Good Food Guide award winners
It was a big night at the inaugural national Good Food Guide Awards held on Monday evening at The Star in Sydney.
As expected, the suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney cleaned up.
The big winner was Attica. Just a 20 minute drive from Melbourne’s CBD, the Ripponlea based restaurant was named Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year.
Attica opened in 2005 and its longtime chef, Ben Shewry, took ownership of the business two years ago.
Always innovative, he has now released a signature dish titled "The Imperfect History of Ripponlea" telling the story of the suburb through, of all things, a series of small tarts.
Attica joined Brae, and Minamishima in retaining the "three hat" rating awarded to restaurants with a score of at least 18 out of 20.
In Sydney, Quay and Sepia held on to their three hat status and in Brisbane, the three hat award went to Urbane.
Still in Brisbane, Matt Moran’s Aria took out Wine List of the Year.
Fortitude Valley bistro Madame Rouge took out the honours of being the only new Queensland restaurant to make it into the guide.
Daniel Puskas, owner-chef at Sixpenny in Sydney's inner-west suburb of Stanmore picked up the Citi Chef of the Year award.
St Peter in Paddington Sydney picked up the New Restaurant of the Year award.
And there were some surprises.
Melbourne’s Vue De Monde and Sydney’s Bridge Room slipped from three hats to two. Esquire in Brisbane went the same way.
Similarly in regional Queensland, the Long Apron in Montville and The Peak in Maryvale, both dropping from a notch from two hats to one. The Fish House in Burleigh Heads slipped to one hat.
All up, the night saw a total of 267 restaurants across the country getting awarded one hat or more.
For the record, a restaurant needs a minimum score of 15 out of 20 to obtain a hat.
by Leon Gettler, October 17th 2017
