There are Northern Rivers restaurants with better views than those from Bistro Livi’s green leather and timber-lined dining room (expect to enjoy your gin and fino martini with a sight line to the back of an IGA). But few restaurants anywhere have such warm, engaged service, and no one cooks a more comforting goat in milk and marsala than Ewen Crawford and Danni Wilson.

Danni’s sister Nikky manages the floor, providing spot-on wine suggestions from a firecracker one-page list, and advising not to pass on the oysters with brown rice vinaigrette.

A Spanish thread weaves through the menu – paprika-tinged octopus, top-tier Iberian ham – but inspiration comes from anywhere, often enhancing local produce. Think Ballina pipis thumping with house-made XO, Pottsville spanner crab in a silky omelette or hand-picked Moreton Bay bug in fragrant curry butter.

Who needs valley views when you’ve got the region’s best gear on a plate?