Could anything be more Sydney than arriving at lunch in a boat? Make a movie-star entrance at Mosman’s breezy, Amalfi-style St Siandra, which has its own moorings and private beach. In the kitchen, chef Sam McCallum (ex-Nomad) creates holiday feel fare like fresh grilled seafood and steaks, paired with spritzes and light wines.

A titan of the Australian culinary scene, Guy Grossi’s latest foray into Brisbane has arrived with the opening of the Amalfi Coast-inspired Settimo at The Westin Hotel. Expect silky pastas (try the zesty Pasta al Limone); plenty of seafood offerings; Guy’s Papa’s Lamb and his signature Tiramisu which is scooped out of a giant serving bowl – just like it would be at home. Tip: come at breakfast for the Italian pastries made fresh daily.

Nomad’s mini-me has finally opened in Sydney’s Surry Hills. Led by chef Jacqui Challinor, Beau & Dough serves up fragrant manoush, baklava and coffee at the front, while sultry Beau Bar presents generous seafood platters, lobster thermidor and steak frites. The spiced lamb manoush is an instant winner.

Sala, the new double-storey Italian seafood restaurant in a wharf-meets-warehouse at the end of Pyrmont’s Jones Bay Wharf, has all these things, tied together with a top-tier spirits list.

There are three places to sit: mezzanine, downstairs inside and alfresco. Lower level by the window is the pick for those harbour views and you should kick things off with a bittersweet Cynar Amaro Sour to set your appetite to drive. Order share plates from the crudo and antipasti menus then move onto primi and pesce. The must-try is the squid ink tortellini, stuffed with a smooth mousse of crab, a dish that has been upcycled from executive chef Danny Russo’s time heading up L’Unico in the early aughts and has followed him around ever since.

Restaurant Igni’s former head chef, James Bond-Kennedy, has packed his knives and headed a few clicks along the Bellarine to Barwon Heads and a welcoming weatherboard cottage called Tommy Gunns. Inside, he’s cooking happy, holiday friendly bistro food – steak, great seafood, excellent fries – that hits the exact right spot when you’re enjoying a few days away. 

It was a sad day for Adelaide vegans when Allegra Dining Room in the CBD called it a day at the end of 2021. Actually, it was sad for everyone because this wasn’t a restaurant just for the plant-positive; it was a place that served fresh, lively food that even a meat eater could love. Now the 28-seater has reopened and is booking up fast.

When Dan Pepperell and the team from Pellegrino 2000 and Bistrot 916 launch a new venue, Sydneysiders will go to battle for a booking. So expect to join the city’s eating elite when Clam Bar opens next month at 44 Bridge Street in the CBD, the Art Deco site of the former Bridge Room. The style is New York grill: steak, whole fish and a ton of fresh shellfish, almost certainly with some sort of Pepperell twist.

It’s been a while since “the other side of the bridge” has seen anything like Petermen, Josh and wife Julie’s second high-end eatery after award-winning Saint Peter in Paddington. Set to open next month, Petermen – the name comes from a traditional word for “fishermen” – seats about 60 and sits on a leafy corner in St Leonards. “It’s a beautiful location and an unbelievable footprint of a restaurant,” says Josh. “I just want to walk in and see people enjoying incredible Australian produce.”

The menu will be grouped under headings such as “fruits, vegetables and cheese” and “mollusca”, the latter including clams, squid and octopus. A typical dish might be a dry-aged coral trout, sliced and fanned into one of Josh’s inimitable plated artworks, with herbs and the trout’s offal as its centre. 

What’s summer without a new beach bar? North Fremantle’s latest is Al Lupo. It’s a simple formula: gorgeous space; fabulous wine, beer and cocktails; delicious share plates; and unbeatable views. Summer in a nutshell

Another side project – though this one doesn’t sit physically beside its famous parent – Africola Canteen is in Norwood and the speciality is salads, like broccoli with green goddess dressing and crisp garlic.

“Gildas is about an olive stone’s throw away from Firedoor,” says Lennox Hastie of his new Basque-inflected wine and tapas bar in Sydney’s Surry Hills. The chef has olives on his mind because he’s been taste-testing hundreds to find the perfect one to feature in the gildas from which the venue takes its name. A gilda is the quintessential Basque bite: a toothpick featuring simply an olive, a Cantabrian anchovy and a guindilla pepper – and it is, of course, the centrepiece of the food offering here. Beyond that there’s pintxos and share plates that work either as a quick snack alongside a glass of sherry or vermouth, or a full meal if you order enough. 

Thi Le made a name for herself as Melbourne’s maestro of modern Vietnamese cooking with the legendary Anchovy. That restaurant is currently on pause and in its place is Jeow in Richmond, serving fresh, à la carte Laotian cuisine that references the suburban cooking Le loved as a child. Standout dishes include aromatic duck larb, rich beef stew and sakoo yat sai, a tapioca dumpling filled with peanut and Jerusalem artichoke.

Ex-Joy chef Tim Scott has built his own dream restaurant, the 24-seat Exhibition in the Brisbane CBD, designing everything from the ceramics to the playlist. Guests can choose from two produce-driven set menus or sit at the bar for drinks and snacks such as oysters, caviar and cured meats. It’s an intimate space with an open kitchen designed to transport you fully into Scott’s culinary world.

When chef Alejandro Saravia opened Farmer’s Daughters, his Melbourne CBD lovesong to Gippsland, in 2021, he was inundated with emails from producers in other parts of the state. “They were introducing their products to us and true to our commitment to promoting the Victorian farming industry, we thought it’d be a good idea to expand our reach.”

The result is Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters, a new 180-seat restaurant at Federation Square. Its sole purpose is to champion the food, wine and arts of often overlooked Victorian regions. The focus will rotate: on one visit there may be pottery from Bendigo or art from Gippsland, the next it might be a wine-matching dinner from a small winery or a micro-distiller creating bespoke cocktails. Food-wise, everything will be Victorian, from seafood to venison to vegetables, and cooked over wood and coals. There’ll even be visual projections transporting guests into different regional communities. 

They’ve already brought their moreish Napoli-style pizza to Melbourne, Adelaide and the Mornington Peninsula. Now the team at 400 Gradi has opened a vast 300-seater in Mildura. The fiery diavola is a standout but don’t overlook the starters, including mussels in white wine and garlic

A Michelin star just twinkled its way onto Brisbane’s James Street by way of Matt Lambert, the executive chef of this brandnew opening. His previous gig, The Musket Room, in New York, scored a star. At The Lodge, an extension of premium menswear brand Rodd & Gunn, he’ll direct that pedigree into suave classics like rib eye tomahawks with horseradish and buttered Moreton Bay bug rolls.

“To find us is half the adventure,” says Helly Raichura of her restaurant, the 20-seat Enter Via Laundry, which is in a new secret location in Carlton. The other half of the adventure is booking.

But once you arrive, a world opens up. You’re led through a courtyard draped with jasmine and bougainvillea into the living room filled with rattan furniture and rich fabrics, before entering the dining space of ocean-blues and golds. Then there’s the food, which Raichura has designed to be an honest exploration of different regions of India. She’s currently focused on Bengali cuisine (she plans to swap every few months) and the journey begins with small plates of luchi and dum aloo, which is fried bread with potato in yoghurt sauce, or prawns marinated in mustard and coconut and chargrilled with nasturtiums. Then the meal moves to the bhog, a feast served on copper-andtin kansa plates and eaten with the hands.

A waterfront Bondi location. A former Pilu At Freshwater and Bathers Pavilion head chef. And the creative talents of the team behind Shell House. Mix them all together, add a fresh Greek menu and you have Topikós. Genius.

Printhie Wines in Orange is renowned for its spectacular cool-climate sparkling. Its natural match are briny Sydney rock oysters, which are held live in a tank at the new Printhie Dining restaurant. Follow that with a three- or five-course dégustation, accompanied by views over the surrounding orchards and vineyards.

If you’re a fan of Australia’s gazillion New York-style steakhouses, make sure you try this one. Like all of Dan Pepperell and team’s venues (Pellegrino 2000 and Bistrot 916), there’s a wink and a nudge everywhere you look at Clam Bar, from the huge tin marlin on the wall to the upmarket diner desserts. Steaks come with every trimming imaginable, the prawn cocktail is one of the best in the city and you’ll dream of the Tex-Mex-style creamed corn for weeks.

The Blue Mountains has been begging for a restaurant like this: spectacular bushland and escarpment views; legit farm-to-table menus (they grow everything from vegetables and fruit to cattle and sheep); and a wide-armed welcome. Add it to your “weekend away” list.

At this little bit of homemade heaven in the Adelaide Hills from Andrew Davies, the chef/owner of Adelaide favourites Osteria Oggi and Maybe Mae, you’ll find comforting pastas, pastries and pies along with generous service.

 Moo Brew, Tasmania’s largest craft brewery, was born when MONA head honcho David Walsh found a beer bottle design he liked and thought it’d be good idea to start a brewery and put something in it. Until now, the only way to find out exactly what ended up in those bottles was either to drink Moo Brew at a pub or order it online.

Now there’s a full-immersion option with the arrival of taphouse Manky Sally’s on Salamanca Place in Hobart, only a short walk from the ferry that takes visitors to and from Walsh’s legendary art museum. When you step through the discreet entrance into one of three retrocool drinking spaces, you can try any of Moo Brew’s core range of ales, lager and stout. Or, if you feel like playing guinea pig, sample one of the experiments the team concocts, such as the lemongrass and lime leaf American wheat beer that head brewer Jack Viney invented for the bar’s launch. There are also snacks by head chef Sam Bray, including venison larb or banh mi sliders with pâté and pickles.

In true MONA style, the décor is full of fabulous flourishes: teal velvet bar stools, tiger-striped onyx bar tops and a wall of 3000 amber bottles lit by LEDs. “Someone said that we’re a five-star dive bar,” says Moo Brew’s Lauren Sheppard, laughing. “I’ll take that.”

Ex-Boathouse at Blackwattle Bay head chef Colin Barker has traded the Sydney waterfront for the Blue Mountains with this produceled eatery in the Megalong Valley. Nearly all the ingredients in his dégustation are grown close by: Megalong has its own olive grove, orchards and a farm with ducks, chickens, cattle and sheep.

Good-time Italian joint Bastardo in Sydney’s Surry Hills has opened a CBD outpost on the old site of the Continental Deli. City diners clamouring for the classics will find the group’s famous pizza fritta and ragù alla Bolognese. And there’s a cracking weekday aperitivo hour from 3pm to 5pm.

Hot hotel dining has hit the capital, with the launch of Louis inside the revamped Hotel Realm in Barton. The moody space, layered with marble and leather, its walls hung with gilt-framed art, is serving rarefied Provençal-style dishes from the creative mind of one of Canberra’s best chefs, Ben Willis from the much-missed Aubergine.

It’s the luxuriant curries, rich with aromatics and structured around top-shelf proteins such as duck and barramundi, that are drawing the crowds to Adelaide’s new 40-seater, Thai Room. The creative cocktails and strong spirits list, plus a snappy bar menu, make this place an excellent casual drink and snack stop.

After a two-year intermission, the fiercely loved Eau-De-Vie bar has blossomed back in the Sydney CBD, this time with a food-focused sidekick. The Sanderson bistro sits upstairs from the main bar and has drama at its heart: tartares and crab salads are mixed tableside with theatrical flair and cocktails are set alight with a flourish.

How Many Of These Epic Australian Experiences Have You Done?