Canberra’s restaurants have received the verdict from Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide for another year. A total of 21 establishments from Canberra and the region have managed to make the grade, with the well respected annual seeing fit to include some new restaurants and drop a couple of well known ones in their recently released 2010 edition.

New kids on the block include Red Hill’s Onred, doing good things with siblings Jodie and Ben Johnson, and Dickson’s Ruby Chinese Restaurant. Ruby has always managed to nail it when it comes to great Chinese food­­ — especially live seafood­­ — but it seems the new fit-out may have finally got them over the line for the recognition they deserve.

Some restaurants that had dropped off the list in recent editions, but managed to make a comeback for 2010 include Braddon’s Sage Restaurant, which seemed to need a year to prove itself under current management­ — and come through with flying colours, picking up a nod for their wine list — and Aubergine at Griffith shops, also reinvented under new owner/chef Ben Willis.

Hats have been hard to come by, with only two awarded. No surprises here with Ottoman picking up a Hat and a Glass, and James Mussillon’s Water’s Edge finally finding its groove again to nail a Hat and make a re-entry. Both restaurants scored a respectable 15 out of 20.

Wine lists fared better with 10 restaurants scoring a Glass for a particularly good wine list.