The Michelin Guide doesn’t cover Australian restaurants. But should it suddenly arrive in Brisbane, Restaurant Dan Arnold would be the first to win a star. That doesn’t mean it’s the best, most innovative or most exciting, however. It just means that it is the most “Michelin”, in terms of its long-held pillar of culinary excellence. There’s a difference.

Brisbane boy Dan Arnold left for France in 2010, working at three-Michelin-star restaurant L’Espérance before rising to become sous-chef at two-starred Serge Vieira in the Auvergne. He returned home with wife Amelie to put his name on his own restaurant in 2018, adding La Cache à Vin to the stable in 2022 and Pneuma in 2023. Restaurant Dan Arnold is the flagship.