What’s up, what’s down: Which restaurants gained (and lost) hats in the new SMH Good Food Guide

Five eateries went from one to two hats, many won a hat for the first time, including a small gyros shop, and Sydney has its first Filipino hatted restaurant.Which restaurants gained and lost hats in the latest Good Food Guide?Dion Georgopolous; James BrickwoodRestaurants didn’t need silver service, expensive wine pairings or even table reservations to receive a coveted chef’s hat at the 42nd annual Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awards at Carriageworks on Monday as critics’ recommendations evolved to reflect the needs of contemporary Australian diners. More than 160 restaurants across NSW were recognised with at least one hat, many for the first time, after a team of anonymous restaurant critics spent six months independently reviewing more than 500 venues for the quality of their food, setting, value and hospitality. Among that number were five Sydney restaurants which rose from one to two hats - a four-fold increase from the previous year - including French bistro Porcine in Paddington, Crown restaurant Woodcut in Barangaroo and Neil Perry’s Italian phoenix Gran Torino, which replaced his Chinese restaurant Songbird in mid-2025.The Good Food Guide created the chef’s hat rating system more than 40 years ago to give readers a sense of what to expect in terms of food, service and experience, with value for money later added. Hats have been the cornerstone of Good Food’s rating system since.Each restaurant reviewed in the guide is scored out of 20: 10 points for food, five for hospitality, three for setting and experience, and two for value. Restaurants scoring 15 or above are awarded one hat, those scoring 16 or 17 receive two hats, and those between 18 and 20 receive three hats.Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.Sign upScores started to shift over the past three years as Good Food Guide co-editors Callan Boys and David Matthews encouraged a fresh approach to the unchanged 20-point scoring system: “We asked restaurant reviewers to consider the dining experience each venue aimed to achieve, rather than simply marking it against some imagined metric of fanciness,” said Matthews. The shift aimed to ensure the utility of the consumer guide by capturing exceptional venues across budgets, locations and cuisines.“Is Olympic Meats in Marrickville trying to do silver service or tweezer food?” he said. “Absolutely not, but its commitment to sourcing and DIY is almost unrivalled, with everything down to the pita made from scratch. And since it’s just a stone’s throw from Sydney’s Little Greece, it’s one of the most compelling places to see this city’s past and present collide.”The small, three-walled gyros restaurant overlooking Dulwich Hill station defied expectations this year by adding a wine service and delving deeper into chef-owner Timothy Cassimatis’ culinary roots with additional Peloponnese (southern Greek) dishes. “There might be some pearl-clutching about it, but calling Olympic Meats a ‘gyros shop’ is like saying Cold Chisel is ‘just a pub band’,” Boys said. “Timothy Cassimatis puts as much work into his souvlaki and chips as any fine-dining chef.”It also takes a strong hospitality team to smooth over peak wait-times of more than an hour at the popular no-reservations venue, which relies on a QR-code queuing system. “Many were awarded a hat for the first time because they understood that making guests feel welcome and nourished, no matter how much they’re spending, is paramount,” Boys said. Olympic Meats was among the newly hatted in the 2027 edition of the Good Food Guide, alongside Tida Persian Food (North Willoughby), Avia (Darlinghurst), Farmhouse Kings Cross (Rushcutters Bay) and Takam in Darlinghurst, which became the first Filipino restaurant in Sydney to achieve 15/20, equalling a hat. Takam head chef Francis Dela Cruz led the menu through several evolutions, landing the restaurant “right where it needed to be” at the intersections of familiarity, innovation and deliciousness, Boys said. It also served the tastiest skewers he’d eaten all year. Several high-profile restaurants regained their hat, including Potts Point legend Fratelli Paradiso, Paski Sopra (Paddington) and Arthur, which reopened its Surry Hills dining room with an a la carte menu in July.While there was a net gain to the number of hatted venues, CBD restaurants Loulou Bistro Martin Place, Tilda and The Gidley each lost theirs.Critics are instructed to maintain anonymity during their visits to ensure their dining experience reflects that of an everyday customer, and poor service was the greatest contributing factor to declining scores this year, Boys said. “In one instance, a solo reviewer was mostly ignored in favour of the bigger tables of blokes ordering triple-digit bottles,” he said. “Plates weren’t refreshed, empty glasses were not refilled or removed, and staff offered little guidance … That restaurant no longer has a hat.“We understand that it’s important to look after the big-spender tables, but we also want to celebrate restaurants with staff trained to see a solo diner and think, ‘Right, I’m going to make sure this person eating alone has the best night possible.’ This is what real hospitality looks like.”The two-hat category gained 10 new entrants as “blistering hot first-timers” such as South End, Stanley and Omakase by Prefecture 48 entered the fray alongside fine-dining veterans such as Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini, who opened Flaminia after two decades of success at Pilu at Freshwater, said Matthews.“Three Blue Ducks Burradoo winning two hats is huge for the group, but when the chefs’ CVs read Tetsuya’s, Quay and Sepia, anything less would almost have been a bigger surprise,” he said. Meanwhile, the upper echelon of fine dining contracted with the closure of acclaimed restaurants Quay and Oncore by Clare Smyth. For the first time since 1988, only two restaurants received three hats: Saint Peter (Paddington) and Sixpenny (Stanmore), the latter also named restaurant of the year. Matthews said both restaurants had matured and strengthened their offering, becoming truly world-class.“What’s totally refreshing is that they’ve done it their own way,” he said. “It’s a generational shift happening right in front of us.”The winners of the 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards were announced on Monday, October 26, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. Pick up a free 56-page Good Food Guide liftout in the Herald on Tuesday, October 27.The home of the Good Food Guide, the Good Food app is free for premium subscribers of the SMH and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the app here.Bianca Hrovat – Bianca is Good Food’s Sydney eating out and restaurant editor.From our partners