The guide’s first Australian selection, revealed October 14, gave two stars to Magill Estate Restaurant and one star to ten more, among 77 restaurants.
Michelin has reached Australia at last, and it started with South Australia. The inaugural Michelin Guide South Australia 2027 selection was revealed at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Wednesday, October 14, in a ceremony hosted by presenter Jess Adamson, with international director Gwendal Poullennec in Adelaide to announce the stars. It is the guide's first selection anywhere in the country.
The numbers set the scale. Seventy-seven restaurants made the first selection: one restaurant at two stars, ten at one star, 16 Bib Gourmands for good food at moderate prices, and 50 further restaurants listed as Michelin Selected. No restaurant received three stars. After months of anonymous inspections, the guide described a food culture shaped by fire, terroir and multicultural influence, and its inspectors kept returning to the same thread. In Poullennec's words, fire is the thread that runs through it all.
The night's highest honour went to Magill Estate Restaurant, Penfolds' flagship in the Adelaide foothills, led by director and executive chef Scott Huggins. It is Australia's first two-star restaurant. The dining room sits above the vineyards of Magill Estate, the spiritual home of Penfolds, the winemaker founded in 1844, and the cooking is built around local, seasonal produce, with Huggins working closely with growers.
The guide's account of the room describes a 10-course tasting menu of premium Australian produce and precise technique, with dishes that may include sea urchin with snow peas and tarragon, or spring lamb Wellington with kohlrabi. The restaurant's own site lists a Signature Menu at 295 dollars per person and a full Magill Estate tasting experience at 375 dollars per person, served at dinner from Wednesday to Saturday and at lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Huggins, Melbourne-born, built a career of more than two decades that included time in Michelin-starred kitchens in Spain, Singapore and Japan, among them Nihonryori RyuGin in Tokyo, before returning to Australia in 2013 and joining Magill Estate.
The ten one-star restaurants map the state rather than clustering in its capital. In and around Adelaide: Botanic, in the Botanic Garden under chef Jamie Musgrave; Esmay, at the Hackney Hotel, by Alanna Sapwell; Aurora at ILA, on Light Square, by Robin Wagner; and arkhe, in Norwood, where Jake Kellie cooks over open fire. In the Adelaide Hills: LVN Restaurant at Bird in Hand, by Jacob Davey, and Restaurant Aptos, in Stirling, by Justin James, who serves his tasting menu across three rooms of a former church.
Beyond the city, the wine regions took their share. Hentley Farm, in the Barossa Valley, by Kyle Johns; Maxwell Restaurant, in McLaren Vale, by Fabian Lehmann; Anvers Restaurant, at Kangarilla, by Connor Bishop, whose menu runs to Paroo kangaroo, Murray cod and damper bread; and Skillogalee Barrel House, in the Clare Valley, by Dan Moss. Several of these kitchens cook over live fire, several sit inside wineries, and nearly all of them build their menus from estate gardens, local farms and the state's produce. That, more than any single technique, is the selection's argument about what South Australian cooking is.
The 16 Bib Gourmands lean toward the rooms locals use weekly: Africola, Antidote Kitchen, Bar Torino, Bistro Francais, Fino Seppeltsfield, Golden Boy, Gondola Gondola, La Popular Taqueria, Noi Vietnamese Eatery, Pantry on Prospect, Part Time Lover, Parwana Afghan Kitchen, Stamps, Sunny's Pizza, The Salopian Inn and Tirage on Kangaroo Island. The list runs from Afghan and Vietnamese kitchens to pizza and taqueria cooking, which supports the inspectors' point about diversity better than the starred list alone could.
Three special awards completed the night. The Young Chef Award went to Shakaan Abillion, head chef at Shoboshō in Adelaide, who took over the kitchen in 2025, returning to the restaurant where he began as an apprentice. The Service Award went to Melissa Pisanelli, co-owner of Allegra Dining Room, a 28-seat plant-based restaurant in the city. The Sommelier Award went to Maxime Martin of Hardy's Verandah at Mount Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills, a fitting honour in a state where wine is never far from the table.
A first Michelin selection does two things at once. It gives travellers a map, 77 restaurants deep, in a state many international visitors previously knew mainly for wine. And it sets a standard local kitchens will now cook against, with inspectors returning anonymously and stars to defend. South Australia's chefs sounded more relieved than triumphant on the night, several of them saying plainly that nobody had expected Michelin to come. It has come. The second selection, and whether any kitchen climbs to three stars, is now the story to follow.
Filed from the Tables desk.
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