I can just guess that there are numeric values inside recipe_star_rating
post meta.
Try this one if you have a numeric value, or just meta_value
if there are string values.
$args = array(
'order' => 'DESC',
'meta_key' => 'recipe_star_rating',
'orderby' => 'meta_value_num'
);
$query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $query->have_posts() ) :
$counter = 0;
while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post();
$counter++;
the_title();
echo "<br>";
endwhile;
wp_reset_postdata();
endif;