Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh has been named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year, in a category of the annual industry awards that has historically been dominated by European-leaning cuisine and fine-dining establishments.
The restaurant’s menu pulls from the Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese backgrounds of co-owners Tom Sarafian and Jinane Bou-Assi: aish baladi (Egyptian flatbread) is made with flour milled in the Mornington Peninsula; kafta nayyah comprises raw minced lamb from Tasmania and Victoria; hummus is crowned with spanner crab.
Zareh, which opened in Melbourne in August 2025, is named after Sarafian’s paternal grandfather.
Previous winners of the restaurant of the year award have included Saint Peter, Attica, Orana by the late Jock Zonfrillo, and Quay.
“I guess it’s imposter syndrome because it’s not fine dining, but we may be part of the new sort of scene that handles food [just] as well … but a bit more casual in their approach,” said Sarafian, adding “there’s a lot of really fantastic Arab restaurants in Australia”.
Referencing the Armenian genocide, Sarafian said the restaurant was “a love letter from us to Lebanon, who opened their arms and their country to Armenia and went so beautifully to let us in … It’s a cross-cultural celebration.”
At the award ceremony in Sydney on Monday night, winners frequently referenced Australia’s migrant history and how it has shaped the local dining scene.
Beppi’s, a 70-year-old Italian restaurant institution in Sydney founded by Beppi and Norma Polese, claimed the reader-voted “enduring excellence” award.
In accepting the gong, owner Marc Polese paid tribute to “the immigrants that work alongside us and make this such a rich industry.”
“There’s been a lot of bad words said about immigrants lately in politics, and I just want to acknowledge those immigrants that have made our industry possible – my dad being one of them.”
Best new talent winners Saavni Krishnan and Aditya Suresh, from Melbourne’s Saadi, said the award was recognition for their “modern Indian” food as first-generation migrants to Australia.
“We want to … show people Indian food is more than just a bowl of curry,” Suresh told Guardian Australia. The menu at Saadi changes seasonally and currently includes sundarkala, a dish of hand-rolled wheat noodles from India’s northern Uttarakhand state, topped with wild barramundi from the Northern Territory.
“Big” Sam Young was named restaurant personality of the year for his front-of-house presence at Young’s Palace and S’more in Sydney, which he co-owns with Grace Chen.
“I came to Australia as an immigrant … As a kitchen hand, I was making $10 an hour, and that’s my beginning,” Young said in his acceptance speech.
“Being in this room is absolutely a privilege.”
Chef and author Stephanie Alexander received a standing ovation when she accepted her outstanding contribution to hospitality award. As well as her legacy in establishing her eponymous restaurant Stephanie’s in Melbourne in 1976 and her not-for-profit organisation, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, her seminal cookbook The Cook’s Companion marks its 30th anniversary this year.
“I think what I feel is that I’m so much older than everybody else,” she told the audience.
“I love … that over my career I have been able to influence a lot of very young people who are now firmly entrenched in this amazing industry.”
Melbourne’s Yiaga was named best new restaurant, while Christian Ryan of Aloft and Restaurant Maria in Hobart was named chef of the year.
The awards ceremony also marked the 60th year of Gourmet Traveller magazine, which first went to press in 1966 as the Australian Gourmet Magazine.
