2016 Good Food Guide award winners announced

Sydney’s The Bridge Room has claimed two of the top accolades at the 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards which were held last night at the Ivy Ballroom.

Located in Sydney’s CBD, The Bridge Room took out the title of Vittoria Restaurant of the Year in addition to three hats, where it now joins the ranks of fellow three-hatters Quay, Rockpool est. 1989 and Sepia. 

Citi Chef of the Year was awarded to Pasi Petanen of Caf Paci; Best New Restaurant was awarded to Bennelong which also claimed two hats; the 22-seat Fleet restaurant in Brunswick Heads, on the far north coast of New South Wales, took out the Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year; and the Josephine Pignolet Award which recognising the brightest young stars on the NSW dining scene was awarded to Lauren Eldridge, pastry chef at Marque.

“It’s been an absolute privilege editing the 31^st edition of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide. We’re dining in a city that’s not only found its flavour but celebrating it with gusto in so many guises. We’re hyper-local, smoked, wood-fired and fermented. We’re eating high and low, streetside and harbourside. Our chefs are world-class, innovative and nimble,” says editor of the Guide, Myffy Rigby.

“This is a dining landscape that isn’t so much competitive as collaborative. Chef collectives across all faiths have formed. It’s bred a city with an irreverent streak a mile wild, seasoning Sydney with a Japanese Italian flavour that’s very often grilled over charcoal, wood-fired over individual twigs and broken up with the odd bacon doughnut.”

In terms of drinks, Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt had two wins with Monopole winning Best Bar and Bentley Restaurant & Bar claiming Best Wine List. Sebastian Crowther MS, Head Sommelier at Rockpool was awarded the Champagne Pol Roger Sommelier of the Year; Regional Wine List of Year went to Canberra’s Monster Kitchen and Bar; and Best Bar Food went to Rockpool Bar & Grill.

The 2016 Guide saw the addition of three new awards including: Best Cheap Eat which went to Japanese grill house, Chaco Bar; People’s Choice which was awarded to Catalina; and the Food for Good Award, which celebrates innovation, charity and sustainability was handed to Rob Caslick of the Inside Out Organic Soup Kitchen.

“I’m always more excited when the greatest amount of action comes with the one hatted restaurants than the three hats,” says Terry Durack, chief restaurant critic of the Sydney Morning Herald. “It means the quality of dining out is getting better from the ground up, not just from the top down, and that’s what we’re seeing reflected in the new Good Food Guide.”

2016 Good Food Guide Award winners

• Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year: The Bridge Room
• Citi Chef of the Year: Pasi Petanen
• Best New Restaurant: Bennelong
• Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year: Fleet (Brunswick Heads)
• Vittoria Coffee Legend: Janni Kyritsis
• Citi Service Excellence: Cam Fairbairn, ACME
• Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year: Lauren Eldridge
• Food for Good Awards: Rob Caslick
• Best Bar Food: Rockpool Bar & Grill
• Wine List of the Year: Bentley Restaurant & Bar
• Best Bar: Monopole
• Champagne Pol Roger Sommelier of the Year: Sebastian Crowther MS, Rockpool est. 1989
• Regional Wine List of the Year: Monster Kitchen & Bar
• Best Cheap Eat: Chaco Bar
• People’s Choice: Catalina

Hatted restaurants:

City & Suburbs

Three hats

The Bridge Room, Quay, Rockpool est. 1989, Sepia

Two hats

ARIA, Bennelong, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn, Cafe Paci, Cottage Point Inn, est., Ester, The Four in Hand Dining Room, Guillaume, Icebergs Dining  Room & Bar, Lucio’s Italian Restaurant, LuMi Bar & Dining, Marque, Momofuku Seiobo, Mr. Wong, Ormeggio at The Spit, Oscillate Wildly, Pilu at Freshwater, Porteo, Rockpool Bar & Grill, sixpenny, Spice Temple, Tetsuya’s

One hat

10 William St, ACME, Ajo Italian Restaurant, The Apollo, The Bathers’ Pavilion, Billy Kwong, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode CBD, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, Buon Ricordo, Catalina, China Doll, Cho Cho San, Felix, Firedoor, Fratelli Paradiso, Gastro Park, glass brasserie, Izakaya Fujiyama, Jonah’s Restaurant, Kepos Street Kitchen, Longrain, LP’s Quality Meats, Monopole, Moon Park, MoVida, Ms.G’s, Nomad, Osteria Balla, Osteria di Russo & Russo, Otto Ristorante, The Restaurant Pendolino, Sagra, Sean’s, Sokyo, sushi e, Three Blue Ducks, Uccello, Ume Restaurant, Vini, Yellow

Regional

Two hats

Aubergine, Biota, Muse Restaurant, Subo, Zanzibar Caf

One hat

Bistro Molines, Caveau, Courgette, Darley’s Restaurant, eightysix, Eschalot, Fins, Fleet, Lanterne Rooms, Lilotang, Lolli Redini, Monster Kitchen & Bar, Muse Kitchen, Ottoman Cuisine, Pearls on the Beach, Pialligo Farmhouse, Restaurant Como, Restaurant Mason, SOUTH on albany, St Isidore, The Stunned Mullet, Temporada, Tonic, Town Restaurant & Caf, Waters Edge, The Zin House