Melbourne’s Attica has placed first on The Australian Financial Review’s Australia’s Top Restaurants’ Top 100 list.
Victoria’s Brae secured the number two spot, coming in ahead of the 2015 number one, Sydney’s Sepia, which took out this year’s third place.
Congratulating Attica on the win, co-director of the Awards Terry Durack said, “Ben Shewry has built Attica into a unique and personal experience that celebrates all that Australian dining excellence is about. With its passion for just-picked and wild plants, an intuitive use of native produce, and exceptionally warm, sincere service, it deserves every accolade and award it wins – especially this one.”
Now in its second year, Australia’s Top Restaurants, presented by Qantas, is the only national restaurant awards program of its kind decided solely by peer voting. While the full list of 500 restaurants is compiled by an Australia-wide panel of Good Food Guide editors, reviewers and industry experts, the Top 100 is decided by the chefs and restaurateurs themselves.
“You can see by those who made it onto the Top 100, the importance the industry places on pure skill, quality, and consistency,” said Durack. “These are our most creative, polished, original restaurants, driven by chefs obsessed with quality.”
Fellow co-director of the Awards Jill Dupleix said the 2016 Top 100 is an instant snapshot of the Australian restaurant industry.
“The new Top 100 shows that restaurant business models are changing, and the way people dine out is changing,” said Dupleix.
“It reflects significant ongoing trends, as chefs continue to focus on seasonal, locally-grown produce and evolve their use of direct cooking techniques such as wood-fired ovens and charcoal grills.
“With restaurants such as Attica, Brae, Quay, Rockpool est 1989, Franklin and Sepia in the top 10 it’s a brilliant moment in time in defining Australian cuisine. The truth is our restaurants are becoming truly and uniquely Australian.”
Twenty-one of the restaurants included in the Top 100 were new entries this year, while the inaugural Top Service Team award went to Sydney’s Sepia. Dan Hunter of Brae was awarded Australia’s Top Chef.
The ACT’s Akiba, in Canberra Civic, was voted the 2016 People’s Choice by the Australian public.