The Age Good Food Guide 2023: Editor's letter

November 14, 2022

O.My's sourdough bread with cultured butter was an 'oh my' moment for editor Roslyn Grundy.Hugh Davidson

Trends? We've seen a few. This is the year a new kind of surf and turf emerged: chilli-spiked Calabrian 'nduja paste with seafood. It's the year Murray cod swam back from the brink. And it's the year chefs insisted on charring cabbage (and we loved it). But the hottest trend of all is eating restaurant food from a plate, at a table, rather than from a box while on the couch.

The pandemic has highlighted how central restaurants are to Victorian life. And so, after a three-year hiatus, The Age Good Food Guide returns with hats and scores, a celebration of the best food and drink this state has to offer.

It distills visits to more than 300 restaurants, bars and cafes, reviewing anonymously and independently. This would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors, Vittoria Coffee and Oceania Cruises, and for that we thank them.

Along with our famous chefs' hat symbol, which we've been awarding to the cream of Victorian dining since 1980, this year we've introduced a critics' choice heart symbol for restaurants that don't have a hat, but are places our reviewers love regardless.

Of course, it's impossible to cram all of our favourite restaurants into these pages, so we've focused on what's fresh, exciting and distinctively Victorian. It is nothing short of miraculous that after several years of floods, fires and pandemic, we have emerged with a dining scene this strong – and with dozens more restaurant openings on the way.