18-month redevelopment, with new rooms, a spa, a second restaurant and a cookery school, and Belmond plans to reopen it in summer 2027. Blanc becomes its lifetime ambassador rather than chef-patron. Because it was closed, the 2026 guide left out the restaurant, which had held two stars (The Staff Canteen). A restaurant that reopens has to be inspected again before it can win stars back.

Changed rather than closed: Taku and SOLA

Two London restaurants lost their listings without shutting. Taku in Mayfair kept its star in February, then reopened weeks later as Sushi Amamoto London under the Taipei sushi chef Shogo Amamoto, and the guide took it off its website (The Staff Canteen). SOLA moved from Soho to Notting Hill in June and isn’t listed again yet. Both may win a star back at the new address or under the new name.

Michelin star Hjem closes for good

Hjem, in the village of Wall near Hexham, became Northumberland’s first Michelin-starred restaurant in 2021 and kept its star every year after. In February 2025 Alex Nietosvuori and Ally Thompson-Nietosvuori said they would close at the Hadrian Hotel at the end of the year to build Freyja, a restaurant with rooms beside the restored walled garden at Close House in the Tyne Valley (Restaurant Online).

Hjem closed in Wall as planned, and the 2026 guide removed it. It then cooked for six months in a residency at the South Causey Inn, from 4 February. In July the couple said they had dropped the Freyja project and would end the residency too, and Hjem’s last meal was a farewell barbecue on 16 August (Restaurant Online). The county still has starred cooking: Pine at East Wallhouses, nearby, is on our Northumberland page.

Michelin star restaurant closing in Birmingham: Simpsons

The Birmingham closure people are searching for is Simpsons in Edgbaston. Andreas Antona announced on 28 May that the restaurant would close after 32 years, saying he had been left with no choice after three attempts to sell it fell through, in a very hard climate for restaurants. Antona opened Simpsons in Kenilworth in 1993, moved it to a Georgian villa in Edgbaston in 2004 and held a star from 1999, with Luke Tipping as chef director (The Caterer). Its sister restaurant, The Cross at Kenilworth, stays open and keeps its own star.

It is the city’s second starred closure in two years: Glynn Purnell closed Purnell’s in October 2024, and the 2025 guide dropped it. Birmingham still has starred restaurants, among them The Wilderness, new in 2026; see our Birmingham Michelin star restaurants with prices.

What the 2026 guide took away

The February guide left out these restaurants. Most reports count ten; we also count Dosa, whose room reopened under a new name and won a new star as Somssi. All but two had closed or were about to close.

Restaurants in the UK that the 2026 MICHELIN Guide left out or gave fewer stars, most stars first. “Now” says whether each is still open. Last checked October 2026.

Humo, Mayfair. The only London restaurant to lose a star while still trading. Its opening chef, Miller Prada, left at the start of 2025 and Robbie Jameson took over the wood-fired kitchen. After the guide, the owners closed Humo at the end of March and relaunched the room in April as Igni, a seafood restaurant cooked over wood alone, with Theo Clench’s menus (The Caterer).

The Bridge Arms, near Canterbury. The owners closed the pub in summer 2025 and handed it to a new team, which reopened it a short while later as a more casual gastropub. Michelin doesn’t explain its decisions.

Crocadon, Cornwall. Dan Cox closed his farm restaurant at St Mellion in autumn 2025, just under three years after it opened, saying he wanted to move on to new projects as the growing season ended. It had won a green star within weeks of opening and a full star the year after, and the farm carries on under new owners (The Caterer).

Closed in 2025

For context, these starred restaurants closed or lost their stars in 2025. London lost two of its two-star restaurants, La Dame de Pic and Claude Bosi at Bibendum, and both were gone from the 2026 guide.

Starred restaurants in the UK that closed, changed hands or lost their MICHELIN stars in 2025, newest first, from our restaurant files. Each name opens its entry in the “No longer starred” list on our page for its town. Last checked October 2026.

Still starred, but closing

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, which holds two stars, will close at the end of January 2027, almost exactly 16 years after it opened. Its lease was due to end in summer 2026 and was extended by six months for the anniversary, with a last eight-course menu of historic British dishes through January (The Staff Canteen). Until then it is on our London page with its current prices, £195 (about $260) for the tasting menu.

What happens to a star when a restaurant closes or the chef leaves

A Michelin star belongs to the restaurant, not the chef, and it lasts one edition at a time. When a starred restaurant closes, the MICHELIN Guide takes it off its website and leaves it out of the next guide; there is no star to keep or pass on. When a head chef leaves, inspectors come back to decide whether the cooking still deserves it, which is why a change of chef often comes before a lost star, as at Humo. A chef who opens somewhere new starts again from nothing. Our guide to how restaurants win and lose Michelin stars explains the inspections.

The next MICHELIN Guide Great Britain & Ireland is due in February 2027, and it will settle the restaurants above that closed after this year’s guide. Our calendar of Michelin Guide ceremony dates gives the date once Michelin announces it, and we update this page after each guide.