You have reached your maximum number of saved items.
Remove items from your saved list to add more.
You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.
A restaurant setting benchmarks for food and service, pushing the hospitality industry forward and supporting Australian producers
Since Quay’s February closure made Sixpenny Sydney’s most senior three-hatter, this fine-diner in sleepy Stanmore has seemingly resolved to meet the moment.
An August refresh saw them renovate the kitchen and knock through a wall, topping the remaining counter with spotted gum and opening the pass to the public. In the dining room, they actually reduced capacity to give guests more space to breathe. And there’s fresh art on the walls too, from local artists including Jonny Niesche and Rodney Evans.
On the floor, restaurant manager Ruby Maddison and sommelier Vincent Griffiths have continued to raise a bar set by general manager George Papaioannou. And then there’s the cooking, where owner Dan Puskas has progressively handed control to head chef Tony Schifilliti, whose fermentation odyssey has unlocked previously unseen layers of flavour.
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
On their own, the depth of the coral-trout paste brushed onto marron or the brightness of raw scallops in a dressing of fermented green tomato and almond milk are striking. But the trick is in how the team builds natural peaks into the tasting menu.
Here’s a pretty plate of vegetables – puntarelle, reindeer kale, crystal ice plant – each piece brushed or smeared or stuffed with a delicious fermented cream, paste or oil. There’s a soft milk bun alongside the marron, set to stuff with the shellfish. With the Cowra lamb rump? A plate of ribs finished with a sticky oyster glaze. Even the signature raspberry and mead custard dessert has gotten a glow-up.
Suburban up-and-comer? That’s so 2012. The Sixpenny of today has come of age, and with it, a whole generation.
A chef (or chefs) at the forefront of dining, setting new standards, leading by example and cooking fluently in their own style
Over the past couple of years, there has been a refreshing increase in the kind of restaurants serving food that you might eat between ouzos on holiday in the Aegean, or at an end-of-vintage lunch in rural France, or with a young Etna Rosso at the table of an old Italian friend. The kind of restaurants where a well-thumbed Richard Olney and Honey from a Weed are always at hand, and the ricotta is invariably fresh.
South End co-owners Alex Tong and Hussein Sarhan are at the forefront of this Chez Panisse-coded return to seasonally driven form, sending out dense and crunchy rosti topped with goat’s curd and pickled pear; Spring Bay mussels in a broth of leeks, pastis and creme fraiche; and blue-eye in a bouillabaisse stock that takes three days to build and would make a Marseille fisherman weep tears of Pernod and joy.
Balance and technique underline every dish (good heavens, how’s the texture and lightness of that sabayon-folded chocolate tart “a la Bernard Pacaud”?), but Sarhan and Tong also know how to write a menu that works as a succession of flavours; whether you jump from liver parfait to vitello tonnato, or from a Boon Luck Farm salad to a brown-butter-glossed rotolo of Swiss chard and taleggio, your afternoon or candlelit evening effortlessly flows (while the kitchen is putting in a lot effort, indeed).
One of the most exciting openings of the past 12 months that also has a fresh point of view and captures the moment in the broader restaurant scen e
A ceramic cup of clarified chicken broth – made with the bones of big healthy chooks who spent a good life running (relatively) free – sets the tone for a highly comforting three hours in the hands of invested staff at the Ducks’ Burradoo Park restaurant inside a beautifully restored Southern Highlands farmhouse.
Next, the crunchier part of puntarelle, pickled in sake vinegar and stuffed with raw red-spot prawns. Cheffy stuff, to be sure, and very different from the Three Blue Ducks offerings at Byron Bay and Rosebery.
It’s not a total surprise coming from Darren Robertson, though, given he was once in charge at Tetsuya’s. While Robertson tends to other Ducks ventures, former Quay head chef Troy Crisante runs the kitchen here with Rhys Connell, who held senior roles at three-hatted Sepia. Fine-dining Avengers, assemble!
A cover crop salad inspired by Burradoo Park’s regenerative farming practices is an early signature, warmed with a blanket of fermented-turnip-boosted beurre blanc and garlic-chive oil, while Australian White-breed lamb (raised with their mothers 200 metres from the restaurant) is fashioned into one heck of an assiette with sheep’s-milk yoghurt and shiso.
You could, if you really wanted to, be cynical that it’s part of an agritourism enterprise owned by billionaire Annie Cannon-Brookes, but when the super-rich also care about farming and soil and future generations, good things – highly delicious things – can happen.
Executes the highest standard of hospitality relevant to their establishment, from attitude and skill to knowledge and personality
By now, regulars at Saint Peter have familiarised themselves with almost every cut of fish known to man. They’ve marvelled at the mackerel, swooned at the lemon tart. On the plate, Saint Peter has always been world-leading, but since the restaurant’s move to the Grand National Hotel, the story has been about how the rest of the operation has upped its game. Drinks are a huge factor (see our Drinks List of the Year award, below), but the other side is the service, led by Monique Guest.
A UK native, Guest came up in the bustle of London’s pub scene, quit the city for Michelin-starred The Fordwich Arms in Kent, then joined Quay as a sommelier before signing with Tetsuya’s before its closure.
At Saint Peter, her rise to restaurant manager has coincided with the service reaching a world-class level. There’s still a sense of ease and personality on the floor, but the team doesn’t miss a beat, whether it’s describing dishes, coordinating drops, pouring wine or refreshing a cocktail glass that’s (god forbid) gotten just a little too warm.
Guest is someone who gets the details right, brings her team with her, and never loses sight of the big picture.
The best all-round bar that nails hospitality, drinks and vibe while adding something new to the broader drinks scene
There’s a certain amount of irony in one of Australia’s greatest sommeliers opening a cocktail bar. But then, if anyone was to decide to switch lanes without indicating, it would be Nick Hildebrandt. He and Bentley Group business partner Brent Savage have been busy opening several new venues over the past few years, but this bar sharing a kitchen with their two-hatted South-East Asian restaurant Ashe might be their most ambitious project to date.
Crimson walls, chilli-red neon lights, blackened mirrors that never quite throw a reflection, and discreet antechambers dressed with thick curtains giving a generous dose of Less Than Zero -era Bret Easton Ellis. Empty, it feels like an adults-only sauna. Full, it’s the beating heart of late ’80s opulence.
The drinks, though, are very much for the here-and-now, including the Chartreuse slushie with its herbaceous mix of apple juice and fresh tarragon; and the key lime margarita mixed with agave syrup, carbonated, and served on the rocks.
For snacks, the menu comes courtesy of chef Khanh Nguyen at adjoining Ashe (hello, prawn toast with Caesar dressing), and the incredible sound-system is put to fine use through DJs and live dance music.
Keen for wine? Hildebrandt will be delighted. There’s a short by-the-glass list or, if you want to push the boat out, ask to see the full champagne carte from next door.
This is a grown-up late-night bar, with a lot of youthful energy.
The best beyond metro limits – a celebration of its surrounds with a strong connection to the local community
It’s been a bumper year for new regional restaurants backed by big money, from the Three Blue Ducks two-hatter near Bowral (see above) to Shannon Bennetts’ attempt to “disrupt” fine dining in Byron Bay at Feu. But this award isn’t for the most expensive build, it’s for a restaurant forging deep connections to its region, while delivering a dining experience to build a long weekend around.
Troy Rhoades-Brown has championed Hunter Valley producers for the past 17 years at Muse and, more recently, realised a long-held dream to expand his own home garden so it can inform the six-course tasting menu.
Indeed, your first course is titled “Troy’s Garden”: a cornucopia that might feature fresh purple daikon, scarlet turnip, breakfast radish, ivory kale, purple oxalis and heirloom peas spritzed with roasted bunya-shell vinegar (plus pecan-shell-smoked salmon gribiche for pickled-zucchini dipping).
Next, a claypot holding speckled blue grouper, its loin rolled around mousse made from the tail, belly and black truffle, while the fish bones and head are smoked for a dashi poured over koshihikari rice at the table.
Everyone on the floor is wholly invested and informed, and local wines are championed with a “Ladies of the Hunter” pairing and cellar-door map on departure.
With a dining room refresh of warm timbers, new tables and leather upholstery underway, Muse is set to be one the state’s most special night outs for a long time to come.
Great coffee, tea and drinks? That’s a given. The winning cafe also takes pride in its food and service
Taguan is the home Jose Margo Flores and Vincent Baquiran built after migrating from the Philippines. The partners, who didn’t know anyone when they arrived in Sydney, filled the cafe with familiar comforts – bowls of pork and chicken adobo; coffee mugs modelled after their Pomeranian Yakulto (who, they hope, will soon reunite with them); and trays of soft pandesal rolls.
“Growing up, pandesal was just a breakfast food. Something ordinary,” said Flores. “When I came here, I saw a lot of other breads. Baguettes, focaccia, buns … but Filipino bread was missing.”
Flores wanted customers to order pandesal with their flat white. He wanted community. “Migration changed our definition of hospitality, because when you have to build a new home, you realise that hospitality isn’t just about serving someone well; it’s also about helping them find where they belong.”
At Taguan’s two-storey terrace home, they have succeeded in doing just that – welcoming run clubs, theatre students and artists to host their events; inviting customers to venture into the colourful culinary world of Filipino food; and creating a vital third-space where connection comes easy.
A wine professional who has a deep knowledge of the subject while helping to influence and inspire
We had just locked in the copy for this award, detailing how vital Zoe Brunton is to the Olympus Dining team, when the news came that she was leaving Redfern’s premier Greek restaurant for John Singleton’s Grand Saddles Lodge in Mount White. A loss for Olympus; a big win for Singo and the Central Coast.
Brunton has a vast knowledge of French and Australian wines from her time at Monopole (not to mention a Wine & Spirit Education Trust diploma), while at Olympus, she championed exciting new and old producers with a style of communication that could dive deep, but never felt elite. (She is not the kind of sommelier to smugly correct your pronunciation of assyrtiko, xinomavro or Gimonnet Cuis.)
A longtime supporter of diversity in wine and hospitality, Brunton was selected to represent Sommeliers Australia as a judge at the 2026 NSW Wine Awards. The experience will surely lead to even more championing of great winemakers at her new role.
A wine and drinks list with its own unique identity, featuring options that pair with the restaurant’s food
While this isn’t an award for the most impressive collection of wines, gee whiz, Houston Barakat sure compiled a nice list before leaving Saint Peter. That diverse, precise, seafood-friendly collection is now in the hands of head sommelier Sean McManus, who brings his own charm and knowledge to the fore. Among the stirring Chablis, Jura and Rheinhessen, NSW is strongly represented, down to Margan Semillon for the house white.
Sake and spirits are also strong points, but it’s the cocktails that really elevate the drinks program. Bar director Samuel Cocks draws on his knowledge of fermentation and distillation to create drinks aligned with the kitchen, such as a Bloody Mary enhanced by glazed marron shells, and the martini made with Archie Rose gin and vodka macerated with Tasmanian sea urchin (with a touch of oyster shell acid).
What’s more, you don’t need to splurge on the full tasting menu to access the booze: the front bar is open every day for swordfish empanadas and Saison vermouth over ice.
A quintessential pub – new or old – that’s embedded in its community, offers food and drink that’s a cut above, and is welcoming to all
Now, here’s a place you can go where there’s no bouncer rope. No queue. No complicated dance to order a drink. No themed decor, no dress code. People are nice to you, the schooners are cold and the food is everything you want pub food to be (that is, a massive parmigiana, garlic-forward chicken Kyiv, and a beef-and-Guinness pie with vintage cheddar).
The Carlisle Castle Hotel , which had been family-owned-and-run for the past 60 years, was recently sold to Universal Hotels, the same group behind Redfern’s tastefully renovated Bat & Ball Hotel. They’ve applied a similarly gentle touch here, meaning the pressed-metal ceilings have stayed, as has the dining room that opens up into the outdoor courtyard.
But now there are negronis, fancy rum and colas and Charlie Chaplins; the short wine list is strong and inner-west beers are on tap, including Young Henry’s, Grifter and Philter.
Importantly, staff remain friendly and relaxed and happy to help, whether you’re there for Friday night footy or a $20 midweek lunch special.
Where, once upon a time the skinny front bar would be occupied by a handful of locals reading the form guide, it’s now elbow-to-elbow with old and new mates eating counter meals. It feels like a return to what a pub can be if people with strong values and integrity get behind it: a real pokie-free community hub.
A venue, hatted or not, that captures the moment, brings something special to our dining scene and is consistently on our critics’ hit lists
A couple of years ago, the tiny kitchen perched outside the Ovolo Canberra made waves as Fekerte’s, a canteen specialising in comforting Ethiopian fare. Fekerte’s may be no longer, but the next incarnation of the space – AK’s Diner – has more than taken up the mantle.
Run by Anand Kumar “AK” Ramakrishna, former chef-owner of fusion fine-diner XO, AK’s offers a handful of daily specials served over rice, but the depth of flavour in each disposable bowl is all-but unmatched.
Make a beeline for dishes that draw on both Ramakrishna’s Tamil-Malaysian roots and the flavours of South-East Asia, from slow-cooked chicken prepared to his amma’s recipe to crisp, giving sweet-and-sour fish. Sides might include XO green beans cooked to the point of collapse, while the curry puffs for snacks are a must.
The list of extras, meanwhile, add more delicious dimensions, including roti canai and house-made pickles, plus the occasional black-rice pudding or longan and monkfruit iced tea.
Still, things change quickly: already, spring has seen deep, fiery Chettinad pork neck varuval and cumin-scented Jeera chicken grace the menu.
This is a lunch-only, weekday-only affair, but the queues keep coming, spurred on by collaborations with name chefs such as Christine Manfield and frequent pop-ups around town.
Modern spins on classics? Tick. Old family recipes? Big tick.
“Soul food, good tunes and great vibes”, reads the sign. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
For an outstanding long-term contribution to the hospitality industry
Three hats for 23 consecutive years. Restaurant of the Year six times. Signature dishes that are household names. Was this award ever going to anyone else?
During his run at Quay, which closed in February, Peter Gilmore redefined Australian cooking, spearheading an evolution away from European sensibilities and towards a style we could call our own.
This award acknowledges the chef’s impact throughout his career, from making his name at De Beers in Whale Beach, to his time at Quay, and his decade-long run at Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. (The nation had never seen a fancier pavlova.)
Flavour, texture, harmony: these are his hallmarks, but his legacy extends to the hundreds of chefs who have passed through his kitchens, along with his obsession with uncovering rare and artisanal ingredients through his relationships with growers, makers and fishers, as well as from his own garden.
Golden honey snap peas? Penshell razor clam? Hand-harvested seaweed? Odds are, if something appeared on Gilmore’s menus, it would spread throughout Australian restaurants like wildfire.
And if the rumours coming out of Tasmania have any truth to them, he’s still got more to give.
The ultimate accolade for a committed and talented chef aged 30 or under with an exciting culinary viewpoint, a social conscience and strong leadership potential
Peter Fiander has applied for the Young Chef of the Year award before, so his origin story was already familiar to judges: after leaving high-school early, he started his career in Castle Hill at the age of 16 before going on to work at LP’s Quality Meats, Ragazzi and Porcine.
What impressed the panel this time around, however, was how he has evolved into a leader since stepping into the role of head chef at Osteria Luna , under the guidance of Billy Hannigan.
Anyone can cook, after all, but not everyone can lead a team of professionals through the heat of service, and still find time to source whole beasts so his chefs can upgrade their butchery skills.
Still, Fiander sure knows his way around a kitchen. That lamb, for example, chosen for its high intramuscular fat, might have its tougher cuts braised in red wine until it has just enough acid left in the tank, before it’s stuffed into ravioli and finished with a rasp of parmigiano, chosen for its salinity and creaminess.
Needless to say, this is a cook obsessed with the small stuff, a cook-it-from-scratch, do-it-yourself, learn-it-then-teach-it kind of cook, who wants all those steps to come together in a way that appears effortless on the plate.
His dream venue? Right in the same zone. “So many of my favourite restaurants are places where you feel welcomed immediately when you step inside, for that brief moment you are there, you’re part of the family,” he says. “I want to emulate that in my own way.”
A venue, organisation or person who brings fresh thinking, warmth, integrity and entrepreneurial spirit to our industry
The Trailblazer Award, founded in memory of Bill Granger, recognises an individual, team or business driving Australian food forward. The winner should have a unique point of view, embrace hospitality in its truest sense, and forge a path for others.
This year’s winner, Ahana Dutt, takes out the award for her work at her Newtown restaurant, Kolkata Social , which aims to flip the expectations of Indian cooking on its head.
The diner, which began as a social enterprise with Plate it Forward but is now under Dutt’s ownership, is less an Indian restaurant than a Bengali one, committed fiercely to the flavours and food of her heritage, yet also grounded firmly in place, spinning Kolkata through a third-culture lens. Think Davidson plum sharpening alu’r dom Hasselback potatoes, or kosha that sees retired Meredith Dairy goat cooked in a slow braise, dark and deeply spiced.
Trailblazing? Definitely. Australian diners may be increasingly fluent in the flavours of regional Italy or China, but Dutt still fends off questions about why she refuses to serve butter chicken. The chef recognises that there’s plenty of diversity in Sydney’s Indian food scene, but the broader public’s expectations, she says, can be paralysing.
Sticking to her guns at Kolkata Social is one more step to the food of Australia’s largest migrant population being celebrated in all its depth, nuance and glory.
Shining a light on those making the hospitality industry a better place to work
Frustration is often the catalyst for action. It’s what drove Caitlin Baker to launch Venus Vinifera in 2021 – a drink-minded collective with the goal of improving the prospects and education available to women in Canberra’s hospitality scene, including non-binary people and those with trans experience.
“I was frustrated by the lack of women who felt empowered and had the opportunities to take their careers a step forward,” says Baker, when comparing the situation in Canberra to Sydney and Melbourne. “The drinks space, especially in Canberra, has always been male dominated, and it’s been hard for women to find a space.”
Fast forward to 2026 and VV, as it’s known, has changed the conversation, first through its mentorship and education programs, and sexual assault and sexual harassment training, its Subject Matters Symposiums and drinks networking event, Frenzy.
VV also recently launched in Sydney, and has plans to go nationwide in the next three years.
It’s moved into advocacy, too. Building on the Turn the Table survey into the prevalence of sexual harassment in the industry, Baker will present VV’s findings to regulatory bodies, advocating for compulsory bystander and support training across Canberra’s hospitality industry.
“Venus Vinifera aims to leave the industry in better standing than when I found it, by helping women find their place at the table and be confident leaders,” she says.
A big thinker with bright ideas and innovative practices that better the community.
As Australia’s hospitality industry grows year-on-year, many employers are struggling to attract and retain staff. At the same time, young people with disabilities are an under-represented source of talent, and employers can access this workforce without the red tape and costs associated with visa sponsorship.
Helping people living with disabilities to enter the hospitality industry is the goal of Lettuce Eat, a training program run by Inclusive Employment Australia provider and Youth NDIS specialist, Omnia Inclusive.
Over the 12-week program, students are immersed in the many facets of running a restaurant, from writing a menu, cooking and naming a business to front-of-house, purchasing, pricing, and workplace health and safety. They put those skills into practice by running a pop-up restaurant for family, friends and the local community in Chatswood. The program has run annually for the past five years.
Omnia supports young people with a range of characteristics, including autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. It also offers certified barista training and other programs across NSW and the ACT designed to help people find meaningful employment.
After learning about Lettuce Eat in 2022, House Made Hospitality founder Scott Brown contacted the organisation to explore inclusive employment opportunities across his venues. Six months later, Lettuce Eat graduate Darren joined House Made in the kitchens of Grana and Lana in the CBD, and he has been a valued team member ever since.
The winners of the 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea , were announced on Monday, October 26.
The home of the Good Food Guide , the app is free for premium subscribers of The Sydney Morning Herald and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app here.
