Metro — The Metro Peugeot Restaurant Of The Year 2018 is...

Apr 30, 2018 Restaurants

To see the 2019 Metro Peugeot Restaurant of the Year winners, click here.

Sid Sahrawat crowned king of Auckland dining

Sahrawat’s fine diner Sidart wins Metro’s Supreme Award and his modern Indian restaurant Cassia is runner-up.

The award winners | The Top 50 list | The Top 50 – by cuisine | Photos from the Awards night

Auckland restaurateur Sid Sahrawat has dominated the 2018 Metro Peugeot Restaurant of the Year Awards, with his fine-dining establishment Sidart winning the Supreme Award, and his modern Indian restaurant Cassia named runner-up.

The owners of Sidart and Cassia, Sahrawat and his wife and business partner Chand, were jointly named Restaurateur of the Year, and Sahrawat also won Best Chef for both restaurants. Sidart completed a clean sweep of the top accolades with a win in the Best Fine-Dining category, while Cassia, winner of the Supreme Award in 2017 and 2016, won the Best Smart-Dining category.

Cassia’s bar manager, Prateek Arora, was named Restaurant Personality of the Year.

Metro editor and head judge Susannah Walker said the unprecedented number of awards was testament to Sahrawat’s unquenchable thirst for perfection, dedication to his craft and attention to detail in every aspect of his restaurants.

“It’s no mean feat that Sidart – now in its 10^th year – has reached new heights of excellence. To say that Sid Sahrawat is a brilliant chef is stating the obvious; but his knack for nurturing talent doesn’t get the attention it deserves. It’s one of the reasons he and Chand can run two restaurants at the pinnacle of Auckland’s dining scene.”

The annual Metro Peugeot Restaurant of the Year Awards celebrate the excellence of Auckland’s dining scene. The panel considered more than 100 contenders, refining the list to 50 after months of deliberation. Judges visited restaurants anonymously and paid for their own meals.

The awards were announced by Master of Ceremonies Clarke Gayford at a red-carpet event at Auckland Museum on April 30, which was attended by the city’s most successful restaurateurs.

The Top 50 finalists, announced in April, were considered for category awards as well as the Supreme Winner award.

Italian eatery Cotto, which began life as a Karangahape Rd pop-up last year, won the coveted Best New Restaurant award and was named joint runner-up (with Apéro ) in the Best City-Fringe Bistro category.

Hugo’s Bistro was another star of the awards, winning Best Inner-City Bistro and Best New Fit-out, and being named runner-up in the Best New Restaurant category. Owners Joost and Clare van den Berg also own Top 50 restaurant, Odettes.

“We were very impressed by the overall standard not just of the category winners but all of the restaurants which made the Top 50 list,” says Walker. “Once again, they’ve done us proud.”

The new issue of Metro, on sale from Tuesday 1 May, includes the 2018 Top 50 Restaurants guide.