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The Age Good Food Guide 2017 Best New Restaurant finalists

Gemima Cody
Gemima Cody

Take this list and nail it to your fridge. It's the best and brightest, the new stars that thrashed and splashed or slid with impeccable grace into the Melbourne dining pool in 2016. And what a year. If 2015 was all about the the specialists, with world class sushi-ya Minamishima and pasta palace Tipo 00 blowing us out of the water, 2016 got back to the basic business of wining and dining us bistro-style.

Embla

The straighter bistro food that chef Dave Verheul is turning out here is a draw, but as with sister venue Town Mouse, it's the sheer heat of the hospitality from this mostly kiwi team that makes Embla so good. It says much that co-owner Christian McCabe is happy to work the door on freezing nights. Plus there's that intensely interesting list for natural wine geeks, half roast chicken with smoky jus and other classics (burrata, terrines et al) all twisted in just the right way.

122 Russell Street, Melbourne, 03 9654 5923, embla.com.au

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French Saloon - fresh French in the loft of your dreams.
French Saloon - fresh French in the loft of your dreams.Kristoffer Paulsen

French Saloon

Damned if this isn't the European Group showing just how good they can be. In this amazingly lit Hardware Street loft you'll find wines both skin contact-y and not – they're always democratic. The geranium-trimmed terrace is stunning. The steaks with glossy jus are perfectly on temp. Their charcuterie has never been better, and between it all, head chef Todd Moses is plating up some brilliantly bright vegetables and salads that make this the freshest French around.

380–384 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, 03 9600 2142, frenchsaloon.com

Pickled mussels and zucchini at Igni in Geelong.
Pickled mussels and zucchini at Igni in Geelong.Josh Robenstone
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Igni

Expectations were high for chef Aaron Turner's return to the fine dining scene. Sure, Geelong was grateful to get his fried chicken but it was a reboot of the seemingly simple trifectas of ingredients he once dropped at Loam (the restaurant we'll never stop missing) that we were all waiting for. This time there's the added bonus of a wood-fired grill, lots of marron and hella interesting wines poured by fellow Loam expats Drew Hamilton and Jo Smith.

2 Ryan Place, Geelong, 03 5222 2266, restaurantigni.com

Andrew McConnell's wine bar, Marion.
Andrew McConnell's wine bar, Marion.Jesse Marlow

Marion

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It's the bar that Andrew McConnell has talked about opening for a decade, and the reality is unsurprisingly excellent. The horseshoe space glows bronze and tan. A wall of bottles (available for takeaway) has all the might of Cutler and Co's cellar. The food is everything you want to eat, glass in fist, elbow on bench – padron peppers and a single bowl of pasta; mussels or summer-ripe tomatoes over a soaked crouton. So straight, so McConnell, so good.

53 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, 03 9419 6262, marionwine.com.au

Symmetrical tarts served at Oter.
Symmetrical tarts served at Oter.Wayne Taylor

Oter

"French sans cliches" is the pitch of this new contempo-bistro in the city. But then this is the word of one of the greatest cliches of a French chef in the city. Florent Gerardin trained with Alain Ducasse, counts Victoria's top suppliers as friends and paces behind the counter of his open kitchen with Gallic intensity. So, tete de veau (veal head terrine) is classic, powered kohlrabi greens on everything utterly sustainable and tarts rigorously symmetrical.

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Basement, 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, oter.com.au

The Age Good Food Guide 2017 awards night, presented by Citi and Vittoria, is on Monday, September 12. Follow all the action via @goodfoodau and #goodfoodguide on Twitter and Instagram. The Guide will be on sale in newsagents and bookstores from Tuesday, September 13, with all book purchases receiving free access to the new Good Food app.

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Gemima CodyGemima Cody is former chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Food.

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