The Best Restaurants in Australia

The colourful front door is the first signal that Madame V is playing its own game. Inside, geometric pendants, trailing floral strands, and fan motifs set a stylish scene for an Asian-inflected à la carte restaurant on the Gold Coast. The menu moves between steamed snapper in dashi broth and Wagyu donburi, with a lounge bar if you just want a cocktail and the vibe. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat.

A converted stone stable from the 1860s tucked among Riverina vines is doing serious work as a Modern Australian set-menu restaurant. The kitchen leans into bold pairings, char siu honey on duck, coconut labneh on pork, without making a fuss about it. On a warm evening the alfresco terrace with a cold glass of something local is hard to argue with. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

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.

A rooftop bar and Pan-Asian restaurant at the quiet river end of Oxford Street, Melrose is the kind of place where the open sky does half the work. The menu runs through Southeast Asian technique with locally sourced produce, built for sharing, and the cocktail list is matched to the food rather than bolted on as an afterthought. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide 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.

Modern European dining inside a converted heritage railway station, where the rustic brick archways do most of the decorating. Miss Amelie runs a refined two-or-three-course menu or a midweek degustation if you're feeling ambitious, with a lemon soufflé that the room seems to organize itself around. The attached bar, Little Miss, handles cocktails for anyone who needs to ease in gently. An Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat.

Vivid wall murals and a glowing open bar set the mood at this Asian small-plates restaurant inside the Mövenpick Hotel, where the menu wanders from Vietnamese to Sri Lankan without apology. The kitchen leans on traditional techniques while nudging dishes in unexpected directions, beef rendang alongside ceviche with desert lime preserve. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, and the Vietnamese espresso martini is a reasonable way to start.

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.

The wood-fired pizza oven sits open to the dining room, which sets the mood before anyone has looked at a menu. Molto is a lakeside Italian restaurant on the Kingston foreshore, with high ceilings and water views that make every table feel a bit more generous. The kitchen runs from handmade pasta to fresh seafood, traditional enough to feel grounded, modern enough to keep things interesting. It holds a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

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.

A shabu shabu restaurant inside a private Tasmanian wilderness property, where the menu is a Japanese hot pot set built around local seafood and whatever the land nearby provides. The room is quiet in the way that only somewhere genuinely remote can manage. An Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat. Coles Bay is already a detour from everywhere; this is a further detour from Coles Bay, which seems to be the point.

A wine bar and kitchen in a small Gippsland town, Neeri Nuff leans hard into the paddock-to-plate ethos without making you feel lectured about it. The menu rotates with the seasons, and the wine list is built around boutique regional makers you're unlikely to find anywhere else. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat. The room is relaxed enough that you won't feel underdressed for showing up in muddy boots.

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.

A Victorian terrace on Glebe Point Road that was once a private investigator's office, which may explain why the atmosphere feels like it has something to hide. It's a wine bar and restaurant loosely inspired by Mexican flavours, though the menu roams freely: dry-aged sirloin, barramundi, tres leches cake. Whitewashed walls and open fireplaces keep things easy, and the Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat.

Dry-aged beef finished on a Josper grill is the thing to know before you sit down at this waterfront Italian restaurant on Marlin Parade. Hand-stretched pizzas and house-made pastas round things out, with local seafood woven in because this is Cairns and it would be rude not to. The views over the water do a lot of heavy lifting for the room, and the Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat.

A live olive tree strung with fairy lights sits at the center of the room, which tells you immediately that Oribu is playing a longer game than your average Japanese restaurant. This is fine dining, rooftop, Parramatta's first of its kind, built around omakase platters and wagyu with choppped wasabi and sansho salt. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat. Theatrics are part of the deal, and the bar is a reasonable place to start.

A cocktail bar and restaurant on the Sunshine Coast that takes the French Quarter seriously enough to earn an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, which is a commitment in Maroochydore. The kitchen runs French technique through a New Orleans lens, so the menu leans toward bold flavors and premium produce rather than Parisian restraint. Handcrafted cocktails make it worth arriving early, and the room is polished enough that you'll want to linger.

A neighbourhood Italian osteria a short walk from Coogee Beach, where house-made pasta and focaccia share the menu with fire-grilled octopus and the kind of seasonal specials that give regulars an excuse to come back. The room leans into trailing ferns and cane pendants, which sounds like a lot but somehow settles into somewhere easy to stay for a long lunch. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

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.

A Josper grill anchors the kitchen at this Latin American fire-cooking restaurant near Smith Street, where the smoke and the playlist both run loud. Tasting menus, à la carte, bottomless brunch on weekends, tacos on Tuesdays, Wagyu on Wednesdays: they keep the calendar full enough that regulars barely need to think. The cocktails have attitude to match. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

A laneway Italian tucked into Exchange Place, Pinco Italo runs on the philosophy that dinner should take a while. The menu moves between comforting classics and sharper contemporary plates, all built for sharing, and the drinks list is put together with care. It's warm and unpretentious in the way that's harder to pull off than it looks, and the Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat to prove the kitchen is keeping pace.

Shimmering lights and a champagne list that takes its job seriously set the tone at this French bar and dining room inside The Star Brisbane. The menu runs the classics hard: escargot, lobster thermidor, duck à l'orange, steak au poivre. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat. The room is dressed for celebration, and the crowd tends to arrive already in the mood to have one.

Red and white plates, chalkboard menus on burgundy walls, tables worn to a comfortable shine: this Paddington bistro is doing its level best to make Oxford Street feel like the Marais. The menu takes the same unapologetic stance, running pâté en croûte and vol-au-vent alongside veal Rossini with foie gras and truffle. No reinvention, no apology. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide 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.

A lakeside dining room tucked beside Norwest Lake in the Hills District, Quoi Dining runs a modern French menu with Australian produce woven through it. The setting is quiet enough that conversation doesn't compete with anything, which suits the careful, technique-forward cooking. It's a fine-dining room that draws the special-occasion crowd, and the Australian Good Food Guide has given it a Chef Hat.

An open kitchen doubles as a stage at this omakase and theater dining restaurant in Redfern, where two chefs work in near-silence while guests sit close enough to hear the knife. The rain-inspired interior tilts quiet and contemplative, which sets the right mood for a meal built around precision and patience. Chef Raita Noda has been running omakase in Sydney for years, and this is his latest, most considered room.

Cocktails named after Turkish cities set the tone at this moody Kingston dining room, where the chef runs Istanbul flavors through an Australian lens. Subdued lighting, sparkling glassware, and intimate table settings give it a date-night pull, while the menu moves between char-grilled lamb and Wagyu skewers with enough ambition to feel like a proper evening out. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

The focaccia and pizza dough ferments for at least 48 days before it ever sees an oven, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Coorparoo trattoria. Pasta is hand-shaped daily with local organic eggs, each shape matched to its sauce with the seriousness of a structural engineer. The room runs on the kind of unhurried Italian hospitality that makes you feel like you were expected.

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.

Art deco prints on the walls, Nina Simone on the speakers, and fresh pasta rolled every morning: Restaurant Santino is a laneway Italian bistro in central Wollongong that holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat. The rotating pasta menu means regulars have an excuse to keep coming back, and the Amaro list and cellar wine selection suggest the kitchen isn't the only thing taken seriously here.

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.