he record-breaking, westward march of the Good Food Guide hats
Why are you more likely to find a restaurant with a hat in Newtown this year than in Potts Point?
A record number of restaurants in Sydney’s inner west have received the coveted chef’s hat Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Tuesday marked the hotel industry’s westward migration from historic hotspots like Potts Point and Paddington.
41st annual Good Food GuideIt includes independent reviews of more than 600 restaurants, cafes and bars in NSW and the ACT, published in an 80-page newspaper publication and on the Good Food app. Only restaurants that score exceptionally high on standardized measures of food, hospitality, experience and value are awarded the chef’s hat.
Twenty years ago there wasn’t a single hatted restaurant in Newtown, but this year 12 of the 111 Sydney restaurants awarded the hat are in the Inner West Council area. “There are now more hat restaurants on Enmore Road alone than in the whole of Potts Point, the traditional ‘hat’ fort,” he says Good Food Guide co-editor Callan Boys.
It’s the first time a Lidcombe restaurant (Korean soup specialist Yeodongsik) has made the list and a Guildford cafe (Yum Yum Bakery) has been awarded the Cafe of the Year Award.
Restaurant chef Alessandro Pavoni says his Italian restaurants in Enmore (one-hat newcomer Vineria Luisa) and Summer Hill (one-hat Postino Osteria, which opened late last year) can afford to be more adventurous than those in the CBD (a’Mare) and Mosman (Ormeggio on The Spit).
“I like to prepare unusual dishes using offal, organ meats and things like that, and in the inner west they are happy to try it, they love it, they come back and you get to show what Italian food really is beyond mainstream food,” Pavoni says.
The hospitality doyen took his first steps into the inner west with his wife Anna Pavoni in September 2024, attracted by the night-time economy, cheaper property prices and a higher proportion of renters on discretionary incomes.
“There are good opportunities around here, opportunities for both young and experienced chefs to open a successful business here, and customers will follow, they will want to come and try new and different things,” he says.
Ambitious restaurateurs are often attracted to high-income, high-density areas where people are more likely to eat out regularly, Boys notes. “That’s why there are fewer hat restaurants in the northern suburbs; if you have a big kitchen, you’re more likely to eat at home,” he says.
“As smart operators continue to follow the market and suburban growth, I suspect we will see more innovation, ambition and investment in restaurants outside the inner-city bubble.”
Good Food Guide Associate editor David Matthews says he has also made changes to the 30-year-old scoring system to broaden its scope.
“A score of two out of 20 was given for ‘X-factor,’ which tended to favor venues disproportionately with water views or a well-known chef. After COVID, we replaced ‘X-factor’ with ‘value,’ and that shook things up.”
“There’s no point flagging a family-run noodle restaurant because it doesn’t offer table service, just like there’s no point in upgrading a fine dining restaurant just because it does. It needs to be enforced.” [whatever it has set out to do].
“The more we push the ratings in this direction, the more we will see that the hats given to restaurants nail their own brief rather than fitting into a box.”
Juan Carlos Negrete is the executive chef and co-owner of Newtown Mexican restaurant Maiz, which is moving to Enmore Road in 2024 and is getting a hat. Good Food Guide. The increasing number of hats west of Pyrmont “represents a cultural shift in the way we look at food”, he says.
“On the one hand, you have the big operators who have the capital to create big, beautiful places in the CBD and hire amazing chefs, but there is also recognition emerging for a different kind of restaurant where chefs share their culture through a variety of products and techniques.”
Further down Enmore Road, chef Raymond Hou weaves traditional Chinese flavors with NSW produce and fire cooking at Firepop, the one-hat restaurant he owns with partner Alina Van. The menu is completely unique; It includes dishes like wagyu toast with sea urchin butter and local lemon, pork jowl, and scallop skewers with oyster cream.
Australia Street restaurateurs Elvis Abrahanowicz, Sarah Doyle and Joe Valore were among the first hospitality groups to expand from Surry Hills (where they still run Argentinian steakhouse Porteno) to Newtown, opening Continental Deli in 2015.
They join a wave of successful independent restaurants gaining traction in the area, including two-hat Cafe Paci, one-hat Osteria di Russo, and Russo and Hartsyard (now closed).
Earlier this year the Continental team expanded its presence on Australia Street to three more venues: Osteria Mucca and Mister Grotto (both were tipped off on Monday); and Joe’s Tavern, which opened Wednesday. Lauren Eldridge, the executive pastry chef behind these venues, was named Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year at the awards.
“The hospitality scene here has gone from strength to strength,” says Doyle. “It’s not just cheap eats or fast food, it’s so much more… and I’d like to think Continental gives other people confidence that yes, there are legs in the inner west.”
The Good Food app is the home of the 2026 edition of Good Food. Sydney Morning Herald Good Food GuideWith over 600 reviews, including 115 Critics’ Picks. The app is free for premium subscribers. SMH and is also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app Here.
Bianca Crovat- Bianca is Good Food’s Sydney dining out and restaurant editor.
