When The Australian Weekend Magazine drops its annual Hot 50 Restaurants list, the hospitality industry pays attention. It's a snapshot of where Australian dining is heading — the venues pushing boundaries, the chefs taking risks, and the spaces that make you want to book a table the moment you read about them.
And guess what we noticed? Venues with NOROCK self-stabilising table bases.
It says something interesting about how the best people in hospitality think. When you’re building a restaurant at this level, every decision is deliberate. The light, the acoustics, the seat height, the glassware. And yes, the table base. Because a table that rocks (spilling a drink, interrupting a moment, sending a staff member scrambling mid-service) quietly undoes everything else a room has worked so hard to create. The best designers and operators know this, which is why they don’t leave it to chance.
Gibney, Western Australia
Gibney sits overlooking Cottesloe Beach, and interior designers Rezen Studio have played to it. The space has a relaxed confidence that feels earned rather than engineered — the kind of venue owners Kailis Hospitality Group has always been good at. In the interior, our Lunar table bases in Sandstone Black sit seamlessly. Out on the terrace, where the Indian Ocean is doing some of the heavy lifting, our NRxTMH in Peppermint Tree Green feels exactly right. The kind of colour that looks obvious in hindsight but takes a good designer to see first.
Gibney is a dining experience with traditional hospitality sensibilities without the stuffiness. “The Indian Ocean views are an obvious drawcard but that’s just one of the elements in this Perth restaurant’s success. This is a restaurant that’s only getting better, and hotter.” – The Australian
Pictured: Gibney, photo by DMAX Joel Barbitta
Grandfathers, New South Wales
The Weekend Australian says Grandfathers “proves Sydney always has room for one more round of prawn toasts, especially when they’re done like this.” Designed by Killing Matt Woods, the space is subterranean, red, and completely considered — it’s the latest venue from the team behind some of Sydney’s best restaurants, Michael Clift, Dan Pepperell and Andy Tyson. Cantonese-Szechuan cooking, lacquered roasted meats and a sesame sazerac that people keep mentioning.
Andy has worked with NOROCK across Bistrot 916, Pellegrino 2000 and Neptune’s Grotto. That kind of repeat relationship doesn’t happen by accident — it happens because something works and keeps working. Grandfathers features our NRxTMH 21 in Pindan Red, and it’s worth noting that this award-winning table base appears a few times on the Hot 50 list. A collaboration with designers Tom Mark Henry, our NRxTMH was inspired by the undulating shapes of Western Australia’s coastal landscapes — rugged rock formations, vast sand dunes, wild grasses and Peppermint trees. In a room as considered as Grandfathers, that kind of design pedigree fits right in.
Pictured: NRxTMH in Pindan Red, photo by Traianos Pakioufakis
Hamsi Taverna, New South Wales
Chef Somer Sivrioglu’s seafood destination, Hamsi Taverna, can be found in the newly redeveloped Sydney Fish Market — a long-awaited transformation that’s given the city another exciting waterfront dining precinct. The menu evokes the Turkish Aegean, and The Weekend Australian notes the setting carries an “indoor/outdoor feel” that is “deeply pleasant”. Built by Unita (also known for the recent Garde Hotel) and designed by Alkot Studio, the space features our NRxTMH 21 in Pindan Red in the main dining area alongside our Sol 21 in custom colour Surfmist. Our NRxTMH has an organic, sculptural form and rich finish in the Pindan red. Fitting that it often ends up on a waterfront (see Bobby’s and Gibney)! Two products with the same self-stabilising performance — because at a bustling restaurant on the harbour, nobody has time for a wobbly table.
Pictured: Sol in White, photo by Lulu Cavanagh
Pearla & Co, Western Australia
The Weekend Australian called Pearla & Co “the almost-fine-dining fish restaurant Perth has been waiting for” — and the city wholeheartedly agrees. A dry-ageing cabinet hung with snapper and hapuka on the back wall, vases crafted from oyster and clam shells, and a scale-to-tail ethos that runs through every dish. It’s a restaurant with a strong point of view, right down to the details. Our Parkway self-stabilising bases run throughout the space — indoors and out, handling coastal conditions without complaint, with a clean profile that doesn’t need to compete with the room around them. For a venue this focused on getting everything right, that kind of quiet reliability is exactly what’s needed.
Pictured: Parkway in Sandstone Black, photo by Ryan Murphy
On the subject of wobbly tables
There’s a reason designers and operators at this level choose NOROCK. We understand how hospitality spaces actually work — what they demand, and what holds up over years of continuous service.
That shows up in the practical stuff: no maintenance, no replacement parts, a five-year mechanism warranty. It shows up in our recognition too — Red Dot Design Award, Good Design Gold Award, Hospitality Design Awards Finalist. And for those who care about what’s behind the product as much as the product itself, there’s our B Corp certification.
But honestly, the best endorsement is seeing venues with NOROCK self-stabilising table bases on lists like the Australia’s Hot 50 — specified by designers and operators who had every option available to them, and chose us.
When I’ve got a hard-earned thirst and an uneven surface to match, I choose NOROCK!
