These are the finalists for the three biggest Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awards

What does it take to stand out from the pack in 2026 when our dining scene is broader than ever? The finalists for The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide’s three biggest awards – celebrating chefs, front-of-house and definitive restaurants – prove that excellence comes in many forms.

It might mean pouring warm cups of barley tea for the line of guests queueing patiently outside your restaurant. Going deep on time-honoured French technique, or taking Greek dining to places it’s never been before in this city. It could be the simple act of consistently helping diners build the perfect meal, or the very complicated one of grinding fish bones into noodles with enviable spring and bounce.

Whatever their stripe, these 16 individuals and venues have turned heads this year. They’re vastly different, but one thing they do share is that they all make this state a far better place to eat and drink. Put all of these on your radar for the year ahead.

The winners of all three awards – the Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award, T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year and Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year – will be announced at the Good Food Guide Awards on Monday, October 26. Follow The Sydney Morning Herald’s live blog of the event from 3pm for all the action.

Oceania Cruises Service Excellence

Boonyalit Boonprakong, Porkfat

It’s hard to imagine Haymarket’s Porkfat without the beautiful, warm and sincere service of Boonyalit Boonprakong, or “Boon”, as everyone calls him. Boonprakong says he inherited his skills from his mum, who ran a restaurant in Thailand, and he later worked under Sydney Thai legend David Thompson at Long Chim. He always knows how to guide you to a suite of dishes to make a perfect meal, and even manages to get a restaurant full of diners to sing Happy Birthday and not feel silly.

Justin Shin, Yeodongsik

Not every Korean soup restaurant in Sydney has a queue like Yeodongsik’s, and the move to larger digs in Eastwood has seemingly only increased demand. No matter, since owner Justin Shin even turns standing in line into a pleasure. The system is elite, and Shin is known for handing out warm cups of barley tea to guests as they wait. Inside, he keeps eyes on everything, answering questions, and advising first-timers on how to season their soup or shake their makgeolli. A business run with love – that’s a model for small operators everywhere.

Gianluca Esposto, Maestro Hospitality

You see him here; you see him there. You see him at a’Mare pounding tableside pesto; at Vineria Luisa seating walk-ins from Enmore Road; at Postino Osteria recommending the saltimbocca to Summer Hill long-lunchers. You can see Italian-born Esposto everywhere Alessandro and Anna Pavoni run a restaurant through Maestro Hospitality, but perhaps what you don’t see is the executive general manager’s attention to every operational detail, and his commitment to staff development.

Traci Trinder, Osteria Mucca

Few front-of-house professionals balance warmth and efficiency like Trinder, who longtime Good Food readers will remember from her years running Buzo and Vincent in Woollahra. Today, she makes everyone who visits Osteria Mucca (part of Newtown’s Paisano and Daughters precinct with Continental Deli) feel like an old friend, whether it’s your first visit or fifth dinner that month, while helping the next generation of restaurant talent learn how hospitality is properly done.

Monique Guest, Saint Peter

The Saint Peter story is usually about the food, but recently it’s been about how everything else has upped its game. On the floor, that’s down to Monique Guest, who came up in London’s pub scene, joined Quay as a sommelier and later signed with Tetsuya’s before its closure. Under Guest, Saint Peter’s service has become world-class. There’s personality, but the team doesn’t miss a beat, whether describing dishes, co-ordinating drops, or refreshing a cocktail glass that’s (God forbid) gotten just a little too warm.

T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year

Grandfathers, CBD

The prawn and jellyfish salad tells you all you need to know about Grandfathers. Cool slippery ribbons from the sea, juicy prawn and the tingling hum of Sichuan peppercorns create a what-the-hell-just-happened moment that transforms nostalgic “Friday night Chinese” into something fresh and new. Glass tanks filled with decorative fish, half-moon booths, cabaret lamps and a clubby bar set the scene.

Porcine, Paddington

Nicholas Hill and Matt Fitzgerald’s upstairs bistro has been Sydney’s favourite hangout for terrine, pâté and gougeres (and the occasional whole guinea fowl served over three courses) for the past five years. But since turning the former P&V bottleshop below the restaurant into wine bar L’Avant Cave, Porcine feels even more confident and precise without losing the charm.

Saint Peter, Paddington

Saint Peter has gone deep on seafood ever since it opened. Exactly 10 years later, what’s remarkable is how the rest has evolved. There’s an in-house drinks program, waitstaff who’ll nail the timing on co-ordinated drops, and a world-class wine list. On the plate, provenance, sustainability and technique take precedence, from the oyster service to the charcuterie course featuring a pinwheel of tarts almost too pretty to eat.

Sixpenny, Stanmore

A subtle renovation has made Sydney’s most senior three-hatter even more essential, as has a menu that builds in natural peaks. Here’s a pretty plate of vegetables – puntarelle, crystal ice plant – each brushed or smeared or stuffed with a delicious fermented cream, paste or oil. There’s a soft milk bun alongside perfect marron, set to stuff with the shellfish. Even the signature raspberry-custard dessert has gotten a glow-up.

Vin-Cenzo’s, Darlinghurst

This is a place where time extends and stretches out. Candles flicker, a sphere of fior di latte gelato melts slowly over warm fig and olive oil cake. Waiters live and breathe it, too. Ask for a steer, and they’ll build you a meal – a veal tongue and scamorza sandwich to snack on, an interlude of chicken and mortadella agnolotti in golden broth, then duck lasagne that brings the house down. When can we come back?

Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year

Alex Tong and Hussein Sarhan, South End

Beautiful produce, balance and technique underline every dish at South End in Newtown (good heavens, how’s the texture and lightness of that chocolate tart?), but Sarhan and Tong also know how to write a menu that works as a succession of flavours. Whether you jump from chicken liver parfait to vitello tonnato, or little gem and asparagus salad to a brown-butter glossed rotolo of Swiss chard and taleggio, your afternoon or candlelit evening effortlessly flows.

Nicholas Hill, Porcine

Troisgros. Guerard. Bocuse. Hill? You won’t find Nik Hill’s name on a “Great French Chefs of the 20th Century” list, but that’s only because he was born in the wrong country a few decades too late. With Hill set to represent Australia at France’s prestigious Bocuse d’Or cooking contest in 2027, there’s never been a better time to book Porcine for a textbook galantine. Paris. Roanne. Lyon. Paddington.

Giovanni Pilu, Flaminia and Pilu at Freshwater

Having led Pilu at Freshwater kitchen for more than two decades, Giovanni Pilu has all but completed Sardinian cooking. The beachside institution is ticking along as smoothly as ever, but just as 2026 had us expecting more of the same, suddenly, Pilu opened Flaminia. And – plot twist – it wasn’t Sardinian. Instead, it traverses Italy’s port cities, balancing benchmark regional dishes, a killer crudo bar and running a very welcome “no burrata, no tiramisu” policy. New tricks? Turns out, Pilu’s got plenty.

Özge Kalvo, Olympus Dining

Everything is in abundance at Olympus Dining, but it’s chef Özge Kalvo’s cooking that makes it an essential booking. Where other Sydney Greek restaurants simply run through the hits, Kalvo – who worked at Anason, Ester and Baba’s Place before joining here – goes deeper. See the kokoretsi of lamb sweetbreads, liver and belly wrapped in shattering filo. Or the grilled sardines doused in olive oil, lemony rice and summer purslane. But then all the classics are present and correct, too – no small trick in one of the city’s busiest dining rooms.

Ollie Wong-Hee, Bar Heather

A golden curry puff splits apart to reveal tender bites of octopus in its own ink; what looks like a tangle of noodles turns out to be North Stradbroke cuttlefish, sliced thinly and slicked in a pepper-forward sauce, with organic snake beans from Boon Luck Farm bringing crunch. Such is the playful sleight of hand by Wong-Hee, whose menu pairs European and South-East Asian flavours. For the hottest couples’ seat in Byron Bay – if not all of NSW – book the Bar HeatherChef’s Table experience, available for no more than two people at the counter each service.

The winners of the 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards will be announced on Monday, October 26, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. The awards ceremony will be live-blogged via the Herald from 3pm; the Guide reviews will be available on the Good Food app from 8pm. Pick up a free 56-page Good Food Guide liftout in the Herald on Tuesday, October 27.

The home of the Good Food Guide, the app is free for premium subscribers of the SMH and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app here.