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The Age Good Food Guide Awards 2026 as it happened: All the winners and hats revealed
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And that’s a wrap
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Thanks for following our live coverage of The Age Good Food Guide Awards, presented by T2 Tea and Oceania Cruises.
Read all about the ceremony in our news story here, peruse the full list of hats and find out more about all the major award winners.
And don’t forget to download our Good Food app to explore all 500 Good Food Guide reviews (as Good Food’s Sarah Norris said in her welcome speech, it’s like having a Good Food Guide editor in your pocket).
Pick up the paper tomorrow for the special Good Food Guide liftout (starring New Restaurant of the Year winner Zareh on the cover, below), and come back tomorrow morning for the low-down on which restaurants gained or lost their hats.
I’m off to fetch myself a mini martini and get stuck into a spice bag, good night!
Who got the hats? Here’s the full list
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From one hat to three, here’s the essential list of every hat-winning restaurant fromThe Age Good Food Guide 2026.
Download the Good Foood app and find every review from the 2026 The Age Good Food Guide edition, complete with hats, maps and much more. You can make your own saved list of Good Food Guide venues, too.
Premium Digital subscribers can download the Good Food app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store now.
Petal power: Congratulations to a Melbourne icon
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“I never thought that my Dad and I would be working together for two decades. I thought we’d kill each other,” Jason Lui.
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What winning chefs have been eating around town in their time off
By Emily Holgate
Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year, Thi Le: “Favourite thing I’ve eaten recently… I was in Sydney yesterday and I went to Porkfat and the meal was incredible. An old Richmond favourite of mine is Oriental Grill, like a Northern Chinese barbecue house. Just a local favourite, love it.”
Tom Sarafian, owner-chef of New Restaurant of the Year, Zareh: “The favourite thing I’ve eaten this year has been breakfast at El Columpio [in Fitzroy], it’s my favourite place. It’s true, authentic Mexican food and everything they do is amazing, I love going there for a long, boozy breakfast.”
New Restaurant of the Year: How you voted
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Let’s check in to see how the 10 contenders polled with readers. Looks like the Guide’s winner Zareh is leading the pack.
Gallery: Major award winners are grinners
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Read more about all the major award winners
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Congratulations to all the winners! Read more about them all here
- T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year: Flower Drum
- Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year: Thi Le
- New Restaurant of the Year, presented by Aurum Poultry Co.: Zareh
- Regional Restaurant of the Year: Tedesca Osteria
- Critics’ Pick of the Year: Maryam
- Bar of the Year, presented by SevenRooms: The Walrus
- Food for Good: All Things Equal
- Trailblazer Award: Barragunda
- Legend Award: Tansy Good
- Young Chef of the Year, presented by Smeg: Viveik Vinoharan
- Katie McCormack Young Service Talent Award: Georgia Limacher, Gimlet
- Oceania Cruises Service Excellence: Alex Casey, Brae
- Cultural Change Champion: Sorry Not Sorry
- Sommelier of the Year: Justin Howe, Harriot
- Drinks List of the Year: Bar Midland
- T2 Tea Cafe of the Year: Commonfolk
- Pub of the Year: North Fitzroy Arms
Restaurant of the Year is ‘as Melbourne as the Yarra’
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Drum roll please… the T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year is the 50-year-old Flower Drum.
The city’s iconic Cantonese restaurant has been a standard-bearer for half a century, its menu a study in luxury seafood and roast meats.
Today, its food is just as breathtaking as it was in 1999, when it won this very award for the first time. It is a cultural landmark that is as Melbourne as the Yarra.
Keep beating that drum. Here’s to another 50.
Quartet of three-hat winners revealed
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Congratulations to Brae, Amaru, Minamishima and Vue de Monde for each retaining their three-hat ranking.
Amaru’s Clinton McIver is celebrating a hat-trick of three hats: “The three hats is a real milestone. To have it for three years in a row is not something we take lightly. Over the moon proud of my team. To my wife and kids who don’t see a lot of me Wednesday to Saturday – thank you.”
Vue de Monde’s Rajnor Soin thanks his team up on level 55 of the Rialto tower: “We make dreams come true every day, every service is so amazing.”
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Chef of the Year: It is about celebrating two cultures and cultivating the new
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Congratulations to Thi Le, the Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year.
“This means so much for me, not just for me but for the team, my partner and everyone who’s been part of the journey. The original cooks and caretakers of this land. Food is more than putting something on the plate. It is about celebrating two cultures, cultivating the new. To the migrants. The elders. It’s the hands that have picked our garlic, washed our plates and grown our food,” says Le.
In the 10 years since Le 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 encapsulates this experience through recipes but also unflinching, often raw narratives.
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