Victoria's Finest Awarded at The Age Good Food Guide 2016 Awards

Good food is an essential companion on any outing, and The Age's Good Food Guide is an extremely handy tool to help you know just where to find it. Awarding the most outstanding Victorian restaurants with 'hats', it's the go-to guide when determining the hottest places to dine in Australia today.

This year's hats were awarded to a huge variety of different restaurants, highlighting Victoria's diverse dining scene. Good food is all around us – you just need to know where to look.

Let's start with the incredible partners of the Good Food Gift Card. These following restaurants are continually striving to deliver impeccable dining experiences for holders of the Good Food Gift Card and for this we are truly thankful. Congratulations on the receival of your hats – they're all well-deserved!

Two Hat Awardees

The winning of two hats cements the fact that these restaurants offer true excellence in the six attributes judged by The Age Good Food Guide – integrity of ingredients, balance of flavours, presentation, technique, value and consistency.

Grossi Florentino Upstairs

The essence of Grossi Florentino Upstairs is quality and accessible luxury for all to enjoy. It draws from its Italian heritage to offer a supreme quality dining experience, with breathtaking aesthetics and flavoursome food making a winning combination. If visual incentive isn't enough for you to make a visit (check out the incredible murals commissioned by Rinaldo Massoni in 1933), then the moonlight flat oysters, suckling pig and chocolate soufflé should get you over the line.

Circa

With views over leafy Fitzroy Street and Port Phillip Bay, Circa is a St Kilda gem that's long been a hit with the locals. Abundant in natural light, with floor-to-ceiling windows, the main dining room of Circa offers an emphasis on clean flavours, allowing standout produce to shine on the plate. Head chef Ashley Hicks and Melbourne Pub Group Executive Chef Stephen Burke create a visionary menu, with a spirit of fun, exploration and a touch of eclecticism. The menus are constantly evolving to work with the seasons and the team's strong relationship with local growers, farmers, foragers and fishermen ensure the finest ingredients.

Flower Drum

Opened in 1975, Flower Drum has become an unfaltering favourite on Melbourne's Little Bourke Street. Owner Gilbert Lau began with the humble aim of serving good Cantonese food to the Australian people, and he's certainly achieved that. Named after a traditional dance in China which is known for its beauty and elegance, Flower Drum displays refinement and delicacy through its fine dining take on Cantonese cuisine. Their combination of great food, fine wine and impeccable service has won them two hats this year.

One Hat Awardees

Bacash

Located in beautiful South Yarra, Bacash Restaurant is simplicity at its best. Here you'll find Melbourne's finest seafood produce, executed to perfection. Owners Michael and Fiona are committed to their craft and this is evident the moment you step inside the door. Their flounder is undoubtedly some of the best fish you're ever likely to eat and that's clearly recognised – Bacash Restaurant has been winning chef hat after chef hat since 2005!

Cecconi's

There's something special about Cecconi's. It may be that it's family-based, it may be that it blends food, wine, service and atmosphere together perfectly, or it could be the fact that they're at the forefront of ethical dining and restaurant recycling in Australia. Whatever it is, the family's formula works and Cecconi's Flinders Lane is a true treasure for Melbourne. The food focuses on the freshest ingredients available and traditional Italian dishes such as mushroom arancini, chicken tartaletta and rich pappardelle ragu.

Coda

Located in the busiest and most culinary dynamic laneways of Melbourne, Coda opened its doors in 2009 to resounding applause. Immediately awarded a hat, Coda has continued to inspire applause and today stands as a constant favourite for locals. The winning trio behind Coda, Adam D'Sylva and Mykal and Kate Bartholomew come with highly sought-after experience and a plethora of ideas that keeps Coda at the top of its game. The industrial-chic basement space is trendy and the upscale Vietnamese fusion plates are to die for.

Epocha

Epocha is set in Montefiore House, a stunning Victorian terrace on the edge of the CBD. The outlook over the Carlton Gardens feels European and the fantasy continues up the wide stone staircase, where you'll find soaring ceilings, weathered timbers and beautiful examples of Victorian grandeur. The style is comfy, and that's exactly how you feel as you dine on sharing dishes and tasty wholesome food. You can even munch on a good old fashioned Sunday roast lunch with all the trimmings. It's food that soothes the soul.

Merricote

Merricote has the warm heart of a friendly neighbourhood bistro, but it's actually a sophisticated European-style restaurant with a small yet savvy wine list. The food is grounded in French technique, but diners can taste modern flavours from as far away as Japan. Then there are the dishes that come straight from chef-owner Rob Kabboord's Dutch heritage, such as the smoked eel or tender pork shoulder with tea-soaked prunes and roots.  How do you say 'delicious' in Dutch?

O.MY

O.MY is new to The Age Good Food Guide, having just opened in 2013. It's the vision of three brothers with passion, talent and dedication and the old building, which was once a butchers, seems the perfect fit. The growth path for Blayne, Tyson and Chayse has been rapid, and due to its popularity, the menu at O.MY is exclusively degustation. The food focuses on exceptional produce, much of which is homegrown out of their purpose built gardens. Blayne is the master of pairings and is endlessly researching and sourcing specialised plants and seeds from every corner of the globe. O.MY is 'paddock to plate' at its very best and dining at O.MY is a unique experience.

Source Dining

Source Dining (previously named Annie Smithers Bistro) is a boutique country restaurant located in Kyneton, Victoria. Serving contemporary food created from what is grown in their own gardens or sourced from small local producers, they create new menus each season based around the produce that's available. Right now that includes dishes like Confit free range duck leg, Roasted pumpkin B'Stilla, and McIvor farm rare breed pork. Their fine dining, freshly-sourced food and friendly and relaxed atmosphere has seen them receive 1 chef's hat for two years in a row.

Tonka

Tonka is a busy, contemporary-design restaurant and proud sister to the popular Coda. It explores the wonderful world of the Orient, where the magic of India is captured through its interior design and clever menu. The flavours are brought to life with the help of two tandoor ovens and a team of highly experienced chefs. While true to traditional Indian techniques, Tonka's not tied down by them and the food is always interesting and fresh. As for the wine, that's handled by award winning sommelier Travis Howe. Need we say more?

The Town Mouse

The Town Mouse is a small neighbourhood restaurant with big ideas. It's the kind of restaurant every neighbourhood wishes it had. It's a restaurant that celebrates life every day and it understands the role that food plays in people's lives. It's all about spending time with those you love, wine, conversation and mouthwatering dishes such as the duck breast with Jerusalem artichoke, porcini, horseradish and young kales. And there's not a mouse in sight.

The Town Mouse is also lucky enough to house the The Age Good Food Guide's 2016 Young Chef of the Year, George Tomlin.

Union Dining

Union Dining is a collection of every European place that owners Adam and Nicky have visited and loved. It's a restaurant made on memories and ensures you'll take home a few of your own. The food is focused on fresh and local produce and evokes traditional European brasseries and trattorias, yet with a distinct Melbourne twist. Think chicken liver parfait with pickled beetroot, golden raisin jam and toast or Abbacchio of baby goat with sugo, Mt Zero olives, braised peppers and ricotta salata.

The Good Table

A regional favourite, The Good Table offers a daily menu that celebrates seasonally sourced, locally grown ingredients with an emphasis on free range, organic and sustainable produce. Working closely with Castlemaine's smallest growers and producers, their food is uncomplicated and speaks for itself. While the food is ever changing, sample sharing plates include spiced crumbed wild rabbit, sticky pork ribs, brussel sprout slaw and agnolotti filled with fromage frais, thyme and kale.

People's choice

Red Spice Road

Red Spice Road was the winner of The Age Good Food Guide's 2016 People's Choice Award, cementing them as one of Melbourne's most-loved restaurants. Red Spice Road embodies the spirit of the family unit in Asia and communal dining, shared dishes and big flavour bursts are the norm. Led by acclaimed chef John McLeay, the menu focuses on freshness, presentation and of course, deliciousness. The pork belly is a must-try.

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Mireille Kilgour

Mireille Kilgour has been an entrepreneur for 35 years in the hospitality sector. French born, she has been an accomplished business owner and operator for a number of Sydney venues. Leading the industry with high profile institutions such as Lamrock Café Bondi, she has endless passion for the industry, and now has the pleasure of supporting restaurants to fill their tables with the new Good Food Gift Card program.

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