The scores are in and the results are official – The Hunter is home to five of Australia’s top restaurants, with the recently released national Good Food Guide awarding restaurants in Pokolbin, Mount View and Broke with hat-status.
Pokolbin was a standout, with Muse Restaurant receiving 2 hats, and Muse Kitchen and Restaurant Botanica achieving 1 hat respectively. Mount View’s Bistro Molines and Broke’s Margan Restaurant also received one hat.
The Guide of independent, anonymous reviews is written by a panel of trusted restaurant critics and recognises the best Australian restaurants nationally with ‘hats’, symbolised by a chef’s toque.
To secure a coveted spot in the Guide, restaurants in New South Wales and Victoria must score at least 14 out of 20, while all other states must score a minimum of 15.
To achieve a hat is a pinnacle of a chef’s career and a restaurant’s history, and the term ‘hatted’ has become embedded in the Australian lexicon.
More than 500 restaurants from across the country were reviewed for this year’s Guide, with 264 of these receiving hat status, ranging from one to three.
Only seven restaurants nationally achieved the top accolade of three hats, and they include Attica (VIC), Brae (VIC), Momofuku Seiobo (NSW), Minamishima (VIC), Quay (NSW), Restaurant Orana (SA) and Sixpenny (NSW).
The catalogue of influential Guide editors includes founding editors Claude Forell in Melbourne and Leo Schofield in Sydney – along with Terry Durack, Jill Dupleix and Matthew Evans – who have charted the growth of the restaurant industry in Australia, and helped to shape it.
It is this rich 39-year tradition that the 2019 Good Food Guide editor Myffy Rigby upholds, ensuring the Guide remains Australia’s pre-eminent restaurant bible.
“The second annual national Good Food Guide is a reflection of the thousands of voices that make Australia one of the most diverse and delicious places to eat in the world. The Guide is a celebration of the industry as a whole. Every one of the restaurants featured is a summation of all those moving parts. We recognise the hard work of all those Australian restaurants and everything they do to enrich the scene.”
The score breakdown for reviews and awarding of hats is:
14 Good
1 hat 15 Very good
2 hats 16 Great
2 hats 17 Excellent
3 hats 18 Outstanding
3 hats 19 Incredible
3 hats 20 Perfection
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