Picture yourself in a buzzy restaurant, a drink at your fingertips, listening to your dining companion tell you about the gorgeous but highly stressed rescue dog she’s just acquired. A dish is placed in front of you. You say thanks to the waiter, and pop in a mouthful as you scroll through iPhone close-ups of the dog.

Suddenly, you sit up in your chair. This dish. It’s delicious. You focus. You thought it sounded good, but this is extra. It’s better than it sounded on paper, greater than the sum of its parts. For the Good Food team, these are the moments that crown our year. These are the places we drag our nearest and dearest back to at the first opportunity.

Here then, are the dishes that made us sit bolt upright in 2023.

Ardyn Bernoth, National Good Food editor

Rigatoni with gin, pomodoro and fermented chilli at Bistro George, Sydney CBD

If I’m honest, I rarely meet a pasta I don’t like. But this dreamy bowl of rigatoni has been living in my head rent-free since I ate it. It’s simultaneously lush and spicy, and the acid from the juicy tomatoes is perfectly balanced.

I sadly had to share it with my partner, but I was somewhat placated by the glow from the dirty martini, the music of a live four-piece jazz band mingling with the Friday night hubbub permeating from the pub below. Bistro George is a cool scene, and this is an extremely tasty dish. Combined, it was outstanding.jacksonsongeorge.com.au

RUNNER-UP

Cheeseburger at the Caterpillar Club, Sydney CBD

It was a toss up between two Swillhouse venues for my runner up. I can’t stop thinking about Le Foote’s cheese pie (it’s so good), but this cheeseburger has not only slid into the city’s best burger list, it’s taken a spot in my heart. Order one of Caterpillar’s stellar cocktails and this meaty burg for a five-star experience. swillhouse.com

Sarah Norris

Trippa alla Romana at Palazzo Salato, Sydney CBD

It’s tripe, so you have already got me by the ankles. And it’s cooked alla Romana, in rich, tomatoey juices that kick with the warm chilli burn of ’nduja. And then it’s studded with big, fat, creamy beans, just to blow my mind.

Exec chef/co-owner of this big, buzzy city trattoria, Scott McComas-Williams, is better known for his pasta, and that’s great, too − especially the ruffled ribbons of mafaldine with spanner crab and sea urchin butter.

But it’s these fingers of tender, honeycombed tripe that immediately filed themselves under My Best Dish of the Year. palazzosalato.com

RUNNER-UP

Pork and century egg congee at Royal Palace, Chinatown

Some congee is just boiled rice. Then there’s this one, with its layers of creamy textures and balance between the sweetness of rice and savouriness of pork. So not just boiled rice. royalpalace.au

Terry Durack

King George whiting at Margaret, Double Bay

If there can only be one dish, then it has to be the King George whiting at Margaret in Double Bay, wild-caught by Bruce Collis of Corner Inlet, dry-filleted and wood-grilled. Nothing matches it for purity, integrity and deep ocean sweetness. It comes on a plate drizzled with Hojiblanca extra virgin olive oil, scattered with Murray River salt and a touch of lemon, accompanied by absolutely nothing else, because nothing else is needed.margaretdoublebay.com

RUNNER-UP

Wood-roasted pork belly ssam at King Clarence, Sydney CBD

Apply the technique of Khanh Nguyen (back from Melbourne’s Sunda and Aru), to a Korean ssam of crunchy/soft pork belly teamed with crisp leaves, kimchi and a gorgeous oyster cream, and it’s Sydney’s finest do-it-yourself dinner. bentleyrestaurantgroup.com.au/kingclarence

Jill Dupleix

Whole flounder ambot tik at Raja, Potts Point

Chef Ahana Dutt is on a mission to introduce more Sydneysiders to the tapestry of genres and styles that is regional Indian cooking.

Raja’s flounder – cooked just to the point of submission – slides cleanly off the bone before hurtling into orbit with a Goan-style sauce featuring chillies, tomato, ginger and plenty of tamarind. A scattering of beach succulent karkalla adds briny freshness to the sour and tang, and suggests the beginning of a beautiful friendship between native Australian ingredients and Indian cuisine.

I need to return for the North Queensland mud crab finished with butter and pepperberry too. raja.sydney

RUNNER-UP

Chip butty at Derrel’s, Camperdown

At Derrel’s, best described as “Mumbai canteen meets British greasy spoon”, Brendan King taps into his Indian-Irish heritage and serves hot chips on a pav-style roll. The crunch of bronzed chips against soft bread is aggressively delicious as is, but King also boosts his butty with a rich butter chicken gravy of far-reaching flavour. It’s been a good year for new Indian restaurants run by innovative young chefs. derrels.com.au

Callan Boys

Petit bouillabaisse at Martinez, Sydney

I’ll never say no to a bowl of bouillabaisse. This complex French seafood soup is a special alchemy of fish and shellfish with olive oil, tomatoes, parsley and garlic, and the “petite” version served at Martinez is a cracker.

It’s loaded with mussels, clams and (my favourite) Moreton Bay bug, plus pops of hand-rolled fregola and zucchini flowers stuffed with prawn mousse and scallop meat, all dressed in dollops of rouille spiked with aged gochujang paste.

The seafood is incredible but let’s be real – this dish is all about the richly coloured saffron-infused bisque made for swiping with great hunks of bread. In this case, a crusty, rustic baguette baked in-house across the way at sister venue Grana. martinez.sydney

RUNNER-UP

Wood-fired Spencer Gulf king prawns at Bistro George, Sydney CBD

Wood-fired king prawns rarely need much dressing up but at Bistro George the clever addition of generous spoonfuls of romesco and a few bitey radicchio leaves turn up the deliciousness to another level altogether. Brilliant.

Megan Johnston

Roasted quail with sweet and sour sauce at Bistro Livi, Murwillumbah

I’m a bit naughty calling out this dish because the menu at this Northern Rivers marvel is highly seasonal, and may not be on if you ever make it to Murwillumbah, about 45 minutes from Byron Bay. But go anyway. There is an excellence that permeates the floor and the food here that seems to spark extra delight because of this unlikely location: a town prone to flooding, surrounded by sugar cane, still waiting for its moment in the tourism sun.

The quail was my favourite dish the night I visited, plump and juicy in a sweet-sour sauce of pomegranate molasses, currants, capers and pine nuts. But you’ll have fun even if you sit outside in the courtyard and eat snacks as the sun sets over the Art Precinct it is set in. bistrolivi.com

RUNNER-UP

Slow-cooked peas with anchovies, chilli and garlic at Margaret, Double Bay

Look, it’s ugly. Kinda spew green. But boy, this dish of slow-cooked peas is the bomb. Forget the seafood caught by fishermen chef Neil Perry knows by name. I’m coming back for a plate of heavenly mush. margaretdoublebay.com

Ardyn Bernoth