Welcome to the Good Food Guide 2022 – a guide unlike any other in its 40-year history.

This year, the Good Food Guide is a 100-page glossy magazine featuring 350 restaurants, bars and cafes in Victoria and NSW (in two state-specific publications). This time, there are no scores and no hats.

One of the toughest ever years for hospitality in both states made it impossible to fairly rate all the restaurants our reviewers visited both before and after lockdowns. But rest assured: each one has been vouched for by professional critics and meets our strict criteria.

If it's in this Guide, it's good.

"All things considered, it really isn't the year to be handing out hats, prizes and scores," says Myffy Rigby, editor of the NSW guide. "So we made the decision to publish a Guide entirely free of numbers.

"Instead of a carefully graded end-of-term report card, it's a celebration of restaurants at every pitch and price point. In the interests of inclusiveness, fine dining sits alongside diverse neighbourhood eats, pizzerias and bars with great food."

As Michael Harry, editor of the Victorian guide says: "Switching from a book to a magazine has given us more time to visit the latest restaurants, bars and cafes and be as up-to-date as possible."

Please enjoy Australia's premier guide to summer eating and drinking.

Highlights include:

• 350 restaurant reviews of the best places to eat right now.
• The It Lists – the hot, the new, the essential spots to enjoy this summer.
• Road trips – with great food and drink highlights along the way.
• 50 of the best bars.
• 50 of the best cafes.
• The Innovators – shaping the way we dine today and in the future.

The Good Food Guide 2022 magazine will be published on November 30 with presenting partners Citi and Vittoria Coffee, and free with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Also on sale from December 7 in newsagents and supermarkets.