The Age and Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guides will launch in October, offering more than 500 anonymous reviews covering restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes across Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT.
The 46th Age Good Food Guide will be unveiled on Monday, October 12, at an industry event at the Timber Yard in Port Melbourne. The Sydney Morning Herald’s 42nd guide will follow on Monday, October 26, at Carriageworks in Sydney.
Both editions will include reviews across a range of cuisines, price points, dining styles and suburbs. They will also feature hatted restaurants, from one hat to the highest three-hat rating, alongside awards including Restaurant of the Year, Pub of the Year and Good Food Guide Legend.
The reviews are produced by editors, senior food critics and freelance contributors. Venues cannot pay to be included, and reviewers make bookings through the same online platforms and telephone numbers used by the public.
“We review as anonymously as possible, and book through the same online platforms and phone numbers as everyone else,” said Callan Boys, editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide. “There isn’t another publication that comes remotely close to this level of independent restaurant criticism in Australia.”
Good Food Guide reviews and award ceremonies
The Victorian awards ceremony will be live-blogged from 3pm on October 12, with the reviews available in the Good Food app from 8pm. Coverage of the Sydney ceremony will begin at 3pm on October 26, while reviews for New South Wales and the ACT will be added to the app from 8pm.
Emma Breheny, co-editor of The Age Good Food Guide, said the latest edition was intended to reflect the current dining landscape, including both highly decorated restaurants and more affordable meals.
“We’ve included hundreds of hatted restaurants but also plenty of meals that make you feel a million bucks without having to spend a week’s rent, whether it’s an excellent-value banquet or a spectacular bowl of soup,” she said.
The Good Food app, launched three years ago, contains more than 2,000 reviews and recommendations, including award winners, signature collections, regional destination guides and Critics’ Picks. Users can search by map, price and suburb, and save venues for later.
A free 56-page Good Food Guide liftout will be published in The Age on Tuesday, October 13, and in The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, October 27. Each will include award winners, every hatted restaurant and a list of 100 Essential Restaurants across the relevant states and territory.
The Victorian edition will also contain regional destination guides, while the New South Wales edition will feature round-ups of Sydney’s best pizza, ramen and pubs.
“The new 100 Essential Restaurants lists champion food across all price points and cuisines,” Boys said. “There’s a lot more to the Good Food Guide than fine-diners where a night out for one couple costs more than a second-hand Corolla.”
