Australia’s best new restaurant openings
From the Adelaide Hills to the sands of Bondi Beach, meet the new chefs on the block serving up the kind of nosh you’ll want to build your next getaway around | FULL LIST
As a self-professed country of foodies, being clued in on the hottest new restaurant may as well be part of our psyche. And boy is it a competitive space. This year alone, restaurant openings have dominated the industry, flooding diners with fresh options. From takeovers of iconic seaside buildings to hospitality juggernauts taking their success interstate, here are the hottest openings in Australia for 2023. Happy eating.
The gourmet edition of The Weekend Australian Magazine is published this Saturday.
Explore the absolute best gourmet stays for the foodie traveller here.
New South Wales
Promenade, Bondi
The heritage-listed Bondi Pavilion has long been noted for its location rather than its cuisine, but things are looking up for the Spanish Mission-style building. This year has seen the opening of Promenade, a creation of House Made Hospitality (which runs another impressive restaurant, Grana, in the CBD’s historic Hinchcliff House). Promenade has expected beach vibes and a casual coastal feel, but there’s a serious edge to the food in dishes such as yellowfin tuna tartare with bonito, soy and whipped pea, and cuttlefish with ’nduja, green tomato and bronze fennel. And you certainly can’t beat the spot.
Brasserie 1930 / Capella Sydney
There are new hotels and then there’s Capella Sydney. The first property by the Singapore-based Capella Group outside Asia, this 192-room establishment in Sydney’s so-called “sandstone precinct” offers luxe on a new level. Think heritage architecture, a rooftop pool, a spa with three Swedish saunas, and an art program that juxtaposes Indigenous art against the honeycomb-coloured walls of this 1912 property (which formerly housed various NSW Government departments). If all that luxe isn’t enough, Capella’s food and drink experience is an attraction in itself. Dine in the elegant in-house restaurant Brasserie 1930, run by the Bentley Group’s Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt. Expect French brasserie classics reinterpreted through an Australian lens, with dishes such as roast duck with plums, or scallops in brown butter and finger lime. Then there’s the exquisite bar, Aperture, with its hypnotic light installation, Meadow. And if you truly want to immerse yourself in the culinary landscape of Sydney, request a “Capella signature culinary experience” curated by the hotel’s “chief culturist” Jonathan Fambart (a cultural experience and room for two is $1500). Fambart will arrange a car to take you somewhere such as Carriageworks Farmers Markets for a morning of shopping, sampling and chatting, offering you direct access to farmers, makers and producers the likes of which you might not discover otherwise. It’s immersive, fun, and filling.
Pixie Food & Wine, Byron Bay
Byron Bay’s notable new eat street, the Jonson Lane precinct, would not feel out of place in any Australian CBD block. It’s here you’ll find the holiday town’s diner-of-the-minute, Pixie Food & Wine. Edged with ruched burgundy banquettes, accented with brown tiles and yellow glass, and centred by a pink-hued marble bar (our tip as the place to sit), the vibe is ’70s-era Italian bar, minus the flares and oversized collars. The food is solidly anchored in the Sicilian heritage of chef Matteo Tine, and is smoothly classic. You won’t find any unnecessary updates to traditional dishes here unless it makes perfect sense. The pasta, such as cacio e pepe and frutti di mare, have the telltale resistance of being handmade, and the bar is stocked with Italian staples including Amaro Montenegro and Disaronno. Bookend your dinner with a half-martini across the way at Bar Heather.
Bangalay Dining, Shoalhaven Heads
The Shoalhaven region on the NSW south coast has long been recognised for its extraordinary oysters. But for its restaurant scene? Not so much. That changed with the arrival of Bangalay Dining, an upmarket venue (in the grounds of the Bangalay eco-resort) helmed by executive chef Simon Evans (ex-Caveau, Wollongong). Go for dishes like paperbark smoked duck breast with pomegranate, walnut and pomegranate balsamic or king salmon crudo with beetroot, karkalla, sea parsley and puffed salmon skin. The menu blends native ingredients with a produce-forward philosophy to create an impressive regional dining experience. And you can stay at the wonderful onsite lodge when you’re done. Fabulous.
Australian Capital Territory
Pilot and Such and Such, Canberra
The trio of Ross McQuinn, Dash Rumble and Mal Hanslow, who have between them a work history sprinkled with notable restaurants (Momofuku Seiobo and Ester for starters), have a winner on their hands with their minimal but refined fine diner, Pilot. Pilot’s seven-course degustation ($140, plus $95 for matched wines) doesn’t entertain deviations and you won’t know what will be served until it is. But over a two-hour sitting that might meander from a beef tartare blini to a simple but sensational roast chook, a clever and delicate culinary journey will unfold. In November, the team added Such and Such to their workloads, with Nick Peterson in the kitchen, and a new favourite was born. This more casual but no less exciting venue offers plates of deliciousness such as smoked beetroot with macadamia cream, nigella seeds and eschalots, or duck on the crown with quince and fish sauce caramel. It’s fun, inventing dining from a classy team.
Victoria
Kafeneion, Melbourne
Conceived as a winter pop up (interpretation: could stay longer), Kafeneion is restaurateurs Con Christopoulos and Stavros Konis’ short love letter to Melbourne’s Greek community. The Bourke St casual diner offers slow-cooked deep Greek fare including avgolemono, fish soup kakavia, araka (peas and artichokes) and briam (vegetables in tomato) just like the yiayia of your dreams used to make. There’ll be Greek wines, Greek language and Greeks. Almost as good as a trip to Greece itself.
Freyja, Melbourne
Melbourne’s historic Olderfleet building is a joyful sight on Collins St, its heritage frontage intact despite the gigantic Mirvac towers now dwarfing it. Occupying some of the arched street frontage is Freyja, a mod-Scandi restaurant blasting cool Nordic vibes into the Victorian capital. To eat? Skate with Oscietra caviar, lemon, tomato and blackcurrant leaf, or beetroot with cherry, mustard and pistachio.
Olivine wine bar, Melbourne
In possibly the most Melbourne thing ever, part of Coburg’s once-notorious Pentridge Prison has been converted into … a wine bar. The 100-seat Olivine occupies what its website describes as a “170-year-old citadel-like space”, more commonly known as B Division. The prison, established in 1851, was decommissioned back in 1997 – so perhaps a partial makeover of the place is overdue. Olivine (which the owners describe as “A wine bar like no other”) is elegantly designed, with a 500-strong wine list and green velvet booths. Still, it’s hard not to wonder what the erstwhile crims and spivs would think of it now.
Beverly, Melbourne
Everyone in Melbourne is talking about Beverly. All the buzzwords can be applied here: Victorian produce; So-Cal vibe; rooftop views; sunset cocktails. Fashionable? You got it. Judge for yourself as you enjoy dishes created by head chef David Ball and his team.
Totti’s, Lorne
The juggernaut that is Merivale’s Italian casual diner Totti’s keeps rolling, from town to town and city to city, and slowly – very slowly – into Victoria. The latest place to receive Totti’s interpretation of pasta, bread and salad is Lorne on the Mornington Peninsula. Nestled into the lovely old Lorne Hotel, this Totti’s – run by executive chefs Mike Eggert and Matt Germanchis – is like a day trip to summer, even in the depths of winter. Go for Totti’s classics such as burrata in olive oil, a radicchio salad, puffy bread – nothing that will challenge you overly, but will still fulfil the dream of escaping the cold for a few hours.
South Australia
Shaw + Smith Tasting Room, Adelaide Hills
Cousins Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith have been fermenting the harvest from their sustainably managed Adelaide Hills vineyards to exacting standards since 1989. In fact, everything about Shaw + Smith is done with the same polished pursuit of perfection, including the new extended iteration of their already brilliant Tasting Room, where you can sample the pair’s medium-bodied wines. Cutting a dark silhouette that contrasts with the iridescent green surrounds, the larger tasting room has been designed by original architects Chris Connell Design, keeping everything smooth and gently blended. If you love the technical process of winemaking, you’ll nerd out on the two-hour hosted Balhannah Tour ($120) that ushers you behind the scenes of this meticulously ordered label.