Revealed: The great Sydney restaurants the ‘best’ lists leave out

Is the 20th best restaurant in town really twice as good as the 40th? Why do some of the biggest lists of best restaurants get it wrong? They have their limits.

A tricky business, this whole question of ranking and rating restaurants.

A little way’s back there was a whole kerfuffle in the foodie world when the annual San Pellegrino Top 50 world restaurants list came out, accompanied by a whole lot of head-scratching over just how the list was put together: Who knew, for example, that South America was the hot continent for gourmet dining?

Indeed a little googling reveals that pretty much every year the list makes someone miserable, and not just restaurateurs who didn’t make the cut.

Activisty-type people determined to suck the joy out of fine dining like the marrow from a slow braised lamb shank, love to complain that the list is not “diverse” enough – or, to use the currently fashionable word, “inclusive”.

Is it any coincidence the geographical focus shifted after 2019’s list was panned for being too heavy on European and American joints.

Buon Ricordo Italian restaurant in Paddington. Picture: Bob Barker

Chefs, meanwhile, note that the whole thing is an opaque black box rived with cliques and infected with “I’ll vote for you if you vote for me” logrolling.

This column’s biggest beef with the list was that Australia barely rated a mention, with Melbourne diner Gimlet the only one to crack even the runner-up top 100 list, coming in at 84.

Truly delicious: Oncore Restaurant, Sydney. Picture: Supplied

Why do we mention this?

Well, having done a fair bit of travelling before and after (and even, shhh!, during) the pandemic, The Mouth reckons this is nonsense.

Of course we have our own lists here in Australia, most recently the delicious. 100 rankings of restaurants in our various capital cities.

And even here, there are pitfalls.

This column bows to no one in its love of Pellegrino 2000, and in fact gave it a pretty good wrap some months ago.

But is it the number one restaurant in Sydney? Well, that’s a bit of a stretch. That honour we would give to Oncore by Clare Smyth.

Likewise, after a certain point in the list the numbers become a bit meaningless.

Is poly (ranked #20) really twice the dining experience of a’Mare (#40)?

An emerging food trend from the delicious. 100 list was the popularity of the martini. Picture: Supplied.

But the biggest issue with all these sorts of lists is that they ignore both the true classics that are too good to play the game, and the small joints that are true discoveries and where one can often have a better and more authentic experience than some four-figure night of being fussed over.

It may not be trendy, but Paddington’s Buon Ricordo should get a mention just for the sheer staying power.

Where are all the great Chinese dumpling and noodle houses in Haymarket and Ashfield?

And with the geographical centre of the city shifting ever westward, would it kill someone to go west of Camperdown and have a feast at, say Summerland Lebanese in Bankstown?

This column is well aware that it lives in a glass house here, but it is a good reminder to us all – list maker, amateur critic, and diner alike.