The Good Food Guide 2019

Book excerpt: The 2019 edition of this acclaimed, highly trusted national guide - the home of the hats - reviews 500 restaurants around Australia and award the best eateries from Darwin to Hobart, Melbourne to Perth, and Sydney to Brisbane. The Age Good Food Guide was launched in 1979 and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide followed five years later. With the addition of The Brisbane Times, The Canberra Times and WA Today, the Good Food Guide is Australia's most trusted restaurant guide, compiled and edited by respected, independent critics. Reviewers arrive unannounced, pay for their own meals and are stringent judges, looking at service, ambiance, the X factor and, of course, the food. Hats are awarded to the best of the best. To achieve a hat is a pinnacle of a chef's career and a restaurant's history, and the term 'hatted' has become part of the Australian lexicon.