Yiaga wins Best New Restaurant 2026

In a frenzied, fast-paced, digital-driven world, it can be hard for a restaurant to grab people’s attention unless it’s equally brash and bold. Big flavours, big personalities and big concepts tend to hog the headlines.

That’s why Yiaga – so gentle, so deeply considered – is such a welcome balm. You feel it the moment you step inside the rippling custom curves of the entryway, made up of 13,000 individually handmade tiles designed by architect John Wardle. The space was once an old-fashioned tea room, bustling with clinking cups and chat; now it is soft and still. It’s in the quiet clusters of native flowers cupped by a wall vase above the open hearth, the tactile curves of the amber-coloured glassware designed by Alexandra Hirst, and the smudged Monet-meets-May Gibbs scenery of the heritage parklands outside.

The open kitchen at Yiaga. *(Credit: Jason Loucas)*

That sense of subtle beauty is especially evident on the plates, a languid, multi-course tasting menu of unusual refinement. Here, chef and co-owner Hugh Allen (also of Vue de Monde) coaxes and conjures local ingredients into dishes that let each flavour speak on its own, while combining into magic together. It could be a dish of tiny school prawns with a lightning bolt of torch ginger.

A lozenge of aged coral trout, served with crescents of mango and guajillo chilli. Retired Blackmore wagyu, kangaroo and venison, sauced richly. This is true Australian food, given the space and grace to show how elegant it can really be.

Chef and co-owner Hugh Allen. (*Credit: Jason Loucas*)

There’s a choice of all-Australian or mixed Old and New World wine pairings, composed by Master Sommelier Dorian Guillon. Boutique and small-scale producers lead the way, each bottle as storied as its matched dish. There’s also a non-alcoholic pairing – ferments, juices and teas – made by the kitchen team daily.

Partway through the meal, guests are invited to tour the restaurant, so they can watch the fire being tended in the hearth, and note the way every bottle in the Tasmanian blackwood cellar is hugged by its own custom rest. This is how you get a full sense of Yiaga’s low-intensity brilliance, and how it takes much more work than it first appears.

Coconut tofu, roasted macadamia oil and caviar. *(Credit: Jason Loucas)*

Return to the table for dessert and a little final something – perhaps a mead from the NSW Northern Rivers – and it’s clear that the greatest luxury of all is when a restaurant allows you the space to truly taste.

Gourmet Traveller’s Best New Restaurant is presented by Scanpan.

Past winners of Gourmet Traveller’s Best New Restaurant

2025: Maison Bâtard, Melbourne VIC
2024: King Clarence, Sydney NSW
2023: Serai, Melbourne VIC
2022: Margaret, Sydney NSW
2021: Gimlet, Melbourne VIC
2020: Due to COVID-19, a Hospitality Honours List was introduced in lieu of Restaurant Awards
2019: Di Stasio Città, Melbourne VIC
2018: Laura, Merricks VIC
2017: Fred’s, Sydney NSW
2016: Restaurant Hubert, Sydney NSW
2015: Bennelong, Sydney NSW
2014: Brae, Birregurra VIC
2013: Mr Wong, Sydney NSW
2012: Momofuku Seiobo, Sydney NSW
2011: Porteño, Sydney NSW
2010: Ortiga, Brisbane QLD
2009: Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney NSW

Author Alexandra Carlton Journalist

Alexandra Carlton has been a journalist for approximately 20 years, specialising in food and travel for around nine of those (don’t quote her on that; numbers are not a strong point). As well as Gourmet Traveller, she writes for Qantas Magazine, Escape, The Australian, Virtuoso.com, The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and the WA Good Food Guide. She is also the Oceania Academy Chair for World’s 50 Best Restaurants. She travels for around half the year and has two favourite places to eat in the world: the first is pretty much anywhere in Seoul, South Korea, and the second is on her sofa in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west with a plate of Malay takeout and a backlog of trashy TV.

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