The complete list of winners at The Age Good Food Guide 2026 Awards

• Victoria’s dining finest celebrated at Good Food Guide Awards with a difference
• The full list of hats

T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year

A restaurant setting benchmarks for food and service, pushing the hospitality industry forward and supporting Australian producers.

Flower Drum

If these ducks could quack. In 2025 the grand dame of Cantonese fine-dining turned 50, a truly remarkable innings for any restaurant, let alone one once considered an underdog in a Euro-centric fine-dining scene.

The food is just as breathtaking as it was in 1999 when it won its first Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year award. It would retain that title four of the next six years, its menu a study in luxury seafood and roast meats turned out with the featherlight touch of executive chef Anthony Lui and his team. It’s a tradition they continue today.

Speaking of tradition, waitstaff clad in black vests and bowties roam that vast red carpet just as they have for generations, greeting regulars by their first names, carving ducks at the table and unlocking off-menu specials for bucket-listers.

The clientele? Truly diverse. Tradies, pollies, peacocks, grandparents – they’re all here, united in their reverence for that particular school of southern Chinese finesse many attempt but few perfect.

Flower Drum is the restaurant that put our city’s Chinese food on the map: a standard-bearer for half a century and a cultural landmark that’s as Melbourne as the Yarra. Here’s to another 50.

Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year

A chef at the forefront of dining, setting new standards, leading by example and contributing positively to their broader community

Thi Le

Anchovy

Chefs like Thi Le come along once, maybe twice in a generation. In the 10 years since she opened Anchovy in Richmond – her partner Jia-Yen Lee by her side – she’s recast it multiple times, taking risks others would baulk at to unspool the story of her culture.

Born into a Vietnamese family en route to Australia, Le has become a strident voice for the children of migrants who feel caught between their family’s heritage and their own identity. Her book Viet Kieu, published this year, encapsulates this experience through recipes but also unflinching, often raw narratives written in collaboration with Lee.

Seemingly never at rest, Le pursues knowledge like it’s oxygen, making her own all-Victorian fish sauce and curing charcuterie for her sandwich bar Ca Com. She has defended the pricing of banh mi and other Asian dishes, spoken out against racist Google reviews and confronted people with their own biases.

In the process, she’s inspired a younger generation of chefs to live out their values and cook what they know, even if that cuisine defies easy categorisation.

Underscoring everything she touches is an impeccable palate and a freshness of viewpoint that make eating Le’s food – in whichever setting she’s currently cooking – a truly memorable experience.

Oceania Cruises Service Excellence

Executes the highest standard of hospitality relevant to their establishment, from attitude and skill to knowledge and personality

Alex Casey

Brae

Earlier this year, an American guest dining (and staying) at Birregurra restaurant Brae commented to restaurant manager Alex Casey that, despite driving around Victoria for over a week, he had yet to set eyes on a kangaroo. He was beginning to believe they didn’t exist, he joked. Casey, who had until then been enthusiastically talking martinis with this guest, exclaimed, “There’s a mob of kangaroos on the property. After dinner I’d be happy to engineer an introduction.” (He did; the guest was thrilled.)

It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen Casey not only rise to the occasion of excellent service but go above and beyond it. His ease while providing synchronised, extremely intentional table service permeates the whole dining experience at Brae. Casey’s genuine care for the guest and their enjoyment provides more than hospitality – at his best he offers something verging on magic.

New Restaurant of the Year, presented by Aurum Poultry Co.

One of the most exciting openings of the past 12 months that also has a fresh point of view and captures the moment in the broader restaurant scene

Zareh

Collingwood

At what point does hype become hindrance? Last year, word came that Melbourne’s favourite itinerant chef Tom Sarafian was zeroing in on a place of his own. Cue the screaming. But despite the pressure, in August, Zareh debuted in Collingwood to unanimous praise: a singular vision from a chef with a striking sense of purpose. It’s the sum of his working life, it’s the clear-eyed expression of his cultural identity.

You can file it under Armenian-Lebanese, you can file it under categorically Melbourne: a whip-smart wine bar powered by flame and fenugreek, the sound system blasting Armenian funk all the while. The dips, indispensably Sarafian, are front and centre: toum slathered over chicken kebabs, hummus loaded with spanner crab – his signature. But they’re just one part of a story that’s still being written. The hype was justified; Tom Sarafian has arrived. Zareh is the restaurant Melbourne has been waiting for.

Bar of the Year, presented by SevenRooms

The best all-round bar that nails hospitality, drinks and vibe while contributing to its broader community

The Walrus

St Kilda

This charming beast has quickly become a local fixture since opening in St Kilda in late 2023. Seasoned owners Marty Webster and Amy McGouldrick met working at the Diggin’ in the Cellars group (The Alps, The Moon) and are fabulous hosts, steering an understated cocktail list that favours icy martinis and stiff negronis labelled by number.

Grab the table in the window and you’ll see a parade of colourful St Kilda characters passing by with a nod or a wave. Eclectic vinyl is on high rotation, there are regular specials, and the elegant wine list is geared towards seafood-driven snacks. Oysters from multiple regions are shucked to order alongside XO scallop party pies and tins of Spanish anchovies.

The team also recently opened a “mini pub”, The Carpenter’s Ruin, next door. Whether it’s a quick glass or a big night, you’ll feel right at home at this perfectly formed neighbourhood bar.

Regional Restaurant of the Year

The best beyond metro limits – a celebration of its surrounds with a strong connection to the local community

Tedesca Osteria

Red Hill

Country restaurants come in many guises. But the long, languid lunch in a stylishly rustic room, overlooking a garden from which much of your meal has been harvested? That might be the greatest expression of the form. The multi-course, hours-long lunches served at Tedesca Osteria on the Mornington Peninsula have made a table here one of the most coveted bookings in the state, and it’s easy to see why.

Owners Brigitte Hafner and James Broadway have created a profoundly personal project, one imbued with their good taste and innate sense of hospitality, and they have inspired many in the industry to reach farther, to aim for authenticity over showmanship, to bring a deeper sense of place to their work.

Tedesca provides a Platonic ideal of the regional restaurant – something you might dream of finding on a luxurious European holiday – but somehow even more wondrous because it exists in our own backyard.

T2 Tea Cafe of the Year

Great coffee, tea and drinks? That’s a given. The winning cafe also takes pride in its food and service

Commonfolk

Frankston

The newest cafe from 12-year-old coffee roaster Commonfolk is the complete package. Whether it’s dawn coffees in hi-vis, laptop lunches or an afternoon matcha made in heaven, this multitasking cafe is defining for Frankston.

A dynamic menu twists the classics: your chilli scramble comes with Ugandan spice crisp, avo is smashed with chickpeas and green tahini, and the Benny comes with salmon pastrami.

Coffee beans are directly sourced from small farmers, roasted locally in Mornington, and turned into day-making espresso and filter drinks. Proceeds from every cup help fund projects in the coffee industry, such as social enterprises among Ugandan producers – more than $510,000 has been raised so far.

Back in Franga, service is on-point and the corner site hums, proving that this underloved outer suburb is more than just a gateway to the Mornington Peninsula: it’s got its own culinary cred.

Drinks List of the Year

A wine and drinks list with its own unique identity, featuring options that pair with the restaurant’s food and style across a range of prices

Bar Midland

Castlemaine

You’d think the hardest thing about running a restaurant that serves only Victorian produce would be cooking without sugar and having to break the news that there’s no coffee. But no: the only factor previously stopping four-year-old fine diner Bar Midland from opening was the dearth of Victorian-made vermouths, amari and other cocktail accoutrements.

That’s changed now, with local brands like Beechworth Bitters Company and Marionette making it easy to mix sundowners of quality and character. They’re part of a joyful list that celebrates state-made wine, beer, sake, cider and spirits, chosen with an eye on responsible farming and ethics as well as texture, flavour and food-matching potential.

Alcohol-free beverages are no booby prize, either, with an ever-changing range of house-made ferments and teas.

Drinking here is a conversation, whether it’s a tale of the nice nebbiolo from Colbinabbin or a happy debate on the best sparkling wine to toast Victoria and its liquid bounty.

Sommelier of the Year

A wine professional who has a deep knowledge of the subject while helping to influence and inspire

Justin Howe

Harriot

After four-plus years pouring Italy’s finest at Osteria Ilaria, Justin Howe was this year tapped to lead the wine program at Harriot, a city newcomer from the same team. With 500-plus bottles at his disposal, three years of planning, and a business crowd happy to spend, his list could have gone one way. But Howe is a more curious sommelier than that, no doubt influenced by his time at Embla and The Town Mouse.

From within state lines, he’s plucked out Mac Forbes claret and assembled verticals of respected family-run labels. Up-and-coming producers from France and Italy join bargain rieslings with enough age and complexity to match the food of rising star James Kelly and his Australian brand of bistronomy.

Whatever bottle you choose – the $80 or the $480 – Howe will talk to you with the same wry smile and quiet enthusiasm that reassure you: this was a good choice.

Pub of the Year

An award recognising a quintessential pub – new or old – that’s embedded in its community, offers food and drink that’s a cut above, and is welcoming to all

North Fitzroy Arms

When the Carlton Draught sign flickered back on last year, there were doubts about whether this corner pub would still have its old soul, nurtured for nearly a decade by ex-footballer Percy Jones and symbolised in the Fitzroy Football Club memorabilia gracing every surface, even tabletops.

Sure, the bistro is now candle-lit and dressed with white linen. The wine list by sommelier Hayley McCarthy (ex-Ides) is as strong as many restaurants’. But in the front bar, mates draped in scarves watch footy, families pile in for bowls of chips in the afternoon, and the Fitzroy Lions tables remain.

Uniting these two tribes is food that’s the right side of kitsch: pie floaters, Sunday roasts, sausage rolls, plus one of the year’s most-photographed dishes, the egg and anchovy-topped schnitzel Holstein.

Draught’s still on tap, and house wine starts at $13. To visit the
Arms is to see Melbourne’s pub-naissance in full swing.

Critics’ Pick of the Year

A venue, hatted or not, that captures the moment, brings something special to our dining scene and is consistently on our critics’ hit-lists

Maryam

Preston

Opened in 2021, this homey restaurant – with its rugs, arches and framed prints – is a portal to restaurateur Maryam Valizadeh’s home country, Iran. Persian families pass around floppy lavash bread and smoky eggplant dip, a waiter sets an enormous silver platter of grilled meat and rice on an ornate table mat, and a first-time diner gasps in delight as they tap their way through the golden crust of tahchin, a saffron-scented layered rice dish. That’s just the front room.

There are two more parlours out back, buzzing with people enveloped in the generosity of a place obsessed with quality and the power of bridging worlds through food.

Maryam’s ash reshteh – a perfect rendition of the essential Persian soup – is worthy of its own award. A robust mixture of lentils, short noodles, herbs and sour kashk (a ferment made from whey), it’s as lively as it is comforting.

Legend Award

For an outstanding long-term contribution to the hospitality industry

Tansy Good

Chef and restaurateur Tansy Good closed her hatted Kyneton restaurant in October 2025, calling time on a career that started in the 1970s – before many of today’s leading chefs were even born – and that left an indelible mark on Australian food.

A self-taught cook, she trained defining chefs including Karen Martini and Andrew McConnell, and was awarded 30 Good Food Guide hats across three Tansy’s: the first in Carlton North between 1983 and 1992, the second in the city between 1992 and 1994, and the third in Kyneton between 2019 and now.

She championed produce in an era when people didn’t give much thought to where ingredients came from, and developed an uncompromising ability to meld classic French techniques with startling creativity in a way that left chefs, diners and critics in awe.

From her signature signature souffle to her remarkable way with salad leaves, there has not been another Victorian chef like Tansy Good.

Young Chef of the Year, presented by Smeg

The ultimate accolade for a committed and talented chef aged 30 or under with an exciting culinary viewpoint, a social conscience and strong leadership potential

Viveik Vinoharan

They say third time’s the charm – not that this year’s Young Chef of the Year is lacking in the charm department. This is the third time Viveik Vinoharan has been shortlisted as a finalist for this award; a mark of his resilience, tenacity and the clarity of his vision – all vital for enduring success in the kitchen.

“My aim has always been to integrate the flavours of my Sri Lankan heritage into an Australian context, as an honest reflection of who I am and where I come from,” he says.

In March, Vinoharan stepped away from his post at Lilac Wine to do just that over a series of wildly successful pop-ups. Those in attendance might remember his savoury pumpkin mochi with seeni sambol – a radiant triangulation of his Sri Lankan roots, his work experience in Japan, and the Australian appetite for bold, wine-friendly snacking.

“This year, I feel I have finally hit my stride,” he says. We couldn’t agree more.

Katie McCormack Young Service Talent Award

An award recognising a front-of-house professional aged 30 or under who consistently strives for excellence and shows genuine passion for hospitality

Georgia Limacher

Gimlet

Any child who volunteers to peel carrots in the family restaurant on Saturdays is destined for a career in hospitality. Georgia Limacher, who grew up in Wellington, nearly fizzes with enthusiasm when she talks about nailing a dinner service at Flinders Lane hot spot Gimlet or how she made one diner’s day with a thoughtful wine recommendation.

Moving to Melbourne in 2023 only fuelled her passion to deliver meaningful service and learn from the city’s best. In her two-plus years at Gimlet, she’s gone from section waiter to wine leader to sommelier.

“I truly believe that Georgia will become a role model that young aspiring service professionals will seek out,” says award judge Bronwyn Kabboord. “Her warmth and energy are contagious.”

Limacher’s dream is to run her own venue with a reputation for being a great place to work as well as to dine – no easy feat.

Trailblazer Award

A venue, organisation or person who brings fresh thinking, warmth, integrity and an entrepreneurial spirit to our industry.

Barragunda

Cape Schanck

On a coastal Mornington Peninsula farm, Barragunda can be experienced simply as a glorious long-lunch destination – but the restaurant also offers big ideas about growing food smarter, resource sharing and creating community.

Opened in February this year by philanthropist Hayley Morris in collaboration with chef Simone Watts, the restaurant sources nearly all ingredients from what’s grown on site using a co-op model rarely seen in the upper reaches of dining. Some vegetables are even sold to the local community via an online shop, also stocked with seedlings and native plants.

Watts lives on the farm and is closely connected to daily harvests. She uses obscure plant parts – sunflower stem and burnt onion skin – in waste-fighting menus that are oft-tweaked and almost never repeated. The Morris family owns the Cape Schanck property and all profits from the restaurant are diverted to the family’s foundation to support regenerative agriculture projects in a virtuous cycle.

Cultural Change Champion

Shining a light on those making the hospitality industry a better place to work

Sorry Not Sorry

More than a year ago, Rachelle “Rocky” Hair and Jenna Hemsworth made the brave decision to go public with claims against their former employer Swillhouse, owner of high-profile venues including Restaurant Hubert. Speaking with Good Food and The Sydney Morning Herald, they alleged they were sexually harassed, assaulted or discriminated against as employees – claims Swillhouse denies.

Their stories sent shockwaves through Australia’s hospitality community, where sexual harassment is prevalent but rarely discussed publicly. It was a catalyst for change in Melbourne, forcing businesses to look at their safety policies and staff-vetting processes, while in Sydney, SafeWork NSW launched an investigation and the government mandated sexual violence prevention training for pubs and clubs.

Hair and Hemsworth used the momentum to launch Sorry Not Sorry with Alex Hooker, Brittany Rowe and Reuby Kahl, and embarked on a national tour of panel discussions and bar takeovers to highlight the need for change.

Importantly, SNS has helped move the discussion beyond industry circles and sparked a national conversation around acceptable behaviours and workplace accountability.

Food for Good

A big thinker with bright ideas that betters the community

All Things Equal

On one side, staff shortages. On the other, a group wanting to work that’s often overlooked. The untapped potential of people with a disability has been the driving force of All Things Equal since the social enterprise cafe opened in 2021.

But this year, it brought that idea into sharp relief with its Equal Opportunity Blueprint, packed with data on the benefits of employing people with disability – and the missed opportunities in not. The report came with an unapologetically bold ask of the hospitality industry: commit to employing 1100 people by 2035.

While the Balaclava cafe continues to train and employ young people – 93 since 2021 – this was the year All Things Equal dreamed big: taking the cafe to the Australian Open, partnering with three major mainstream employers, and mapping out a plan that will bring independence and purpose to the lives of marginalised young people – and solve a persistent problem for hospitality.

A free 80-page Good Food Guide liftout with all the award winners and Critics’ Picks will be inserted in The Age on Tuesday, October 28.

The Good Food app is the home of the 2026 edition of the Good Food Guide, with more than 500 reviews. The app is free for premium subscribers of The Age and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app here.