Melbourne restaurant Cutler and Co has been named Restaurant of the Year at this year’s Australian Gourmet Traveller awards.

Taking out Best New Restaurant was Brisbane’s Ortiga, while fellow Brisbane operation 1989 Enoteca got the nod for Best Wine List of the Year.

The Royal Mail Hotel in Victoria’s Dunkeld received the Regional Restaurant of the Year award.

Aria’s much lauded Peter Sullivan was named Maitre D’ of the Year, while Est’s Franck Moreau is this year’s Sommelier of the Year. Grabbing the Best New Talent Award was Matt Stone of the Greenhouse in Perth.

The Bar of the Year award went to Sydney’s Eau-de-Vie.

There was recognition for the work of celebrated South Australian chef Cheong Liew who received the award for Outstanding Contribution to the Industry.

Sydney continued to reign when it came to the top fine diner stakes with only two Melbourne restaurants getting three stars (Cutler and Co, Vue de Monde), while seven Sydney restaurants made the cut (Bécasse, Est., Guillaume at Bennelong, Marque, Quay, Rockpool, Tetsuya’s).

For two hat restaurants NSW scored 18 followed by Victoria on 15, Queensland (5), South Australia (3), and Western Australia (2), while in one hatters Victoria led with 3, followed by NSW (27), Queensland (11), South Australia (10), Western Australia (7), and Tasmania (2).

The restaurants selected as the top across each state in the capital cities and in the regional areas were Rockpool (Sydney), Vulcans (NSW regional), Cutler and Co (Melbourne), Royal Mail Hotel (Victoria regional), The Manse (Adelaide), Appellation (SA regional), Ortiga (Brisbane), Absynthe (Qld regional), Restaurant Amuse (Perth), Vasse Felix (WA regional), Lebrina (Tasmania).

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of punting going on about who will get the top gongs of those other big ratings guides the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and The Age’s Good Food Guides. This year’s winners of The Age guide will be announced next Monday night while New South Wales will have to wait until the following Monday.

Here’s the finalists for the top awards for each of them:

The Age Good Food Guide:

Best Restaurant of the Year – Attica, Circa the Prince, Ezard, MoVida, Pearl, Provenance, Royal Mail Hotel, Tea Rooms of Yarck.

Chef of the Year — Teage Ezard (Ezard), Dan Hunter (Royal Mail Hotel), Ben Shewry (Attica), Matthew Wilkinson (Circa the Prince)

Best New Restaurant — Izakaya Den, Mamasita, Maze, Loam, Middle Park Hotel, MoVida Aqui, Port Phillip Estate.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide:

Restaurant of the Year — Rockpool, Est., Marque, Quay, Bentley

Chef of the Year — Mark Best (Marque), Peter Doyle (Est.), Martin Benn (Sepia), Peter Gilmore (Quay), Colin Fassnidge (Four in Hand)

Best New Restaurant — Ad Lib, Manly Pavilion, Ormeggio, Sake, Berta