Victoria’s restaurant fortunes waxed and waned in 2026, with every shiny new addition seemingly matched by another venue turning out the lights.
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addition → wax → lights
Compiling a list of just five finalists for The Age Good Food Guide’s New Restaurant of the Year, as is tradition, was too difficult a task.
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tradition → compile → Year
We decided to mark the bumper year with a list of 10 finalists who have shaped Victorian dining in the last 12 months.
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who → decide → months
Experienced restaurateurs poured decades of experience into heartfelt homages to the places that inspire them, whether that’s Rome at Con Christopoulos’ Roma or the Basque Country at Cote Basque, the latest from Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann.
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that → pour → McConnell
Together, they mark an exciting revival of the CBD that’s been slowly building but this year gathered pace.
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that → mark → pace
On its edge sits chef Hugh Allen’s Yiaga, screened by the greenery of Fitzroy Gardens.
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Yiaga → sit → Gardens
It scored three hats right off the bat in January.
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It → score → January
Tucked deep in the heart of the city, Taqueria Sin Nombre attracted online hype early, translating into queues that haven’t died down.
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that → tuck → queues
It’s just really, really good.
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It → ’ → ?
Excellent neighbourhood restaurants run by passionate operators, boldly inventive debuts (such as newly hatted Little Rose by Rosheen Kaul) and destination diners were also part of the deal for Victorian diners this year.
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restaurants → run → diners
Behind all 10 finalists are people with vision and courage to break new ground, even when the market tells you to play it safe.
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market → break → it
That will be revealed on October 12 at the Age Good Food Guide awards.
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That → reveal → awards
Then, last year, owners Clare and Andy Ainsworth got the keys to their dream restaurant site: a two-storey building with a better kitchen and charm for days.
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Ainsworth → get → days
Now, chefs Oliver Edwards and Bree Smith can serve set menus upstairs at Bistro Merenda, and cater to walk-in diners downstairs at Bar Merenda.
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Edwards → serve → Merenda
The original Merenda was named The Age Good Food Guide’s Bar of the Year 2024.
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Merenda → name → Year
Could this version also bring it home?
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version → bring → it
After four years at a shopfront near Gardenvale Station, Bottarga’s fusion offering has shifted to larger premises in the heart of Brighton.
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offering → shift → Brighton
You might find dishes like the “money bag” cotechino, a spin on the pork wontons often found on the streets of Bangkok, or vitello tonnato that hews closer to Australia with saltbush oil grissini laced with pepperberries.
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that → find → pepperberries
This brick-walled, softly glowing room feels like the heart of Thornbury.
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room → wall → Thornbury
The masa-based items are all made in-house, from blue corn tortillas to huaraches: boat-shaped vessels thicker than tortillas.
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items → base → tortillas
You might top them with nopales – cactus that eats like savoury kiwifruit – or sticky, crunchy, slow-cooked lamb rib.
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that → top → kiwifruit
This is the kind of cooking you might find in regional Mexico or in the homes of Mexican friends – it’s almost miraculous to find it in Melbourne.
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it → find → Melbourne
832A High Street, Thornbury, chabela.com.au
Cote Basque
Located in the site that most recently housed Becco, Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann’s latest venture thrums with energy.
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venture → locate → energy
People sip coffee at tables in the laneway; stop by the bar that’s backed by a stunning Magnus Reid mural; or settle in for blow-out meals in the luxe dining room.
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that → sip → room
The food is rustic, almost restrained, most of it cooked simply over a wood grill, with nods to the Basque region rather than all-out imitation.
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food → cook → imitation
At this spicy new Thai-infused wine bar, hot and sour tom yum is served not as a soup but as a seasoning for shoestring fries.
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yum → infuse → fries
Mango sticky rice, meanwhile, has transformed from a sweet dessert to a stiff drink in a frosty-fingerprinted martini laced with pandan liqueur.
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rice → transform → liqueur
There’s a homeliness not only in the hodgepodge of antique tableware, but also in how accommodating the staff in red T-shirts are.
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staff → ’ → shirts
In the back room of Balaclava’s Tulum, everyone dines on a $69 three-course mezze sharing menu, an astounding price considering the quantity and quality of food.
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everyone → din → food
The line-up might feature tahini-rich hummus cooked with Turkish bastourma, a dried and spice-rubbed beef, topped with a vibrant green chilli and cumin sauce; or perhaps stewed baby goat underpinned by cinnamon, served over cheese and eggplant puree.
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up → feature → cheese
There’s something wonderfully audacious about Rosheen Kaul’s cooking at Little Rose, where the dishes themselves are takes on French classics, but with twists that go beyond your average “Asian-influenced” territory.
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that → ’ → territory
Take the pommes puree, topped with a no-holds-barred, utterly funk-tastic crab roe sauce that tastes like the heart of the ocean.
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that → take → ocean
This is not a restaurant for everyone, but it offers a rare glimpse of something new taking delicious shape on your plate.
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it → offer → plate
Rear, 274 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, littlerosefitzroy.com
Roma
Roma – by Con Christopoulos and his collaborators – gives you a magic tingle the minute you step through its latticed doors.
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you → give → doors
Being an ode to Rome, the menu by Matt Wilkinson includes a whole offal section including beautifully crisped lamb brains with bracing caper salsa.
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menu → include → salsa
It’s a brave wager, but it’s true to the Italian capital’s working-class dishes – and an invitation to curious Melbourne diners.
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it → ’ → diners
Inside the chapel-like space, 16 diners perch around the bar facing the open kitchen; its centrepiece is the trompo, a vertical spit stacked wide and tall with pineapple-brushed pork.
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centrepiece → face → pork
Kangaroo asada tacos could be a new Mexican-Australian specialty, but plenty of established dishes appear on the menu, from tuna tostadas to fried fish tacos made with barramundi.
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plenty → appear → barramundi
12-14 Celestial Avenue, Melbourne, taqueriasinnombre.com.au
Yiaga
Beauty is the underlying philosophy at chef Hugh Allen’s first restaurant, run in conjunction with his duties at Vue de Monde.
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Beauty → underlie → Monde
Australia, its landscapes and ingredients and culture, is the muse across 12 courses that roam from Queensland waters to the Victorian Alps without losing sight of flavour.
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that → roam → flavour
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
