Newcastle and Hunter are home to seven of Australia’s top restaurants, with the recently released national Good Food Guide awarding restaurants in Newcastle and the Hunter with ‘hat-status’.
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Newcastle’s top restaurant was Subo, with a score of 15.5 and one hat, followed by Restaurant Mason with a score of 15 and also one hat.
In the Hunter, Muse Restaurant received two hats, and Muse Kitchen, Restaurant Botanica, Bistro Molines and Margan Restaurant each received one hat.
The Guide of independent, anonymous reviews is written by a panel of trusted restaurant critics and recognises the best Australian restaurants nationally with ‘hats’, symbolised by a chef’s toque.
To secure a coveted spot in the Guide, restaurants in New South Wales and Victoria must score at least 14 out of 20, while all other states must score a minimum of 15.
To achieve a hat is a pinnacle of a chef’s career and a restaurant’s history, and the term ‘hatted’ has become embedded in the Australian lexicon.
More than 500 restaurants from across the country were reviewed for this year’s Guide, with 264 of these receiving hat status, ranging from one to three.
Only seven restaurants nationally achieved the top accolade of three hats, and they include:
- Attica (VIC)
- Brae (VIC)
- Momofuku Seiobo (NSW)
- Minamishima (VIC)
- Quay (NSW)
- Restaurant Orana (SA) and
- Sixpenny (NSW)
The catalogue of influential Guide editors includes founding editors Claude Forell in Melbourne and Leo Schofield in Sydney – along with Terry Durack, Jill Dupleix and Matthew Evans – who have charted the growth of the restaurant industry in Australia, and helped to shape it.
It is this rich 39-year tradition that the 2019 Good Food Guide editor Myffy Rigby upholds, ensuring the Guide remains Australia’s pre-eminent restaurant bible.
“The second annual national Good Food Guide is a reflection of the thousands of voices that make Australia one of the most diverse and delicious places to eat in the world. The Guide is a celebration of the industry as a whole. Every one of the restaurants featured is a summation of all those moving parts. We recognise the hard work of all those Australian restaurants and everything they do to enrich the scene.”
The national Good Food Guide 2019 is out now and retailing for $29.99 in newsagents and online at: www.thestore.com.au/goodfood
