Balancing the new with the traditional, Tulum offers a turbo-charged, thoroughly modern take on Turkish food, writes Michael Harden.

Maurice Terzini’s reboot of the Dolphin Hotel is bold and playful, with fiendish attention to detail. Meet the new pub circa 2016.

Chef extraordinaire Philippe Mouchel returns with a new, finely tuned bistro delivering food of remarkable finesse, writes Michael Harden.

REVIEW Legendary French chef Philippe Mouchel’s career trajectory in Melbourne may appear progressively more casual (from Bocuse to the bistro-y PM24 and Deja Vue), but the sub-title at his latest venture – “Un restaurant par Philippe Mouchel” – represents a reversal of sorts, a declaration of serious culinary intent. An early clue lies in the […]

REVIEW It’s a serious restaurant disguised in party clothes; a third-floor loft cloaking its pretensions with the frippery of a DJ, pool table and retro wallpaper. But once you’ve oohed over the vast warehouse space with arched windows looking over Smith Street, the menu reveals its surprises. A two-speed approach tacks from jazzed-up drinking food […]

REVIEW True to its name, Ôter (“remove” in French) operates in a stripped-back basement space, its central open kitchen the focal point of the room. It has, after a change of chef, also discarded some of the more fancy, sometimes annoying, modern moves of previous menus. You wouldn’t label it traditional French, given the presence […]

This restaurant is now closed.

REVIEW This likeable wine bar has been pleasing Novocastrians for a few years now, but things have stepped up in the food department with the arrival of Cory Campbell, a chef fresh from running the kitchen of the three-starred Vue de Monde in Melbourne. He has turned the bar menu on its head, the fried […]

REVIEW After winning fans at Canberra’s A Baker and cooking at Temporada, chef Adam Bantock has escaped to the country with some grand designs for regional cuisine. He’s taken to heart the concept of home-grown hospitality, transforming part of his family cottage into a 50-seat eatery. The cooking is fittingly accessible, eschewing culinary chicanery in […]

REVIEW Like the love-child of a Hamptons beach house and a Cotswolds garden manor, Bells at Killcare offers the kind of setting that demands long lunches and languorous dining experiences. A sprawling veranda and an interior of cream and blue with lots of timber frame expansive views across Bells’ manicured lawns and gardens. In true […]

REVIEW The cavernous, gorgeously restored Art Deco lobby of the Primus Hotel is an impressive setting for its signature restaurant. With an open kitchen, carpeted floors and blue and Burgundy banquettes, the dining space nails the grand hotel vibe, even if the well-meaning but slightly shaky service doesn’t. Chef Ryan Hong’s continent-hopping menu might be […]

REVIEW Schooners of Reschs, a pie-warmer, AC/DC blaring from the speakers and a pool table. The Unicorn’s new handlers, the guys from Mary’s and Porteño, aren’t out to modernise the classic Aussie pub so much as reboot it. Out go the poker machines, in comes a renovation sympathetic to the glories of the site’s timeless […]

REVIEW For decades this hallowed site was Claude’s, first French, then not French, then even less French again. Then it was something else. Now it’s St Claude’s, and if the name (and the offer of a twice-baked Gruyère soufflé) is intended as some sort of doff of the hat to the history of this two-storey […]

REVIEW Tiny drunk Japanese men. They’re everywhere: on the business cards, the menu. They make such a rich graphic statement that you almost wish there was a corresponding eatery back in Tokyo named for wasted Australian businessmen. The crowd packing the bar and tables, though, is young, hip and very Surry Hills, throwing down Salaryman […]

REVIEW No one would ever accuse Pablo Tordesillas of pulling his punches. In his days at Otto and at Brisbane favourite Ortiga, even at his most technical, flavour remained paramount. And so it is here on Hyde Park. The room and service might lean to the anodyne side of polished, and the name is the […]

REVIEW Regatta not only pokes out onto the waters of Rose Bay, it’s also culturallyofRose Bay. Boats bob gently on the swell outside the glass of the pretty, gently maritime-leaning space, just as the room rustles with pressed linen and grown women address their fathers as “Daddy”. (Well, we assume that was her father.) Damien […]

REVIEW After being given the full Merivale treatment, overhauled, opened up and with plenty of built-in patina, The Paddington is abuzz again. It serves what is essentially a pub menu, albeit one conceived by Ben Greeno, a chef whose brilliance earned Momofuku Seiobo three stars from this guide. Almost every table is laden with the […]

REVIEW Like Mario Testino working with Kate Moss, a certain magic happens when Stefano Manfredi meets flour and water. Hand-rolled pasta, be it trad ravioli (bouncy with burrata and basil) or experimental maccheroncini (earthy from kamut flour and salty with ricotta salata), is consistently excellent, and comforting (eyes on you, veal ragù). Yamba prawns, smoky […]

REVIEW Every neighbourhood needs a place like One Ford Street. Not too fancy, not too plain, it’s as welcoming and comfortable as a friend’s kitchen with an easy-to-love menu and a wine list with depth and surprises. In an annexe behind the Cricketers Arms Hotel, in an indoor-outdoor room with pickles on the shelves and […]

REVIEW “Eating elegance” encapsulates the mood of this oh-so slightly Parisienne side-street addition to the Potts Point dining scene. Poised members of an almost all-female floor team detail the plats du jour and compliment your choice of Provençal rosé. This Miss exudes Gallic tradition, executed with care over flair. The signature Pithiviers (aka pie) may […]

REVIEW Have the sandwich. There’s no arguing with slivers of pan-golden brioche bookending thin layers of smoked wagyu tongue, Gruyère and pickled green tomato. And this being a Nathan Sasi restaurant, the bread, meat and tomato are baked, cured and pickled in-house, and it wouldn’t be remiss to wonder if he hadn’t made the cheese […]

REVIEW Surry Hills swagger permeates this modern Chinese newcomer. Friendly, confident staff move through the whitewashed, two-storey space to the booming sounds of Metallica and Biggie, and tables are filled equally by the hospitality crew and the CBD crowd. The volume’s been dialled up on the menu, too. Puffed beef tendons dusted with kombu salt […]

REVIEW An apartment-block courtyard might not seem like the most soigné setting for a restaurant, but this complex is called the Casba, and you don’t have to squint too hard before the palms and pond seem simpático with a menu rich in dates and cumin. Israel is the inspiration for Michael Rantissi’s cooking both here […]

REVIEW Kensington Street bears the hallmarks of a restaurant rolled out by a chef with a lot of other restaurants. That chef is Jason Atherton, the most successful of Gordon Ramsay’s protégés, captivating diners with gleaming fit-outs, smart-casual dining and big, inclusive menus in London, Hong Kong, Manhattan and now Chippendale. Some attempts at local […]

REVIEW “DINE DRINK DANCE” reads the motto on the Harpoon Harry website, just in case the name didn’t already alert would-be customers to the fact that this probably isn’t the place to bring nonagenarian relatives or the otherwise infirm. If James Brown’s design for this glammed-up pub dining room, bold of tile and capital of […]

REVIEW What’s a restaurant like you doing in a place like this? Not to besmirch the good name of Pakenham, but the Mill is an oasis of finely tuned restaurant values in a ‘hood where pizza joints and chicken shops rule the roost. The upmarket breakfast/brunch zone goes haute at night, when a menu from […]

REVIEW It’s a Fitzroy dining landmark, but Ladro still pushes a welcome combination of tradition and surprise. A pancetta and pear bruschetta is an inspired entrée, polenta chips with Gorgonzola sauce hit all the right spots and precision-charred Black Angus scotch fillet with horseradish and  Volcanic salt is even better with triple-cooked potatoes. But Ladro’s […]

REVIEW Behind the red front door, there’s a deli brimming with cured meats, cheese and tinned seafood. You’ll be perfectly content poised at the counter here, hefty mortadella sandwich in one hand, house-canned Martini in the other; however, it’s only one of your options. Climb the stairs and you’ll find the bistro, where Allie Webb […]

REVIEW What was once Café Nice is now owned by the group that owns Ananas, the brasserie that’s currently moving from The Rocks to Darling Harbour, so pineapple lamps have been added to the bright, bold Riviera-inspired décor and the menu isn’t so strictly Provençale. Bistro classics such as buttery escargots and mussels in white […]

REVIEW Over two decades, team Boathouse has built an enviable stable of suppliers to ensure that its sourcing of seafood is second to none. Nowhere is that more obvious than in sparkling plate of rock and Pacific oysters plucked from around the country, shucked to order, set on ice, paired with impeccable mignonette, lemon, rye […]

REVIEW At Woollahra’s favourite luxed-up French canteen, the classics never fall out of fashion. Twenty years and more than a few steak frites down the track, the Thonet bentwood chairs, Michael Fitzjames mural and linen-dressed tables are as magnetic as ever, and service remains a drawcard. The signature dishes, a little more Larousse than Passard,  […]

REVIEW Is it a bar? Is it a bird? A restaurant? An aeroplane? The lighting, the volume of the ’80s pop, the focus on booze and indeed the name say bar, but the quality of the cooking, the attentive and intelligent table service  and the presence of one Analiese Gregory in the kitchen place it […]

REVIEW The Apo is settling into a pleasant groove. This heritage-listed former apothecary is as striking as ever, ancient brick walls offset by cool cement floors, moody lighting and flashes of royal blue, but the service is now pinpoint sharp. That personable touch is needed when negotiating a share-plate menu that reads like Morse code, […]

REVIEW From its neo-teahouse aesthetic to a menu marshalling ideas from across South East Asia, Mamasan is a restaurant in tune with the zeitgeist. Outdoor tables might be perfect for observing Broadbeach’s human circus, yet pride of place is by the pass, where eaters are treated to close-ups of the bustling kitchen. You can almost […]