When undercover inspectors from Michelin turned up in New York restaurants earlier this year to prepare the French company's Guide to New York City 2006, it sent shock waves through the city's most prominent chefs. But when Michelin publishes the guide in November—its first for North America—it could be hard-pressed to give the reigning Zagat guide a run for its money.

Despite a shared goal of providing a guide for the city's culinary perplexed, Zagat speaks New York's vernacular through its reliance on consumer surveys for a broad range of eateries—about 2,000 of the city's estimated 17,000 restaurants. Michelin, on the other hand, employs food experts and focuses on 500 mostly upscale and gourmet establishments (the guide will also feature 50 hotels). While Michelin plans to print 100,000 copies, Zagat sells an annual average of 650,000 copies of its guide to New York City's restaurants, although custom orders can push that figure into the millions. But Michelin director of publications worldwide Jean-Luc Naret said the company isn't simply throwing its same old formula at a new market. The New York City guide—and the other guides to large American cities the publisher expects to roll out over the coming years—will boast a new format, with color photography, more chatty text and only two restaurants per page. At $16.95, it's slightly more than the $13.95 list price for the Zagat guide.

While Michelin doesn't disclose its requirements, there's a sense that only restaurants with proper linen tablecloths and silver flatware need apply. New York chefs are already predicting that fancy French restaurants like Daniel Boulud's Restaurant Daniel will land on top.

At the Strand Bookstore, owner Nancy Bass planned to order 2,000 to 3,000 copies of the Michelin guide, compared to 4,000 copies of the Zagat guide, which she restocks regularly throughout the year.

Still, Nach Waxman, owner of the culinary bookstore Kitchen Arts & Letters on New York's Upper East Side, was dubious. His order for the Michelin guide will be less than half of his orders for the Zagat guide, which he sells "madly" even though it's also available at newsstands and magazine stores. "If Michelin is going after the Zagat market, in those immortal New York words, fuhgeddaboutit," he said.