Sydney’s Saint Peter is the only Australian restaurant on the shortlist as Melbourne’s Yiaga takes home the 2026 one to watch award
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A Sydney eatery has become the first Australian restaurant in nearly a decade to crack the world’s 50 best restaurants list.
Saint Peter, a fish-focused fine-dining restaurant run by the wife-and-husband duo Julie and Josh Niland, has placed 50th in the global rankings.
The last Australian restaurant to crack the top 50 was Melbourne’s Attica, led by chef Ben Shewry, which peaked at number 20 in 2018.
It is the first time Saint Peter has been named in The 50, formerly known as the world’s 50 best restaurants list. Last year the restaurant placed 66th on the longlist after debuting at number 98 in 2024.
At Wednesday night’s ceremony in Lima, Peru, chef Josh Niland also collected the award for best restaurant in Oceania.
Chef Hugh Allen also took home the one to watch award for his Melbourne fine-dining restaurant Yiaga.
Spain’s Asador Etxebarri took home the top award, placing at number one. It ranked in second place in 2025. Second and third place went to Bangkok’s Gaggan and Copenhagen’s Alchemist, respectively.
Speaking in Lima before the ceremony, Niland said the past year his team had been focused on service. “Saint Peter turned 10 this year, and in the last 12 months we’ve really tried to analyse every service touch,” he said.
“The food, our point of view and the way we work with fish is very unique and quite special, but only in the last 12 months have we really been able to put a bow on it.”
Saint Peter, which opened in 2016, is known for its head-to-tail approach to cooking fish, including using parts that are usually discarded. Its menus have included pasta made from fish bones, fish-eye ice-cream and tuna aged for 20 days.
Australian dining deserved more attention abroad, Niland said. “We don’t need Michelin and 50 best to tell us what’s wonderful, because we all know we’re spoiled. But we do need a bit of global awareness … This is less about Saint Peter and more about Australia.”
Allen said more local representation on the global stage benefited the whole Australian restaurant industry.
“The more Aussie restaurants that do well, it helps everyone, because it gets more people wanting to hopefully come out and see what we do,” he said. “It’s one of those tyranny of distance things.”
The world’s 50 best restaurants list, first published in 2002, is voted for by an academy of more than 1,000 chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and well-travelled diners. It rebranded this year to become The 50.
Additional reporting by Emma Joyce.
