They include Restaurant of the Year, New Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year. Consider this the Good Food Guide cheat sheet of the most exciting places to eat in NSW and the ACT right now.
As co-editors of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, there are two questions we receive more than most people. “Do restaurants know when you’re coming in?” and “Where should I book for lunch next week?”
Firstly: no, not if we can help it. Secondly: it depends. What do you feel like? Stonkingly delicious charcoal-grilled meats and the kind of beef-dripping-fried chips where one bowl is never enough? A highly technical tasting menu and water views? Matzo ball soup in a chicken broth that’s as comforting as any grandmother’s hug? Sydney, NSW and the ACT’s restaurants can do it all, and we’ve tried to capture some of that breadth across the finalists for the three biggest awards in the Good Food Guide 2026.
You can also consider the following list as a cheat sheet to the most exciting places to eat across the state right now. The fine-dining chefs at the top of their game; the newcomers bringing riveting ideas to the table. The winner will be announced at the Good Food Guide Awards on Monday October 13, and you can follow the Herald’s live blog of the event from 3pm.
Oceania Cruises Service Excellence
Executes the highest standard of hospitality relevant to their establishment, from attitude and skill to knowledge and personality.
Ecca Zhang, TBC by Grape Garden
Zhang left a career in law to work with his parents at their tiny Potts Point restaurant, but you get the impression he’s come up through Sydney’s most service-focused fine diners. Tea is poured, bottles are opened, and outdoor tables are turned at a rapid pace while regulars are greeted with a smile and informed of any new dishes. “It’s all very human based … chatting with people, learning what they like,” he says. It’s also a great privilege to be able to help mum and dad further explain their food and our culture to everybody who wants to dine with us.”
Jessica Fletcher, Muse Restaurant
Muse is the Hunter Valley’s most consistent talent pipeline. Jessica Fletcher grew into the waiter she was there, left, then returned in 2023. Now as restaurant manager, the team is as strong as ever, continuing a tradition of upskilling that brings young locals into the industry and helps them thrive, without ever losing sight of the diner.
Alice Tremayne, Corner 75
If it’s a great Hungarian wine, and it’s distributed in Australia, chances are Alice Tremayne has tracked it down. If it’s a customer who has been a Corner 75 regular for decades, and is unsure about the new owners’ changes to the menu, chances are she’s won them over before they can say “I guess we’ll try the gundel palacsinta”. Tremayne manages her restaurant with efficiency and poise, and a warmth that indicates Randwick’s oldest Hungarian institution has a strong future ahead of it.
Ivey Wawn, Fontana
Possessing a preternatural ability to anticipate every need before it even arises, Ivey Wawn, the co-owner and manager at breezy Italian restaurant Fontana in Redfern, treads the floor with a grace in keeping with her former life as a dancer. A subtle adaptability and warmth echoes through the upstairs space, and her team shares her generosity of spirit.
Leigh Oliver and Hugh Piper, Hey Rosey
When most other kitchens in regional towns – heck, most kitchens in Sydney – have long stopped taking orders, Hugh Piper and Leigh Oliver are still sending out snacks, chatting to guests about local Orange wine, and taking tourists and bolted-on regulars through the daily-changing menu. Hey Rosey is committed to serving its full menu right up until 11pm, which is the kind of thing you can do when there’s only two induction tops, a meat slicer and small oven.
Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year
A chef at the forefront of dining, setting new standards, leading by example and contributing positively to their broader community.
Timothy Cassimatis, Olympic Meats
The owner-chef of Sydney’s busiest gyradiko-slash-taverna, Cassimatis has broken down every part of the cuisine he grew up with, then put it back together again in Marrickville, just bigger, bolder, tastier. The result is a place in keeping with the old-school Greek restaurants this city loves, but also very much shaping the next version of them.
Ben Devlin, Pipit
No restaurant feels as personal as Pipit in Pottsville. Partners Yen Trinh and Ben Devlin run the show, with Devlin doing as much from scratch as possible. Plates are made from ground-up fish bones, the chef’s gyotaku art prints hang in the dining room, but it’s what’s on the plate, driven by Northern Rivers produce, sustainability and a DIY attitude, that truly impresses.
Lauren Eldridge, Paisano and Daughters
Dessert? Optional. Except, that is, when Lauren Eldridge is making it. From the honeycomb with cultured cream at Marque to the artful rhubarb-yoghurt number at Berowra Waters Inn, an Eldridge dessert is always essential. Now, her presence at Paisano and Daughters, a strip of four restaurants in Newtown, has resulted in the biggest hits-per-square-footage ratio in the city.
Mat Lindsay, Ester, Poly and A.P Bakery
While baker Dougal Muffet is the dough master behind A.P’s deeply flavoured pastries, bread and cakes, we need to talk about Mat Lindsay, too. Ester and Poly, in Chippendale and Surry Hills respectively, have never been better, and these days the chef is also responsible for the most delicious all-day menu in town at Darlinghurst’s A.P Bread & Wine (give us our daily drunken eggs in chicken broth) and rotisserie sandwiches to rule them all at A.P Quay.
Joel Bickford, The Point Group
Directing the kitchens of two two-hatted restaurants is no small task, but Joel Bickford’s dishes are executed with a high degree of skill and smarts across Shell House and The International in the CBD. You won’t find many deeper and stickier versions of classic sauces in town, and while many of his dishes lean on nostalgia and comfort, there’s also an energy to Bickford’s cooking; a chef always looking forward.
T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year
A restaurant setting benchmarks for food and service, pushing the hospitality industry forward and supporting Australian producers.
Bathers’ Pavilion, Mosman
There are enduring pleasures to a table at Bathers’ Pavilion: blue-and-white striped linen, boathouse-chic interiors, sunlight catching the waves. In settings like these, food can fade to the background, but it’s testament to chef Aaron Ward’s nous that it sits front and centre, with dishes read classic but build in unexpected moves.
Corner 75, Randwick
Corner 75 is one of Sydney’s most singular and nurturing dining experiences. Jean-Paul El Tom and Alex Kelly from Marrickville’s Baba’s Place, and Sixpenny’s Dan Puskas collaborated on the 40-year-old restaurant, paying homage to its legacy with painstaking interior restorations, a Euro-heavy wine list and a Hungarian menu rippling with schmaltz.
Onzieme, Canberra
It’s almost storybook: Louis Couttoupes went to Paris a civil servant and came back a chef. But this corner brasserie doesn’t feel like a career-crisis fancy – there’s depth and rigour here that’s very real. Whether it’s the adventurous menu, the service, or wine, the defining vibe is an almost exuberant confidence, and it’s backed up by very real commitment to mentoring, staff training and inclusivity across the board.
Pilu at Freshwater, Freshwater
There’s an easy sense of hospitality at this 21-year-old seaside restaurant. Giovanni Pilu’s Sardinian roots show in the hand-made culurgiones (“little parcels of love”, says the waiter) and the signature roast suckling pig, and the refreshed menu jumps with good ideas such as Aquna Murray cod with fennel and black olives.
Ester, Chippendale
Chef Mat Lindsay’s menu of fermentation and fire is an orchestrated balance of comfort and complexity, from scorched cheddar pie with molten cheese, stretching and snapping with each pull; to twice-cooked duck, caramelised skin sweetened by cherry-red muntries. Add an unfailing service team, and it’s small wonder Ester remains a firm favourite.
The winners of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2026 Awards will be announced on Monday, October 13, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea.
The awards ceremony will be live-blogged via the SMH from 3pm, and the 2026 edition of the Guide will be available on the Good Food app from 8pm. A free 80-page Good Food Guide liftout will be inserted in the Herald on Tuesday, October 14.
The home of the Good Food Guide, the app is free for premium subscribers of the SMH and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app here.
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David Matthews is a food writer and editor, and co-editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025.
