Long gone are the days when you’d simply rock up to your local Chinese joint for a fried rice feast with sweet and sour pork. Now, deciding where to eat is like a mathematical equation that starts with sorting through your pinned locations on Google Maps, scrolling through food pics, comparing star ratings and deep diving into the trusty (and oftentimes amusing) customer reviews. If you’re one of those people, then you’ll likely be interested in this latest ranking from Google.
To celebrate 20 years of Google Maps, its team has curated a list of Australia’s most talked-about restaurants. They determined the top five based on those restaurants with the highest number of customer reviews, and the results may surprise you.
According to Google Maps, Aussies have a serious love for spice, with Indian restaurants dominating the ranking of Australia’s most-reviewed eateries. Dosa Hut in Harris Park – aka Sydney’s very own little India – took out the top spot, racking up more than 14,600 Google reviews and an average 4.6-star rating. Hundreds of customer reviews mentioned the Indo-Chinese restaurant chain’s mysterious ‘chicken 65 biryani’, which features chilli sauce-smothered fried chicken reminiscent of old-school Chinese diners. Their mega ‘70mm dosas’ were also popular with reviewers, stuffed with everything from lentils, paneer and vegetables to chicken or lamb. Our favourite part is that almost every dish on the menu at Dosa Hut is under $20. What a steal!
Harris Park is clearly a foodie hotspot in Australia, as it’s also home to Chatkazz, the second most-reviewed restaurant in the country. This vegetarian street food eatery’s Western Sydney location boasts more than 12,900 reviews on Google, with a solid 4.4-star rating. While many reviews note the queues, it seems the wait is well worth it for a taste of Chatkazz’s crowd-pleasing pani puri, chole-bhature and papdi chaat.
Despite having almost no social media presence, Melbourne’s Pho A Gogo in Southbank ranked as the third most-reviewed restaurant in Australia. With an impressive 4.8-star rating, it holds the highest average out of the top five. Pho A Gogo also has 11,700 reviews and counting, with every bowl of pho costing less than $20. However, what locals love the most are the free mandarins the owners often give customers after enjoying their Vietnamese noodle soup.
The fourth most-reviewed eatery in Australia was Ziyka Restaurant, a popular Pakistani and Indian spot in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton, which is best known for its barbecue kebab platter and chicken shinwari. Meanwhile, Sydney’s iconic Opera Bar rounded out the top five, with keywords like ‘seagulls’, ‘sunset’ and ‘seafood platter’ popping up regularly in the 10,000-plus reviews.
Want to discover more of the best dining spots in Australia? Check out Time Out’s ultimate guide to the top restaurants across the country.
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