An Orange restaurant is celebrating after being awarded two hats recently following a secret judging.
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The two hats awarded to Charred Kitchen & Bar by the Australian Good Food Guide (AGFG) for 2023, follow the awarding of one hat in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide last year.
The most recent award for the modern-Australian restaurant saw it win 14 points, the highest it has ever won.
Charred Kitchen & Bar restaurant manager and head sommelier David Collins said he received an email informing him of the win last week.
He said he was "a little bit surprised by the two hat score".
"Obviously you check out where everybody else ended up, and we beat a lot of restaurants that you don't expect to beat," Mr Collins said.
"That was a little surreal."
Obviously you check out where everybody else ended up, and we beat a lot of restaurants that you don't expect to beat.
- David Collins
He said this is the first time the restaurant has won two hats.
"With AGFG we've had one had for the past two or three years maybe but definitely the first time with two," Mr Collins said.
"You're just reviewed, you don't know and I still don't know who or when we were reviewed.
"It happens or it doesn't happen, you just get an email one day saying you've been awarded two hats, you don't enter anything, you don't pay a fee for anything, you don't have to submit a menu, it's just completely independent."
Mr Collings said head chef Liam O'Brien always works to change and improve the menu.
There is currently a set tasting menu for $130 per person.
"In terms of the food menu, he's always trying to go to the next level, up his game, change the menu, keep it fresh as possible, which is not always easy," he said.
"You want to improve on the dishes you've got, in front of house you want to improve on the service, you want to just keep on getting better and staying on trend as well.
Mr Collins said the restaurant was inundated with customers between Christmas and New Year.
"It dropped off after Christmas and before in the lead up, the flood warning, it was super tough, that was awful.
"That was comparative to the bushfires before COVID in terms of numbers in the restaurant."
"That was some of the worst trade in the restaurant that we've seen since we've been open."
Mr Collins said this was due to many of the customers coming from out of Orange.
"There was nobody coming, they don't understand what it's like west of the Blue Mountains and because of the flood alert they thought it was a do not travel area essentially," he said.
"A lot of our customers use us as a destination restaurant so when we lose those customers we have a serious drop off and its pretty tricky to deal with.
"It's starting to pick back up again."
Some of the current menu highlights include a charred lamb loin, which is a honey and rosemary marinated Cowra lamb loin cooked on coals with lamb bacon, peeled peas, spring flowers and mint.
The chicken peri peri dish also gets a lot of good feedback.
"It's a set menu and they are the dishes that are getting the majority of the wonderful feedback," Mr Collins said.
Three other Central West restaurants also received a hat through the AGFG 2023 selection.
Tonic at Millthorpe was also awarded a hat with 12 points.
The only other Central West restaurants to receive hats were in Mudgee with Pipeclay Pumphouse and the Zin House which received one hat and 13 points each.
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