Good Food Guide 2018 | The Age |
2018 was the inaugural "national"Good Food Guide Awards.
The Age Good Food Guide rates dining establishments with 1 2 and 3 hats, Restaurant of the Year, New Country and Chef of the Year.
The Age Good Food Guide 2017: the award winners
Here we show the VICTORIAN WINNERS ONLY | View All
The Hats
THREE HATS
Attica
Brae
Minamishima
TWO HATS
Coda
Cutler & Co.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Estelle by Scott Pickett
Ezard
Fen
Flower Drum
Grossi Florentino Upstairs
Igni
Kuro Kisume
Lake House
Lume
O.My
Provenance
Rockpool Bar & Grill
Rosetta
Saint Crispin
Spice Temple
Ten Minutes by Tractor
Vue de Monde
Woodland House
ONE HAT
A La Grecque
Amaru
Anchovy
Atlas Dining
Bacash
Bar Lourinha
Bistro Guillaume
Cafe Di Stasio
Captain Moonlite
Catfish
Cecconi's Flinders Lane
Centonove
Copper Pot Seddon
Cumulus Inc.
Da Noi
Donovans
Doot Doot Doot
Elyros
Embla
Epocha
French Saloon
Highline at the Railway Hotel
Ides
Il Bacaro
Kakizaki
Kappo
Kazuki's
Lee Ho Fook
Ma Cave at Midnight Starling
Maha
Marion
Masons of Bendigo
Matteo's
Montalto
MoVida,
Noir
Nora
Oakridge
Osteria Ilaria
Oter
Paringa Estate
Philippe
The Point Albert Park
Port Phillip Estate
The Press Club
Public Inn
Ramblr
The Recreation
San Telmo
Source Dining
Stefano's
Stokehouse
Supernormal
TarraWarra Estate
Tempura Hajime
Terrace Restaurant
Tipo 00
Tonka
The Town Mouse
Trattoria Emilia
Tulip
Wilson & Market
The Age Good Food Guide 2018
Victorian award winners
Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year
Ticks every box. The winning restaurant does not need to receive three hats, but must capture the mood of the nation right now and exemplify what it means to be a world-class restaurant.
Attica
For the past 10 years, chef Ben Shewry, a New Zealand expat and sweetheart of the Melbourne dining scene, has constantly pushed the envelope. There have been past highs, and plenty of them. But after a renovation this year, Attica feels like a restaurant reborn. Service hums with renewed vigour, the dishes have both cohesion and a sense of place. It's well-paced. Fun.
Exciting. Narrative, but not hand-wringingly so. Kick off with a series of tiny bites from strips of wagyu threaded onto a polished shin bone (there's an opportunity for The Story of Ripponlea in scrimshaw here, surely) dusted in salted macadamia to the world's most elegant smashed avocado on toast, lifted with finger lime and nib tips of mint. Fancy weeds might be left to you to dredge through house-made sour cream, dotted with apple cider vinegar and olive oil.
A light, delicate and cooling dish of snow crab and broome seeds resting in a translucent, barely there chicken broth is the palate-cleanser we always wanted but never knew we did. Eating at Attica today is like putting on the reading glasses you never thought you needed until you read a chapter and realise just how much sharper everything seems. Myffy Rigby
Young Chef of the Year
To acknowledge our best and brightest rising star of the kitchen.
Kylie Millar, Attica
She might be working the sauce section in a three-hat restaurant, but Kylie Millar would also really like to be a butcher.
The only woman to get through to the final round of interviews for this year's prestigious award boasts an eclectic resume - she is a trained physiotherapist and also speaks fluent Spanish. Focused on produce, learning and education, Millar is also infatuated with the theatre of hifalutin pastry work.
Bar of the Year
The best all-round bar that nails service, drinks, vibe and decor. The winning bar adds something new or different to the drinking scene.
Arlechin
Arlechin, the tiny and mighty new late-night bar by the seasoned Grossi family came out swinging in the back straights of 2017 to prove that everything we've always loved about bars: sharp cocktails, dim lights and high times in dark alleys will never, ever go out of style. If the words "midnight spaghetti"don't strike a fire in your heart, perhaps it's time to retire from bars.
And whether it's that elegant twirl of carbs with a sort-of puttanesca vibe; a bombolini set on fire at table or a razor-sharp viscous martini from the list designed by Romeo Lane's Joe Jones (last year's Age GFG Bar of the Year), what's certain is that this glowing bolt-hole in Mornane Place delivers more sophisticated good times than you deserve at 3am.
Sommelier of the Year
The successful wine professional is able to demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of their subject, while helping to influence and educate diners. They must be personable, inclusive, curious and driven to constantly deliver the highest level of service.
Raul Moreno Yague, Osteria Ilaria
Name the sommelier who can boast cooking experience in Marco Pierre White's Mirabelle kitchen, a Masters in Viticulture and a stage at Thomas Keller's Bouchon at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas? If you answered Raul Moreno Yague, you're right on the money.
The Spanish-born somm has seen the restaurant industry - and the dining public - grow up since arriving in 2003. "When I came to Australia, I found that there were not many sommeliers but a lot of people passionate about wine. The industry has changed drastically in the past 10 to 15 years."Back then, Australian diners were indignant when sommeliers tasted their wine for faults and wary of taking recommendations.
Today, he says, most people are happy to take his advice. When not recommending and pouring Italian and Italianate wines at Melbourne laneway newcomer Osteria Ilaria, you might find Moreno Yague elbow-deep in grapes at wineries in Portugal, Spain, South Africa or Victoria's Strathbogie Ranges or lecturing in wine viticulture at the University of Melbourne. It's this rich background and broad wine knowledge that makes Moreno Yague the sommelier's sommelier. Roslyn Grundy
The national Good Food Guide 2018 will be on sale from October 17, 2017 in newsagencies, bookstores and via thestore.com.au/goodfood, RRP $29.99.
❊ Web Links ❊
➼ Good Food Guide 2018 | The Age
➼ www.goodguides.com.au/melbourne
➼ www.theageshop.com.au
❊ Also See... ❊
➼ The Age
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