Nine seats, three Michelin stars: are tiny restaurants such as the Araki intimate or absurd?

The latest addition to the Michelin Guide’s top tier is tiny. But it’s far from the only small-scale diner to have big ideas

This week, the Araki restaurant off Regent Street in central London became the fifth UK establishment to be awarded three Michelin stars. Its distinction – apart from that – is that it has only nine seats. So it has a star for every three diners, surely a first even for Michelin, whose brand is built on signifiers of exclusivity. “Small” is anything from 40 covers or fewer: nine is about as small as it gets.

All small restaurants have one thing in common, which is that you can’t shout or guffaw, have an argument, talk about sex or Brexit, or do anything you wouldn’t otherwise do into a stranger’s ear.

Related: Nine-seat Araki sushi restaurant wins three Michelin stars