Food, service, wine, X-factor

This year’s Hot 50 includes some truly exceptional restaurants, and maybe a few future institutions.

Bar Margaux. Picture: Gareth Sobey

Somewhere out there, as you read these words, someone with a smartphone is begging a restaurant for free food in exchange for Instagram exposure and “positive reviews” on all sorts of social media platforms. For some of us it’s a source of irritation; for most in the restaurant industry it’s an affront (although some still, unfortunately, indulge the begging-bowl “bloggers”).

The hashtag #couscousforcomment – my way of calling out this insidious practice – turned into a bona fide thing in 2019, and the phenomenon of bought opinion masquerading as independent thought got a small but significant kick in the arse. Meantime, we plug on doing things the old-fashioned, expensive way; it tends to produce a result that works for the reader, rather than the author.

Which leads us to this year’s The List — Hot 50 Restaurants (app users, click the “Magazine” section on the app to view The List). The underlying criteria remain (as always) excellence in food, service, wine and the unmeasurable X-factor that takes you somewhere special when you eat out.

“Hot” never meant best. But now, more than ever, Hot is about the zeitgeist in restaurant land, where we are “at”. This year, the emphasis has shifted from a broad appraisal – the old, the new and those between – to focus on restaurants that are new, or have been substantially reinvented/restaffed, in the past 18 months, and restaurants that have not previously been on the list, in some cases because they hid their light under a bushel. We don’t pretend to appraise every restaurant in the country, and anyone who says they do is kidding themselves, and you. We do, however, visit hundreds of new restaurants each year, book anonymously, pay, and make a professional judgment based on a lot of experience.

The Hot 50 includes some truly exceptional restaurants, and maybe even a few future institutions. They all tick the boxes, and as always, we give them no numerical ranking. But we do name a few category stars.

Madre, Adelaide. Picture: Sam Roberts

Our Hottest Restaurant for 2019 is a name that’s been around for many years: Quay. Yet it is, in so many senses, an entirely new proposition in 2019. Thoroughly rebuilt and redesigned last year, the menu and its structure changed radically, too. Chef Peter Gilmore has found another gear with new dishes, new simplicity, new produce, new drive. Our most recent meal at Quay left no doubt that this is a world-class restaurant with unique food by the country’s best chef, and with the demise of Sepia and The Bridge Room, the contemporary fine dining crown has no other possible head.

As usual, it’s difficult to draw hard conclusions from the list per se: there are hotel restaurants and places that epitomise chef-owned and driven; restaurants that exist within hospitality groups, and those that have grown out of partnerships with a strong background in bars. You can cut the cake a lot of different ways, but they all have certain things in common. We’ve mentioned food/service/wine; dig deeper and you’ll find a commitment to sourcing that goes above and beyond: seasonality, grower relationships and, of course, their own kitchen gardens. A lot of restaurants are growing their own stuff. In the best restaurants, the connection with growers makes the experience more personal, feel more tailored.

The same goes for wine: the savvy restaurateur finds wine that works with the food and broadens our horizons. More than ever, that will include styles variously described as “natural”, “orange”, “low-intervention” or “skin contact”. And as a broad observation, the standard of wine-waiter knowledge has never been higher. The bad news, for drinkers anyway, is that while menu prices have moved relatively little, wine prices have seemingly absorbed the cost increases restaurateurs experience.

As for regional differences, the only obvious yin/yang has been WA and Queensland: many of the former’s new restaurants lack lustre, simply don’t tick sufficient boxes; but in the Sunshine State – Brisbane in particular – a rash of newbies has been matched with operators delivering the full experience.

The bottom line? Our restaurants need to be very good because they are, by world standards, expensive. Australia has the highest minimum wage in the world and that is one of many factors affecting the labour costs in restaurants. That and an administrative cocktail of awards, penalty rates, EBAs and a highly casualised workforce have led some of our larger restaurant and hospitality companies down a disturbing path with the Fair Work Commission over the past year, unintentionally or not.If you think things are expensive now, wait until every restaurant worker in the country is paid fairly and according to the law. Eat up now, while you can.

Read now: The List — Hot 50 Restaurants

Trending now

A chef puts together something interesting in the kitchen, sticks it on the menu, sells a lot of it, posts it on Instagram and suddenly it’s a trend. Dining out in the past year, we couldn’t help but notice the following…

Taramasalata or whipped cod roe, call it what you will; fancy versions of emulsified fish eggs are big business.

Sardines made the greatest comeback since Lazarus, and for good reason. The quality of this fish, mainly from WA and SA, has inspired a lot of great cooking.

Kohlrabi, squid, octopus, spanner crab, bottarga… so many kitchens, so many menus.

Raw meats or tartares of everything from lamb to beef, emu, wallaby – usually topped with cured egg yolk.

Italian specialties gnocco fritto, stracciatella and burrata burned bright, as did a nascent interest in the specialties of cucina Romana (have we reached peak cacio e pepe?).
Flatbreads, naans, crumpets, waffles… bread has gone to a whole new level, often with a price attached. Sometimes that’s fair, sometimes not.

Snacks are now a fixture on every tasting menu/degustation in the land. Often, they’re the best bit of lunch.

And going cold

Indigenous ingredients: for many chefs, the new toy of 2016 finally has flat batteries. A more judicious application of native foods in restaurants is a welcome development.

American meat: bye bye brisket, sliders, pulled this and jerk that.

Influencers: stay sceptical and follow #couscousforcomment.

Bad bosses: Fair Work investigations are scrutinising many restaurant groups.

Chefs serving tables: dirty aprons in the dining room isn’t a good look.

World rankings: with zero Australian venues named in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 (Attica, our top ranked, is at 84), we have to wonder whether that list is relevant at all.

Hottest chef: Dave Verheul of Lesa. Picture: Wilk

Hottest Restaurant

Quay, Sydney The 2018 refurb was just the start. Chef Peter Gilmore and his crack team have taken the restaurant to new levels of refinement this year with unique, simple and astonishingly good new dishes. The Quay of today is almost unrecognisable from the restaurant of yore. The best is, yes, even better.

Hottest New Restaurant

Citta, Melbourne Team Di Stasio has created something very special in Spring Street. It’s Italian in its inspiration but worldly in its aspiration. Citta could be Rome, New York or Paris. We’re pleased it’s Melbourne.

Hottest Service

Hellenika at the Calile, Brisbane Overseen by a smart restaurateur, Hellenika hits exactly the right chord: informed, welcoming, hospitable and professional. A model operation.

Chef couple Laura Cassai and Max Sharrad who run the kitchen at Adelaide restaurant Nido.

Hottest Value

Nido, Adelaide Brand new in 2019, this Italian maintains an Adelaide tradition of offering food and wine experiences of a quality comparable to that of the east coast – but with a bill that you won’t resent.

Hottest Chef

Dave Verheul, Lesa, Melbourne Just ask yourself if you’ve ever had less than brilliant food at a Dave Verheul restaurant. We know the answer. At Matterhorn, Town Mouse, Embla and now at Lesa, his simple, inspired modern food has hit new highs of creativity and delivery. Not just thought-provoking but absurdly delicious, too.

Hottest Regional Restaurant

Raes on Wategos, Byron Bay, NSW Chef Jason Saxby’s arrival in Byron Bay was bound to produce something special. Raes is laidback – so Byron – but Saxby and his team have turned up the heat to make this an outstanding regional eatery. Quintessentially Australian chic.

Hottest Wine Program

Laura, Pt Leo Estate, Merricks, Vic It’s not just the staggering collection. It’s not just the wine knowledge of the waiters and sommeliers on the floor. And it’s not just their understanding of the restaurant’s food. It is, of course, about all of that, rolled into one excellent package.

Hottest Dish

Osetra caviar, smoked eel, young walnuts, sea cucumber crackling: Quay, Sydney The procedure behind this sublime dish is mind-boggling. It takes five whole eels to make a litre of ethereal smoked eel cream. Days to get a sea cucumber to the point it can be shaved and fried. And who even thinks of “sea cucumber crackling”? But when you taste a mouthful of this magic combination, its subtle intensity and intriguing texture may well leave you speechless.

Hottest by State

SA: Orso Qld: Hellenika Tas: Fico WA: Santini Bar & Grill Vic: Citta NSW: Quay

Hot 50 editor & chief reviewer: John Lethlean Contributors: Elizabeth Meryment (NSW), Dan Stock (Vic), Simon Wilkinson (SA) and Alison Walsh (Qld) Hot photography: Chris Crerar, Nick Cubbin, Jasmine Ann Gardiner, Tess Godwin, Melinda Hird, Tom Huntley, Brook James, Jesse Marlow, Matthew Newton, Nick O’Brien, Sam Roberts, Simon Schiff, Ed Sloane, Gareth Sobey, Nikki To, Wilk