Hunter restaurants shine in SMH Good Food Guide

■Subo, Newcastle West

■Muse Restaurant, Pokolbin

ONE HAT

■Bistro Molines, Mount View

■Muse Kitchen, Pokolbin

■Restaurant Mason, Newcastle

POKOLBIN’S Muse Restaurant and Newcastle West’s Subo have both earned a coveted two hats in the The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2015.

Announced last night, the annual guide awards hats to the best dining destinations across NSW. Each is given a score out of 20 for food service, ambience and X factor, with those restaurants scoring 15 given one hat, 16 and 17 given two hats and 18 and above awarded three.

With chef Beau Vincent and front-of-house Suzie Vincent at the helm, Subo was awarded two hats for the second year running with a score of 16 out of 20. The husband and wife duo behind the hole in the wall on Hunter Street were equally praised: ‘‘Matching the chef’s excellence is wife Suzie Vincent’s front-of-house warmth and professionalism – reasons why Subo belongs on the honour roll for Newcastle and beyond.’’

Another husband and wife team in Troy and Megan Rhoades-Brown also received a two-hat nod with a score of 16 out of 20 for their Pokolbin establishment Muse Restaurant. It is the fifth year running the restaurant has notched up two hats. 

In this year’s guide chef Troy was lauded, saying  a ‘‘devotion to simple, seasonal produce is evident, each dish is an eye-opening display of the finest technique.’’

Muse Restaurant’s sister establishment Muse Kitchen in Pokolbin also received a one hat rating, joining Mount View’s Bistro Molines and Newcastle’s recently renovated Restaurant Mason in the one-hatted category.

Subo, Muse Restaurant and Bistro Molines were also finalists in the Regional Restaurant of the Year category which was won by Bowral’s Biota Dining.