A SELECTION of Western Australia's finest restaurants has won the top prizes across two separate state and national award ceremonies held on the same night earlier this week.
On Monday evening, the Catering Institute of Australia WA Gold Plate Awards were handed down, while the Restaurant and Catering Association's 2009 Savour Australia National Awards for Excellence were being held in Canberra.
Three WA restaurants managed to win at both ceremonies.
Nahm Thai in Perth, Friends Restaurant of East Perth, and Matilda Bay Restaurant in Crawley all won at least one award at each ceremony.
Nahm Thai won the best Thai restaurant at the Savour Australia National Awards for Excellence and the Gold Plate for best-licensed Thai restaurant.
Friends Restaurant won the fine dining and wine list of the year gold plates and also the best entertainment restaurant category at the national awards.
Matilda Bay Restaurant took home the nation's best tourism restaurant award as well as the licensed dining metro gold plate.
Other winners at the national awards included Aquarium Seafood Chinese Restaurant in Ascot (best Chinese restaurant), and Casellas Wine Tapas Grill in Bunbury, which was named best themed restaurant.
Meanwhile Clarke's of North Beach added two more gold plates, including the coveted Premier's Award for receiving the highest score of any finalist and the best-unlicensed dining award.
Must Margaret River won two gold plates, for best-licensed dining country and best new restaurant.
Burswood's Victoria Station and White Salt in Sorrento were awarded this year's Prix D' Honneur awards for consecutively winning three times in their gold plate categories.
Co-owners of Nahm Thai, husband and wife team Mai Nguyen and Kevin Pham, split their time and attended both ceremonies - Mai stayed in Perth and Kevin went to Canberra.
Ms Nguyen said they had received plenty of positive feedback from customers.
“Now winning these awards is confirmation that we're doing something right and it really is the icing on the cake for us," she said.
