No first-hand experience from 3* places, but have gone to 20+ 1* and 2* restaurants.

I have the best perspective on the Helsinki scene; have been to every starred place for the past 10+ years several times.

A new award generally seems to correlate well with quality and rising standards in the kitchen. With most places, the awarding of the first star seems to stop their development - they get very busy and there is little reason to strive for even higher standards, especially since an additional star is often quite costly and does not really correlate with prices they can charge (Chez Dominique being the exception, but even they are highly unlikely to get a third star).

Quite often after getting a star, the chefs start getting anxious and perhaps thinking of opening their own places (the chef-driven restaurants still being a relatively new phenomenon in Finland). And once the original star-winning chef has gone, the restaurant quite often loses their star (Palace, Savoy, Sundmans, George). Demo, which was one of my favourites early on, has become very conservative, Postres is regressing IMHO. Carma I have never really liked.

What is quite new in Helsinki is restaurants earning their star in a very short time. Postres got theirs in two years as did Carma. Luomo (the newest one in town) got theirs in less than a year. And it was actually predictable: two ex Chez Dominique guys opened a new place and it seemed they had read their "How to earn a Michelin star in record time" manual very well indeed. They opened in mid-2009 and got their star in the Spring of 2010. I went there in July 2009 for the first time and predicted after that evening that they would get their star this year. For once I got something right ;-)

Overall, I've only twice left a starred restaurant truly dissatisfied: the first was Neichel in Barcelona (2* at the time) - the food was technically badly prepared and service perfunctory. They have lost one star since. The second occasion was Nahm in London. That was a pity as I really would have liked to enjoy a Thai place with a star. However, the food was mediocre at best (and poor at worst) and grossly overpriced. There have been times when I've been indifferent, but that is another story.

To me, a Michelin star does not necessarily mean the restaurant has the best food around, but it is typically a good indicator of quality and dependability. Furthermore, most of the ones that I have tried serve excellent lunches at fairly affordable prices.

Cheers,
T.