source : the age
Congratulations to Saint Peter restaurant manager Monique Guest, winner of the Oceania Cruises Service Excellence award.
On the plate, Josh Niland’s cooking has always been world-leading, but since the restaurant’s move to the Grand National Hotel, the story has been about how the rest of the operation has upped its game. Drinks are a huge factor (the restaurant won the Drinks List of the Year award earlier this evening), but the other side is the service, led by Guest.
A UK native, Guest came up in the bustle of London’s pub scene, quit the city for Michelin-starred The Fordwich Arms in Kent, then joined Quay as a sommelier before signing with Tetsuya’s before its closure.
At Saint Peter, her rise has coincided with the service reaching a world-class level. Guest is someone who gets the details right, brings her team with her, and never loses sight of the big picture.
Bridget Raffal and Saranya Kundasamy from Women and Revolution, The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide’s inaugural Cultural Change Champion, are onstage to present the award – and effectively pass the baton – to another wine collective.
This year’s winner, Venus Vinifera, was founded by Caitlin Baker in Canberra in 2021, recently launched in Sydney, and has plans to go nationwide in the next three years.
Like Women and Revolution, VV is a drink-minded collective with the goal of improving the prospects and education available to women in hospitality, including non-binary and transgender people.
VV has changed the conversation, first through its mentorship and education programs, and sexual assault and sexual harassment training, its Subject Matters Symposiums and drinks networking event, Frenzy.
Accepting the award onstage, Baker gives a shoutout to Women and Revolution: “VV wouldn’t have started without them.”
From the podium: The winner of the Sommelier of the Year has said it was a “huge surprise” to win the award.
Former Olympus Dining sommelier Zoe Brunton said being a sommelier was a lot of hard work, quiet nights spent learning geography and law.
“Being a sommelier is not always the easiest thing to do,” she said.
“There’s a lot of hard work, a lot of study, a lot of research, a lot of quiet nights… so shout out to all the sommeliers in the room who keep the standards up. I am very grateful to receive this award and be recognised.”
John Singleton’s Grand Saddles Lodge, where Brunton has been appointed sommelier, opens next week.
Troy Rhoades-Brown has championed Hunter Valley producers for the past 17 years at Muse Restaurant and, more recently, realised a long-held dream to expand his own home garden so it can inform the six-course tasting menu.
Indeed, your first course is titled “Troy’s Garden”: a seasonal cornucopia that might feature fresh purple daikon, scarlet turnip, breakfast radish, ivory kale, purple oxalis and heirloom peas.
With a dining room refresh of warm timbers, new tables and leather upholstery underway, the Regional Restaurant of the Year winner is set to be one of the state’s most special night outs for a long time to come.
There’s a lot of love in the room for Muse, the loudest applause of the ceremony so far.
Tip: Bookmark these finalists for your next weekend getaway or road trip.
Partners in business and life, Jose Margo Flores and Vincent Baquiran didn’t know anyone when they migrated to Sydney from the Philippines. Craving pandesal bread and community, the pair opened their Filipino cafe Taguan. (Coincidentally, they are currently in the Philippines an unable to accept the award themselves.)
Set across a lively two-storey terrace in Darlington – complete with custom ceramic mugs modelled after their beloved Pomeranian – they’ve built a venue where run clubs, artists and regulars naturally collide.
One of our Essential Sydney Cafes and Bakeries, the T2 Cafe of the Year winner captures what genuine hospitality is really about: not just plating good food, but making an entire neighbourhood feel like they belong.
Migration changed our definition of hospitality, because when you have to build a new home, you realise that hospitality isn’t just about serving someone well; it’s also about helping them find where they belong.
Nick Hildebrandt and Brent Savage of Bentley Group have clocked up 99 Good Food Guide hats, and now they can add Bar of the Year to their accolades.
Their new cocktail bar Vespertine shares a kitchen with their two-hatted South-East Asian restaurant Ashe, and chef Khanh Nguyen has reprised his lockdown-era hit banh mi pâté en croute, among other fun snacks.
Drinks-wise, don’t miss the Chartreuse slushie with its herbaceous mix of apple juice and fresh tarragon, and the key lime margarita mixed with agave syrup, carbonated, and served on the rocks.
With its crimson walls, massive scarlet speakers, chilli-red neon lights and blackened mirrors, the late-night haunt feels like the beating heart of late 𝄒80s opulence. We have a feeling a few hospo types will be continuing the celebrations in the bar’s discreet antechambers tonight.
From the podium: “We’ll see you all in the bar afterwards!” encourages Vespertine bar manager Callum Farrand.
There’s something fishy about Drinks List of the Year
While this isn’t an award for the most impressive collection of wines, gee whiz, Saint Peter boasts some nice aged bottles. Among the stirring chablis and Jura there is a strong showing of NSW wines, including Hunter semillon for the house white.
Sake and spirits are also strong points, but it’s the cocktails that really elevate things. Drinks are aligned with Josh Niland’s seafood-focused kitchen, such as a Bloody Mary enhanced by glazed marron shells, or the martini made with Archie Rose gin and vodka macerated with Tasmanian sea urchin.
What’s more, you don’t need to splurge on the full tasting menu to access the booze: the front bar is open every day for swordfish empanadas and Saison vermouth over ice.
Sommelier of the Year a ‘quiet achiever’
And we’re off…
This evening’s first award, back for a second round after The Dry Dock received the frame in 2025, is Pub of the Year.
The winning pub – family-owned-and-run for the past 60 years – was recently sold and smartly renovated by the team behind Redfern’s Bat & Ball Hotel.
Occupying a Newtown corner for 150 years, it’s a place where there’s no bouncer rope. No queue. No dance to order a drink. No themes, no dress code. People are nice to you, the schooners are cold, and the food is everything you wish pub food could be (including further evidence of the chicken Kyiv comeback).
The Carlisle Castle Hotel feels like a return to what a pub can be if people with strong values and integrity get behind it: a real pokie-free community hub. And now, it’s officially pub royalty.
While the introductory speeches are happening, let’s have a look at the numbers:
Good Food Guide editor David Matthews will break some of these figures down further in the coming posts.
