The 2024 edition of The Age Good Food Guide, featuring the best restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs in Victoria, launches today after sustainable fine-diner O.My was named Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year at a chef-studded awards ceremony held in Melbourne last night. Low-waste champion Jo Barrett also took out the esteemed Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year award. 

For 43 years, the annual Age Good Food Guide has recognised the best restaurants and chefs, and this year’s Guide is no different, compiling more than 450 independent reviews by our team of critics. 

Good Food is Australia’s most respected food and beverage title, and its coveted hats – from one to the pinnacle of three – are recognised as the industry gold standard. This year’s Guide includes 149 hats: three restaurants received three hats, 30 restaurants received two hats and 116 restaurants received one hat. The three hat winners were Brae, Minamishima, and Amaru, which scored a third hat this year for the first time.

Edited by Emma Breheny and Ellen Fraser, The Age Good Food Guide contains reviews undertaken anonymously by a team of respected critics. More than 500 restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes at a wide range of budgets were visited across the state over the course of the last eight months.

“We’re so thrilled to launch The Age Good Food Guide for 2024, and to celebrate with all the winners tonight. There’s a lot that’s fresh about this year’s Guide, including 35 new one-hats and more than 100 new restaurants. It’s impossible to squeeze in every venue, but these are the places we flock to for conversation, connection and – above all – good food.” said Fraser.

The glamorous awards ceremony was held at the Plaza Ballroom and supported by long-term co-presenting partners Vittoria Coffee and Oceania Cruises. Three hundred chefs, restaurateurs and industry legends from Victoria’s food and drink scene gathered as 14 awards, along with the hats, were handed out. 

“There’s an exciting mix of winners this year, from community-focused places like Little Picket in Lorne’s bowls club, led by our Chef of the Year Jo Barrett, to multimillion dollar projects with history behind them, like Kin or Reine & La Rue. It’s so pleasing to see our restaurant scene in Victoria continuing to surprise and innovate, especially at a time when people talk of big restaurant groups homogenising what’s on offer,” said Breheny.

Among the new features in this year’s edition is the Critics’ Pick symbol, denoting venues our reviewers love and recommend regardless of their score. 

“Some specialise in a single dish, others are cooking food you won’t find anywhere else, or have a remarkable backstory you need to know. All are essential, noteworthy and groundbreaking in their own ways,” says Fraser.

Soi 38 took out the inaugural Critics’ Pick of the Year award. “It serves some of the city’s most exciting Thai food in one of its most unusual locations, and in many ways epitomises the spirit of this award: a place that incites fanaticism, a place we return to,” said Good Food chief restaurant critic Besha Rodell. 

Melbourne’s Reine & La Rue won the Aurum Poultry Co. New Restaurant of the Year award, Regional Restaurant of the Year went to Heathcote’s Chauncy and the Flinders + Co. New Regional Restaurant of the Year winner was Wahgunyah’s Kin.

Flower Drum’s Jason Lui was named the Vittoria Coffee Legend for his outstanding long-term contribution to the hospitality industry. Lui more or less grew up in Flower Drum after his father and executive chef, Anthony Lui, bought the restaurant in 2003. Lui worked his way from busboy to general manager, along the way becoming a familiar face to diners – and the custodian of an institution that’s renowned around the world. 

The Smeg Young Chef of the Year award this year went to two winners, Cameron Tay-Yap from Amaru and MoVida’s Lily McGrath. Etta owner Hannah Green was awarded the Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award, while Dorian Guillon from Vue de Monde won Sommelier of the Year. Kazuki’s was recognised with Oceania Cruises Drinks List of the Year. 

Cafe of the Year went to Chiaki, Bar Merenda took out Bar of the Year and the Innovator of the Year award, recognising a big thinker with bright ideas that better the community (and previously called the Food for Good award) went to Xavier Prime from Chooks at the Rooke. 

The Age Good Food Guide includes more than 450 independently reviewed city and regional reviews as well as two new categories, Icons and Institutions – for venues delivering exceptional dining experiences decades in – and Top 20 Pubs. Melbourne’s top 20 cafes and top 20 bars, and best-of lists for dining in each Australian state and territory, can also be found within.

“While Good Food is known as the home of the hats, the Guide is much more than high-end restaurants. This year’s edition spans everything from long-adored institutions, pub eateries, suburban gems, no-frills pizza shops, hole-in-the-wall noodle joints, CBD bistros and impressive regional destinations. Importantly, it covers a broad range of budgets,” said Sarah Norris, Head of Food for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and WAToday.

The glossy 148-page Good Food Guide is the definitive guide to the state’s restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs, on sale tomorrow (Tuesday, October 31). 

Guests at the awards were treated to a menu featuring produce from Aurum Poultry Co and Flinders + Co. Drinks were supplied by Vittoria Coffee, Archie Rose, Penfolds and Clover Hill. 

The Age Good Food Guide 2024 is available from newsagents, supermarkets and thestore.com.au for $14.95.

The Age Good Food Guide 2024 award winners: 
Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year: O.My 
Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year: Jo Barrett
Aurum Poultry Co. New Restaurant of the Year: Reine & La Rue
Regional Restaurant of the Year: Chauncy
Flinders + Co. New Regional Restaurant of the Year: Kin
Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award: Hannah Green
Smeg Young Chef of the Year: Cameron Tay-Yap (Amaru) and Lily McGrath (MoVida)
Sommelier of the Year: Dorian Guillon, Vue de Monde
Oceania Cruises Drinks List of the Year: Kazuki’s
Vittoria Coffee Legend Award: Jason Lui, Flower Drum
Critic’s Pick Award: Soi 38
Cafe of the Year: Chiaki
Bar of the Year: Bar Merenda
Innovator Award: Xavier Prime

For further information, please contact:
Adrian Motte
Senior Communications Manager – Trade & Publishing
amotte@nine.com.au

Tuesday, October 31, 2023