The Age Good Food Guide 2017 awards: Victoria's best restaurants, chefs, cafes and cheap eats

Chicken skin with roe, finger lime and dill at Igni restaurant in Geelong. Photo: Julian Kingma
Citi Chef of the Year: Aaron Turner from Igni in Geelong. Photo: Simon Schluter
Aaron Turner is spinning potatoes into gold at Igni in Geelong, which is this year's Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year. Photo: Josh Robenstone
The soothing grey dining room at Igni in Geelong's backstreets. Photo: Josh Robenstone
Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year: Brae, Biregurra. Owner-chef Dan Hunter pictured at the property which now includes accommodation. Photo: Eddie Jim
Trout nut butter, borage flowers and salmon roe at Brae, Birregurra. Photo: Julian Kingma
Best New Restaurant: Embla, the CBD wine bar from the Town Mouse team. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
World-class wood-roasted chicken at Embla. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
Chef Dave Verheul and co-owner Christian McCabe at Embla. Photo: Penny Stephens
People's Choice: Ezard @ Levantine Hill Estate in the Yarra Valley. Pictured is a pork jowl and artichoke dish. Photo: Earl Carter
Barrel shaped booths dominate the dining room at Ezard @ Levantine Hill. Photo: Earl Carter
Cafe of the Year: Higher Ground in the CBD (from the team behind Kettle Black and Top Paddock). Photo: Paul Jeffers
Cauliflower scramble at Higher Ground. Photo: Paul Jeffers
Best Cheap Eat: Vietnamese diner Hem 27 in Flemington. Photo: Wayne Taylor
Soft-shell crab soup at Hem 27. Photo: Wayne Taylor
Young Chef of the Year: Jarrod Di Blasi, head chef at Ezard. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
Donlevy Fitzpatrick Award (for restaurant-quality food in a bar setting): Bar Liberty, Fitzroy. Photo: Simon Schluter
The snack of 2016: Bar Liberty's signature GLT sandwich with chicken skin subbing in for bacon. Photo: Simon Schluter
Wine List of the Year: Marion in Fitzroy. Photo: Jesse Marlow
Wine and snacks at Andrew McConnell's Fitzroy wine bar Marion. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
Champagne Taittinger Sommelier of the Year: Jordan Marr of Oter. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
Basement bistro: French restaurant Oter in the CBD. Photo: Michael Dodge
Bar of the Year: Heartbreaker (the American-style dive bar from the Everleigh team). Photo: Paul Jeffers
Regional Wine List of the Year: Provenance in Beechworth. The restaurant also boasts an impressive sake selection. Photo: Supplied
Food for Good: Adam Robinson, founder of StreetSmart Australia, whose gold coin dining programs CafeSmart and DineSmart have raised more than $2 million for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
Citi Service Excellence Award: Caterina Borsato, who works the room at her eponymous CBD basement restaurant, Caterina's Cucine e Bar. Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen
Vitello tonnato at Caterina's Cucina. Photo: Wayne Taylor
Vittoria Coffee Legends Geraud Fabre (left) and Jean-Paul Prunetti from French restaurant France-Soir. Photo: Pat Scala
Classic entrecote steak at France-Soir. Photo: Pat Scala
South Yarra stalwart France-Soir. Photo: Eddie Jim

Want to sample Victoria's best food? Head west, city slickers. Tucked away on a Geelong backstreet you'll find Aaron Turner, anointed Citi Chef of the Year at Monday's launch of the 37th edition of The Age Good Food Guide. In a ceremony at Melbourne's lavish Plaza Ballroom, Turner was recognised for his creative vegetable-driven tasting menu at newcomer Igni.

Turner came to diners' attentions with his first restaurant in regional Drysdale, before going AWOL in the United States for a year after Loam's unexpected closure. He returned to Victoria sporting a Ned Kelly beard, and surprised many by opening a Nashville-style shrine to fried chicken. As it turned out, Belles Hot Chicken proved a stroke of culinary, trend-setting genius. Nevertheless, there were sighs of relief with Turner's coming-of-age project, Igni – on Monday night named Victoria's best regional restaurant.But you'll have to head further west again for Victoria's pinnacle dining experience. Dan Hunter's Brae was again named Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year.

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The Age Good Food Guide Awards 2017

Victoria's best restaurants and chefs are crowned (well, hatted) in Melbourne as top chefs and foodie insiders reveal their favourite culinary trends this year.

The bucolic Birregurra setting is no longer Victoria's secret indulgence – one of only a handful of Australian restaurants on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list earlier this year. So while a meal at Hunter's hands is reasonably priced by international standards at $190 (without drinks), you may find yourself competing for a seat with food tourists from even farther afield.

The Age Good Food Guide 2017 editor Roslyn Grundy said "regional" turned out to be flavour of the year. "Without being conscious of it as we made decisions about award-winners, this really was the year when regional restaurants put city restaurants on notice."

Grundy said the desire of many chefs to grow their own produce was partly behind the regional push of fine dining.

But back in the asphalt jungle there were winners too. Attica and Minamishima were again recognised as top-tier restaurants with three hats and Vue de Monde, now helmed by American chef Justin James (previously of New York's Eleven Madison Park) was also back on top of Melbourne's dining scene after a short-lived stumble.

Also in the CBD, Russell Street's Embla was named Best New Restaurant, though really it's a wine bar.

Best New Restaurant: Embla Photo: Kristoffer Paulsen

The Age's senior restaurant critic, Gemima Cody, said there were no surprises when the second venture by the team behind Carlton's popular Town Mouse turned out to be good, "but we also expected the downstairs section to just be a wine bar". Not so.

"The team's always-amazing hospitality mixed with bistro food as imagined by [executive chef] Dave Verheul has turned out to be one of the most interesting and comfortable places to eat in the city. We can't stop going back." Cody said phase two of Embla – the restaurant proper – was under construction upstairs from the wine saloon and was something for Melburnians to get excited about in 2017.

Melbourne's best cheap eats: Dive in to the soft-shell crab soup at Hem 27. Photo: Wayne Taylor

The Age Good Food Guide is no longer just about finely tuned gastronomic treasures – the domain of the well-heeled or of a special night out. This year's guide includes city and suburban Cheap Eat gems. The top tip for a thrifty meal in the new guide is a cheerful Vietnamese eatery in Flemington. Best Cheap Eat, Hem 27, was recognised for its regional specialities and a seasonally revolving menu, showing that quality can work side-by-side with quantity in competition for Melbourne's hard-earned.

Melbourne restaurant 'legends' Geraud Fabre and Jean-Paul Prunetti from France Soir. Photo: Pat Scala

Jointly taking out this year's Vittoria Coffee Legend award for carrying South Yarra favourite France-Soir to its 30th year was long-time owner Jean-Paul Prunetti and chef Geraud Fabre.

StreetSmart, which has partnered with hospitality businesses since 2003 to raise more than $2 million for programs addressing homelessness was recognised with the Guide's Food for Good award.

The Age Good Food Guide 2017 will be on sale in newsagents and bookstores from Tuesday, September 13, 2016, with all book purchases receiving free access to the new Good Food app.