A new independent restaurant badge has been added to this year's Restaurant Guide.
Every year, before we begin the judging process for our Annual Restaurant Guide, we sit down as a team to discuss why we are doing this. What purpose does it serve and what needs to change? As a result, the Awards and Guide have adapted and evolved significantly over the last 45 years.
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This year, we recognised a growing concern within the industry around the rise of large restaurant groups. The past 24 months has seen a rapid expansion in both the number of groups and the size of existing groups operating across Australia.
In response, this year we have introduced a new badge to highlight restaurants that are independently owned and operated.
Alla Wolf-Tasker addressed this concern directly during her acceptance speech at our Annual Restaurant Awards last week, where she won our Readers’ Choice Icon Award for her independent regional restaurant Lake House in Daylesford.
“The industry doesn’t have enough differentiation in it, in terms of having a lot of owner-operators as part of the business of hospitality. I think it’s essential to provide that balance,” she said. “That rich tapestry of life that you get in the regions is because of family run operations. They are not big scale places. But they come from the heart and from passion.”
For the purposes of the Guide, we have defined independent operators as those who run no more than two dine-in venues under the same ownership. Likewise, they cannot be in partnership with major commercial stakeholders, such as a hotel or property developer. This system is operated on an honesty basis and we have asked all entries to self-identify based on the above criteria.
While this has not factored into our judging, the marker is designed to increase transparency and provide diners with more information and a greater understanding of the hospitality landscape.
The year in dining
If there is a single theme running through this year’s Restaurant Guide, it would have to be that “experience is king”. Running a successful restaurant has never been easy, but tough head winds have made this year especially challenging. While some have faltered and steered off course, experience has paid clear dividends for those who have weathered previous storms and know how to stoke the fire.
While many of the names in this year’s Guide will be familiar, the experiences they offer continue to evolve; surprise and delight remain as central to their success as consistency and excellence. Where newcomers have entered the mix, they have had to step out and step up immediately, proving they have what it takes to go the distance and deliver on repeat.
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In 2024, to be shiny and new is not enough. The current climate has made diners more discerning than ever, as they seek maximum return on both their time and money.
