Fine dining
‘Back with a bang’: The restaurants with new hats (and lost hats) in The Age Good Food Guide 2025
An iconic fine diner reclaims its three-hat status. High-profile operators take hits. And omakase restaurants rise and fall.
- by Tomas Telegramma
Latest
Five regional restaurants worth a road trip – and the best spots to stop on the way
Destination dining in 2025 will be defined by these restaurants. The cheese shops, laidback pubs and cosy cafes along the way are a bonus.
- by Emma Breheny and Good Food Guide reviewers
The finalists for the three biggest awards at The Age Good Food Guide Awards, revealed
Ahead of The Age Good Food Guide awards on Monday night, these are the finalists for the biggest awards. You can be guaranteed they will be great.
- by Emma Breheny and Good Food Guide reviewers
The 40 defining dishes from 40 years of the SMH Good Food Guide
From Berowra Waters Inn brioche to fish liver chermoula: A dish-by-dish snapshot of the past 40 years of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.
- by Callan Boys and David Matthews
The complete list of winners at the SMH Good Food Guide 2025 Awards
From the coveted major prize categories to our two new awards, meet the best the NSW and ACT hospitality industry has to offer right now.
Opinion
Opinion
Australia is leading the world in bringing joy and friendliness to fine dining
As we announce the Service Excellence Award finalists for this year’s Good Food Guide, Melbourne’s chief restaurant critic celebrates the death of pompous, robotic service.
- by Besha Rodell
Can the dud end of Sydney’s CBD be saved? This heritage restoration sure thinks so
A warehouse building from 1886 has new life as a Japanese-inspired precinct of six restaurants and bars, in what some believe is a turning point for an unloved patch of the city.
- by Michael Koziol
As Charles ate airline food heading to Australia, I ate like a king in his own stately home
It is a new private dining experience which allows the public to enjoy the mother of all 18th-century feasts, served by a traditional butler, in the royal chamber.
- by Rob Harris
Top food critics to visit Ben Shewry restaurant after ‘oppressive’ rebuke
Weeks after one of Melbourne’s best-known chefs, Ben Shewry, excoriated food media in a new book, some of the world’s top critics will visit his fine dining restaurant as part of a taxpayer-funded tour.
- by Calum Jaspan and Tom Cowie
Chris Lucas reveals opening date and name of his hotly anticipated four-level Bourke Street ‘dining house’
Long-awaited Maison Batard will arrive with an executive chef who honed his craft at The Fat Duck and Noma, a subterranean supper club, and more.
- by Tomas Telegramma
How meeting a famous cook changed my whole relationship to food
My friendship with Stephanie Alexander marked a turning point in my life.
- by Annie Smithers
Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/fine-dining-hzh