Why are there no Sydney restaurants on the World's 50 Best list?

The World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards were handed out in Melbourne last night. You might have heard about it. Tourism Australia and Visit Victoria spent a truckload of cash to bring the ceremony Down Under. Neil Perry threw a few hundred Spencer Gulf prawns on the barbie. Heston spoke about cavemen and palliative care again while New York's Eleven Madison Park took out the top spot. Everyone drank a lot of Estrella.

Two Victorian restaurants cracked the top 50 - Attica at 32 and Brae at 44 - but, for the fourth year in a row, there were no Sydney restaurants on "The List".

Attica and Brae deserve to be in the 50 Best. They're world-class restaurants at the top of their game. But where was Quay, the pearl of Harbour City named Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year in The Sydney Morning Herald 2017 Good Food Guide? And what about Sepia? The Bridge Room? Momofuku Seiobo? Bennelong?

Is Sydney's dining scene in crisis? Should someone call the State Emergency Service?

"If you are going to get your knickers in a twist about the absence of Sydney restaurants on the list then you are taking the list far too seriously," says The Sydney Morning Herald chief restaurant critic, Terry Durack. "It's a game, a very cleverly branded popularity contest. That's not to slight it, I think it's a very positive force, but you have to be aware of the strategies that restaurants and tourism agencies have in place to target the jurors and voters."

Some background: The World's 50 Best Restaurants began life as a London magazine feature in 2002. It was a more civilised age of dining then. Publicity agents hadn't sunk their fangs too far into the neck of the restaurant world and food criticism was left to the professionals.

The World's 50 Best has since morphed into a hugely influential list with more than 1000 voters across the globe, split into 26 regions such as Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Japan and our own Oceania, Australia and New Zealand group.

Each regional member must vote for 10 restaurants and at least four of these must be from a region other than their own. Importantly, they need to have visited the restaurant in the last 18 months.

It's easy to see how Sydney might be disadvantaged by this system.

"If [Chippendale restaurant] Automata was in Copenhagen or Paris, it would be on the list," says Mitch Orr, chef and co-owner of Acme in Rushcutters Bay. "It's a world-class restaurant. It's just that we're so f--king far away from everywhere else."

The last time Sydney had a restaurant in the Top 50 was 2013, when Quay made No. 48. This year Quay came in at number 95 (the 51 to 100 positions were announced last week to get punters frothing for the main event), a terrific result but well south of its highest placement of 26th in 2011.

Durack is right when he says The List is a game we shouldn't take too seriously, however it's frustrating to see Quay and Sepia slip in the rankings (Sepia debuted at 84 in 2015 and has since vanished) when both restaurants are getting better with age.

It's even more frustrating to witness Sydney's slide after visiting European restaurants at the pointy end of The List and spending an ungodly amount of coin to have a disappointing time. (Arpege, you know who you are.)

Is it possible that Sydney's lack of restaurants in the 50 Best is because voters have stopped eating at Quay or Sepia when they're in town?

"Maybe they've been to Quay in the past and now they want to see what Clayton [Wells] is cooking at Automata, or what Paul Carmichael is doing at Momofuku Seiobo," says Orr.

"They're probably going to Hubert, LP's, Ester, Acme or Sixpenny. There's so many awesome places to eat in Sydney. If international voters don't have much time while they're here, the votes are spread out and individual restaurants might not tally enough points to make it on the list."

Restaurants like Hubert and Ester are relaxed places where you can kick back, smash wine and eat all the delicious things. Unquestionably world-class, but not quite in the mould of a 50-Best-worthy restaurant in 2017.

"These days the list is full of fine-dining temples with massive budgets, huge amounts of staff, research and development kitchens, PR teams and all that kind of stuff," says Orr. "Sydney doesn't have a lot of those restaurants. However, if you take a step down from that level, we're absolutely killing it."

What is the likelihood of Sydney restaurants featuring in future 50 Best lists? We know Sepia is no longer a chance as the team is moving to Melbourne when the three-hatted restaurant's lease is up for renewal next year.

"The Sydney restaurants that chefs at this year's World's 50 Best events have been talking about most are Quay and Firedoor," says Terry Durack. "Both restaurants have chefs with very strong personal voices in Peter Gilmore and Lennox Hastie. That will almost certainly translate into votes next year."

Orr is hopeful that Tourism Australia's investment to bring the World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards and its key voters to our shores will pay off.

"If Automata cracks the Top 100 list next year because all the 50 Best Academy chairs came to Australia, then that's amazing for the industry," he says. "Hopefully there will be a trickle down effect and we see more Sydney restaurants on future lists.

"The problem is that we're not going to know for a year or two and, given how ruthless and competitive Sydney is, some of us may not survive that long. Running a successful restaurant in Sydney is f--cking hard."