for others to step up to the mark.

The Clock Restaurant and Wine Lounge has been awarded the prestigious Australian Good Food and Travel Guide (AGFG) Chef Hat for 2012 and co-owner Janelle Mannes said the accolade was appreciated.

But the AGFG system relies on restaurateurs to put themselves forward to be judged – something Ms Mannes said nobody in the Riverina seemed prepared to do.

“There aren’t really any restaurants of the same standard in Griffith,” Ms Mannes said. “There might be a few in Wagga but people don’t like to put themselves out there.”

While there were risks associated with putting a restaurant forward to be judged –including copping criticism – Ms Mannes said there were many benefits and even the criticism could be helpful.

“You don’t know when the judges are coming or who they are,” she said.

“You do get feedback and they let you know what they think you need to improve – a lot of it has to do with service and even the cleanliness of the toilets, not just the food.”

Ms Mannes said she and co-owner Michelle Armstrong had built the reputation of the restaurant to where it is now through four years of hard work and listening to their customers.

She said consistency was important to her customers

and something she and Ms Armstrong prided themselves on.

“We won’t send anything out unless it’s up to standard and we’ll have people come back time and again and order the same thing because it’s always the same,” she said.

“We also don’t change the menu a lot because we’ve found people get disappointed – what’s on there is what people want to eat.”