NSW Good Food Guide Awards 2024 LIVE updates: Neil Perry’s Margaret named Restaurant of the Year; full list of winners and hats

Thanks for following our live coverage of the Sydney Herald Good Food Guide Awards.

Read all about the ceremony in our news story here, peruse the full list of hats and find out more about the major award winners. 

And let’s do it all again next week in Melbourne for The Age Good Food Guide Awards. See you there!

The glossy 148-page The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2024 NSW and ACT magazine is on sale tomorrow (Tuesday, October 24), and will be available to purchase for $14.95 from newsagents, supermarkets and thestore.com.au.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2024 magazine.Credit:

From one hat to three, here’s the essential list of every hat-winning restaurant from the SMH Good Food Guide 2024.

Credit: Marija Ercegovac

The Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year is the final award of the night. From the coveted major prize categories to our new awards, Innovator and Critics’ Pick of the Year, let’s recap all the major winners, before we get to the full list of hats.

And the winners are...

• Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year: Margaret, Double Bay
• Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year: Josh Niland
• Three-hat awards: Oncore by Clare Smyth; Quay; Sixpenny
• Aurum Poultry New Restaurant of the Year: Such and Such, Canberra
• Critics’ Pick Award: Malay Chinese Noodle Bar, Circular Quay
• Regional Restaurant of the Year: Bistro Livi, Murwillumbah
• New Regional Restaurant of the Year: Bar Heather, Byron Bay
• Cafe of the Year: Happyfield, Haberfield
• Innovator of the Year: Shaun Christie-David, Plate it Forward
• Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award: Alice Dwyer, Pipit
• Vittoria Coffee Legend Award: Kylie Kwong
• Smeg Young Chef of the Year: Shashank Achuta, Brasserie 1930
• Oceania Cruises Drinks List of the Year: Yellow Billy, Pokolbin
• Sommelier of the Year: Max Gurtler, Oncore by Clare Smyth
• Bar of the Year: PS40, Sydney CBD

Congratulations to Neil Perry and his Margaret restaurant family for taking out the coveted title.

“Neil Perry redefined the great Australian restaurant with Rockpool in 1989, now he’s redefining what the great seafood restaurant should be,” says Guide editor Callan Boys. “There are a whopping 23 entrees on the menu at Margaret, and the vast majority feature sustainable, wild-caught Australian fish.

“It’s also a beautiful room where you can sit back and enjoy a two-bottle lunch in the hands of a well-rehearsed floor team. Neil is in the kitchen more often than not, with wife Samantha and daughters Josephine, Macy and Indy on the floor.

Neil Perry (centre) and the service team at Margaret restaurant in Double Bay.Credit: Jessica Hromas

“In a dining space increasingly dominated by the same hospitality groups, Sydney needs more singular family-run restaurants like it.”

However, eagle-eyed readers will note that Margaret was not awarded the coveted “three hats” bestowed on a restaurant scoring 18/20 or higher.

“You don’t need the Guide’s highest score to be named Restaurant of the Year,” explains Boys. “We’re looking for somewhere that pushes the hospitality industry forward and supports Australian producers, as well as cooking straight-up delicious food.”

Perry was also awarded a hat in the first edition of the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, published in 1984. Back then, it was for a deft hand with “marvellous local fish” at Barrenjoey House, and the same applies almost four decades later.

Talk about full circle. Let’s give a big round of applause to Perry.

Congratulations to Oncore by Clare Smyth, Quay and Sixpenny for retaining their elite three-hat status, scoring 18, 18.5 and 18 (out of 20) respectively.

Special mention is made to Quay for its record 22-year run(!) of three hats.

From left: dishes from Sixpenny, Quay and Oncore by Clare Smyth.Credit: Edwina Pickles; Nikki To; Supplied

Congratulations to Josh Niland, who finally lands the big award! The chef behind Saint Peter, Petermen, Charcoal Fish and Fish Butchery is the Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year.

Josh Niland is a big fish in the seafood cooking scene.Credit: Louie Douvis

“The award is certainly overdue,” says Guide editor Callan Boys. “Josh has long been developing and refining techniques that make use of every part of the fish, and changing the way Australians think about cooking and eating seafood. It’s not all flathead mortadella though – he also happens to fry the best fish and chips in town.”

Josh is in Singapore preparing to open a restaurant, so his wife Julie Niland is here to accept the award, which she says has been an ambition of Josh’s. Congratulations Mr Niland.

Congrats to Such and Such in the nation’s capital (yes, the Guide covers ACT, too!) for being named this year’s hottest newcomer.

“Whether you’re keen for a quick pasta or longer innings featuring perfectly roasted duck with fish-sauce caramel, Such and Such never skimps on comfort or creativity,” says Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide editor Callan Boys.

“Popping with terrazzo tiles, local ceramics and art by young Australian artists, Such and Such represents everything that’s fresh and thrilling about dining across NSW and the ACT, right now.”

Read Callan’s full review here and acquaint yourself with the other hot, new contenders to add to your restaurant hit list.

Such and Such’s cheerful interior.Credit: Rohan Thomson