“What’s your favourite restaurant?” is the question food critics get asked most often, perhaps even rivalling, “Still or sparkling?” They’ll rarely name a splashy venue with a walk-in cellar and a menu that needs several hours blocked out in your diary.

A burger and a beer eaten in a comfy booth, yum cha cooked to order, and nourishing vegetarian stews scooped up with bread rank much higher on most of our hitlists.

The Age Good Food Guide 2025 includes 150 places from those hitlists. Called Critics’ Picks and marked by a tick symbol, they range from wine bars to pizzerias, specialist noodle houses to grand rooms for big feasts.

These spots may not score enough points (15 or more) for a Good Food hat but our reviewers love them because of what they add immeasurably to our dining scene.

Building on last year’s introduction of the Critics’ Picks, this year’s Guide contains even more of these essential eating experiences. They cover all points of the compass, a huge range of budgets and many different ways to dine, from takeaway to leisurely lingering.

Just like every Good Food Guide review, each venue awarded a Critics’ Pick is a place our reviewers have visited in the past 12 months and recommend. Here are 20 of their favourites (including five finalists for Critics’ Pick of the Year) that should be on the must-visit list of any serious eater in Victoria.

AliQapu

The vibe here is decidedly more is more, from the ornate carpets to the grand piano where a gentleman in a tux plays show tunes. In baghali polo, each grain of rice competes for real estate with dill and broad beans, making a refreshing sidekick to cinnamon-laced lamb shanks. Grilled kababs of lamb and beef are smoky, potent and generously proportioned.

840 High Street, Kew, persianrestaurant.com.au

Chef Wong

The room ain’t huge. There are no trolleys. The food is cooked to order. Chef Wong isn’t your typical yum cha place and yet it might be the state’s best. There’s bouncy siu mai, airy-light prawn dumplings and tender chicken feet. Daan tat (Hong Kong egg tarts) possess remarkable finesse and squish. All this in a tiled room that measures barely a few square metres (including the freezers full of dumplings to take home).

284A Huntingdale Road, Huntingdale, chefwong.com.au

Danny’s Kopitiam

FINALIST

Danny Ko has been cooking Malaysian and Singaporean food professionally since the 1970s, so he knows a thing or two about wok hei. His char kwai teow is a fine example: a hot tangle of noodles, fishcakes and pert bean shoots. Other dishes − fluffy roti, dark beef rendang − are presented with similar confidence and little flourish. See your meal in the making as you order at the counter.

264 Blackburn Road, Glen Waverley, dannyskopitiam.com.au

Eat Pierogi Make Love

At this heaving (and extremely affordable) eatery, the walls are decorated with colourful pop-art posters, and the long bar is dedicated almost completely to vodka. Marinated herring with fennel and pink peppercorns makes for a fantastic snack before you tackle pierogi, which come in five variations, including boiled potato and cheese, and a mushroom-sauerkraut version that’s pan-fried.

161 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, pierogipierogi.com

El Columpio

FINALIST

El Columpio’s barbacoa tacos look like plenty of others, but the quality of the lamb, the focus on texture and the careful spicing set them apart. Along with tamales and pozole (one of the great hangover-curing broths), barbacoa is one of several Mexican dishes hard to find done well in Melbourne − until now. Tchotchkes serve as decoration, and every now and then a mariachi band shows up.

1/52 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, instagram.com/elcolumpiomelbourne

Ghosty’s Diner

FINALIST

Mornings are about stacks of buttermilk pancakes and breakfast sandwiches of omelette, sausage and cheese at this American-inspired diner. Later, a lengthy list of things between bread includes pastrami sandwiches with beef that’s smoked and cured especially by local butcher Flora Hill Quality Meats. Booze is also proudly local, but bottomless drip coffee is more on-theme for a Twin Peaks moment.

35 View Street, Bendigo, ghostysdiner.com.au

Hong’s Dumplings

This perpetually packed pitstop is known for the popular Shanghai breakfast food sheng jian bao. The pan-fried pork buns are made with a more substantial dough than the oft-compared xiao long bao but contain a similar piping-hot pork broth inside. Pair with smoky spring onion oil noodles, and grab some frozen dumplings to take home − Hong’s is only open three days a week.

872 Canterbury Road, Box Hill South, 0430 991 206

Houston’s Barbecue

There’s a reason the weekends-only brisket goes fast. Cooked low and slow, served in fall-apart slices that make a miracle from beef, salt, pepper, smoke and a whole lot of patience, you’ll want to order ahead. Add a serve of the excellent beef ribs, then arrive early to stock up on potato buns and hot sauce – and nab one of the picnic tables where you’ll be eating your haul.

99A Slater Parade, Keilor East, houstonsbbq.com.au

Kakilang Char Koay Teow

The eponymous dish is a mix of smoky flat noodles, chilli, Chinese sausage, seafood, and nubs of pork lard. It comes in a serve so generous, it might induce a food coma. Hokkien mee, with its tangle of vermicelli and egg noodles in spicy prawn broth, competes with Penang’s finest. Service is perfunctory but the spacious, light-filled interior happily accommodates all.

6/190 Belmore Road, Balwyn, instagram.com/kakilangcharkoayteow

Mahob at Moo’s

Melbourne’s beloved family-run Cambodian restaurant Amok is back, and with a cafe alter-ego as part of its new tree-change identity in Gippsland. For breakfast choose between eggs your way on sourdough or lort cha, the sweet-salty Khmer rice drop noodles. Dinner might involve lively Kampot pepper chicken ribs, and sour yellow curry with prawn and chargrilled pineapple.

89 Whitelaw Street, Meeniyan, mahob.com.au

Meetbowl

A good bakso (Indonesian meatball) place has three things: a menu showcasing the dish’s various textures, traditional orange containers of sambal on each table and – at minimum – one faded European soccer poster on the wall. Meetbowl has the trifecta. The go-to combo is soft, airy beef bakso with noodles in garlicky broth, but there’s plenty more to explore.

95 York Street, South Melbourne, meetbowl.me

Mesob

Pulling triple duties as plate, cutlery and side dish, injera is critical to any meal at Mesob. Use the fermented flatbread to scoop up duba wat, the stew of roast pumpkin with ginger and garlic, one of many vegan mains. Share a combination platter and throw in sambusa, the beef and onion pastries. The big portions mean you don’t have to work three jobs to pay the bill.

213 High Street, Northcote, mesob.com.au

Mum’s Lunch Korean Food

On an industrial corner block, flanked by car detailers and print shops, sits a beacon of home-style Korean food. Dolsot (the Korean earthenware pots) are delivered to tables at alarming temperatures, filled with kimchi jjigae or beef rib soup. Lunch sets might hold tofu-kimchi soup, grilled mackerel and sides. A steady stream of patrons keeps the neat room abuzz.

14 Trent St, Moorabbin, instagram.com/mums_lunch_melbourne

Muli

Owner Van Tran and her family have long provided Melbourne with first-class fish through Footscray shop D&K Live Seafood. That obsession carries over to this quirky seafood restaurant. In a vintage-styled dining room, tanks are filled with critters waiting to meet their maker. A southern rock lobster roll bursts with sweet meat, and tuna sashimi is so fresh it needs little more than a crank of salt and pepper.

184A Rathdowne Street, Carlton, muli.au

Ondo

FINALIST

You can settle into this warm-toned timber space at any time of day and be satisfied. For lunch, yukhoe (raw beef and nashi pear) is simply served with rice and sides. At dinner, it’s dressed in a little seaweed straitjacket with a side of pickled onions. Small-batch soju and cheongju, the rice wine, are the perfect addition. Ask razor-sharp staff for a recommendation.

115 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, ondomelbourne.com

Paesino

The team at this neo-Neapolitan pizzeria treat their 48-hour, double-fermented dough with religious intensity. It stretches across the menu from aperitivo angioletti (fried dough with cherry tomatoes) to dessert doughnuts with Nutella. The lengthy pizza list includes Johnny Mozzarella, which subs out sugo for garlicky cream to create a milky margherita. The setting is homely, with a decor heavy on Italian football memorabilia.

12D Kennedy Street, Keilor, paesinopizzeria.com.au

Punjabi by Nature

At this sprawling casual eatery inside a shopping complex, people gather at long communal tables for spice-laden Indian feasts that include many types of paratha pulled piping hot from the tandoor. Chicken seekh kebabs are scorched on the charcoal grill then soothed by a tart, creamy dressing. Popping to the shops never tasted so good.

Sanctuary Lakes Shopping Centre, Point Cook, punjabibynature.com.au

Quan Lua

FINALIST

Quan Lua delivers many hit Vietnamese dishes, but it’s the bun cha that draws a line out the door. Juicy pork patties are cooked over charcoal and served with a punchy broth plus vermicelli, lettuce and mint. Toss it together and marvel at the fresh-salty-sour equilibrium. The setting is lo-fi and the service low-touch, but the food does not miss a beat.

39 Buckingham Avenue, Springvale, 03 8555 3368

Wang Wang

A new player in Melbourne’s DIY grill scene, warmth emanates from Wang Wang and its domed tabletop barbecues. All the meat arrives raw: wagyu chunks, pork belly, or Angus beef sliced and tumbled in chilli and herbs. Grill it yourself before dipping in a sauce of soy, chilli and garlic. There’s decent wine, and cocktails have flavours such as jasmine and lychee.

267 Glenferrie Road, Malvern, wangwangbbq.com.au

WeLive 2.0

No plus-one is necessary at this sanctuary for solo diners. Dining cubicles are lined up in rows, there’s a gas burner for DIY hot pot, and bases include sweet and sour tomato soup, light and lemony tom yum, and lip-smacking chicken soup. At lunchtime, bento-like sets with several small dishes are a speedy option.

Level 1, 217 Russell Street, Melbourne, weliveforhotpot.com.au

The winners of The Age Good Food Guide 2025 Awards will be announced on November 18, presented by Vittoria Coffee and Oceania Cruises. The Age Good Food Guide 2025 will be on sale from November 19.