Australia's dining scene is vibrant, dynamic and, most importantly, filled with delicious new flavours to try. From sleek city spots with skyline views and pretty plates to farm-to-fork spots that draw from the country's abundant produce, there's an overwhelming array of restaurants to choose from. We've picked out the very best places to eat across the country, from the Capital Territory to Western Australia.
Our selections are based on genuine user reviews, awards and accolades, and the first-hand experience of our team. They're also regularly checked and updated.
This intimate restaurant serves a seven-course tasting menu every evening. Pilot's menu is never pre-published, as the restaurant likes to surprise diners. They say the menu is a selection of 'nostalgic flavours, complex dishes and flavours we are excited about', and recent dishes include this mango parfait with passionfruit, chilli and lime, and snapper with cucumber and oyster.
The brainchild of Neil Parry, one of Australia's most influential chefs, Margaret was named 2022's Best New Restaurant by Gourmet Traveller and it's easy to see why. Predominantly a seafood restaurant, Margaret benefits from the relationships with suppliers built by Parry over his decades-long career. Seafood is caught sustainably and dry filleted onsite, and there's an extensive menu. Highlights include black figs with stracciatella, balsamic vinegar and rosemary dressing, swordfish steak with sweet and sour onion, currants and pine nuts, and lamb tagine pie with almonds, dates and fresh harissa.
With more awards than we could possibly list here, Saint Peter is one of Australia's brightest and most brilliant restaurants. Led by chef Josh Neiland, this place is all about seafood and what can be accomplished with a single fish. Focusing on the ethos of cooking sustainably sourced seafood and using as much of every fish and shellfish as possible, the menu shines a spotlight on dishes like grouper head terrine and fish and chips like you've never tasted before.
One of the finest places in Sydney to enjoy wine with fantastic food, Bentley Restaurant & Bar offers a choice of à la carte dishes, a five-course tasting menu and a bar menu that's filled with amazing nibbles and more serious eats. With chef Brent Savage at the helm and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt taking care of the wine list, the restaurant pays particular attention to its food and drinks pairings, which has bagged them countless awards.
Chefs James Parry and Daniel Puskas transformed a corner fish and chip shop in Stanmore into this modern Australian restaurant. With mid-century Scandinavian swagger, Sixpenny serves a tasting menu featuring produce sourced from its own vegetable plot. Expect imaginative dishes such as squid with koji butter and dry-aged pork loin with purple carrots.
Overlooking Sydney Cove, Quay takes in breathtaking views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and is, perhaps, Australia's most famous restaurant. With just as aesthetically pleasing dishes served by executive chef Peter Gilmore, Quay uses unusual ingredients sourced from around Australia. A four-course tasting menu is available at weekends only, while six- and eight-course options are on offer the rest of the time. Graze on dishes such as confit pig jowl, or bone marrow noodles with mud crab.
Another stand-out restaurant from executive chef Peter Gilmore, Bennelong showcases the diversity of Australian cuisine and focuses on bringing together classic Oz dishes with the finest ingredients and eclectic presentation. Repeatedly ranked among Australia's best restaurants along with its sister restaurant Quay, Bennelong is also known for its incredible location within the Sydney Opera House. Don't leave without trying one of the restaurant's finest desserts: the pavlova inspired by its location (pictured).
Overlooking the lagoon of Darwin is Wharf One Food & Wine – a fun, casual spot that focuses on wood grill cooking and shining a spotlight on local and seasonal produce. It's best known for its delightful tapas-style menu – small plate options include Chardonnay-pickled scallops and Dutch beef croquettes with Dijon mustard. The restaurant also offers a special treat to parties of 10 or more; order 24 hours in advance and you could be feasting on a whole roast suckling pig, which is carved at the table and served with all the trimmings.
This once-in-a-lifetime dining experience is located in the Outback with an uninterrupted view of Uluru. Tali Wiru is one of the country's most famous places to eat and the seasonal menu might include such delights as Spencer Gulf king prawns, pressed wallaby and coconut parfait.
GOMA Restaurant is located in Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art, and delivers as contemporary and creative an experience as its setting. With a focus on local ingredients, GOMA works with growers and suppliers to source produce at its peak. The innovative menu shines with items like pork collar with apple remoulade and Queensland tiger prawns with scallop mousse.
The seasonal, daily changing menu at Essa is packed with delights with recent dishes including this pumpkin curd, brown butter biscuit eggless meringue, raw snapper with Thai lime kosho, macadamia milk and burnt kohlrabi, and charred sweetcorn and ricotta ravioli. The restaurant's Sunday School is a chance for friends and family to get together, share food and party with a set menu including dishes such as buffalo ricotta, jamon iberico and honey-roasted peaches, and wagyu rump cooked slowly and finished on the fire.
Just a short drive away from Cairns, Nu Nu Restaurant is set on an idyllic beachfront in Palm Cove – an enclave of luxury hotels, fine restaurants and palm-fringed beach. Nu Nu’s menu focuses on food that complements the coastal surroundings – think reef fish with peanuts and papaya, barbecued tiger prawns with rainforest honey, and pineapple and turmeric pork curry.
With a dining room big enough for only 20 guests, Orana offers an intimate experience. The restaurant's philosophy is showcasing native ingredients and techniques, from drying and curing to pickling and smoking. Orana's chef-owner Jock Zonfrillo has always stressed the restaurant's ethos of exploring ancient native flavours, offering a completely new interpretation of Australian cuisine. The restaurant only serves a tasting menu that includes a take on a surf and turf as well as more unusual dishes featuring Moreton Bay bugs, crocodile and green ants.
In an idyllic dining space overlooking the Magill Estate vineyard, chef Scott Huggins presents dishes he says are a 'combination of refinement, magic and flavour'. A journey through incredible texture and flavour combinations, the tasting menu includes creative takes on the likes of crab, chicken and lamb that are paired with truffle and bottarga respectively. Dished are cooked over fire and coal for added depth of flavour, and if you'd really like to treat yourself, splash out on the sommelier's wine pairings.
Crowned a Delicious 100 restaurant in 2022 and praised for its vegan offerings, as well as being voted the top restaurant in South Australia in 2018 by Financial Review, Africola in Adelaide plays with North African and Middle Eastern flavours to create fun, exciting food. Menu highlights include wild carp with charred lemon and capers, mushroom, white bean and chilli crisp and kingfish sashimi with nectarine and buckwheat.
Named after the Italian word for fig, Fico in Hobart isn't just an Italian restaurant. While the chef-owners Federica Andrisani and Oskar Rossi are heavily influenced by Italian cooking traditions, dishes are inspired by cuisines from all over the world. The menu changes weekly thanks to Fico using local, seasonal and sustainable produce, with recent highlights including calamari with marinated summer vegetables and herbs, zuchini cappelletti with grilled mussels, saffron and fennel pollen and new season strawberry with burnt honey and elderflower.
Winner of Gourmet Traveller's Best Destination Dining award 2023, Van Bone is under an hour's drive from Hobart. It's a glorious spot, surrounded by rolling countryside and with huge windows so diners can soak up the breathtaking views. The menu focuses on local and foraged ingredients, with many vegetables grown by the restaurant itself. Chef owner Tim Hardy has created an ever-changing 14-course menu with dishes cooked over the open kitchen's wood fire oven and grill. Recent delights include autumn pine mushrooms with warmed egg yolk, chicken broth and asparagus picked from the kitchen garden, drizzled with Koroneiki olive oil from nearby Villa Rochford.
Vue de Monde offers guests an international food and wine experience, predominantly drawing on flavours from France with added inspiration from around the globe. Vue de Monde is honoured with numerous Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hats and has an ever-changing tasting menu thanks to executive chef Hugh Allen, who trained at several Michelin-starred restaurants. Located on the Rialto building's 55th floor, the restaurant also boasts stunning views.
Award-winning Melbourne restaurant Attica jumped 32 spots on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list within two years under chef Ben Shewry. He's known for preparing dishes using elaborate techniques and embracing overlooked Australian ingredients. The menu changes regularly, but typically includes impeccable dishes like line-caught bonita and a delectable custard tart.
In the small picturesque town of Dunkeld, the Royal Mail Hotel boasts views of the Grampian Ranges, from where most of the restaurant’s produce is sourced. Menu items are inspired by daily harvests from the orchards and vegetable patches while its own farm provides lamb and beef. The star of any of the tasting menus on offer is the meat plate featuring the farm-reared beef or lamb – pictured is a lamb, carrot, rosehip and griddled lettuce dish.
Hailed for its excellent service, IGNI is degustation-only, offering an eight-course menu from Thursday to Sunday. Co-owners Drew Hamilton and Jo Smith teamed up with acclaimed chef Aaron Turner to put on an unforgettable dining experience. There’s no menu and Turner likes to cook different food for different tables dependent on taste and dietary requirements, making it a truly personalised experience.
Headed up by chef Andrew McConnell, Cutler & Co. serves pretty and clever plates with thoughtful flavour combinations and seasonal ingredients. Think lamb loin with courgette blossoms, summer squash pithivier and blueberry vacherin for desser. Choose from the chef's selection tasting option or special Sunday menu.
A contemporary restaurant nestled in a hillside organic farm in Birregurra, Brae attracts guests with an ever-changing seasonal menu featuring its own produce and locally sourced seafood. Due to its constantly evolving menu, the restaurant doesn't have a signature dish but you can expect plenty of farm-fresh produce transformed into remarkable plates that constantly land Brae on top Australian restaurants lists.
Since opening on the rooftop of COMO The Treasury hotel, Wildflower has bloomed into one of Perth's most loved restaurants. With sweeping city views, the restaurant serves dishes revolving around an indigenous Noongar calendar that follows six seasons rather than four, and offers farmer and forager-driven menus. Guests can expect dishes like dry-aged Wagin duck, organic beetroot with blackberry and crème fraîche, and rainbow trout with kombu and pickled leek (pictured).
One of Western Australia's finest, Lulu La Delizia is a small but mighty pasta restaurant where chef Joel Valvasori-Pereza makes the noodles by hand just like his nonna taught him. While you'll find classics like tagliatelle with ragu and tiramisu on the menu, it's also filled with surprising twists on much-loved dishes. Spaghetti alla vongole gets a saffron spike and burrata is served with a zingy addition of pickled shallots and Chardonnay dressing, plus toasted spices.