The Best Places to Eat and Do in Australia

A converted Navy drill hall on a Mosman wharf, with national park on one side and harbour on the other, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting before the food even arrives. L'Heritage is a French bistro and brasserie that leans into the classics, escargot, beef tartare, duck à l'orange, dry-aged steak, cooked with Australian produce and served without the stiffness those dishes sometimes attract. The setting alone tends to silence the table.

Velvet banquettes, golden lamplight, and the kind of live music that makes you order another glass of wine: La Louisiane is a French restaurant doing old-world Paris in the Adelaide CBD, and doing it without apology. The menu runs escargot through to crème brûlée with a ribeye in between, which is to say it knows exactly what it is. An Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat. Linger, obviously.

An open fire anchors the dining room at Le Foyer, and the kitchen leans into it hard, running wood-fired meats and fresh-shucked oysters through a menu that changes with what's good and in season. It's a relaxed but polished Modern Australian restaurant where the bar pulls equal weight, with solid cocktails and a thoughtful wine list. The kind of place you settle into for the evening without quite meaning to.

Fine dining inside a restored heritage house, with a glass atrium flooding the room in natural light. Lenzerheide sits on Belair Road in Hawthorn, a few minutes from the city, doing the kind of polished, seasonal European cooking that requires a reservation and probably your better shoes. Service is attentive without being theatrical. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

A high-glam modern Pan-Asian restaurant on Flinders Lane from the team behind Cha Ching, where share plates move through bold Eastern flavours grounded in local ingredients. The room leans into occasion, so the crowd tends to dress accordingly. Clay pot duck and scallops with coconut bisque show the kitchen's range. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat.

The Dragon King of the Sea gets a two-level laneway restaurant in Brisbane CBD, all contemporary theatre and open-air bar alongside tucked-away dining rooms. The menu runs on shared plates of modern Asian cooking, leaning hard into local seafood with flavours that don't apologize for themselves. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, if that calibrates expectations. Dress like you mean it; this place clearly does.

The art deco bones of Equity Chambers on Bourke Street give this contemporary Australian restaurant more grandeur than it probably needs, and it leans in accordingly. The menu runs Italian-inflected, from breakfast through dinner, with the kind of crowd that treats eggs Benedict as a reasonable way to start a Wednesday. Evenings shift toward crudo and house-made pasta with enough anchovy to mean it.

Sunset views over the Noosa River set the scene at this Italian seafood restaurant in Tewantin, where white-clothed tables and cane pendants signal that the coastal-lifestyle aesthetic has been taken seriously. The Galletto family has been feeding people here for generations, drawing from Northern Italian tradition and leaning hard into local catches. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat. Order something from the water and watch the light change.

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.

The Port Office Building's sandstone bones make a fitting frame for a serious steakhouse: high ceilings, heritage detail, a wine list that takes up real estate. Moo Moo keeps up to twenty cuts on the menu at once, running from in-house dry-aged beef to Australian and international Wagyu. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, and the room draws the kind of diner who has opinions about marbling.

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.

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.

The dining room looks out over the estate's own cool-climate vines, which makes ordering the wine feel less like a choice and more like an obvious conclusion. This is a winery restaurant in the Adelaide Hills doing seasonal Modern Australian food with the kind of produce that barely needs an introduction. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat, and the setting does a lot of the heavy lifting, though the kitchen clearly isn't coasting on the view.

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.