The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-10-06 · by Emma Breheny, Frank Sweet, Good Food Guide reviewers
What does it take to stand out from a noisy and ever-expanding dining pack in 2026?
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it → take → 2026
The finalists for The Age Good Food Guide’s three marquee awards – celebrating chefs, service stars and defining restaurants – prove that excellence takes many forms.
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excellence → celebrate → forms
Whether it’s taking Chinese and making it French, continuing to raise the bar after 10 or even 66 years of service, or trimming your restaurant in 15,000-plus unique terracotta tiles, these 17 individuals and venues have turned heads this year.
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individuals → ’ → heads
They’re vastly different and that fact speaks volumes for the health of our dining culture in Victoria.
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fact → ’re → Victoria
The winners of all three awards – the Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award, T2 Tea Restaurant of the Year and Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year – will be announced at the Good Food Guide Awards on Monday, October 12.
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winners → announce → Monday
Oceania Cruises Service Excellence Award
Executes the highest standard of hospitality relevant to their establishment, from attitude and skill to knowledge and personality.
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Award → execute → knowledge
Leading a platoon of service staff, some of whom might be in their first restaurant jobs, across a three-pronged mega-venue on the Mornington Peninsula requires deep reserves of composure.
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some → lead → composure
From crafting leisurely experiences for diners at two-hatted Laura to managing the high-volume and occasionally unpredictable pace at Pt Leo Restaurant and the Wine Terrace, servicing winery hoppers, families, dates and tourists – this is all in a day’s work for Lubbock.
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this → craft → Lubbock
That she still finds new ways to create genuine connection with guests, from an amari trolley to tickets for Pt Leo’s sculpture park, is one of her superpowers as a host.
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finds → find → host
A regular was dining at Bar Olo, the chic young counterpart to Italian institution Scopri, that opened down the road in 2024.
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that → din → 2024
But what they craved more than anything was a plate of pasta they’d come to love from Scopri, the spaghetti vongole.
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they → crave → Scopri
Anthony made it so, sans fuss, personally ferrying the dish down Nicholson Street from one venue to the other with an easy grace.
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it → make → grace
“We have a saying in our venues: ‘Nothing is ever a problem’,” says Scutella.
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Scutella → have → venues
“It’s an opportunity to help, find a solution and go the extra mile.”
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It → ’ → mile
Since 1982, this red-fronted building has been greeting and seating diners chasing a taste of Hong Kong.
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building → greet → Kong
Owner Gabriel Chan, now 66, has been there from the beginning, joined in 1989 by his siblings Martin and Vanessa, who together run an efficient operation powered by hospitality’s first principles.
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who → join → principles
Most requests are met with a “yes”, the venue is open for lunch and dinner every day of the year, and staff (many employed for decades) can intuitively read what diners might need, whether it’s a pair of scissors to portion their dim sum or a takeaway container because you ordered one too many dishes.
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you → meet → dishes
Simon Parker, Terrae
The question of good service in the Goldfields tends to lead to Terrae, and then to hospitality gun Simon Parker.
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question → tend → Parker
Calm and observant, a good reader of room and table, Parker has the knack of the regional restaurant pro who not only makes it easy to access the core experience at this restaurant, but is also happy to dispense local wisdom about tomorrow’s coffee or art outing.
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it → have → outing
“Good service to me is about connection, leading the experience the moment a guest walks through the door and never underestimating what it means for someone to be dining with us,” says Parker.
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Parker → lead → us
Tash Sorensen, Malin
If it happens to be winter when you visit Natasha Sorensen’s French fine diner, set within a Carlton North terrace, she and her team will return your coat at the end of the night warmed from shoulder to hem.
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she → happen → hem
It’s partly a quirk of an old building without dedicated coat storage, but it’s also an act built on delight and care.
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it → ’ → delight
Sorensen is a calm presence on the floor, appearing at just the right moment to place a bag stool down, offer more bread for the remnants of your main course, and suggest another pairing.
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Sorensen → appear → pairing
“Great service is an understudied art, where emotional intelligence meets a deep study of hospitality,” she says.
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she → meet → hospitality
After a drive along crunchy gravel, through tea trees and past greenhouses, Barragunda appears, nestled into Mornington Peninsula dunes.
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Barragunda → appear → dunes
Inside, the timber-rich dining room frames views of coastal plants and vegetable furrows.
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room → frame → plants
It’s those beds that supply the dishes you’ll eat, from a trinity of Japanese heirloom pumpkin, pumpkin miso and pepita pangrattato to smoked estate-raised hogget.
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you → ’ → hogget
Each menu is date-stamped as further proof of chef Simone Watts’ commitment to seasonality.
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menu → stamp → seasonality
Cote Basque
Equal parts resurrection and new venture, Cote Basque reimagines one of Melbourne’s greatest dining rooms, Becco’s long-time home, into a European grill taking cues from the Basque region.
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Basque → reimagine → region
The long, tiered room with its angled windows buzzes day and night with drop-in visitors in the dark timber bar, tables having blow-out meals of wood-grilled meat and seafood, and white-jacketed waiters ferrying sherry and Cosmos to tables.
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room → buzz → tables
Roma
Generosity feels like the underpinning of this new city trattoria, from the style of service to the free crusty bread and bittersweet Victorian olive oil to the comforting nature of the food.
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Generosity → feel → food
A celebration of everything Rome eats (offal, bitter greens, artichokes) and appreciates (casual beauty, mannered service), it’s somehow brought something totally original to our city’s array of Italian restaurants, no mean feat given Melbourne lives and breathes Italian food.
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Melbourne → eat → food
Everything is considered, everything is designed to delight.
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everything → consider → ?
No wonder it’s one of the busiest spots in town.
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it → ’ → town
Tomo-An
Six seats, one sitting, and Tomotaka Ishizuka cooking everything himself: this South Melbourne restaurant is formal Japanese dining at its most intimate.
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restaurant → cook → intimate
The unhurried 13-course kaiseki menu moves with quiet conviction.
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menu → move → conviction
Tiger puffer fish – rarely seen in Australia – appears twice, first as pearlescent sashimi, then its skin dances in a bracing vinegared salad.
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skin → see → salad
Duck breast simmered in a glossy soy-dashi broth scored so finely it melts in the mouth.
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it → simmer → mouth
Rice porridge with spanner crab, truffle and salmon roe is at once soothing and luxurious, and sends you home warm.
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porridge → soothe → you
Tomo-An offers precision, originality and a direct line to Japan.
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An → offer → Japan
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
