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When it comes to dining guides, Americans have long been able to rely on the trusty Zagat Survey. The guides rate restaurants in dozens of cities around the United States based on the input of tens of thousands of frequent diners.

Zagat has flourished, branching into golf course and shopping ratings, and this month it released America's Top Restaurants 2008.

But Zagat now has a rival: the Michelin Guide, the esteemed 107-year-old French guidebook that rates restaurants based on the findings of professional food critics.

Since dispatching its anonymous inspectors to seek out the best places to eat in New York City in 2005, Michelin has quickly expanded. Last year, it produced a new guide covering San Francisco, the Bay Area and the towns that dot the Sonoma and Napa valleys.

The battle with Zagat will intensify next Friday with the release of Michelin's guides to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Jean-Luc Naret, director of the Michelin Guide, says that "our star system is the measure against the world. The chefs see us as the only independent benchmark."

Michelin's inspectors are professional food critics who hand out one to three stars.

Only 56 restaurants in the world have three stars, 170 have two and 1,300 have one. Paris has the highest concentration of three stars, with nine restaurants awarded that distinction.

Earning just a single Michelin star is an accomplishment and a matter of pride for chefs. Naret says that receiving three stars - the equivalent of an Oscar for chefs - can result in a 30-per-cent spike in revenue.

But taking one of those stars away can be a serious blow. French chef Bernard Loiseau killed himself in 2003 when he thought he was going to lose one of his stars.

By contrast, Zagat used input from more than 34,000 frequent diners to complete its New York City guide of 2,069 establishments. Zagat calls them "savvy local consumers."

"We're democratic," founder Tim Zagat said. "Michelin is oligarchic."

And though Michelin sells more than a million books a year, covering 22 countries, it has a long way to go to overtake Zagat in the U.S. Zagat sells about 650,000 copies of its New York City survey each year; Michelin expects to sell 150,000 copies of its 2007 New York guide, up from 125,000 in 2006.