The Best Places in Australia

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.

A converted old schoolhouse on a quiet road outside Byron, The Hut is a lunch spot that does Mediterranean food the way a long weekend should feel. Whitewashed walls, polished floors, and garden light filtering through big windows set a mood that's part coastal shack, part somewhere you'd actually eat well. The menu moves through Spanish, Greek, and Italian territory without a lot of fuss, and the Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

This is a winery restaurant on a sprawling Adelaide Hills estate, where the tasting menus are built around the vineyard's own bottles and the glass walls do a decent impression of a very expensive postcard. Expect a long, unhurried lunch that you'll plan your whole day around, and a table of people pretending to know what "provenance" means. It has an Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat and a Michelin Guide listing.

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.

The floor-to-ceiling windows frame Megalong Valley so dramatically it almost upstages the food. Set inside the historic Hydro Majestic Hotel, The Wintergarden is a European dinner restaurant that also does high tea, surrounded by ornate fireplaces and furnishings that lean hard into grand old mountain resort. The one Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide confirms the kitchen is doing something more than scenery work.

Red gum from the Bendigo region does the real work here, burning in the wood grill and oven that give this refined steakhouse its whole reason for being. The menu runs wagyu, dry-aged rib eye, and premium grass-fed cuts, backed by a bar stocked with 28 wines by the glass and a seasonal cocktail list. An Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat. Dress up a little; the room expects it.

Thelma is a little white house in the Adelaide Hills that has the decor of someone's very tidy aunt, small paintings and cookbooks included. The kitchen turns out simple, French-leaning Modern Australian cooking built around local markets, and the wine list stays within the Hills too. It's open only Friday through Sunday, so plan around it. It holds a Michelin Guide selection and a 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.

A Surry Hills spot where Australian and Asian cooking get folded into each other in ways that feel less like fusion and more like a genuine point of view. The menu shifts familiar territory into something harder to categorize, which is either exciting or unsettling depending on your mood. The room is small enough that the kitchen's curiosity feels personal. It holds a Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

The open kitchen sends smoke and char into a sleek dining room of soft light and dark wood on Miller Street in North Sydney. Toki is a fusion bistro and bar where the menu leans toward big-format sharing, think tomahawk steaks and beef tartare dressed with tendon crisps and caviar. The cocktail bar pulls its own weight. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

A renovated corner store in the heritage-listed village of Millthorpe, with white-clothed tables, polished wood floors, and lighting turned low enough that everyone looks like they're up to something. Tonic is a set-menu dinner spot running a five-course chef's choice format, so you're along for the ride, which in this case includes local truffles and regional wine pairings. The Australian Good Food Guide awards it a Chef Hat.

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.

A Pisco Sour is the obvious opening move at this Peruvian restaurant inside the Pan Pacific Perth, and the room, all grey matte walls, blond timber, and terracotta tile, gives you somewhere calm to drink it. The menu moves through ceviche, grilled octopus, and wood-kissed meat dishes, tracing the coasts and highlands without turning it into a geography lesson. One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

A contemporary Indian restaurant tucked into a resort-like setting on the edge of the Northern Beaches, Urban Tadka moves through regional Indian cooking with a modern hand. The room runs from casual dinners to full celebration mode, with lounge areas and a proper bar alongside the dining spaces. It holds a One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide, and the menu leans into sharing, which suits the warm, unhurried pace of the place.

The restaurant takes its name from the Japanese word for a Western chef's knife, which tells you something about where this place sits, one foot in Japanese tradition, the other in the cooking-obsessed Sydney dining scene. It's a considered, sit-down Japanese restaurant in sleepy Clovelly, and the kitchen leans hard on local produce while keeping the cooking precise and unfussy. The kind of room where people are there to eat, not to be seen.

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.

Soft lighting, warm tones, and a menu that leans hard into classic French bistro cooking occupy a quiet stretch of Arthur Street in Fortitude Valley. Winnifred's is the kind of place where a long lunch with a decent Burgundy seems not just reasonable but necessary. Steaks get proper sauces, seafood is treated without fuss, and the room manages to feel polished without making you nervous about your shoes.

Glossy black finishes and low lighting set the mood at this contemporary Japanese restaurant inside Surfers Paradise's QT Hotel. The menu runs the izakaya staples: sashimi, sushi, and kushiyaki from the grill, all built for sharing. A focused list of Japanese whisky, sake, and cocktails keeps pace with the food. The Gold Coast isn't the first place you'd expect a moody Tokyo-ish dining room, which is sort of the point.

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.

Tucked into a Melbourne shopping complex in a way that makes passersby do a double-take, Byrdi is a cocktail bar built around seasonality and local ingredients handled with the kind of precision that blurs the line between bar and kitchen lab. The team behind Singapore's Operation Dagger runs the show, and the drinks follow an almost culinary logic. It landed on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which tells you the curious head-twist is worth acting on.

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.

Bar Torino is a casual Italian restaurant on Hutt Street, behind a black facade that looks like it has secrets and mostly just has anchovy crostini. Inside, a black-and-white mosaic floor and low, moody lighting do most of the stylish-bar work. The kitchen cooks regional Italian with Mediterranean detours, and the wood-roasted chicken is sized for two. It holds a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand.

A neighborhood French bistro on King William Road, where the posters and pendant lights have the look down so cold you half expect a waiter to sigh at you in the right accent. The menu runs the greatest hits: onion soup, duck confit, escargots, a chicken liver terrine you'll claim is for sharing. It's relaxed, not stiff, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, so the bill stays friendly.

Gondola Gondola is a casual Thai and Vietnamese spot on Peel Street, where wood paneling and colorful neon do the work of a plane ticket to Southeast Asia. The menu is built for sharing, so the sensible move is bringing friends and ordering a little of everything, rather than guarding one plate like it owes you money. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and yes, there's a tiramisu made with Thai milk tea.

A tiny Mexican taqueria in Port Adelaide where the name reads less like branding and more like a warning, because the handful of seats go fast and the people in the know book ahead. The corn tortillas are made in house, and a good seat lets you watch the tortilla machine do its thing behind the counter. Chips and guacamole come first, Latin music fills the gaps, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

This is a family-run Vietnamese restaurant on Glen Osmond Road where the smell of the kitchen reaches you before the door closes behind you. It's casual and reasonably priced, a Michelin Bib Gourmand holder, and the room stays full enough that a walk-in table feels like a small victory. The spring rolls are built for sharing, a rule that tends to dissolve once they arrive. There's a short local wine list, too.

Pantry on Prospect goes by POP, which is the sort of nickname you only earn when the neighborhood has adopted you. It's half deli, half casual restaurant, so you can leave with a jar of pickles whether you came for lunch or dinner. The menu leans local and seasonal, with sharing boards and Coffin Bay oysters. Dress is whatever you wore to the shops, and it carries a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

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.

Parwana is a casual Afghan restaurant on Henley Beach Road where the food arrives to share and the naan does most of the work that cutlery gets blamed for. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which is the guide's polite way of saying you won't need to sell anything. Come with a crowd, order the rice and the grilled lamb, and don't worry about the fork. Nobody's grading.

Stamps is a neighborhood restaurant in a former post office, and it still takes the mail seriously, just in the form of a pie of the day. A husband-and-wife team runs the room with the kind of easy service that makes you linger over a short list of Australian wines. The specials board is long enough to cause indecision, and the warm donuts at the end settle the argument. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Sunny's Pizza is a casual pizzeria tucked into the middle of Adelaide, with booths, counter seats and tables that fill up fast enough that you'll want a reservation. The pizzas come hand-stretched and crisp, and the chicken tenders and potatoes are the sort of side orders that start quietly stealing the show. It's the Michelin Guide's Bib Gourmand territory, which here means generous portions and no tablecloth anxiety.

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.

Tirage is a casual wine bar on Kingscote's main shopping street, with a few small tables orbiting one big communal table in the middle, so you'll likely be on a first-name basis with a stranger by the second glass. The menu sticks to Kangaroo Island produce and South Australian seafood, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Order something with local lamb and pastry, then ask yourself why you ever eat anywhere else.

An extensive vinyl collection spins through a high-end sound system, and the whole bar is arranged around taking that seriously, kissa-style, the way listening bars in Japan are. ANTE is a drinks-forward spot in Newtown where the sake list runs deep, with producer notes detailed enough to actually teach you something. It rewards a slow, curious approach to the menu rather than a quick round, which is either a warning or a recommendation depending on your Thursday night.

Single O has coffee on self-serve tap, which sounds gimmicky until you're pulling a single origin at the brew bar and reconsidering everything. This Surry Hills cafe supplies beans to a significant slice of Sydney's restaurant scene, so there's a decent chance you've already had their coffee without knowing it. The banana bread comes with espresso butter, which is either the logical conclusion of brunch culture or its apotheosis, depending on your mood.

Two large communal tables do the socializing for you at this Carlton cocktail bar, where the menu shifts a few times a week because only a limited run of each drink gets made. The name nods to the French for "beautiful friend," and the room takes that seriously, feeling less like a bar you've wandered into and more like a dinner party someone else is hosting. A good fit for people who don't mind talking to strangers.

Psychedelic decor, dripping candles, and exposed brick on Enmore Road, all in service of a single obsession: the martini. Bar Planet is a cocktail bar that has essentially written a constitution around one drink, using its own house spirit and offering it neat, miniature, long with soda, or dirty with seaweed and brine. Newtown approves, predictably. The 50 gave it a Discovery listing, which tracks for a bar this committed to doing one thing its own way.

Parquet floors, potted palms, and glossy wood veneer set the scene for this CBD restaurant doing a Sydney riff on the New York steakhouse, with Art Nouveau-inspired artwork on the walls and ice-cold martinis on the tables. The team blends retro Upper East Side opulence with Aussie sensibilities, so old-school Americana sits alongside modish local touches on the menu. The kind of place where the room does half the work before the food arrives.

Andrew McConnell's fine dining room inside the grand Cavendish House on Russell Street turns on an open fire grill and dry-aged Victorian and South Australian beef, which landed Gimlet a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. The room manages to feel glamorous without feeling stiff, and the wine list reads like someone actually thought about what goes with the food rather than just buying everything.

A family-owned winery in Margaret River with an art gallery on the grounds and a restaurant that earns its own visit. The estate runs seasonal jazz evenings and arts dinners, so checking the calendar before you go is less optional than it sounds. Perth is an hour away by air, which the kind of people who plan ahead tend to take literally. A 50 Discovery from The 50 list.

A basement cocktail bar on Peel Street where the drinks menu is divided by landscape: coast, hills, valleys. The idea is that Adelaide's terroir belongs in a glass as much as a bottle, so the team leans into seasonal local produce and genuine technique to make the argument. The crowd that's figured this out tends to come back often enough to be called regulars. Named a Discovery by The 50.

A basement rum bar beneath Old Mate's Place, Old Love's takes its tiki cues from before the genre went full plastic flamingo. The team's fixation is Caribbean rum, and the rest of the sugarcane world gets its due as well. One co-owner literally wrote the book on the stuff, a guide to what's on offer with cocktail pairings included. Descend when you want someone to make a genuinely considered drink decision on your behalf.

A nondescript office block on Clarence Street hides a cocktail bar split between a speakeasy interior and a rooftop terrace that leans hard into treehouse energy. The drinks are experimental in the good way, butter fat-washed whisky and house-made croissant garnishes without a trace of self-consciousness about it. Cheesesteak riffs soak up the evening. Getting there feels like a small conspiracy, which is clearly the point.

Twenty-four seats tucked inside a heritage building in Chinatown, One or Two is a late-night cocktail bar that borrows its soul from the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi: warm wood, minimal fuss, the feeling that nothing is permanent and you should probably order another drink. The bartender behind it modeled the whole thing on a Tokyo midnight-diner TV series, and the vibe tracks, intimate and a little cinematic.

An urban winery visit where the highlight is a dimly lit underground cellar and a story involving corporate sabotage. In the 1950s, the winemaker Max Schubert was ordered to stop his experiments; he kept going anyway, hiding bottles in these very cellars. That wine, Grange, later became Australia's priciest bottle ever sold at auction. The tour opens at the founders' original cottage before moving underground, where the contraband legacy of one stubborn winemaker is very much the point.

You ring a bell to get in, which either sounds precious or exactly right once you're seated inside this converted Gold Rush bank in the Victorian high country. The restaurant runs a multi-course tasting menu with a Japanese lean, built around hyper-local produce. About eighteen small plates arrive in four bento-style rounds, and the cooking is precise without being cold. A Discovery listing from The 50 puts it on the national map.