wordpress custom fields loop

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;