The Best Holes-in-the-wall and Treasured Local Restaurants in Australia
“In North Hobart, on a residential street, there’s this incredibly delicious, tiny Ethiopian joint.” When a renowned chef like Sophie Pope, from Hobart’s exquisite, Japanese-inspired kaiseki restaurant Omotenashi shares a hot tip like that, you open Google Maps and mark it with a green flag. “The food is so wholesome and has so much flavour.”
Pope is talking about Queen Sheba Injera Catering and unless you’re a local – or know a local in the know – you probably haven’t heard about it. Currently, it’s a food truck serving classic North African dishes five or six days a week, including rich and spicy doro wat (a kind of chicken stew) or a beef or vegetarian alternative served in a blanket of spongy, homemade injera bread. One reviewer in the depths of Reddit describes it as “the best food I’ve ever had”.
“We don’t advertise and we don’t do much on Instagram or anything like that,” says Zemenay Gebremichael, who works alongside the truck’s owner and chef, Yodit Tafara. “Most people find us because we’ve been recommended by a friend or their family.”
Almost every city and town has its own Queen Sheba – or a bunch of them. Perhaps not quite as small but they’re the under-the-radar eateries that locals tell their friends to visit when they’re in town. They’re spots that don’t scoop the city’s restaurant awards or have 20,000 followers on Instagram but their devotees return again and again.
In Sydney’s Marrickville, for example, Banh Cuon Ba Oanh (343 Illawarra Road) deservedly attracts long queues for its Vietnamese rolled rice cakes but Viet Rolls (275 Marrickville Road), a few blocks away, does a version that’s just as good and you can also order a plate of free-range, crisp-skinned goose on the side. It’s pretty hard to find a bad café or lacklustre produce-focused restaurant in Hobart (“Small and cosy is Hobart’s bread and butter,” says Pope) but you’ll find a great version of both, plus clued-in locals ordering plates of pasta and pizzette as vinyl records spin, at Trophy Room in the city’s north.
Chef Ahana Dutt (formerly of Indian eatery Raja) got a suggestion from a mate several years ago and never looked back. “A friend recommended Kowloon Cafe in Haymarket and it’s been part of my dining roster ever since,” she says. “It’s a no-fuss, Hong Kong-style café and restaurant. Service is efficient and the food is delicious.” Dutt always orders the Hong Kong-style toast with condensed milk, the traditional tomato fried rice and the curry fish balls. Her other insider tip is Tenacious Bakehouse,, a Korean bakery in Darlinghurst. “The injeolmi croissant is perfection and my other favourites are the black garlic crown and milk madeleines.” There are hundreds more places like Queen Sheba, Kowloon Cafe and Trophy Room all over the country. So, go on, ask around.
Where to find other hidden dining treasures
Vic
Soi 38
Wedged up the back of a carpark down an unremarkable laneway off Bourke Street, the deceptively basic-looking Soi 38 serves some of the best Thai noodles anywhere in Melbourne, especially the crowd-pleasing classic spicy boat noodles. Don’t skip the desserts: mango and pandan-scented sticky rice is a sure winner. This if-you-know-you-know hideaway is a favoured haunt of chef Shannon Martinez from Smith + Daughters, who reckons the plastic stools and streetlamp glow give it a sheen of late-night cool.
Stan’s Grill
Literally a hole in the wall – a serving window cut into a jaunty red-and-white striped box – Spotswood newcomer Stan’s Grill serves up banging Balkan street food, such as chevapi (Balkan sausages) and a variety of other Eastern European eats wedged into bread. Even if you’re not into sangers, the hot chips and fire-engine-red house-made capsicum ajvar are worth the trip.
NSW
Eat at ROBs
If you’re looking for the best North American-style breakfast in Sydney, head to Happyfield in the Inner West suburb of Haberfield and order The Happiest Meal of chicken and egg muffin, hash browns and pancakes. But where does Canadian chef/owner Jesse Orleans go when he wants someone else to cook him an American-style burger? That would be Eat at ROBs in Rozelle. The Oklahoma-style smashburger – a juicy beef patty fried with a fistful of onion then smooshed onto a soft bun – is the real deal.
Casa Do Benfica
You don’t need to be into ball sports to visit Marrickville’s Hardcourt Tennis Club in Sydney’s Inner West; you just need to be a fan of excellent homestyle Portuguese cooking. The club is the surprising location of Casa Do Benfica, a properly authentic restaurant – try the exceptional seafood rice and the molotof lemon meringue flan – beloved by the city’s Portuguese community.
Birds of Paradise Rotisserie
Vale Fleet, the delightful Brunswick Heads fine-diner that was one of the key reasons to go to NSW’s Northern Rivers region. But hello to the equally enchanting Birds of Paradise Rotisserie, which Josh Lewis has opened inside a low-slung building with a tin roof in the same town. An old-school charcoal chicken shop, you come for the roasted bird and thick crinkle-cut chips doused in bone gravy but you stay for the generous salads and the hand-churned ice-cream.
Qld
Scugnizzi
Pizza tastes best when it’s served by the slice and that’s the concept of this sunshine-yellow joint tucked into a strip of shops in Brisbane’s CBD. Expect square-cut, Roman-style pizza; the capricciosa topped with mozzarella, artichoke, ham and olives, and the salamina with salami, stracciatella and olives are both excellent.
Tas
Masaaki’s Sushi
Huon Valley, at the southern tip of the Apple Isle, seems an unlikely place to find what many agree is some of the most creative sushi in Australia. Chef Masaaki Koyama fashions rainbow-coloured boxes of ocean freshness every Saturday and Sunday in Geeveston using fish like bright-pink imperadore, gurnard and, of course, tuna, all caught locally. His offerings are limited so it’s wise to order ahead.
WA
Two Hands Noodle Shop
The promise is East Malaysian food. The location, at the base of an apartment block in Como, south Perth, is curious. And the reality? Some of the finest handmade noodle dishes anywhere in the city. Order the Sarawak-style laksa, which is made with a base combining coconut milk and tamarind, or the saucy hokkien mee.
SA
Ying Chow
Known for decades as Adelaide’s most-loved late-night haunt, this Chinatown classic (“Yingers” to the locals) has scaled back on its party-time opening hours but still serves stellar Cantonese and Sichuan food. The star anise tea-smoked duck, the red vinegar ribs and the BBC (broad beans, bean curd and Chinese chutney) are the top picks.
