The Best Australian Food in Australia

The display case of prime cuts greets you before the menu does, which tells you most of what you need to know about this top-floor fine dining room in Townsville. Marmor works the line between Queensland beef country and the warm coastal waters just outside, with a reserve wine cellar and elegant surrounds to match. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

Sweeping views over Terrigal Beach set the tone at Meribella, a modern Australian restaurant perched above the sand at the Crowne Plaza. The kitchen leans into Central Coast and Hunter Valley produce, letting the seasons do the heavy lifting while the technique stays quietly confident. It holds a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide, and the room earns its place on the coast with something more than just the view.

Polished wood, statement pendants, and banquette seating set the tone at this CBD bistro, which sits somewhere between a long working lunch and a proper dinner out. The kitchen leans Modern Australian, wood-roasting and slow-braising its way through a menu that reads relaxed but cooks with more ambition than the room lets on. An Australian Good Food Guide Hat for the effort.

Floor-to-ceiling glass frames the Red Hill vineyard and, on a clear day, Western Port beyond, which sets the tone for what Montalto is: a winery restaurant where the estate gardens supply the kitchen and the wood-fire grill does the heavy lifting. The menu shifts with the seasons and is designed to share, arriving in courses. Matt Wilkinson shapes the culinary direction. The Australian Good Food Guide awards it a Chef Hat.

The menu tells you the breed, age, diet, and size of each cut before you order, which sets the tone for how seriously this steak restaurant and wine bar takes its beef. Set in Broadbeach overlooking Victoria Park, Moo Moo trades the dark-wood masculinity of the classic steakhouse for curved lines and natural stone. Wagyu is the headline act, with a roast carved tableside for full theatre.

The dining room at this Warwick Farm restaurant sits inside the Inglis bloodstock complex, and the horse-world setting is not subtle. It's a Modern Australian restaurant where the alfresco terrace looks out over riverside stables, which makes for a more distinctive backdrop than most. The menu runs to butter-poached lobster and pressed lamb shoulder, and the cocktail list takes itself seriously enough to earn its own paragraph in the menu.

Lunch on a deck at Hamilton Island's northernmost tip, looking straight out at the Coral Sea and the Whitsundays scattered beyond. Pebble Beach is the daytime dining room at qualia resort, and the setting does a lot of the work, though the contemporary Australian kitchen keeps pace with produce sourced from farmers and growers around the country. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

A fusion restaurant in the Adelaide CBD where seasonal Australian produce gets pulled toward global influences without any particular apology for it. The room has a rustic-contemporary feel that leans into sharing plates and noise, the kind of place where the table next to you orders something you immediately wish you'd noticed. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

Perched on a 10-acre property in Carool with the Northern Rivers valley rolling out toward the sea, Potager is a produce-led restaurant where the garden outside ends up on the plate inside. The kitchen runs on whole-animal cookery, local oysters and seafood, and nearby beef, all shifting with the seasons. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat. The sunny terrace makes long lunches feel like the obvious choice.

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame a sculpture park rolling down toward Western Port, which sets up the dining room's whole argument before the menu arrives. This is a Modern Australian à la carte restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula, with a wine list drawn entirely from Victorian producers. The kitchen leans into local produce, and the service team seems to genuinely enjoy explaining what's on the plate, which is rarer than it should be.

Floor-to-ceiling windows look straight out over Balmoral Beach toward Manly and North Head, which makes the room feel less like a restaurant and more like a very well-catered boat. This is a relaxed fine dining spot on The Esplanade, serving a modern Australian à la carte menu with Mediterranean leanings and local produce. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat. Getting there by water taxi from Circular Quay is, apparently, a genuine option.

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.

Dry-aged steaks and fresh seafood in a steakhouse that somehow skips the macho-shrine decor most of the genre relies on. Rich & Rare sits in West End's West Village precinct with a mood that's more "open a good bottle" than "here's your complimentary steak knife set." The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat. Bring a group or sneak in for a solo whisky; the room handles both without making either feel wrong.

A casual fine-diner in laid-back Brunswick Heads where the whole menu reads like a love letter to the Northern Rivers, native ingredients and all. The chef holds an Australian Good Food Guide Hat for cooking that pulls from the land hard: kangaroo, wattleseed, pigface salsa verde, and lobster coral butter share space without any of it feeling like a bush-tucker gimmick. The room draws locals who take their food seriously but left their ties at home.

The wood-fired grill does a lot of the talking at this waterfront restaurant and bar, where the menu leans hard into Far North Queensland seafood and regional produce. The deck looks out over the marina and the mountains beyond, which is a combination that makes it easy to stay for sunset whether or not you planned to. A One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide, and the kind of place Cairns locals bring people they want to impress.

Lunch on a winery estate in the Swan Valley, with vineyard rows framing the window and estate pours arriving alongside. The kitchen leans Modern Australian with a wood-fired streak, turning local produce into the kind of meal that makes the drive feel like the whole point. The Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat. Sit outside under old vines if the day allows; the alfresco tables fill fast with people who've clearly done this before.

Serafino sits on a winery estate in McLaren Vale, ringed by ancient gums and a lake that makes the dining room feel like it wandered in from a painting. The restaurant runs a Modern Australian menu with Italian leanings, leaning hard into seasonal produce, so the food shifts more than the view does. Weddings fill the calendar, but the cellar door keeps it honest. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

The bifold windows fold back so the ocean breeze does half the decorating at this casual all-day restaurant on the Lennox Head beachfront. The menu runs Modern Australian with a local-produce lean, moving from avo toast in the morning to grilled octopus and massaman-glazed beef by evening. It's the kind of place where a beach walk becomes a long lunch without anyone quite noticing the transition. One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

A share-format Modern Australian restaurant near Circular Quay, Silvester's sits on a corner that's had butchers and serious produce on it for generations. The menu moves from smaller plates through to bigger dishes, building in a way that feels designed rather than accidental. The room leans convivial rather than hushed. An Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

The menu at this fine-dining room in Penrith is built around a loose rule: nothing on the plate has traveled more than 50 kilometres to get there. That radius pulls in the Hawkesbury, the Blue Mountains foothills, and the Nepean Valley, and the kitchen leans into it rather than hiding it behind French technique. Modern Australian cooking with a genuine sense of where it is, and a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide to back the ambition.

A lively modern Australian restaurant on Oracle Boulevard where the room is styled for lingering, not rushing. The menu leans contemporary and social, built around dishes meant to be shared around a well-set table. It holds a Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide, which signals serious cooking without the stiff-backed formality that usually comes with it. Broadbeach's Gold Coast crowd fills it out nicely.

Rooke Street is not where you'd expect a quietly serious modern Australian restaurant, but Taste. by Bold Cuisine has earned a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide doing exactly that. The menu runs on Tasmanian produce treated with real care, matched to a considered wine list. The room reads elegant without being stiff, which helps when the food is clearly asking you to pay attention.

Bare brick walls, a communal table, and twenty seats total set the terms at Templo, a small neighborhood restaurant on Patrick Street where Modern Australian cooking runs through an Italian filter. The menu is built for sharing and almost entirely sourced from within an hour's drive, which in Tasmania means you're eating pretty well. The 50 Discovery list picked it up, which tracks.

A restored Queenslander on a quiet New Farm street, this all-day spot shifts from a sunlit verandah breakfast to a wine bar with fairy lights in the courtyard once the evening cools. Modern Australian share plates and a thoughtfully chosen wine list fill the night hours, while mornings bring specialty coffee and brunch cocktails that suggest the kitchen doesn't take the AM too seriously. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

A white-tablecloth restaurant on the edge of Lake Burley Griffin, with an open fireplace and the kind of parkland views that make the city feel very far away. The menu changes with the seasons and leans toward local produce, the sort of place where the lamb actually has a postcode. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, and bookings are essential, which the waterfront setting makes easy to understand.

Bi-fold windows frame a sweep of Terrigal Beach from the dining room, and the kitchen treats that view as a challenge rather than a crutch. This is a fine dining room built around Central Coast producers: local honey, native herbs, sustainable seafood from people the team actually knows by name. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat. Sydneysiders come down for the weekend and rarely book just once.

Open-air dining room perched at the edge of Hamilton Island, where the Coral Sea fills every window and the Whitsundays do most of the decorating. The Long Pavilion runs breakfast through dinner, Modern Australian menu in hand, moving from a tropical morning spread to sunset plates of kangaroo tartare and bay lobster while the light changes colour outside. A One Chef Hat pick from the Australian Good Food Guide, and a room that knows it has a view to live up to.

The Gold Coast Hinterland's forested ridgeline is the backdrop here, and the kitchen leans into that setting hard, pulling produce from nearby farms and the forest floor for a Modern Australian menu that sits somewhere between relaxed and formally ambitious. Think Wagyu, bay lobster, and foraged greens treated with quiet seriousness. The room reads like a farmhouse that tidied up for guests. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

Floor-to-ceiling windows look out over Tamar Valley vineyards at this wood-fired Modern Australian restaurant beside Velo Wines, north of Launceston. The menu shifts constantly around what's grown nearby, including produce bartered from neighbors up the road, and the kitchen leans on fermentation and pickling to stretch the seasons. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Hat. Lunch is the main event, relaxed and pastoral, with the smell of the fire doing half the talking.

A country pub that's been around forever in the Gippsland flatlands, Tinamba Hotel runs from a proper dining room and conservatory through to a casual bar and verandah, so you can dress it up or down depending on the mood. The kitchen leans hard into local produce, which in this corner of Victoria means excellent meat and dairy country. The Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat, which in a town this size feels like a quiet act of defiance.

Inside Maffco Brewery and Distillery, TUCKA is a farm-to-fork restaurant that takes Gippsland's seasonal produce seriously enough to keep the menu in constant motion. The kitchen leans hard into what the region grows and raises, so what you order depends entirely on when you show up, which is more or less the point. An Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat restaurant out in the Gippsland countryside, which is its own kind of argument.

Parked right on Lake Burley Griffin with the water close enough that you feel slightly guilty checking your phone, Water's Edge is a polished Modern Australian restaurant where seasonal produce gets a quiet nudge from French technique and Mediterranean habit. The room reads special-occasion, though regulars treat it as a comfortable Wednesday. An Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat acknowledges the kitchen's ambitions, which are considerable for a Canberra lakeside address.

The beer garden wraps around a wood oven and an Argentine-style grill, which tells you something about the ambitions of this old Clare Valley pub. Much of the produce comes from the hotel's own organic farm down the road, and the kitchen runs everything from a casual a la carte to a six-course degustation. The Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat, and the setting, a lovingly restored country hotel, makes it easy to stay longer than planned.

Fine dining inside a working winery estate, with the manicured gardens of The Llawn rolling out beyond the windows. The team pairs a modern Australian tasting menu and à la carte with the estate's own wines, which is a convenient arrangement when the wines are this good. The Swan Valley setting does a lot of the heavy lifting, and the kitchen seems content to match it rather than compete, leaning on seasonal produce and clean technique.

Marble bench tops and pendant lighting set the tone at this Modern Australian restaurant on Port Douglas's main corner, where the menu leans into local seafood and Far North Queensland produce. It reads as the kind of place where you could go on a date or a group dinner and neither party would feel shortchanged. The Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat.

Antidote Kitchen is a daytime-to-dinner cafe, wine bar and restaurant tucked inside an old mill in Clare, where the Indian street food has been quietly rearranged by someone with Australian ideas. Samosas arrive stuffed with butter chicken, which feels like two comfort foods settling an argument. It's a Michelin Bib Gourmand, so expect a short menu, a good glass of local wine, and no fuss.

Part Time Lover is a bistro on King William Street that runs from breakfast through late-night cocktails, so you can commit to it for an entire day without anyone checking your references. The room is warm timber inside with a sunny terrace out front, and the menu is shareable, modern Australian with Asian and Mediterranean detours. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and weekends fill up fast, so book ahead.

A country inn in McLaren Vale with an ivy-covered facade and a kitchen garden out back, which means the herbs on your plate probably walked about forty feet. The cooking wanders freely between Australian and Asian ideas, so dumplings can arrive stuffed with local seafood and kangaroo gets a long marinade in spices. It's a relaxed, dressed-for-wine-country sort of lunch, and the Michelin Guide lists it as a Bib Gourmand.

Pearl is a casual seafood restaurant parked beside the Aldinga Beach Boat Ramp, so your lunch has a view of Gulf St Vincent and, occasionally, a trailer being reversed with great confidence. The menu sticks to South Australian waters, and the kitchen cooks it simply. Flip-flops and sunburn fit in fine. Michelin lists it as a Selected Restaurant, which is a lot of recognition for a place next to a boat ramp.

Press* Food and Wine is a stylish city restaurant near Light Square with a bistro's laid-back attitude and a bar that's doing most of the flirting. Window booths face the street, and the tables inside are intimate enough that you'll know your neighbor's order. The kitchen pairs European habits with local ingredients, so the menu can put kangaroo tartare and a mushroom pithiver in the same breath. There's a tasting menu if you'd like the chef to explain themselves.