Good Food Guide awards hats to more than 160 NSW restaurants
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded at least one hat to more than 160 NSW restaurants after critics reviewed more than 500 venues. Five restaurants moved from one hat to two, and Sydney gained its first Filipino hatted restaurant.
AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 2 independent reports from 5 outlets · Article text read from 1 of 2 reportsHow it's made
View timeline · 1 entryWhat happened
Key facts
- Five eateries rose from one hat to two.
- Sydney gained its first Filipino hatted restaurant.
The brief
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded at least one hat to more than 160 restaurants across NSW, following critics’ reviews of more than 500 venues. The awards recognised restaurants across the state, with five eateries moving from one hat to two and Sydney gaining its first Filipino hatted restaurant. The two-hat category added 10 entrants.
The Sydney Morning Herald named South End, Stanley and Omakase by Prefecture 48 among the new entrants, describing them as “blistering hot first-timers.” The account also identified fine-dining veterans Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini, who opened Flaminia after two decades at Pilu at Freshwater.
The guide’s co-editors, Callan Boys and David Matthews, said the approach to scoring had changed over the past three years while the 20-point system itself remained unchanged. Matthews said reviewers were asked to consider the experience each restaurant sought to offer, rather than judge venues against an assumed measure of fanciness.
The awards were the 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards. The announcement took place on Monday, October 26, and Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea presented the awards. The account says a free, 56-page Good Food Guide liftout was scheduled to appear in the Herald on Tuesday, October 27.
Other headlines also connected the awards to restaurant recognition and changes in hat status. Greek City Times reported in its headline that two Sydney Greek restaurants earned Good Food Guide hats.
Brisbane Times and WAtoday framed their headlines around Sydney restaurants that gained and lost hats, while The Age highlighted Three Blue Ducks being up for a first major award at the ceremony. Those headlines do not supply additional details about individual results beyond what they state.
The award announcements combine recognition across the state with changes in the two-hat tier and a first for Filipino dining in Sydney. Matthews’s account of the review method points to the dining experience each venue aims to provide as a factor reviewers were asked to consider, while retaining the established scoring scale.
The guide’s forthcoming liftout was the stated next publication related to the awards.
Why it matters
- More than 160 NSW restaurants received at least one hat after critics reviewed more than 500 venues, giving the awards broad reach across the state’s dining sector.
- Five eateries advanced from one hat to two, while the two-hat category gained 10 entrants, marking changes within that level of recognition.
- Sydney’s first Filipino hatted restaurant adds a specific milestone to the awards’ restaurant recognition.
What to watch next
- The Herald’s planned publication of the free, 56-page Good Food Guide liftout on Tuesday, October 27.
- The results named in the Good Food Guide for the restaurants and venues recognised with hats.
How it's being covered
Coverage analysisShow details5 source articles · 5 unique outlets · 2 distinct reportsOutlet political mix: Mostly Center· 4 Center · 1 RightWhere the outlets are based: Asia 80% · Europe 20%
- Coverage is currently concentrated among Center-rated outlets (4 of 5 rated sources); comparatively few Left-rated outlets have published on the event.
- Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in Asia (4 of 5 geographically-identified sources).
How outlets' accounts compare
Timeline
Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.- The guide’s history reaches back to its first edition in 1984, when restaurant criticism in Sydney was developing a distinct local benchmark rather than relying on overseas ratings.Background · from our historical context
How we got here
The 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards followed the guide’s 2025 edition, continuing an annual assessment of restaurants across New South Wales. The guide’s history reaches back to its first
The Good Food Guide uses “hats” to indicate levels of achievement, making its ratings a recognisable feature of Australian restaurant criticism. The guide’s annual awards have provided a public occasion for announcing ratings and recognising restaurants; by the 2026 awards, Callan Boys and David Matthews were its co-editors.
Original sources
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