The West Australian Good Food Guide (WAGFG) is the definitive guide to the State’s best hospitality, dedicated to sharing unparalleled dining and drinking experiences.
Our highly anticipated awards night celebrates Western Australia’s Top 100 restaurants, alongside the State’s best bars, pubs and breweries. It’s a tribute to WA’s rich food and drink culture, with 19 awards including Chef of the Year and Restaurant of the Year, as well as recognition for emerging talent and so much more.
Anchored by our annual print edition—available in The West Australian newspaper on 1 March—and housed on our website, WAGFG is a multi-platform publication at its core. While the guide remains our foundation, we leverage our digital presence and social media to provide regular coverage of new openings, industry news and the ever-evolving West Australian food and drink scene all year long.
Curious about how we decide who makes the cut? Our rigorous reviewing and scoring process ensures every venue is assessed with care and expertise. Here, our editor takes you behind the scenes of this year’s guide.
Letter from the Editor-in-Chief, Georgia Moore
Western Australia’s hospitality industry is fast gaining a reputation for altruism. On our podcast, Paper, Scissors, Stock, we’ve heard from chefs, producers, and operators who highlight the fast-growing kindness culture within WA’s food scene. Whether it’s chefs running down the street to lend another restaurant a piece of equipment or arranging staff-sharing agreements in times of need, this spirit of collaboration is flourishing.
If restaurants are fostering this culture behind the scenes, how does it resonate through the kitchen doors to the diner? As a publication that steers clear of the outdated, tear-down style of venue reviews, we’re more in sync than ever with the industry we aim to support. There’s a tangible sense of camaraderie – an alignment that honours the blood, sweat and tears poured into running a business with tight margins and long hours.
This is an industry brimming with passion, creativity, and commitment to service, all culminating in one purpose: your enjoyment as diners and readers. So, this year, we encourage you to read, plan, drink, and dine – and to do it with an appreciation for how unique our industry is here in Western Australia. We’re breaking away from stereotypes, embracing kindness, and celebrating the producers, chefs, and teams who make this community extraordinary.
When you drink and dine out, take a moment to send thanks to the kitchen if you loved your meal, compliment the bartender on a beautifully prepared cocktail, or ask your server how their day is going. These small gestures remind us all that when we go out to eat and drink, we’re part of a vibrant, interconnected experience – these small moments are in themselves a response to great hospitality.
Enjoy the 2025 issue, available in The West Australian newspaper on 1 March.
Letter from the Editor, Max Brearley
In my years as Contributing Editor of WAGFG, I travelled the State year in and year out. It’s the part of the job I love.
This year, when I stepped into the hot seat after the departure of our longtime editor, David Matthews, I knew there was no way I was going to be deskbound. It was my mission to hit the road. In WA that also means planes, trains, a bit of shoe leather, and the odd boat. By my reckoning, I’ve covered over 15,000km at all points of the compass in the pursuit of good food, drinks and places to stay, as have many others in the team.
My big takeaway is that despite the very real challenges facing the hospitality industry, we have so many places and people here to celebrate and to regularly support. It’s a simple equation: use them or lose them.
This year, you can discover our inaugural Top 25 Pubs and Breweries. It’s a strong and diverse category and I look forward to what we do with this list in the future. Debate has raged in the team over what we tackle next… Best Pies perhaps (a suggestion sparked by a trip to Margaret River’s Piehouse), or a look at the State’s best cafés? Now that would be a truly Herculean task. We only have space for so much in these printed pages, but you can always see the latest on our socials and website – the go-to for everything food, drink and stays in WA. What you can be sure of is that we’re out there, always looking for what’s new, and what’s decades-old and deserves a shout-out; always looking for talent and the stories that make Western Australia a place that we’re proud to call home.
How The Guide Works
The Reviewing Process
The WA Good Food Guide team follows a strict set of reviewing rules, with independence and impartiality at the forefront.
We work tirelessly behind the scenes to narrow down the lists of the state’s best restaurants and bars. By the time the final lists are decided, we’ll have sent our critics to nearly 200 venues across the state. In some cases, and especially at the pointy end, we might go two or even three times.
Every single review is conducted anonymously, with our reviewers booking under assumed names and paying for their own meals. And although we have partnerships with sponsors, no commercial considerations come into any of our decisions on the list or the awards.
Reviewers send us extensive notes and scoring recommendations, then once reviews are filed, we personally ring and check every detail with the venues to make sure we get our facts right. Even so, venues close, chefs change jobs and opening hours change; we endeavour to update details where possible, but our reviews reflect the experience of our reviewers at the time.
The Scoring Process
We take scoring seriously, judging venues by criteria that reward excellence and interest, and put food and drink at the centre.
We run a rigorous scoring system that takes food, drinks, service and atmosphere into account, plus anything else that makes a venue stand out—it might be a kitchen garden, the connection to a community, sustainability or an incredible view. We’re also looking for venues that add something to WA’s dining scene—whether by showcasing local produce, offering a unique cuisine, or simply being the best at what they do. If it makes WA a better place to eat and drink, then it’ll score well.
We’re also trying to judge venues on their own terms. This means that in every category we’re asking ourselves “is this place the best version of itself?” and “is it achieving what it sets out to do?”
These questions allow us to compare high-end restaurants with major backers and million-dollar fit-outs to humble, counter-service spots down the road.
Above all, though, it’s about the food and drink. If a venue succeeds on all other fronts, but doesn’t reliably serve good food or drinks, it won’t make the list. If a venue is in our Top 100 or our Best Bars or Pubs list, we recommend it, and we hope we can show you how to have a good time there.
The Reviews
In the past, we’ve had categories for bars, restaurants and casual venues. We now have the Top 100 list, which puts food first. Whether these venues call themselves restaurants, bars or casual diners, we recommend them as places to eat first and foremost, even if they blur a line between categories. Our Best Bars list is where you’ll find the venues we recommend as essential pit-stops for drinks first. For the first time, the 2025 guide features our inaugural Best Pubs List where you’ll find the best drinks and pub dining fare our State has to offer.
Each review is based on at least one anonymous, independent visit to the venue. Food and drinks are paid for by us, scored according to our criteria, then fact-checked with the venue. Our goal is for each review to be as accurate and useful as possible, shining a light on those things that make the venue unique, and helping you to have a good time.
Look out for your copy of The Guide in The West Australian on 1 March, and check out the Top 100 Restaurants, Top 25 Bars and Top 25 Pubs, and all the award winners here.
