Back in the 50 Best: Australia cracks the shortlist for the first time since 2018

A 16-spot leap in the annual 50 Best awards caps off a huge year for this Sydney fine diner, plus strong results for Australian chefs abroad.

November 5, 2026

Saint Peter, the Sydney fine diner run by Josh and Julie Niland, has become the first Australian restaurant in eight years to make The 50 Best Restaurants list.

The Paddington seafood-focused restaurant placed 50th at a ceremony in Lima, Peru today, up from 66 in 2025. The last Australian venue in the top 50 was Melbourne’s Attica, which placed 20th in 2018.

Australian chefs working abroad also fared well, although they fell in what is called the long list – restaurants ranked between 50 and 100. Brett Graham’s The Ledbury in London returned to the list for the first time since 2019. Dave Pynt’s Singapore barbecue institution Burnt Ends climbed from 93 to 89, while James Henry’s La Doyenne in France slipped from 77 to 84.

It has been a big year for Saint Peter, which took home a host of awards at The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awards last month. The restaurant retained its three hats and won Drinks List of the Year, while restaurant manager Monique Guest received the Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award. In 2024, it was named the Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year.

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Good Food Guide co-editor David Matthews said: “Saint Peter was always world-leading, even when it first opened as a tiny DIY fish restaurant on Oxford Street a decade ago. But since it moved to the Grand National Hotel, the story has been about how the rest of the operation – spanning a bar, accommodation and restaurant – has upped its game. This ranking coincides with its transformation into a world-class dining destination for locals and tourists alike.”

Saint Peter turned 10 this year, and Niland has used the milestone to refocus, and examine every aspect of the dining experience. “I said to the team, I need Saint Peter to be less about an individual and more about the work that we’re all doing.”

The result arrives as international rankings, from the Michelin Guide and La Liste to the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants, face growing scrutiny over how their awards are chosen, with speculation over whether some of them operate as a pay-to-play system.

Formerly called The World’s 50 Best Restaurants (the organisation recently underwent a rebrand), the 50 Best draws its results from an academy of more than 1,100 voters, made up of food writers, chefs and restaurateurs, and “well-travelled gourmets”.

Unlike Michelin or Good Food Guide reviewers, voters from the 50 Best don’t have to pay for their meals, which means tourist boards and restaurants can woo them with free dinners and VIP experiences. Recently, they’ve increasingly been encouraged to file receipts. With two-thirds of voters coming from the industry itself, the awards have also been called an elitist echo chamber.

The list has historically leaned heavily towards Europe, leaving some regions under-represented, among them Australia, which is geographically isolated and less visited by voters.

Saint Peter has been the only Australian restaurant to make the long list in the past two years; in 2023, none made the top 100 at all.

Hugh Allen of Sydney’s Yiaga, who was at the 50 Best ceremony in Lima to accept the coveted Visa One to Watch Award, said the situation was frustrating. “It’s a shame because there are many Australian restaurants that deserve a place on it,” he said. “It’s one of those tyranny of distance things. But it’s amazing for Josh, and the more Aussie restaurants that do well, the more it helps everyone, because it gets more people wanting to come out and see what we do.”

Alexandra Carlton, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy Chair for Oceania (Australia is part of the Oceania region), said a single entry doesn’t reflect the quality of the local dining scene. “What it shows is that we’re a tiny dot on the bottom of the world that doesn’t always get the gastronomic traffic of, say, a France or a Japan.”

“With that in mind, it’s something of a minor miracle to see Saint Peter at number 50, and is a testament to its exceptionalism.”

Niland also sees the result as bigger than just one restaurant. “We don’t need Michelin and 50 Best to tell us what’s wonderful because we all know we’re spoiled,” says Niland. “But we do need a bit of global awareness, so that when people see that extraordinary place that is Australia, that would be that wonderful holiday. This is less about Saint Peter and more about Australia.”

Erina Starkey – Erina is the Good Food App Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously, Erina held a number of editing roles at delicious.com.au and writing roles at Broadsheet and Concrete Playground.

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