Amongst thousands of restaurants in Australia, there are some defined as ‘modern Australian’ cuisine. So what is Australian cuisine famous for and what exactly does it mean?
Being on holidays in Australia you might be invited for an Aussie BBQ (famous shrimps on a Barbie) and travelling through cities and small towns you will find a few classics pub food like chicken parmigiana and hamburgers with beetroot. Nonetheless, I would like to invite you to discover more refined Australian cuisine, the one which gave her international fame as some of the restaurants became destination themselves.
There are a few famous Australian chefs like Peter Gilmore (head chef of Quay and Bennelong), Neil Perry (founder of Rockpool Group) and Dan Hunter (Brae restaurant) who promote local produce, ingredients and spices. They offered a more healthy way of eating introducing farm- to- table philosophy in the commercial kitchens. On the menu, we have exotic fish like Barramundi (commonly called Bara) and Blue Eye Cod and seafood from the Sydney Fish Market (oysters, prawns /shrimps crabs and lobsters), to the best beef from Rangers Valley or Darling Downs for lamb, chicken and pork.
On the other hand, we have a generation of immigrant’s chefs who were taught the art of cooking from grandmother, experiment with Australian dishes by combining them with Asian, Mediterranean and American cuisine, which resulted in culinary revolution. Among many spices, you can find mainly cardamom, coriander, saffron, chilli, basil and lemongrass.
It is also impossible not to mention desserts among which lamington reigns – sponge cake covered with chocolate and layered with jam and the famous pavlova- a meringue, crunchy on the outside and delicate inside with sessional fruit.
Below is a list of the best of the best restaurants across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide:
- Steaks- Restaurants:
- Firedoor,
- Rockpool,
- NOLA,
- Bistecca,
- Hubert,
- Porteno,
- Stokehouse Q (Brisbane),
- Cutler & Co (Melbourne)
- Seafood Restaurants:
- Mr Wong,
- Ester,
- Boathouse at Blackwattle,
- Bert’s,
- Saint Peter
- The best modern-Australian tasting restaurants:
- Vue de Monde (Melbourne)
- Attica (Melbourne)
- Quay (Sydney)
- d’Arry’s Verandah Restaurant (Regional South Australia)
- Orana (Adelaide)
- The best restaurants with an Asian twist:
- Chin Chin,
- Momofuku Seiobo,
- Tetsuya’s,
- China Doll
- The best restaurants with a European twist:
- Grossi Florentino Upstairs (Melbourne),
- Di Stasio Citta (Melbourne),
- Tipo00 (Melbourne),
- France- Soir (Melbourne)
- The best farm- to- table restaurant
- Brae (Melbourne),
- Fred’s
- Desserts: Pavlova and Lamington
- Bennelong restaurant
The list of dishes and restaurants is long, and everyone can certainly add to their preference. If you need help with your booking, remember that as Sydney Privé customers you have access to a concierge service that will organise you a table in the restaurant of your choice or book your ultimate Sydney tour here.
