In a historic development, the Good Food Guide will become a national edition for the first time.
The 2018 edition, to be published later this year, will review 500 restaurants around Australia and award hats to the best places from Darwin to Hobart, Melbourne to Perth, and Sydney to Brisbane.
The move builds on a proud 38-year tradition. The Age Good Food Guide was launched in 1979 and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide followed five years later. The Brisbane Times Good Food Guide was added in 2012.
Collectively, they have become Australia's most trusted restaurant guides, compiled by respected critics and edited by Myffy Rigby and Roslyn Grundy.
""Our defining strength, and the reason people trust the Good Food Guide, is the independence of our critics,"" says co-editor Myffy Rigby. ""Our reviewers arrive unannounced and pay for their own meals. We're stringent when it comes to judging. That means we look at service, ambience, X factor, and most importantly, food to award those all-important hats.""
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.
