The Sydney Morning Herald 2017 Good Food Guide awards were presented on Monday 6 September at Cirrus, the newest restaurant from Bentley’s Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt.
Quay was named Restaurant of the Year, and retained its three hats. The Bridge Room and Sepia, which will close in the next two years, were also awards three hats. While Rockpool Est. 1989 received three hats in 2015, the change to Eleven Bridge occurred as the guide went to print and as a result wasn’t eligible for the 2017 awards.
Quay owner, The Fink Group, received more accolades when group chairman, Leon Fink, accepted the Legend Award.
Federico Zanellato, of two-hatted LuMi Bar and Dining, was named Chef of the Year, with the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief critic Terry Durack comparing the Italian chef to a young Tetsuya Wakuda.
“Federico has taken his own innate Italianality and re-thought it with the balance and harmony of Japanese cuisine in mind. It reminds me of when a young Tetsuya Wakuda started fusing French and Japanese. It's just as exciting as that was,” said Durack.
Best New Restaurant went to Restaurant Hubert, which received two hats after opening in April. Restaurant Hubert was also awarded Best New Restaurant at the recent Gourmet Traveller awards.
Paper Daisy, headed by ex-Esquire head chef Ben Devlin, was named Regional Restaurant of the Year, while Astrid McCormack from fellow regional restaurant, Fleet, received the award for Service Excellence as well as Regional Wine List of the Year.
More bars, wine lists and sommeliers were also honoured at the awards, with Wine List of the Year going to Monopole, sister venue of Cirrus. Continental Deli Bar & Bistro took out Bar of the Year and Bar Bros was awarded Best Bar Food.
Enmore BBQ joint, Bovine & Swine Barbecue Co. won Best Cheap Eat for its Texas-style barbecue food.
A new award acknowledging the growth of caf culture, Caf of the Year, went to Paramount Coffee Project.
Speaking on the rise of caf dining, Good Food Guide editor Myffy Rigby said "I see cafes as the future of Sydney dining. They're an egalitarian, cheap and fun way to eat around Sydney and some of the most exciting food innovations are happening at the cafe end of the dining spectrum."
Rounding out the awards, Parliament on King, a cafe and hospitality training centre among many other things, was the recipient of this year’s Food for Good award, in recognition of owners Della and Ravi Prasad’s work with asylum seekers and refugees. Tim Philips’ Deader Ringer was awarded People’s Choice Award.
Rockpool alumni Noel Jelfs, who is currently at Eleven Bridge, received the Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year award.
Along with Restaurant Hubert, another new venue, Automata, entered the guide with two hats, while several of last year’s hatted venues dropped below the required score of 15 out of 20 this year, including Three Blue Ducks, Bistro Moncur and Osteria di Russo & Russo.
Hatted venues:
City
Three hats:
The Bridge Room, Quay, Sepia.
Two hats:
ARIA, Automata, Bennelong, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Est., Ester, Guillaume, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Lucio's Italian Restaurant, LuMi Bar & Dining, Momofuku Seiobo, Monopole, Mr. Wong, Ormeggio at The Spit, Oscillate Wildly, Pilu at Freshwater, Restaurant Hubert, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sixpenny, Spice Temple, Tetsuya's.
One hat:
10 William St, ACME, Ajo, Aki's Indian Restaurant, The Apollo, Baccomatto Osteria, Bar Brose, The Bathers' Pavilion, The Bellevue, Berowra Waters Inn, Billy Kwong, Bistrode CBD, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, Buon Ricordo, Catalina, China Doll, Cho Cho San, Continental Deli Bar & Bistro, Cottage Point Inn, Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta, The Dolphin Hotel Dining Room, Felix, Firedoor, Fratelli Paradiso, The Gantry, Gastro Park, glass brasserie, Hartsyard, Izakaya Fujiyama, Jonah's, Kepos & Co, Kepos Street Kitchen, LP's Quality Meats, Master, Mercado, Ms.G's, Nomad, One Ford Street, Otto Ristorante, The Paddington, Porteo, The Restaurant Pendolino, Sagra, Sean's Panaroma, Sokyo, Stanbuli, Sushi-e, Uccello, Vini, Yellow.
Regional
Two hats:
Aubergine, Biota Dining, Fleet, Muse Restaurant, Paper Daisy.
One hat:
Bistro Molines, Caveau, Courgette, Darley's Restaurant, eightysix, Eschalot Restaurant, Fins, Lanterne Rooms, Lilotang, Lolli Redini, Margan, Monster Kitchen & Bar, Muse Kitchen, Ottoman Cuisine, Pearls on the Beach, Pialligo Estate Farmhouse, Restaurant Como, Restaurant Mason, Rick Stein at Bannisters, St Isidore, The Stunned Mullet, Subo, Temporada, Tonic, Town Restaurant & Cafe, Waters Edge, Zanzibar, The Zin House.