The Top 15 Places to Eat Near Restaurant Botanica

Grapevines press up against the windows at this Modern Australian dining room on a working vineyard estate in the Hunter Valley. The kitchen leans on its own garden and a network of small local farms, pulling the menu toward whatever the season insists on, with a Mediterranean looseness threading through the cooking. The estate's own wines fill the list. One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

Every table looks out over Windsor's Edge Vineyard, which makes it hard to focus on the menu, though the kitchen holds its own with Modern Australian cooking that earns the restaurant an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat. In warmer months, the verandah is the obvious move; in winter, the fireplace inside picks up the slack. Hunter Valley wines feature heavily, as you'd expect from a fully licensed restaurant sitting directly above the vines.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Avido, which translates as "greedy," is the name of the set menu here, and it sets the tone neatly. This contemporary Italian restaurant sits in the Hunter Valley wine country, pairing seasonal, producer-led cooking with a wine list that moves between Italian varietals and local Hunter bottles without making a fuss about either. The room runs on the sharing-and-lingering logic of Italian hospitality, which, in a wine region, is a perfectly reasonable excuse to stay longer.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Perched inside Pooles Rock Vineyard with the Hunter Valley rolling out below the terrace, this is an elegant dining room with steeply pitched ceilings that feel half barn, half cathedral. The menu leans European but wanders comfortably through Middle Eastern and Japanese influences without making a fuss about it. An Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat recognizes the kitchen's ambitions.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

The rammed-earth dining room sits among Hunter Valley vines with the Brokenback Range filling the windows, which does most of the work before the food arrives. Margan is a farm-to-table restaurant on a working vineyard and olive grove where the kitchen garden and Suffolk lambs are quite literally next door. The Australian Good Food Guide has given it two Chef Hats. Bring a tolerance for long lunches and an empty boot for wine.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat