Plus one of Perth’s favourite shawarma pushers brings back a crowd favourite.
West Australian flavour at this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards
On Friday, the Northern Italian city of Turin hosted the announcement of the 2025 edition of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards: a countdown that asks a global panel of chefs, food journalists and writers to vote for their favourite eateries across the planet with Lima’s Peruvian-Japanese restaurant Maido coming in at first place.
While no Australian restaurants made the top 50 list, the Antipodes were represented in the supplementary list detailing the restaurants that ranked between places 51 and 100.
This year, Burnt Ends – the Singaporean barbecue restaurant from Perth-born chef David Pynt – came in at number 93, cementing its reputation as one of the island-nation’s essential high-end dining experiences. Saint Peter, Josh and Julie Niland’s Sydney seafood eatery, was the highest-ranked Australian restaurant and placed at number 66. MasterChef alum Mindy Woods, a Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia-bul clan, won the Champions of Change award in recognition of her efforts to celebrate indigenous food culture.
Bringing the planet’s finest pizzerias to Perth
What does it take to run one of the world’s best pizza restaurants? Andrea Brunelli and Chiara Mezzasoma know a little something-something.
In March, the couple’s fresh-faced North Beach pizzeria Maestro Sourdough Pizza once again featured in 50 Top Pizza’s Asia-Pacific rankings. (Maestro is WA’s sole representative on the list and this is its fourth appearance on the rankings.)
While pizza aficionados know that the elegant Naples-style pies at Maestro are worth travelling for, fans have even more reason to head north this winter: the inaugural Pizza Week, an Antipodean pizzeria shuffle that sees 11 50 Top Pizza-certified restaurants from Australia and New Zealand each take turns to create a pizza special that every participant will serve for one week only.
Some of the other pizzerias involved in this caper include Melbourne’s 48h Pizza e Gnocchi Bar, Sydney’s Al Taglio and Napoli Contemporanea in Auckland. Pizza Week runs till mid-August. Visit the Pizza Week website for more details.
Yalla Bala brings back an off-menu favourite
“But will it last until Sunday?” pondered an Instagram commentator when Yalla Bala announced its shawarma special for the week, “that’s the real question.” As the saying goes, time will tell.
The surest way to ensure you don’t miss out on Ben Kotkis’s off-menu special starring spiced lamb mince, pomegranate molasses, tahini, Turkish salad mix and hot chips – all crammed into pillowy flatbread – is to get to Leederville’s favourite falafel and shawarma kiosk sooner rather than later this week. The off-menu kebab special is available from Wednesday to Sunday.
A wise head on Young shoulders
What do you call a lawyer-in-training who decides to become a chef? If we’re talking about chef Blaze Young, one answer might be “impressive”, as demonstrated by her work as executive chef overseeing the cooking at Fremantle wine fantasy Nieuw Ruin, CBD cocktail den Foxtrot Unicorn, plus the recently hatted inner-city pub, Edward & Ida’s.
Young is also the guest for this Monday’s Yes, Chef (Monday, June 30), a monthly hospitality talk series held at member’s club Lawson Flats. Full disclosure: I’m the host of Yes, Chef, but I’m aware that I’m just the facilitator, timekeeper and question-asker-in-chief. The guests are the stars of each show and every session always uncovers valuable lessons and insights. Always. (Personally, I’m looking forward to quizzing Young about her experience as a latecomer to hospitality, learning the business side of the industry and who her key mentors were.)
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Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
