Food News

It’s a big ask in terms of time, distance and money to eat at Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel, but this is a restaurant that answers all the questions with a resounding yes. It’s a place that truly embraces the philosophies of regionality and seasonality, presenting them in a way that’s unmistakeably modern and complex but […]

Tom Sykes’ first Sydney restaurant job, back in 1996, was at a little place called Rockpool. Fast-forward almost 15 years and Sykes has not only climbed the ranks from waiter to headwaiter to assistant manager to general manager in time for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the crucible of the city’s most talked-about restaurant, […]

Gerald Diffey has worked at and with some of Victoria’s great names – Karen Martini, Rita Macali, Tansy Good and Stefano de Pieri among them – and has spread his affable charm wherever he’s appeared. But it’s at his small bar in Rathdowne Street, Carlton, propped next door to the pizza cacophony that is La […]

Jackson’s has always been the kind of restaurant where minor miracles of the edible kind occurred, but the wine list sometimes felt like a bit of an also-ran in the presence of chef/owner Neal Jackson’s perennially quirky fare. Enter Kjell Ove Almeland, a flamboyant Norwegian with a patois so chunky you could carve it. (His […]

There’ll never be a need to carbon date the quantum leap in Australia’s food fashion. Or to ponder its greatest influence. In 1975, Leo Schofield penned the first guide to eating out in Sydney and went on to become the senior restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald. Today, as editor-at-large for Australian Gourmet Traveller, […]

In retrospect, the 12 months since the last GT awards might not seem like the most felicitous period in which to open an ambitious new restaurant. And yet here we are with an embarrassment of restaurant riches. It’s hard to remember a year in which the new restaurant gong was anywhere near this hotly contested. […]

When Cam Birt and Stephanie Canfell, partners in Brisbane’s standard-setting Bowery bar, decided to open a dégustation-only restaurant in an old bank building one storey above street level in the still-edgy Fortitude Valley, Ryan Squires topped their chef shopping list. Queensland-bred Squires had made a splash a few years earlier, returning from stints at The […]

Yes, lightning really can strike in the same place twice. If anything, the Quay that is Restaurant of the Year today is, dare we say it, a better place than it was 12 months ago when it first won the award. All the things that made it great then – the unmatched commitment to sourcing […]

Here are the restaurants our reviewers rated best in each state and region at a glance, from those awarded stars to those next most highly ranked.

This list has been compiled using our star ratings, moderated by our state and national editors. Every restaurant listed in the Guide should offer a winning dining experience; any that achieve a placement in the Top 100 represent another order of excellence again.

We award stars to restaurants which we have found to be genuinely and consistently exceptional in their food, wine and hospitality.

We’ve downed forks, the votes are in, and we are proud to present the Australian Gourmet Traveller 2010 Restaurant Awards.

The envelope, please
It’s been an exhaustive process but we’re proud to reveal our short-listed nominees for the 2010 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards.

Backstage at his Sanctuary Cove show, the Kitchen Nightmare speaks to Pat Nourse about the Grimshaw affair and his new Australian project.

Grab a drink, sit down and relax: the talented team behind Sydney restaurant Buzo are doing all the hard work, serving up rustic wintry fare that’s perfect for a weekend away.

Gordon Ramsay worked for some of Europe’s greatest chefs on his way to the top of the cooking game. Not coincidentally, perhaps, he also worked for some individuals who were as well known back-of-house for their tempers as they were known out front for their culinary grace. It’s no secret that Ramsay gives it today as good as he got it as a young chef, and he’s unflinching in his assessment of the top terrors he’s encountered in his time in the kitchen.

With duck confit and steak frites thick on the ground these days, a good bistro meal isn’t hard to find. But what about a great one? We track down the country’s best, dish by dish.

The Pat Nourse Polaroid files: "These pictures were taken at the winners' lunch at St John restaurant the day after the World's 50 Best Restaurants ceremony. I've had the pleasure of chairing the Australian and Pacific votes. It's not a paid gig, but an invite to join the critics who head the other voting panels and the award-winning chefs at a lunch hosted by Fergus Henderson is incentive enough. This year's menu kicked off with an ox heart salad (the hearts of oxen, not a type of tomato), followed by pig's head and potato pie (with plenty of mustard) and ice-cream flavoured with the Dr Henderson, Fergus's favourite cocktail of Fernet Branca and crème de menthe."

From the Ultimate Dinner to the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival (and spinning discs with Shane Osborn), The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal shares his Australian diary.

Just as the French sommelier's reputation is built on the depth of his list, the Vietnamese chef stakes his pride on the quality of his fish sauce, writes Paul Daley.

Eugenio Maiale’s hand-wrought Italian cuisine has called many to the table at Sydney’s A Tavola. Here, he serves up dishes inspired by his childhood and his family’s rich Abruzzese heritage. Dig in.

We quizzed the best kitchen talents on their secrets to the perfect spaghetti Bolognese. The responses varied but were never ambivalent: this dish is unanimously loved, however it’s made.

From the tastiest new cut of steak to the most anticipated “debut”, here’s what’s exciting us about the Australian food scene in 2009.

Quick recipes to make the most of your secondary cut.

Gourmet Traveller salutes Australia’s chefs and restaurants who are showing their support of the Victorian bushfire victims by hosting fundraising events.

Gourmet Traveller food editor Rodney Dunn swapped the horns of city traffic for the honk of geese to set up his farm-based cooking school, The Agrarian Kitchen. Take a tour.

You don’t have to pretend any more. If you’re obsessed with food, here’s your chance to declare it.

I have just opened a restaurant. The food is under control, but we are having a hard time with waiters. How can I find a good batch of waiters? By nabila viriot – owner new resto Madeline Nieuwenhuizen, a manager at Sydney restaurant Aria, writes: The unfortunate reality is that there are just not enough good, […]

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and whether you're looking for a bottle of bubbly that won't break the bank, a last minute trip idea, luxe brekkie-in-bed, small bites, meals to share, or sexy desserts, you'll find it here.

What does Australia’s finest cooking talent whip up come time to clock off? Here are 72 great quick dishes and not a soufflé or tian in sight.

Australia’s top chefs dish the dirt on what they’re resolving to do better in 2009.

Australia’s top chefs dish the dirt on what they’re resolving to do better in 2009.

Restaurant critic Pat Nourse delves deep into his duck fat-stained personal files to bring you the best of 2008’s eating in 10 easy dishes.

It's that time of year again when we turn to our tried and true Christmas favourites. From roast turkey and glazed ham to rum-soaked pud, we have the standards covered (and variations to boot). There's a reason why these dishes have endured the test of time.

For French-born Brisbane chef Bruno Loubet, Christmas is about tradition – pulling out all stops for the ultimate in grandeur and elegance.

Our handy nationwide guide, recommending what to buy and where, will help minimise your time in the kitchen during the busy run-up to Christmas.

“One of the things I love most about Asian food is that it’s often designed for the shared table.” So says Neil Perry in our exclusive extract from his new book, Balance & Harmony: Asian Food. Create your own Asian banquet with these fab recipes.

Who better to extol the virtues of this rich Spanish cuisine than Barcelona-born chef Javier Codina. He lets trad dishes such as fisherman’s rice do the talking.

Javier Degen, proprietor of The Spanish Pantry and importer of fine hams, gives us the lowdown on jamón.

Our group attended a popular Errol St eatery last Saturday night only to be refused our BYO wine. What was puzzling about this was that their status as a ‘BYO wine’ restaurant is well publicised even to the point where they confirmed the corkage cost ($6.50pb) to us in advance. Is this the emerging trend […]

The atmospheric and permanently bustling Perth restaurant, Balthazar, is one of the best places in Australia to drink wine. The walls are lined with the great and the good bottles; regular diners lap up the constantly changing and extensive by-the-glass selection; serious wine tragics spend hours perusing the extensive, rich and deep list. But there’s […]

Great restaurants are an amalgam of many physical and human elements; bringing them together can be hard, even when the location is central. For it to happen in rural Victoria, as has happened at Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel, is the kind of serendipitous outcome nobody could seriously have planned. Sometimes, the stars just line up. […]

Christine Manfield has something of a fondness for the road less travelled. Whether it’s the flavours in her food, the way it looks on the plate or, indeed, the way it’s structured on the menu, she’s willing – driven, almost – to step away from the familiar in search of new ways to do things. […]

All Cam Birt and Stephanie Canfell wanted was somewhere to drink. But from such small beginnings, great things can grow. “We wanted a cocktail bar that we wanted to go to. That’s all,” says Birt. The year was 2003. Birt had been working in bars in Japan and Canfell had just moved back to Brisbane […]

In a wine-savvy town, Adelaide sommelier James Erskine stands tall for his dedicated yet humble approach to guiding restaurant diners’ wine choices. The 29-year-old sommelier at Auge restaurant has combined a winning mix of easy charm with infectious enthusiasm to recommend superb wines that suit Auge’s modern take on Italian food, based on knowledge gleaned […]

You don’t need to be old to appreciate so many things we take for granted were simply not possible 25 years ago. Take Victoria’s liberal – and enlightened – licensing laws, in relation to consuming beverages with or without food, for example. It wasn’t that long ago that pubs provided the only glimmer of opportunity […]

A team of champions, they say, doesn’t always make for a champion team. Even so, when Sydney’s Guillaume Brahimi accepted the offer to set up on the banks of the Yarra at Crown, he knew it was going to take a special brigade to have the kind of impact Bistro Guillaume has made on Melbourne. […]

“This is nothing like we expected,” says Elvis Abrahanowicz. “We just wanted a nice place that everyone liked, which is, I guess, what we’ve got, but it’s all out of proportion to what we thought would happen.” He’s talking about the rampant success of Bodega, the mostly Spanish tapas restaurant he and co-head chef Ben […]

Chinese artichokes, tiny purple onions, native violets. White carrots, white borage and the rare and elusive white broad bean. Blossoms of carrot, rosemary and pea. Celtuce. The tuber known only as sweet root. Peter Gilmore’s shopping list sounds, at times, like a cross between a naturopath’s mini-bar and Act 4, Scene 1 from Macbeth. At […]

Do I leave a tip if the food’s good, but the waiter’s lousy? “Tricky. Short of slipping a note over the pass into the kitchen on your way out or hiding it under a mound of uneaten cavolo nero, or having a face-off with your waiter, asking them to take the tip directly to the […]

He’s taken Manhattan by storm, and now Alistair Wise, Gordon Ramsay’s pastry chef prodigy, returns home to tempt us with an armoury of irresistibly decadent desserts.

Meet the winners of the Australian Gourmet Traveller 2009 Restaurant Guide awards.

Mark Best, chef-patron of Sydney three-star Marque, talks to Gourmet Traveller features editor Pat Nourse about carrot juice, sleeping with Rodin and needle-nose pliers.

Game hunter. Shark fisherman. Bad boy. Chef. Marco Pierre White is an enigma wrapped in a grimace smoking a Marlboro. On the one hand, he’s the boy from the council estate in Leeds deemed frightening by some members of the press, the loose cannon who was turfing people out of restaurants and reducing his chefs […]

Drumroll, please …

Pork belly recipes Porchetta Chunky chorizo, chicken and vegetable soup Pork belly, chorizo and breadcrumbs with oranges (Migas) Crisp pork belly with fennel and white anchovy salad Salt-cured pork belly with broad bean ragoût Conchiglie with braised pork belly and radicchio   Crisp roasted pork belly,Fish and Wine**, Coolangatta, Qld ** Chef Dean Sammut wowed […]

Beijing cuisine has an enormous gastronomic range but for intensity of flavour it’s all about the hawker foods, from fragrant crisp duck to simple noodle soup. Perfect for a night in watching the Games.

What’s the deal with restaurants that don’t take reservations? Are they trying to make life hard for us? By Matt Pat Nourse, Gourmet Traveller restaurant critic and features editor writes: It seems like a fiendish invention, this no-bookings business, but there’s method in the badness. For one thing, it means that you can rock up at […]

Australia’s Three-Star Chefs: In Their Own Words

“Get in there, have a go and enjoy it,” says Warren Turnbull, chef/owner of Sydney’s Restaurant Assiette, of the modern French dishes he’s created for us. They’re bistro classics with his unique stamp – a raw take on steak frites, a poached egg made crisp and spiced financières. Ah, oui, c’est trés bon.

Foul-mouthed, aggressive, authoritarian? John Lethlean comes face to face with the real Gordon Ramsay; British chef, TV personality and (possibly) Australian restaurateur.

How are restaurants addressing our desire to eat more healthy foods and are there any restaurants doing this well? By meagan Pat Nourse, Gourmet Traveller features editor and restaurant critic, answers: Broadly speaking, I’d say that healthy eating and restaurant food don’t have an enormous amount to do with one another. Sydney chef Janni Kyritsis, […]

Gourmet Traveller features editor Pat Nourse ran into Jay Rayner in London and thought he’d ask the piratical-locked Observer restaurant critic a few questions about his new book, The Man Who Ate the World: In Search of the Perfect Dinner, and the business of being a restaurant critic.

Melbourne Italian impresarios Maurice Terzini and Robert Marchetti return home to acclaim with a modern ‘Roman’ trattoria that’s all about fun. Take a look.

**Steak frites, Montrachet, Brisbane **Montrachet’s steak, frites and salad has achieved legendary status with Francophile Brisbanites, and the appeal of this simple dish – the chips hand-cut and bronzed, the beef tender and pan-fried exactly to your personal taste – shows no sign of abating. About 150 orders are dispatched from Thierry Galichet’s Paddington kitchen […]

****Silks’ braised abalone with webbing from duck’s feet: $1380 per kilogram ****To spend as much money on food as fast as you can, head to Crown’s high-end Cantonese restaurant Silks and order a portion of the braised abalone with webbing from duck’s feet. At $138 per 100 grams (or $1380 per kilogram), this is a […]

****Alistair Wise, Hobart **“You’re an idiot,” was Gordon Ramsay’s typically subtle response when word got out that Alistair Wise, the founding pastry chef at Ramsay’s eponymous New York restaurant, was returning to Tasmania to start his own venture. The first year of Ramsay’s foray into Manhattan was something of a rollercoaster, with a less-than-glowing review […]

**Mad Cow, Sydney **You can read the full review for all the details but, for those with appetites bigger than their attention spans, here’s the word: high-stakes steaks in a room with a look that owes more to The Love Boat than Peter Luger. The disposition and clothing of the staff, and the volume and […]

Edible flowers Flowers on food sounds like a throwback to the bad old days of glass bowls and square plates. But today’s blooms are discreet and dazzling flourishes rather than blousy nosegays and, crucially, they’re edible if not outright tasty. Already big in Spain, here they pop up everywhere from elderflowers on desserts at Claude’s […]

****The smokehouse, Anise, Brisbane ****Hickory-smoked to order, this amuse bouche, a triple smokehouse treat, ticks all the right boxes. The exact make-up varies but the current line-up features a Pacific oyster, a couple of tender slivers of wagyu and a tranche of ocean trout served with a slice of lemon. Chef Jonathan Bryant’s kitchen is […]

I’m looking for a restaurant to go to for dinner in Melbourne. Something with a great reputation, good food and reasonable prices. By EmilyW Pat Nourse, Gourmet Traveller features editor and restaurant critic, writes: You’re in for a treat: good food at reasonable prices is what Melbourne’s all about, so you’re somewhat spoiled for choice […]

The best on the best: we asked nine of the nation’s best chefs to spill the beans on their favourite suppliers, products and diversions for our April Best of the Best issue. Here are the insider picks, some well known, some off the beaten track. *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne * Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney * Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove * David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne * Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney * Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove * David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

The Chefs *Alla Wolf-Tasker, chef/owner, Lake House, Daylesford *Andrew McConnell, chef, Three, One, Two, Melbourne *Peter Gilmore, chef, Quay, Sydney *Bruno Loubet, chef, Baguette, Brisbane *Nick Holloway, chef/co-owner, Nu Nu, Palm Cove *David Coomer, chef, Star Anise, Perth *Chui Lee Luk, chef/owner, Claude’s, Sydney ONLINE EXCLUSIVE *Jason Peppler, chef/owner, Isis, Brisbane *Shannon Bennett, chef/owner, Vue […]

Melbourne’s Ben Shewry, Gourmet’s Best New Talent award-winner, brings a taste of his quirky, dynamic dishes to the table with this autumn selection.

Being charged for bread in restaurants makes me crazy. Shouldn’t bread be free? What’s the story? By lilninja Gourmet Traveller features editor and restaurant critic, Pat Nourse, writes: “The best restaurants, as a rule, tend to offer bread and water, if not a little more, as soon as you take your table as a simple courtesy […]

Matt Moran takes it to the ‘burbs in The Chopping Block, this year’s hottest new local food TV show.

With a collection of his famously savage reviews newly published, AA Gill talks restaurant criticism, wafting aromas and camel snot.

Winery restaurants are not normally the best places to find a great wine list...

It’s no big deal to meet a bartender who’s also an actor or a would-be singer-songwriter. Bartender-artists are a rarer breed, though, and finding someone active in the arts who is working in a bar not so much as a sideline to support themselves but as a dual profession or indeed another form of artistic […]

Cast your mind back to 1990 and a young Ronnie Di Stasio is several years into his first solo venture as a restaurateur, the eponymous Café Di Stasio, in what was a part of Melbourne better known for its sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll than its food. With Valerio Nucci cooking, Di Stasio working […]

Artist and mentor, baker and cook, Phillip Searle has worn many hats, many of them at the same time. One of the first Australian chefs to successfully bring the flavours and textures of Asia into the world of fine dining, he’s also recognised as an innovative pastry chef. His influences and interests are diverse. “The […]

One of Simon Curkovic’s favourite words is ‘fun’. He uses it when he tells you how he regularly introduces adventurous diners at Catalina restaurant to the wine world’s more obscure bottles (“drinking something different is great fun”). Tellingly he also uses the F-word when talking about the great older-vintage Burgundies at the heart of Catalina’s […]

Among the many things we love to love about Nu Nu is the way in which it’s good all day long. With Jason Rowbottom from Punch Lane on the floor and Pearl’s Nick Holloway running the kitchen, it’s like a little piece of Melbourne’s scene gone troppo: diverse influences unified by a kitchen that offsets […]

There’s always been another side to Neil Perry; a side that wasn’t Chinese roast pigeon with prawn-stuffed eggplant. And that side was steak with horseradish cream, pappardelle with duck ragù, confit of suckling pig with mustard fruits and a nice little apple and rhubarb crumble. In short, Rockpool Bar & Grill, his remarkably accomplished and […]

Ben Shewry exhibits refreshing characteristics for a young chef, not the least being the credit he gives his mentors for their part in a brief, yet brilliant, career: his first boss, back in New Zealand and his culinary school teachers; his first serious chef, the decorated Swiss-New Zealander Mark Limacher, for a gruelling work ethic […]

Judging three-star restaurants is a funny business. Do you go in and just sit and wait to be wowed? Or do you work backwards, clipping points back from a perfect score and see who’s left at the end? Whichever way you choose to look at things, Pier comes up trumps. Speaking personally, I visited every […]

The Australian Gourmet Traveller 2008 Restaurant Guide awards are in.

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