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This is an overwhelming list of fish: a menu big enough to double as a wobble board, and featuring the greatest hits of Australian seafood, from redthroat emperor caught off the Great Barrier Reef to scallops harvested off Tasmania’s Flinders Island. There is pearl meat from the Kimberley, there are tuna collars from Mooloolaba. There’s flathead, crab, kingfish, trevally, oysters, coral trout, lobster, cattledog cod, calamari and Spencer Gulf prawns.

“You’ve come on the wrong day,” says Neil Perry half-jokingly as he walks past our table. “We’ve usually got more fish than that.”

The chef’s dedication to wild, sustainable seafood isn’t the only reason Margaret was awarded Restaurant of the Year in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide this week, but it’s certainly a big one.

The farmed Murray cod on every second menu in town is undeniably clean-tasting and juicy, but compared to line-caught coral trout direct from North Queensland, say, it’s Volkswagen versus Ferrari.

Perry opened Margaret on his own dime in Double Bay two years ago, not too long after retiring from Rockpool Dining Group and his reputation-making restaurants. Locals immediately made the corner-site their clubhouse, drawn to the Bordeaux-strong cellar, leather banquettes and all-round beautiful fit-out.

There’s also the pull of Perry’s near-constant presence in the kitchen or on the floor. On my recent Sunday visit, he’s explaining to guests that rough weather conditions have inhibited some of his favourite suppliers from hitting the water that week. Margaret’s most popular dish – grill-kissed King George whiting caught by Corner Inlet fisher Bruce Collis – is off the carte.

“Bruce’s southern garfish” ($52) is on, though, butterflied and flavoured with a lick of wood fire, plus yuzu and chilli oil to bring out its oceanic sweetness. It’s a fish that stops conversation.

From the same Victorian waters, there’s calamari glazed in miso ($32), which is plucked from the grill at precisely the right moment. Not too tender, not too firm, with kimchi salad for crunch.

Richard Purdue co-leads the kitchen, and the chef has the confidence to let the produce do the talking.

Presentation can border on austere – that signature whiting ($59) is served naked except for lemon and delicate hojiblanca olive oil – but the flavour’s so long and gripping it asks only for a green salad ($12) and crisp-edged spuds ($16) on the side. With a spoonful of XO butter, filleted coral trout ($59)
is the best version of itself.

There are 23 (!) entrees now, almost double the amount on Margaret’s opening menu, and steak tartare ($32) is the only red meat-centric option. I’d wager it’s a fine example of the form, but it’s hard to bypass goldspot trevally sashimi ($34) underlined by nutty salsa macha, or thick slices of raw albacore tuna pumped up with kombu and brown rice vinegar ($34). More aged riesling, please.

Many dishes are based on tried-and-true flavour combinations from Perry’s South-East Asian playbook. A salad of hand-picked blue swimmer crab ($42) is packed with cashews, green mango and nubs of caramelised pork, so each mouthful reveals a new texture or impressively fresh taste.

Spicy pork sausages stuffed with scallop and prawn ($34) come with peanut relish, cucumber and thin-sliced pineapple – a glorious marriage of pulsing acidity and luscious fat.

The wine team can pair fish or cow across a broad range of prices, and service is calmly efficient.

And those other reasons for the Restaurant of the Year gong? Well, the steaks are second-to-none, particularly a David Blackmore wagyu rump ($70), rich and cardinal-red beneath its dark crust. The wine team can pair fish or cow across a broad range of prices, and service is calmly efficient – especially when Perry’s wife Samantha and daughters Josephine, Macy and Indy are on the floor. A family-run restaurant if ever there was one.

It’s fun to see “Sam and Neil’s wedding cake” ($18) on the dessert list, too, 20 years after the couple first served it. Inspired by America’s century-old Lady Baltimore cake, the bourbon-spiked sponge is layered with creamy, almost ethereal meringue, and it’s the only time I’ve ever seen gold leaf on a dish and thought “Fair enough”. Order whatever fish you fancy, but don’t miss dessert.

I should also mention Margaret’s sibling bar, Next Door, and attached sourdough shop Baker Bleu. Both top destinations in their own right. Next year, Perry World is set to expand again, this time with a cocktail bar and Asian-inspired spot around the corner. But Margaret remains at the heart of it – a swish place to catch up for a two-bottle lunch, not to mention one of Australia’s great seafood restaurants.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine