Michelin, the keeper of the world's culinary standards for more than a century, yesterday confirmed what the residents of Tokyo have long believed - that when it comes to fine dining, their city is more than a match for Paris, London or New York.

Chefs in the French capital must have been spluttering into their bouillabaisses after Michelin's notoriously demanding reviewers awarded more stars to restaurants in Tokyo than to those in any other city in the world.

Eight Tokyo restaurants received the coveted three stars, compared with New York's three and London's one. Proud Parisians, though, can still eat safe in the knowledge that their city has two more three-star restaurants than Tokyo.

Five undercover reviewers - three French and two Japanese - spent a year and a half visiting 1,500 of Tokyo's estimated 160,000 restaurants, sampling western and Japanese cuisine.

Aside from the three-star ratings, they awarded two stars to 25 restaurants and one star to 117 others. Paris, by comparison, has a total of 98 stars. London has 50, including the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, which has three and New York has 49 stars.

Yesterday's announcement seems certain to provoke debate in chef's kitchens around the world. Renewed interest in Tokyo's myriad gastronomic possibilities is expected when the guide goes on sale today.

Michelin guide officials said they had long been aware of Tokyo's quiet rise as a global culinary power. "We were surprised there were actually so many restaurants, though not by the quality," Jean-Luc Naret, director of Michelin Guides, told reporters at a packed press conference. The guide to Tokyo - the first Asian city deemed worthy of Michelin's attention - awarded a record 191 stars to the 150 restaurants listed.

The news earlier this year that Michelin was to publish a guide to Tokyo was greeted with scorn from some Japanese chefs who reckoned that the critics, despite including two compatriots, were not qualified to comment on the finer points of sushi, sashimi or a multiple-course kaiseki meal.

Naret said the results had proved the doubters wrong, noting that almost two-thirds of the starred restaurants serve Japanese food. He said the city deserved praise for "the incomparable quality of the products and cooking techniques used, and the culinary traditions handed down from generation to generation, and which continue to develop, thanks to the talent of its chefs."

Hiroyuki Kanda, whose sushi restaurant joined the exclusive club of three-star establishments, threw his arms in the air and let out a celebratory "banzai!" when the results were announced.

"I'm very happy," said Kanda, who once ran a Japanese restaurant in Paris. "We were able to show that Japanese dishes hold their own against top-class dishes around the world."

Other top-rated restaurants include Sukiyabashi Jiro, where the chef's recommended courses start at 23,000 yen (£100), and Hamadaya, a Japanese restaurant specialising in seasonal dishes, where geisha have been entertaining diners for 90 years.

Tokyo's 3-star eats

Sukiyabashi Jiro, sushi

Sushi Mizutani, sushi

Hamadaya, classic Japanese

Joel Robuchon, French

Kanda, Japanese

Koju, Japanese

L'Osier, French

Quintessence, French