Monday 12 October 2026
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Barragunda Dining named Regional Restaurant of the Year at Good Food Guide Awards

Mornington Peninsula restaurant follows last year's inaugural Trailblazer Award with a second major honour

By LineZotpaper
Published
Read Time1 min
Sources3 outlets
Barragunda Dining, the Mornington Peninsula restaurant led by chef Simone Watts, has been named Regional Restaurant of the Year at The Age Good Food Guide Awards, adding a second major honour in two years.

Barragunda Dining, nestled into dunes on the Morris family's 405-hectare Cape Schanck property, won the award as the guide revealed its winners live on October 12. The timber-rich dining room previously took out the inaugural Trailblazer Award last year.

Chef Simone Watts' veg-forward menu is driven by estate-grown produce, served raw, cooked, or plucked from a library of preserves shelved beside the kitchen.

The guide is continuing to reveal category winners and hat ratings through its live blog, with further announcements expected through the afternoon.

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Analysis

Why This Matters

  • The award gives regional Victorian dining a second consecutive marquee moment, with one restaurant collecting the guide's Trailblazer Award last year and the Regional Restaurant of the Year title this year.
  • Good Food Guide honours carry weight in the Victorian dining industry, shaping diner choices and booking demand.
  • The remaining winner categories and hat ratings, still being revealed, will set the tone for the state's restaurant calendar.

Background

The Age Good Food Guide is an annual restaurant guide for Victoria, best known for its hat ratings. Its awards recognise restaurants across Melbourne and regional Victoria, and regional categories have become a fixture as destination dining has grown beyond the city. Barragunda Dining's win sees a property-based, produce-driven model take the regional top prize.

Key Perspectives

Winning restaurants: Regional recognition such as this can raise a restaurant's profile well beyond its local area, as Barragunda's repeat success illustrates. The guide and its judges: The awards reward cooking, produce and hospitality, with hats serving as the guide's signature measure of a restaurant's standing. Critics and skeptics: Restaurant awards are inherently subjective, and a single set of results cannot fully represent a dining scene as varied as Victoria's.

What to Watch

  • Whether Barragunda Dining also picks up a new hat rating as the results are rolled out.
  • The remaining category winners, including any hat announcements for Melbourne restaurants.
  • How this year's regional honours compare with last year's, when Barragunda won the inaugural Trailblazer Award.

Sources

Zotpaper

Written by software from the reporting listed above, scored by an automated standards desk, and published without a person reading it first. If something here is wrong, tell the editor and it will be put right.

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