15 restaurants you need to know right now
It’s not easy to create something groundbreaking in the world of food, but these Australian restaurants are innovative and world-class.
The nation’s restaurants are preparing for winter with hot menus, and excellent hospitality, shaking off what has been a tough time for an industry hit with cost-of-living pressures.
We present our annual pick of outstanding places to dine, places with a gourmet edge and ultimately, food worth holidaying for. Bon appetit.
Note from the editor: These experiences have been independently selected and we do not receive a commission from the vendors. We have added links to menus and more information for your convenience.
Reine & La Rue
It would be hard to find a more glorious restaurant in Australia than this. Located in what was originally the Melbourne Stock Exchange building, Reine & La Rue feels like a cathedral, except the religion here is food. The venue was rescued in 2023 by Sydney’s Nomad hospitality group, which converted what had been an abandoned space into this extravagant temple featuring executive chef Jacqui Challinor’s take on French classics. In the hands of Challinor and head chef Brendan Katich, Gallic cuisine is reinterpreted to be lighter and more Australia-friendly than you will find in the homeland – but that’s a positive. Go for exquisite dishes like cured mackerel with pear, buttermilk vinaigrette and smoked salmon caviar or a salade de chèvre chaud with fig and walnuts followed by steak hot off the grill. The food is lovely, and the cocktails are spectacular, but it’s the space itself that truly shines here: this is a special occasion restaurant of note.
380 Collins St, Melbourne, Victoria
Price Guide: $12 – $420
Mon – Sun: 12pm – 2.30pm; 5.30pm – late
Menu // Book now
reineandlarue.melbourne
Antara 128
Melbourne does good breakfast – as evidenced by this exquisitely stylish new bakery/cafe/restaurant on Exhibition Street. The industrial room is a gem but the real stars here come hot out of the huge wood-fired ovens. Go for delicious morsels such as a “lard ass butter croissant” or a “baker’s breakfast” (featuring an escargot of bacon, caramelised onion, Pyengana cheddar, fried egg and gentleman’s relish). Antara also markets itself as a Viennoiserie, which apparently means it specialises in pastries from Vienna. Whatever, they are extremely good. You will not be able to leave without an armful of loaves for later. Anatara has an attractive “stayover package” offered in conjunction with the nearby Windsor Hotel that’s worth checking out.
128 Exhibition St, Melbourne, Victoria
Tue – Wed: 7.30am-10pm; Thu – Fri: 2.30am – 11pm; Sat 8am – 11pm
Menu // Book now
antara.melbourne
Restaurant Botanic
It’s not easy to create something groundbreaking in the world of food. Almost every possible iteration of “new”, “seasonal” and “local” has been dreamt up. In Adelaide, though, chef Justin James has managed to find a twist. Not only is his restaurant inside the Botanic Gardens but he uses ingredients he finds there. The 20-something “tastes” menu ($365) might include fallen bunya nut branches which provide the “stick” as well as the flavouring of a seasonal popsicle, or rose petals made into preserves. The menu features resolutely Australian ingredients such as crocodile, emu egg and camel, fashioned into bites and taste of exquisite craftsmanship.
Adelaide Botanic Garden, Plane Tree Dr, Adelaide
Price guide: $365pp
Thurs – Sat: from 6pm; Sunday from 12pm
Menu // Book now
restaurantbotanic.com.au
Beltana Farm
This beautiful restaurant and (truffle) farm stay is a fine blend of contemporary styling with agrarian elegance. Set in Canberra’s rural Pialligo enclave, the restaurant – which opened late this summer – is a huge, light-filled, timber-clad affair set amid an 800-tree trufferie. The concept is a collaboration: farm owners Doug and Alice O’Mara have teamed with Canberra hospitality veterans John Leverink and James Souter to create a destination venue worth hunting out. The menu features dishes both refined and deliberately rustic, some embellished with truffle, others not. You might sit down to wattleseed-roasted cauliflower with native oregano, a half roasted chicken with saltbush and tarragon, or a potato and celeriac galette with buttermilk and tarragon. In winter, book a private or group truffle-hunt experience, which is nicely complemented with a post-hunt lunch. And if it all seems too lovely to extricate yourself from, stay in the country-chic two-bedroom cottage or one of three stylish yurts. — Written by Lara Picone
14 Beltana Road, Pialligo, ACTPrice guide: $10 – $12
Lunch: Thursday – Sunday; Dinner: Thursday – Saturday
Menu // Book now
beltanafarm.au
Oncore by Clare Smyth
Australia does a very strong trade in exceptional mid-range and casual restaurants, styles that sync nicely with our laidback way of life. But every now and then, when the occasion calls for it, you need a bit of grandeur and glitz, especially if you have out-of-town guests to impress. Enter Oncore on the top floor of Crown Sydney, where the twinkling landscape of the city spreads out in all directions like a spilt jewellery box. The service here is effortlessly choreographed, and every dish – whether from Michelin-starred chef Clare Smyth’s more British and Irish-leaning menu, or the more local-focused creations primarily designed by head chef Alan Stuart – is a precise and pretty work of art.
Crown Sydney, Level 26/1 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo NSW 2000
Price guide: From $250pp
Tues – Thurs: 5.30pm – 10:30pm; Fri – Sat: 12pm – 3pm, 5.30pm – 11pm
Lunch Menu // Dinner Menu // Book now
crownsydney.com.au
Furneaux Restaurant & Comptoir
You’d expect to find excellent fish and chips at Saint Helens, the fishing port on the southern end of Tasmania’s stunning Bay of Fires. But you might be surprised to find a little joint turning out classic French dishes so good that mainlanders get straight off the Spirit of Tasmania ferry and drive three hours to get to it. This 30-seat restaurant and bar, run by chefs Stefaan Codron and Jonathan Wong, offers up dishes such as twice-baked cheese soufflé, snails with garlic butter, duck confit, crème brulée with local honey and lavender, and crêpes suzette — Written by Ellen Whinnet
2 Tasman Hwy, Saint Helens, Tasmania
Price guide: $22 – $55
Tues – Sat: 6pm-10pm
Menu // Book now
furneauxrestaurant.com.au
Omotenashi
A Lexus showroom in north Hobart is an unlikely setting for a serene omakase experience, but chefs Lachlan Colwill and Sophie Pope (formerly of Port Cygnet Cannery in the Huon Valley) know how to make magic out of the mundane. The $300-a-head evening begins with a cocktail between the cars, before you move to a 10-seater table tucked into a softly-lit anteroom at the rear of the building, with your hosts at the centre so they’re in easy reach for chats and explanations. From there, you’ll be led through a progression of around 15 exquisitely handled seafood and vegetable-centric courses, served on Japanese and local porcelain and lacquerware, accompanied by sake and culminating with one of Pope’s plush mochi. “Omotenashi” means “mindful hospitality” in Japanese, and the sense of community and conversation plays as much of a role here as the food; by the end you may walk away with a swag of new friends.
Unit 4/160 Elizabeth St, Hobart, Tasmania
Price guide: $300pp
Thurs: 2.30pm – 5.30 pm; Fri – Sun: 6.30pm – 10.30pm
Menu // Book now
omotenashihobart.com
LVN Restaurant
There will be moments when you interrupt the waitstaff to check that you’ve heard correctly. And there will be times when your fork hovers over the dish, momentarily reluctant to disturb the little garden party that exceeds decoration. And then you will look at your dining companion, observe their reaction to that first taste, and find your conversation veering into a hitherto unknown world debating the flavour profiles of she-oak oil or fermented tomato water.
The tasting menu at Bird in Hand winery’s LVN Restaurant in the Adelaide Hills, 40 minutes’ drive east of the city, tells of a boundary-pushing chef (Jacob Davey, ex-Restaurant Botanic) and a menu that honours the native flavours of this part of the world. He recommends allowing three hours to work through the spread but we start at midday and finish close to 5pm, nicely satisfied but still peering hopefully at the kitchen because this is an adventure you never want to end.
Take a half-time break to tour the grounds that knit together the vineyard, outdoor terrace, restaurant and cosy cellar door. Winemaker Andrew Nugent and his garden designer wife Susie have transformed Bird in Hand into a place to stay a while. The colourful gardens humming with birds and insects give way to giant sculptures that only hint at the Nugents’ international art collection. The bare bones of LVN’s $195 set menu – 17 dishes ranging from bites to larger plates – can’t convey the processes behind the creations that range heavily to the savoury. “Garden tart, salmon roe’’ consists of a nest made of zucchini, nori seaweed and nasturtium leaves filled with a parsley emulsion blended with balsamic vinegar and egg yolks, topped with roe marinated in white soy, mirin and sake and finished with marigold petals.
On the sweeter spectrum, ice cream is flavoured with roasted she-oak leaves and served with a sauce made from grilled blood plums, caramelised barley koji and she-oak oil. The menu travels from water (grilled oyster, abalone, mussel, Coorong mullet, Murray cod) to land (aged duck, wild venison), with detours through coastal habitats and local gardens for herbaceous hits. The wine pairing at $95 is optional but integral to the experience. This is a place where your best response to every suggestion is “Yes please.” — Written by Christine Middap
150 Pfeiffer Rd, Woodside, South Australia
Thurs – Sunday: lunch from 12pm
Price guide: $195pp
Menu // Book now
birdinhand.com.au
De’Sendent
Fans of the now-closed Arimia restaurant on the edge of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park will be pleased that the team behind it – chef Evan Hayter and co-owner Ann Spencer – has opened a successor in Margaret River, the elegant and exceptional De’Sendent. Like its predecessor it’s discreet (there’s only a sign on a step to let you know it’s there), but inside the flavours pack a punch. The $180, multi-course tasting menu upholds Arimia’s commitment to small producers and produce that comes straight from the land and sea: think crays from the Augusta coast and mature wagyu. The wine list hails from across the globe, balanced with the best local drops.
3/152 Bussell Hwy, Margaret River, Western Australia
Wed – Sat: 5.30pm – late
Price guide: $180pp
Menu //
desendent.com
Megalong at Lot101
It’s been a while since the Blue Mountains has welcomed a truly exciting new restaurant. Megalong, which sits in the deep valley of the same name, is it. Almost every vegetable served here under the direction of chef Colin Barker, former head chef at The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, is grown onsite, and the menu’s cattle and ducks also roam just beyond the door.
Guests are encouraged to wander into the kitchen garden during the meal to meet their ingredients while they’ve still got soil on their roots, and to admire the majesty of the escarpment that rims the property. If you’re not dining, you can pick up a bushel of vegetables or fruit from the farm shop to take home or prepare at your own accommodation.
Peach Tree Road, Megalong Valley NSW
Price guide: from $185pp
Lunch: Sat – Sun; Dinner: Fri-Sat
Menu // Book now
megalongrestaurant.com.au
Vue de Monde
Every so often, part way through a tasting menu, a dish will stop you in your tracks and stay in your mind for a long time afterwards. At Vue de Monde, reopened after a $3 million renovation with a 16-course, $360 tasting menu under the guidance of executive chef Hugh Allen, that dish is a smooth stone bowl of macadamia puree, kelp oil and Oscietra caviar. The unapologetic softness of its textures cushions each rich flavour: the butteriness of the nuts, the salt of the roe, the umami of the seaweed. A visit to this sky-high restaurant at the centre of Melbourne is worth it for this course alone, but the charmingly playful service and matchless city views are strong supporting players.
55 Rialto Towers, 525 Collins St, Melbourne, Victoria
Price guide: $360pp
Lunch: Fri – Sat; Dinner Wed – Sat
Menu // Book now
vuedemonde.com.au
Amisfield
The restaurant at Amisfield looks like a postcard South Island winery, all warm schist stone and verdant hills. But inside, you’ll find the marvellous mind of chef Vaughan Mabee at work. A hunter and champion of wild food, Mabee makes charcuterie from ducks whose taxidermied bodies decorate the dining room, presents deer milk ice cream inside an antler, and layers meticulous stripes of tiny whitebait over a perfect fillet of greenbone (a native ocean fish). In the wrong hands, it could seem like a menagerie gone mad. But the extraordinary flavours created by Mabee – who will cook at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo Winter Feast in June – make this one of the most memorable dining experiences you may encounter.
10 Lake Hayes Road, RD 1, Queenstown
Mon – Tues 10am-6pm; Wed – Sun: 10am – 11pm
Price guide: Lunch NZ$240pp, Dinner NZ$440pp
Lunch Menu // Dinner Menu // Book now
Short Grain by Martin Boetz
The hottest gourmet ticket in Brisbane is for the reincarnation of a restaurant that closed in Sydney five years ago (for those who haven’t spotten the pun in the name, we’re talking about Longrain in Surry Hills, where chef Martin Boetz ruled the kitchen as the city’s hospitality scene came of age). Sometimes, all you need is a change of scene, right? Boetz has launched in the Sunshine State with the version of contemporary Thai that won the hearts of Sydney’s fashionable set (and later, Melbourne’s).
Expect classic dishes like oysters with red chilli nahm jim and fried eschalots, and a hot and sour salad of pork, squid, Vietnamese mint, green shallots, roasted rice. Fun fact: Boetz is originally from Brisbane. Welcome home.
15 Marshall St, Fortitude Valley, Queensland
Wed: 5 – 10pm; Thu – Sat: 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 10.30pm; Sun: 12pm – 3pm
Menu // Book now
shortgrain.com.au
Kirra Beach House
Just a pedestrian crossing away from beautiful Kirra Beach, which sits on the opposite curve to the Surfers Paradise skyline, is this new beach-vibes diner. Downstairs it’s a come-as-you-are pub with lifted classics, but ascend the stairs and you’ll find a chic beach club-style restaurant angled to watch the shimmering blue beyond or dusk descend on the sand. Sit inside or on the terrace (if the sun shines, the latter is best under a blue-and-white striped cabana), and tuck into elegant plates such as tempura bug rolls on a milk bun, kingfish ceviche with citrus dressing or larger plates of bubbly crust pizza, steak frites with café de Paris or whole lamb shoulder with Tuscan cabbage and fresh grated horseradish. — Lara Picone
4 Marine Parade, Coolangatta, Queensland
Sun – Fri: 11am – late; Sat: 11am – 1am
Price guide: $10 – $72
Menu // Book now
kirrabeachhouse.com
SORA
This expansive new rooftop bar and restaurant has opened a lofty nine levels above Pirie Street in the Adelaide CBD. Executive chef Adam Liston has created a Japanese-leaning menu of dishes like fish wrapped in nori with creamed corn and miso, and fire-roasted chicken with koshihikari rice, cabbage and wood-ear mushrooms. The huge 400-seat venue is deeply ambitious and impressive, and brings a sexy, big-smoke vibe to South Australia.
Level 9, 89 Pirie Street, Adelaide, South AustraliaWed, Thu, Sun: 12pm – 11pm; Fri, Sat: 12pm – 11.30pm
Price guide: $15 – $125
Menu // Book now
soraonpirie.com.au
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