600+ restaurant reviews, one big celebration: Winners revealed at Good Food Guide Awards

• The complete list of winners
• The full list of hats

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded chef of the year to pastry chef Lauren Eldridge before a 500-strong crowd of hospitality’s most influential figures, including Peter Gilmore and Kylie Kwong, at Carriageworks on Monday.

The annual Good Food Guide Awards, presented by T2 Tea and Oceania Cruises, celebrated everything that made Sydney, Canberra and the surrounding regions such vibrant places to eat and drink in 2025 – from neighbourhood cafes with exceptional hospitality to fine-dining restaurants at the very pinnacle of excellence.

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Eldridge is a former Good Food young chef of the year winner who has gone on to work at Stokehouse Restaurants, Berowra Waters Inn and now Paisano and Daughters, the hospitality group behind Newtown restaurants Mister Grotto, Osteria Mucca and Continental Deli.

In the 41 years since former chief restaurant reviewer Leo Schofield (“Mr Public Stomach”) launched Sydney’s Good Food Guide to eating well, only three other women have been named chef of the year: Annita Potter from Woolloomooloo Thai restaurant Viand (2023), Katrina Kanetani for her pastry work at Rose Bay’s Pier (2007), and Josephine Pignolet, who won the award with husband Damien in 1986 when they ran French restaurant Claude’s in Woollahra.

Good Food Guide editors Callan Boys and David Matthews recognised Eldridge as an “excellent leader who strives to create a better hospitality industry for Australia”.

“In many ways, leading the pastry section is a professional kitchen’s most challenging role,” Boys said.

“There’s all the labour and attention to detail, on top of the pressure to create a dessert that’s so special, it can win over diners at the end of a meal.”

Eldridge’s desserts often become the restaurant’s biggest drawcard, whether it was when she was cooking at Marque in Surry Hills or Berowra Waters Inn.

“From the swirling tower of buttermilk soft serve with fig compote and gold-standard honeycomb at Mister Grotto, to the fondant lacework on her Sicilian canasta cake at Osteria Mucca, for Eldridge to have created such a comprehensive dessert menu across Paisano and Daughters’ four venues is a huge achievement,” Boys said.

Guests enjoyed food from Sydney restaurants including Maiz and its Enmore Road neighbour Firepop, Ho Jiakin the CBD and Darlinghurst’s Takam, which prepared Filipino-style suckling pigs.

Among the roll-call of new venues and cutting-edge cuisine, 40-year-old suburban restaurant Corner 75 stood out as one of the great stories of the night when it was named T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year.

Corner 75 re-opened in March under new custodians Jean-Paul El Tom and Alex Kelly from trailblazing restaurant Baba’s Place, and Dan Puskas of three-hatted Stanmore restaurant Sixpenny, who refreshed the menu while preserving the Hungarian magic of the original Randwick institution.

“It’s a great model for preserving our restaurant heritage, while still moving it forward,” Matthews said. “In a city starved of institutions, Corner 75 is a timely reminder that not only can walls talk, but that listening to them can result in something special.”

Faustina “Fuzzy” Agolley hosted the awards ceremony, in which saw Good Food Guide’s highest achievement, three hats, was awarded to Quay, Sixpenny, Oncore by Clare Smyth at Crown, and renowned chef Josh Niland’s Paddington restaurant Saint Peter.

Ecca Zhang, who left a career in law to take over his parents’ Potts Point restaurant TBC by Grape Garden, was recognised with the Oceania Cruises Service Excellence award, and the legend award went to Indian chef and restaurateur Kumar Mahadevan for his work in promoting Indian cuisine.

“Sydney’s Indian food is far more complex and vital today with considerable thanks to Kumar, who is still just as passionate about cooking [at his North Strathfield restaurant Abhi’s] today as he was 42 years ago when he stepped off the plane at Kingsford Smith,” Boys said.

CBD seafood and steak grill Eleven Barrack took home new restaurant of the year, while regional restaurant of the year went to EXP. in the Hunter Valley. Surry Hills noodle shop Ama was the critics’ pick of the year, and Yum Yum Bakery in Guildford was named cafe of the year after 35 years in operation.

For the second time, Guide editors worked in partnership with Bill Granger’s family to select a recipient of the Bill Grangertrailblazer award, which went to Indigiearth founder Sharon Winsor. The awards also recognised a cultural change champion, this year naming Sorry Not Sorry, a collective led by former Swillhouse employees advocating for safer workplaces in hospitality.

While it has been a bright year for the NSW hospitality sector, inflationary pressures pushed many restaurants to the brink. A consumer preference report published by Vypr and the Foodservice Association of Australia revealed 30 per cent of Australians are dining out less, and more than one in two (52 per cent) of diners would like to see better portion sizes or more value for money.

“It was a bumper year for new restaurant openings, particularly for established hospitality groups,” Boys said.

“But we’re also very aware that many restaurants are affected by COVID’s long tail and cost-of-living pressures. We hope this Guide will inspire readers to visit some independent restaurants for the first time, or book an old favourite they haven’t been to in years.

“With apologies to my friends and colleagues in Melbourne, Sydney still has the best and most diverse set of restaurants in Australia.”

The awards night marked the publication of the largest Good Food Guide to date, containing independent reviews of more than 600 restaurants, bars and cafes in the Good Food app, plus an 80-page magazine in the Herald on Tuesday.

The free lift-out presents a critics’ pick list of the 115 essential restaurants that defined dining out in NSW and the ACT this year. The full list of reviews is now exclusively available via the Good Food app.

A free 80-page Good Food Guide liftout with all the award winners and Critics’ Picks will be inserted in The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, October 14. The Good Food app is the home of the 2026 edition of the Good Food Guide, with more than 600 reviews. 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.