From the dozens of bowls of pasta to the parade of prime cuts with chips that were whisked to tables across Melbourne this year, it was clear that everyone was seeking a little comfort. We saw creme caramels, chicken schnitzels and chocolate fondant. Heck, we even saw risoni outside the house.

It was the year that dining out often felt like a warm hug. Many beloved restaurants renovated and reassessed their offer, rather than making way for something entirely new.

The quintessential Melbourne pub passed into new hands, ready to put a fresh spin on the approachable everyday hangout (hint: the new formula includes a big step up from greasy chips and overcooked steak).

The new restaurants that did come out of the blocks often felt like they were cut from vintage cloth, whether it was a paisley-trimmed piece of the ’70s or starched white linen from the middle of last century.

But among all that was familiar there were some exciting fireworks from Melbourne’s next pioneers of cafes, casual dining, neighbourhood hangouts and watering holes. We saw young and hungry operators debut their first venues, new contributions to the city’s Polish, Indian, Cambodian and Korean food, and exciting partnerships outside the mega-group model. Here’s to more of that in 2024.

For Thai that’s a far cry from sad noodles and bland curries

On Bourke Street, Thai Baan canteen is a bright symbol of the exciting explosion of regional Thai food that’s sweeping Melbourne. Owner Jirada Ponpetch’s family has operated a boat noodle stall in Thailand’s north-eastern Isan province for 30 years. That dish is a major drawcard, but there’s a dizzying choice of salads, rice dishes, soups and drinking snacks on a tick-box menu. Pa Tong and Nora Thai showcase specialties from the south.

At Nora, find deeply savoury and totally moreish stink bean stir-fry with pork mince and juicy prawns, plus kaeng bai cha plu, a standout curry that’s mild, slightly sweet and generous with the crab meat. Pa Tong is all about coastal cooking, from grilled mackerel in a beguiling coconut curry, to outstandingly fluffy crab omelette and kanom jeen: fresh rice noodles with fish curry.

51 Bourke Street, Melbourne, thaibaanmelbournecbd.com.au

69 Davis Avenue, South Yarra, norathaimelb.com.au

271 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, @patong_melbourne

For your next splashy night out

Creating a restaurant worthy of one of the grandest rooms in Melbourne was the brief. And the Nomad Group delivered with Reine & La Rue, inside the former Melbourne Stock Exchange. It’s not a restaurant trying to shake up your idea of French food or what a glamorous night out looks like. But Reine knows what it’s doing on both fronts.

Southern rock lobster cocktail, one of the world’s great indulgences, is done right and without distraction. Steaks are cooked with exactitude. The food holds its own right through to dessert, whether it’s coupe of billowing jersey milk soft-serve finished with amber beads of olive oil, or a perfect bitter-meets-sweet chocolate tart shot through with coffee.

380 Collins Street, Melbourne, reineandlarue.melbourne

For envy-inducing photos for your Instagram grid

The light is extraordinary, entering through tall windows and filtered by mature trees. The dining room is high-ceilinged, strung with ceramic lights as delicate as paper. Julie, at Abbotsford Convent, is a stunner of a spot for lunch. But the food is just as head-turning, much of it built around produce from the nearby Collingwood Children’s Farm and vegetable beds on the convent grounds. Butter beans are piled over goat’s curd and scattered with dark-toasted pine nuts. Fresh artichokes, borlotti beans, ox heart and salsa verde are magicked into a boisterous salad. It’s elegant, French-ish and an instant treasure.

1-4 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford Convent, Abbotsford, julierestaurant.com.au

For a reminder that brunch can be great

A calm Japanese cafe by day and quirky izakaya by night, Chiaki offers one of the city’s strongest coffee programs. The key food, both day and night, is ochazuke: cooked rice bathed in broth and served with various toppings – salted plum, say, or wagyu tataki. At night, the comforting rice bowls are joined by izakaya bites, such as savoury madeleines topped with nori mayonnaise and capocollo (Italian cured pork). Japanese potato salad is served with jalapenos, olives and a shoyu-cured egg for DIY smushing. You couldn’t say Melbourne needed another coffee place, but Chiaki brings something different.

49 Peel Street, Collingwood, chiaki.com.au

For the ultimate date spot

Crimson-carpeted stairs, starched white linen and inky-black furnishings are the darkly romantic setting for Joe Jones (ex-Romeo Lane) and Maurice Terzini’s new bar, Purple Pit, hidden a few metres below Collins Street. Jones is back to doing what he does best, whether it’s ramping up a gimlet with makrut lime and cardamom or reviving Romeo Lane favourites such as the espresso martini-adjacent black butterfly. The banquettes are plush, the lights are low, the speakers crackle with Echo and the Bunnymen, and the dark glass surfaces are as glossy as a black Amex. It’s all so luxuriously ’80s, you wouldn’t look twice if you realised Patrick Bateman was at the table next to you.

Basement, 380 Collins Street, Melbourne, purplepit.com.au

For bar snacks from the Levant

Melbourne stayer Rumi is proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks, with the 17-year-old favourite not only decamping to gorgeous new stone and brass-accented digs this year but also adding a little sibling, Rocket Society. Part lunch bar, part neighbourhood bar, the timber-panelled space is a place for chef-owner Joseph Abboud to unleash Lebanese flavours on contemporary restaurant mainstays, so you end up with barramundi wings to dip in toum-tartare sauce (“toum-tare”). Or HSP croquettes, inspired by a halal snack pack, and oysters with pickled verjuice grapes, also known as husrum in Lebanon. At lunch, grab $8 sandwiches on pita bread.

2 Village Avenue, Brunswick East, therocketsociety.com.au

For Japanese chef’s table dining

Choosing omakase experiences and refined sushi counters in Melbourne is no longer a question of “where?” but “which one?”

Sushi On and Aoi Tsuki are from two pairs of friends putting their knife skills and fishmonger connections to good use in Kew and South Yarra, respectively.

Uminono is French-owned and therefore less traditional, but no less exacting in its chirashizushi bowls.

Yugen’s omakase is so sought-after, it added a second, less formal experience called Nidaime.

Four-seat Matsu, offering a kaiseki experience, is no less in-demand.

For a primer on the great new-but-old Melbourne pub

It’s been a good year for Melbourne pubs. The Marquis of Lorne crew worked wonders on a down-at-heel Brunswick pub to create Sporting Club Hotel, a space for 450 grateful locals that somehow feels cosy.

North Melbourne’s Courthouse also got some much-needed TLC from the crew behind Naughtons, who are doing refined pub fare with Euro and British influences.

Even Guy Grossi got a piece of the pub pie, opening neighbourhood Italian restaurant Puttanesca inside the former Clifton Hotel in Kew. Locals jam in to the clubby dining room for wood-fired pizza, lasagne and, yes, spaghetti puttanesca.

For a sunny escape to Mexico

Cheat the space-time continuum and escape a traffic-choked intersection of suburban Melbourne as soon as you set foot in Bar Tobala. This warm hangout looks like it’s straight out of Oaxaca − and its cocktails drink that way, too, thanks to a long list of tequila and mezcal-based drinks. Sip them in a turquoise-upholstered booth as you snack on kingfish tostaditas, or some top-drawer tacos filled with smoky Guajillo-style beef short-rib, or chorizo with potato and stringy cheese.

237 Melville Rd, Pascoe Vale South, tobala.com.au

For coastal Italian dining dreams come true

Totti’s Lorne, the first Victorian venue from NSW hospitality giant Merivale, represents many things to many people. But, whatever your stance, this big, brash venue (open all year, not just summer) is a much-needed injection of quality hospitality into one of Victoria’s most picturesque seaside towns. The fact it comes from a group that has the means to bankroll it might be a sign of the future of regional dining. For now, order the poufy signature flatbread and accompaniments for snacking, then luxuriate in campanelle pasta with milk-braised pork and chilli, or local catch expertly wood-grilled by the kitchen led by Matt Germanchis (ex-Captain Moonlite).

176 Mountjoy Parade, Lorne, merivale.com

For low-key yet brilliant neighbourhood dining

Always a strong point in Melbourne, the genre of mid-level local restaurant - somewhere not too expensive, not too formal and not so popular you can’t ever get in ₋ got some notable additions this year. Grazia is a better-than-it-needs-to-be spot for families seeking familiar Italian dishes executed with finesse, and delivered in a bright, joyful space.

Serial Windsor restaurateurs Commune Group saw a gap in their neighbourhood for approachable Italian and cooked up Studio Amaro to fill it. It’s a little flashier than your typical local, but it fits right in to its area.

North & Common has even more spectacular digs, behind the imposing bluestone walls of what was Pentridge Prison. But at its core, it’s a place for Coburg’s next generation, who want properly grilled flathead and a bottle of decent Victorian wine for under $100.

For living out your Manhattan members club fantasies

Walk into what looks like an old office building, push through stately double doors covered in studded caramel-coloured leather and you’ll enter a shadowy and carpeted hallway with a heavy velvet curtain at the end. This is the drumroll to your Apollo Inn experience. The exclusive, clubby feeling continues inside. The bar has just 28 seats, the interiors are inky and the staff wear jackets as they stir perfect Gibson martinis or drop prawn club sandwiches onto marble-topped tables.

165 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, apolloinn.bar

For dessert genius in three bites

If the name Madeleine de Proust wasn’t enough of a giveaway, this shop’s towering madeleine-studded cake sitting at the entrance should tell you everything: this is a temple to one woman’s pastry obsession. Chef Hyoju Park transforms madeleines − small shell-shaped sponge cakes from north-eastern France − into tiny jewels in flavours ranging from yuzu to earl grey, with hot madeleines baked throughout the day on weekends. The most mind-boggling creations − one an imitation of a pistachio nut, the other a tiny, perfectly rendered cob of corn with popcorn ganache − are backed by Park’s fine-dining experience, each bite a deft balance of sweet, buttery and salty. Each finished work of art is arranged in special trays under glass, only adding to the precious-jewel illusion.

253 Lygon Street, Carlton, madeleinedeproust.com.au

For extra-good breakfast

Coffee roaster Square One has written its own rules with its debut cafe, Square One Rialto. A single all-day menu is in fact a brain hive of 10 chefs’ ideas, with the first menu spanning Melbourne chef Tom Sarafian’s borek (pictured), London-based Nuno Mendes’ Portuguese-style pork sandwich and an ube waffle by Sydney’s Mitch Orr (Kiln). Every season, a new crop of chefs’ dishes grace the menu. But the real difference is that 10 per cent of profits go back to the group’s community-minded farm, Common Ground Project, which also supplies some of the produce. Later, Square One hopes to collect the chefs’ dishes and turn them into a cookbook to raise more funds. Here’s to more city cafes shaking things up.

525 Collins Street, Melbourne, squareonecoffee.com.au

The Age Good Food Guide 2024 is on sale for $14.95 from newsagents, supermarkets and at thestore.com.au.