Hot shots: 20 of Melbourne's best (and newest) cafes

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• All the winners at The Age Good Food Guide Awards

To understand Melbourne's diversity, resilience and anchoring in its many neighbourhoods, you couldn't do better than plunge into its cafes. They are sites of enterprise and creativity, of care and toil, and most of all they express a basic belief in the heartfelt project of hospitality.

Cafes offer light-touch interactions that can mean so much: the beverage that starts the day off right, the corner table that's a safe site for conversation, the easy welcome that can turn dark clouds into sunshine.

Here is a loved and loving selection that sums up this cafe-obsessed city's best qualities. Including stayers and newbies, intimate hand-crafted microbusinesses and architect-designed coffee palaces, cultural wellsprings and pan-cuisine tableaux, this is Melbourne in a cup.

Baguette Studios

Pastry chef Aileen Seo, her baker husband Paul Kwon and her chef brother Jiho Sur combine a passion for French baked goods with an insistence on good ingredients in this North Melbourne store. Bread and pastries are displayed like artefacts – there's exactitude in each sandwich, loaf and snack. The three-cheese toastie is a carefully calibrated wonder.

15-27 Wreckyn Street, North Melbourne, baguettestudios.com

Black Vice

"Caffeinate me!" That's the name of the $12 triple-play order that rounds off the three-page coffee menu at this temple to the "black vice". You'll get an espresso, latte and pour-over made with different house-roasted beans. The food is great too, with a focus on local, ethical produce. Stand-outs include the thick-cut bacon benedict with perfect poachies lolling on a potato roesti.

946 Heidelberg-Kinglake Road, Hurstbridge, blackvice.com.au

Convoy

What on earth did Moonee Ponds do before Convoy arrived in the winter of 2022? Given the throngs on the wrap-around terrace, it's clear this modish cafe from the Terror Twilight crew has hit the spot.

The creative menu is dotted with destination dishes such as cinnamon scroll pancakes with cream cheese icing (pictured) and an okonomiyaki waffle topped with a fried egg.

109 Pascoe Vale Road, Moonee Ponds, convoymooneeponds.com.au

The Crux & Co

After six years at the base of an apartment building, this sleek, calm cafe has settled into its own traditions but with solid foundations that support innovation. Asian fusion is the idea, with light-touch flavour twists from Korea and Japan threaded through the menu. Crux is a bakery, too, and the cakes and pastries are exquisite, with the same culture-crush skew. Coffee is made with consideration and ceremony using house-roasted beans.

Shop 1, 35 Albert Road, Melbourne, thecruxandco.com.au

Dame

This ravishing cafe from the EARL sandwich team brings fine-dining poise to a city salon in an impressive atrium setting. Whether you need iced batch-brew coffee or a properly loose-leaf pot of Earl Grey tea, this Dame has you sorted. Favourite eats include the breakfast set with Bloody Mary spiced avocado on sourdough and a soft-boiled egg, or the exemplary muffaletta sandwich stuffed with cured meat.

35 Collins Street, Melbourne, dame.melbourne

Flavours of Syria

Out the back of Space2B, an art and design social enterprise that supports migrants and refugees, is a small cafe run by Nayran Tabiei, who came to Australia as an asylum seeker from Syria. Tabiei moves easily in the tiny kitchen, brewing mint tea, stirring a magical chicken and lentil soup and spooning spiced lamb over hummus. The Syrian food is simple but careful – spiced sumac and chicken wraps are a lovely light lunch, handmade baklava and biscuits are compulsory.

Laneway, 144 Chapel Street, St Kilda, flavoursofsyria.com.au

Florian

If Melbourne needed to compare itself to anywhere, you could latch on to the Parisian je ne sais quoi at poised, particular Florian. There's the herby omelette with gruyere, the croissant with preserves, the lunchtime wine drinkers with dogs and important conversations. Whatever you have – leaf tea, the perfect friand – it will be done with quiet flair.

617 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, floriancarlton.com.au

Frank & Harri

Two sisters (not Frank and Harri, but Sarah and Jessica) do delicious, unpretentious breakfasts and fabulous cakes in a bright corner space. Sit down for a house-made croissant with preserves also made right here. This is a lovely place to land for eat-in caneles, carrot cake or cookies.

259 High Street, Kew, frankandharri.com.au

Haiku

After a refresh and rebrand, Camberwell's Hibiki has turned into Haiku; the Japanesque menu remains. The teishoku is a delightful set brunch that includes miso soup, tofu, house-made pickles and a choice of main. Jaffles head to Japan, too. There's teriyaki chicken with mozzarella and a tuna, corn and furikake combo. For sushi burritos and Japanese groceries, head to the adjoining store, Future.

1161 Toorak Road, Camberwell, haikumelbourne.com

Le Bajo Milkbar

Behind a roller door, carved out of a huge garage, Le Bajo combines the feeling of a Japanese kissaten (teahouse) with touches of vintage Australian schoolroom. The specialty is house-baked shokupan, white, thick-cut milk loaf. Try it in a fruit sando filled with whipped cream and meticulously placed cut kiwifruit.

8-14 Howard Street, North Melbourne, lebajo.com.au

Levi

An old sewing factory is now a huge 170-seat cafe. Must-eats include the roast chicken and chip roll served with a little pot of jus, and the curried eggplant toastie with green chilli vinaigrette. Breakfast classics are no problem, but how about a Weet-Bix tiramisu made with house espresso coffee, or the Turkish eggs with chilli butter?

6 Railway Parade, Murrumbeena, levimelbourne.com.au

Lorna

This highway cafe, named The Age Good Food Guide 2023 Cafe of the Year, made the most of lockdowns by taking on the place next door, doubling in size and adding booths and more outdoor seating.

The menu is a canny balance of wholefoods (kale and quinoa bowl with sweet potato hummus) and indulgent favourites such as fried chicken and waffles.

If you need an excuse for a slice of always-good bespoke cake, you can follow up with a stroll in the Dandenong Ranges.

1053 Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully, lornamelbourne.com.au

Mocha Jo's

You have to be doing things right if you've been trucking on since 2000. Mocha Jo's is a south-eastern icon beloved for its breakfast burritos, eggs benny and Louisiana waffles (fried chicken with maple-glazed bacon and fried egg). Weekend brunch is so popular that bookings are advised, then Mocha Jo's rolls along all day with pubby classics and Carlton Draught on tap.

87 Kingsway, Glen Waverley, mochajos.com.au

Nabo

Given its location, tucked under the dual carriageway of Geelong Road, it's amazing that Nabo feels so serene. It's a credit to owners Sarah de Lean and Cameron Bobbitt's focus on community and connection. Nabo means neighbour in Danish and there's a Scandi skew to the menu. Breakfast items include a boiled egg and sourdough with rosemary butter and an outstanding Swedish potato waffle with macadamia cream.

2A Williamstown Road, Kingsville

Nox Melbourne

This Asian-inspired cafe covers all bases in a quirky semi-industrial space populated by stuffed toy monsters.

There's exemplary espresso as well as novelty drinks like a cloud latte, where drinkers pour a shot of coffee over a ball of fairy floss into a butterfly-pea blue tea (pictured).

The "airport lounge" brunch sets are themed around world cities.

62-64 Little La Trobe Street, Melbourne, noxmelbourne.com.au

ONA Coffee

If you're feeling extremely geeky about coffee, ONA meets you more than halfway. The team is committed to sharing origin stories of their carefully sourced beans, each of which is roasted, blended and brewed to show off its special qualities. A concise food menu includes a much-loved fried egg roll with chorizo, bacon and Swiss cheese, and the danishes and pastries are house-made.

22 Ovens Street, Brunswick, onacoffeemelbourne.com

St Zita's Cafe

From the age of nine, CL Chen wanted to be a cafe owner. Growing up in Malaysia in modest circumstances, her dream seemed very distant, but CL learnt to make coffee when she was 17 and backpacked around Asia before settling in Australia to study business. St Zita's is the hard-won fulfilment of a long-held wish. The menu mixes nasi lemak and Maggi goreng with Aussie cafe staples such as corn fritters.

1167 Glen Huntly Road, Glen Huntly, 03 9090 7361

Small Axe Kitchen

At first blush, this bustling indoor-outdoor cafe seems like a standard Brunswick brunch setting. But the mission here is to bring a taste of Sicily to Melbourne. It's expressed most eloquently in the breakfast pasta, a luxurious reworking of bacon and eggs on toast. Maccaruni – a slinky twist of pasta, standing in for sourdough – is tossed with crisped guanciale (subbing for bacon) then topped with salted ricotta and a slow-cooked egg.

281 Victoria Street, Brunswick, smallaxekitchen.com

Sorsi e Morsi

Inspired by Venice, anchored for a decade in St Kilda, Sorsi e Morsi ("sips and bites") rolls all day from dawn coffee to lunchy panini and dinnertime pasta, with wine, if you like. The food is thoughtful and bountiful. Slow-cooked pork and potato fritter is topped with poached eggs and dressed with 'nduja hollandaise for a terrific sturdy breakfast. Sorsi e Morsi is a soulful treasure.

31 Blessington Street, St Kilda, sorsiemorsi.com.au

That's Amore Cheesery

An industrial park conceals an indoor-outdoor cafe offering warm Italian hospitality. The menu showcases That's Amore cheese, which is made in the on-site factory, so poached eggs come with lemon ricotta and eggs Benedict is served with caciotta, a fresh cheese that's crumbed and fried. The antipasto is a joyous plate of house cheeses. Whichever way you look at it, that's amore.

6 Latitude Boulevard, Thomastown, thatsamorecheese.com.au

The Good Food Guide 2023 magazine is on sale from November 15 for $9.95 at newsagents, supermarkets and thestore.com.au.