When it comes to recognising the top restaurants in Australia, the Australian Good Food Guide has taken top honour, since its inception more than 41 years ago awarding Chef Hats each January. When it comes to the world stage, the Michelin Star is the recognised standard of excellence, globally.
The brand dates way back to 1889 in Clermont-Ferrand, to a small French town, home to brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin. These brothers were responsible for founding the tyre company, Michelin Tyres and in an avant-garde move for their time, wanted to create reasons for people to use their cars.
The idea came to them that if they created road trips laden with stops including restaurants people would want to drive. Fast forward 37 years later to the year 1926, and the Michelin Star brand was officially created.
In 2023, the city with the most Michelin-starred restaurants was Tokyo, Japan with a total of 263 establishments. That is precisely 64 more restaurants than the runner-up Paris with ‘only’ 199. It is worth noting, that Japan also places third, with Kyoto coming in at 108 Michelin-starred establishments and fourth with Osaka at 98.
Is there any doubt that for our focus on Japan this week, we must highlight Japan’s incredible food scene taking three of the top five spots of the world’s most-starred restaurants per city, while acknowledging the delightful influence of Japanese cuisine within our Australian restaurant kitchens.
For your fix of a Hatted restaurant closer to home and within Australia, look no further than these in your nearest capital city. All of these are also highly favoured Readers Choice Awarded restaurants.
Gold Coast - Etsu Izakaya with 13 Hats, Yamagen (12).
Sydney - Haco at 15 Hats, Kazan Dining (12).
Canberra - Raku Dining with 14 Hats and Inka (13).
Brisbane - Ippin Japanese Dining (12).
Regional Victoria - Kadota in Daylesford at 18.
