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Despite market challenges, Victoria experienced its strongest year for new restaurant openings this decade, marked by remarkable quality and vision. A select list of ten finalists has been chosen to represent the best new dining experiences, including notable entries like Together, Merenda, and Bottarga 2.0, with the ultimate winner to be announced on October 12.
. Still, it was the strongest year of new openings this decade, from the joyous to the high-concept, the humble to the high-flying. It hasn’t just been a volume game, either.
The quality among the new openings is remarkable. Compiling a list of just five finalists for’s New Restaurant of the Year, as is tradition, was too difficult a task. We decided to mark the bumper year with a list of 10 finalists who have shaped Victorian dining in the last 12 months.
Experienced restaurateurs poured decades of experience into heartfelt homages to the places that inspire them, whether that’s Rome at Con Christopoulos’ Together, they mark an exciting revival of the CBD that’s been slowly building but this year gathered pace. On its edge sits chef Hugh Allen’sattracted online hype early, translating into queues that haven’t died down. The secret? There isn’t one.
It’s just really, really good. Behind all 10 finalists are people with vision and courage to break new ground, even when the market tells you to play it safe. And the winner? That will be revealed on October 12 at the, 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.
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. The original Merenda was named’s fusion offering has shifted to larger premises in the heart of 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.
Freewheeling and fun, Bottarga 2.0 is one ambitious proposition.feels like the heart of Thornbury. The masa-based items are all made in-house, from blue corn tortillas to huaraches: boat-shaped vessels thicker than tortillas. You might top them with nopales – cactus that eats like savoury kiwifruit – or sticky, crunchy, slow-cooked lamb rib.
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.thrums with 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.
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. 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. Mango sticky rice, meanwhile, has transformed from a sweet dessert to a stiff drink in a frosty-fingerprinted martini laced with pandan 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. This is anything but your average Joe. 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. This is the beauty of Kismet, an offshoot of its older hatted sibling.
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. , where the dishes themselves are takes on French classics, but with twists that go beyond your average “Asian-influenced” 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.
This is not a restaurant for everyone, but it offers a rare glimpse of something new taking delicious shape on your plate.and his collaborators – gives you a magic tingle the minute you step through its latticed 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.
It’s a brave wager, but it’s true to the Italian capital’s working-class dishes – and an invitation to curious Melbourne diners.is both viral and vital. 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.
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.. 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.
Set in lush gardens on the city’s edge, framed by imposing trees and younger native plantings, this is a restaurant that Allen hopes will exist for generations. Awards will be announced on Monday, October 12, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. The awards ceremony will be live-blogged viais editor of The Age Good Food Guide 2026 and a former food and drink editor at Time Out Beijing.
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