‘The future has arrived’: Victoria’s dining finest celebrated at Good Food Guide Awards with a difference

• The full list of winners
• The full list of hats

Victorian dining’s depth, diversity and dynamism were celebrated at The Age Good Food Guide awards on Monday. Five hundred of the hospitality industry’s best and brightest talents gathered at The Timber Yard in Port Melbourne for the first afternoon launch in the Guide’s 45-year history.

“This year’s award winners are a true snapshot of the state,” said Good Food Guide co-editor Emma Breheny. “We recognise that quality dining comes in many different forms, with excellence at every point along the price spectrum, across countless cuisines, and in all postcodes.”

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Chinatown legend Flower Drum, open since 1975, was named T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year.

“We are thrilled to mark Flower Drum’s half century as the high-water mark of Cantonese food in Australia,” said Guide co-editor Frank Sweet. “Melbourne’s Chinese food scene has expanded so much in the past decade, with dishes from Hunan to Yunnan now easily found. But there’s still a special place for exceptional Cantonese food and there’s no better example than the Drum.”

Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year is Thi Le, co-owner of Vietnamese-Australian restaurant Anchovy in Richmond. Le opened Anchovy 10 years ago alongside her partner Jia-Yen Lee.

“Anchovy was groundbreaking then, and Thi hasn’t stopped with her creativity and innovation since,” said Breheny. “To operate at that level for this long is really impressive. She’s such a thorough and thoughtful chef in the way she interprets cultures to create fresh and thrilling dishes for a contemporary diner.”

The full Good Food Guide, presented by T2 Tea and Oceania Cruises, is published on the Good Food app and features independent reviews of nearly 500 venues across the state, serving everything from batch-brew coffee to ash reshteh noodle soup; wontons to wine-bar snacks; perfect pizza to dressed-up fine dining.

“The app is on-call, on demand, searchable, saveable, and there’s a map,” said Sweet. “It is the future of the Guide, and it has arrived.”

Every guest also went home with a collectible 80-page magazine featuring Victoria’s 123 essential dining experiences, also available for free in Tuesday’s Age.

“These essential experiences are our Critics’ Picks, a list that tells us where we are and where we’re going as a dining state,” said Sweet. “Some have hats, some don’t, but when visitors ask us where to eat and drink, these are the places we send them.”

Persian restaurant Maryam, in Preston, was named Critics’ Pick of the Year.

TV presenter and DJ Faustina “Fuzzy” Agolley hosted the ceremony attended by chefs, restaurant owners and food personalities including MasterChef Australia winner Nat Thaipun, and cookbook authors such as Alice Zaslavsky, Rosheen Kaul and Julia Busuttil Nishimura.

‘We know diners want a broader scope and a larger number of reviews that truly reflect our great state.’

The Age Good Food Guide co-editor Emma Breheny

Food at the event was an all-Victorian affair, with snacks from Japanese konbini Suupaa, Campbellfield kebab truck Miksa, Malaysian noodle star Lulu’s Malaysian Hawker, and St Kilda’s British and Irish-inspired chippie, Northern Soul.

A coveted three-hat certificate was awarded to just four restaurants: Amaru in Armadale, intimate Richmond omakase Minamishima, Brae in Birregurra and Rialto flagship Vue de Monde, all retaining their spots at the top of the tree.

Other big winners included Zareh, which was named New Restaurant of the Year.

“Tom Sarafian’s Armenian-Lebanese restaurant has been in the works for years. It was anticipated so keenly that there was a worry it wouldn’t meet those frenzied expectations,” said Sweet. “But it’s come out of the gates with the dare and flair we associate with Melbourne’s best restaurants.”

The Age chief restaurant critic, Besha Rodell, made her first appearance on the Good Food Guide awards stage after relinquishing her anonymity upon publication of her memoir this year. Rodell presented Regional Restaurant of the Year to Tedesca Osteria in Red Hill.

“More than five years after opening, none of the magic has worn off Tedesca,” said Breheny. “It’s a restaurant others aspire to in terms of indulging diners in careful, thoughtful gestures, and giving people the gift of time with a leisurely lunch where you know they don’t need your table back in two hours.”

Also on the Mornington Peninsula, Barragunda was named Good Food Guide Trailblazer, an award recognising hospitality, innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Barragunda is so much more than a restaurant,” said Breheny, noting the restaurant’s ambition and big-picture thinking that includes sharing land with small farmers.

“Profits fund projects that aim to make the food system fairer, more resilient and sustainable. It’s a hopeful model in a time when people are feeling overwhelmed by the climate crisis and the choices they can make.”

The Oceania Cruises Service Excellence recipient was Alex Casey from Brae.

“I remember arriving at Brae on a cold day and Alex asking if I would like to draw warmth from the fire,” recalls Sweet. “Those detailed gestures of care carried on through the afternoon in a way that is precious and uncommon.”

Commonfolk Frankston was named Cafe of the Year. “We love the great coffee program at Commonfolk, the sleek design, the interesting menu, but we especially love that it’s in a suburb a lot of people have overlooked for years,” said Breheny.

Pub of the Year went to the refurbished North Fitzroy Arms. “The care put into preserving the spirit of this old watering hole is something to be studied,” said Sweet.

“You can watch the footy with a pint of Carlton or order wine with confidence from a list put together by one of Melbourne’s brightest sommeliers, Hayley McCarthy, who people may remember from two-hatted Ides.”

Breheny and Sweet oversaw a team of reviewers who always dined unannounced and paid for every meal.

“Our responsibility is to help diners decide which venue is right for them,” said Sweet, who is in his first year as co-editor. “We know the Good Food Guide has held a dear place in the hearts of readers for 45 years, and has guided many people to some of the most memorable meals of their lives. I’ve dreamed of working on the Guide since I was a dishie in Adelaide 20 years ago.”

Sweet and Breheny, in her third year as editor, are stewarding the Good Food Guide through its biggest ever period of change.

“We know diners want a broader scope and a larger number of reviews that truly reflect our great state,” said Breheny. “We are providing something of value, no matter what type of diner you are: the Guide is a trusted voice that ensures you’ll never have to forego deliciousness again.”

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.