In the latest Age Good Food Guide, city restaurants scooped up seven of 17 awards, including Restaurant (Yiaga), New Restaurant (Roma), Bar (Three Horses) and Cafe of the Year (Cham), and a total of 49 hats.
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restaurants → scoop → hats
It’s a different story to the 2023 Guide, when 41 city restaurants picked up hats.
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restaurants → ’ → hats
In the past 15 months alone, the restaurateur behind big-city hits including Gimlet and Supernormal, Andrew McConnell, revived the former Becco site on Crossley Street, to open Cote Basque.
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restaurateur → include → Basque
Hole-in-the-wall spot Super Taco opened opposite, and Shannon Martinez launched a city branch of her Collingwood cafe Smith and Deli.
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Martinez → open → cafe
The owners of celebrated Caretaker’s Cottage bar also chose another Little Lonsdale Street site for their follow-up, Three Horses.
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owners → celebrate → up
Hospitality now constitutes 49 per cent of all retail tenancies in Melbourne CBD, as the city’s recovery after the pandemic morphs into a redefinition of how and when Melburnians use their city.
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Melburnians → constitute → city
“It’s that shift from Melbourne being a five day a week city to a 24/7 CBD,” says James Lockwood, director of retail leasing at Fitzroys real estate.
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Lockwood → ’ → estate
Joshua Brisbane, co-owner of a suite of city venues including the European and French Saloon, agrees.
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Brisbane → include → Saloon
“People are going out at night, there are more restaurants in town opening and the city nightlife is positive, definitely.”
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nightlife → go → town
But he adds that during the day, trade is down, and the city feels quieter.
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city → add → day
”Claudia Christopoulos, Roma restaurant
Lockwood says the boom in sporting events, functions and cultural activities has transformed city spending habits, with a “weekend and night-time economy” driven by a more diverse mix of consumers replacing the office worker spending that city businesses once relied on.
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businesses → say → that
Lockwood says all sectors of hospitality, from cafes to fast-casual dining, are driving demand for city real estate.
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sectors → say → estate
Latest data from Fitzroys shows retail vacancies dropped for a fourth consecutive year to 4.6 per cent.
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vacancies → show → cent
Roma, nestled behind greenery in the forecourt of a Collins Street office tower, was named New Restaurant of the Year at The Age Good Food Guide Awards on Monday, October 12.
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Roma → nestle → Monday
Prolific restaurateur Con Christopoulos and a team of collaborators developed the concept of an all-day Roman restaurant hand in hand with the location.
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Christopoulos → develop → location
“The idea of Rome lends to this buzzy place like Melbourne city, where you’re going to have a long lunch and then a passeggiata [a stroll] afterwards,” says Claudia Christopoulos, Con’s daughter who worked alongside him on Roma.
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who → lend → Roma
Hidden from street view despite being on a busy corner, Roma might be the 2026 version of a restaurant tucked down a Melbourne laneway.
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Roma → hide → laneway
It’s been one of the hardest tables to book since it opened in May.
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it → book → May
“The reason Roma has been so successful is because it is an experience,” says Claudia.
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Claudia → say → ?
“It’s not enough to just cook a good meal.
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It → ’ → meal
Fine dining with fun, design without pretentiousness, quality with an attitude – people are drawn to that.”
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people → draw → that
Martinez of Smith and Deli agrees.
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Martinez → agree → Smith
“I think Melburnians are missing the city they used to know,” she says, having recently opened a business on Degraves Street.
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she → think → Street
“Amazing venues are moving in and really bringing the lane back to life.
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venues → move → life
It’s such an iconic part of the CBD, we love to see it thriving once again.
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it → ’ → CBD
As the Monday-to-Friday office week died out post-2020, restaurants spotted opportunity in the suburbs.
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restaurants → die → suburbs
Joshua Brisbane saw an outflow of city concepts and businesses in those years.
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Brisbane → see → years
“But setting up in the suburbs is a way higher hospitality gamble,” he adds.
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he → set → suburbs
The owner of Korean restaurants Sagye (named the Guide’s Critics’ Pick of the Year this week) and Ondo has traded in both the city and Armadale, but is now focused on the city.
“While operating in the CBD comes with higher rent and greater commercial risks, it also brings together a remarkably diverse crowd,” says Levi Eun.
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Eun → name → crowd
As The Age Good Food Guide editors, we’ve spent the past 12 months eating at casual Mexican joints, exclusive sushi counters and homey high street restaurants in country towns, travelling to Carnegie for Japanese char-grilled meat and Carlton North for Italian excellence.
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we → spend → excellence
Here are four more trends of 2026 we’ve noticed.
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we → notice → 2026
Bang for buck
It might bore you into a spell-protected slumber, but the fact is this: cost of living continues to vex us.
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cost → bore → us
In 2026, we saw restaurants meet the issue with radical price transparency.
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restaurants → see → transparency
Some, like 7 Alfred, wore the price tag of its steak frites like a badge of honour, an A-frame out the front of the CBD restaurant informing passersby that, if you have $48, you can come inside for steak and chips.
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you → wear → steak
Others promised all-out bargains in dressy spaces.
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Others → promise → spaces
City newcomer Frenchie debuted earlier this year with $14 everything: martinis, steaks, trout carpaccio, iles flottantes.
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Frenchie → debut → everything
Entrecote’s sister venue Gigi in Prahran followed suit, going two better with a $12 menu.
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venue → follow → menu
Of course, you’re not getting a 1.5-kilogram tomahawk steak at either, but, in the age of crippling sticker shock, knowing how much it costs to leave the house is hugely reassuring.
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it → get → house
Seared kangaroo tartare that eats like larb at Joe Taylor.
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that → sear → Taylor
An exciting cadre of restaurants, bars and cafes are putting their stamp on Melbourne dining by interlacing influences from the cultures that have shaped them.
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that → put → them
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
