$$$

The coastal sibling to Rick Shores is bold, ambitious and a celebration of Latin American cuisine.

A historic church has started a new chapter as a charming restaurant with a passionate couple at the helm, writes ELLIOT BAKER.

Sydney’s latest chophouse is classy, confident and cosmopolitan in the same breath, writes Matty Hirsch.

More is more at Chris Lucas’ opulent four-level French fantasy, which has cemented itself as Melbourne’s most talked-about new opening, writes MICHAEL HARRY.

Thi Le and Jia-Yen Lee’s mod-Viet returns with gusto in its latest incarnation, writes MICHAEL HARDEN.

Mu’s 12-course menu, based on the Japanese omakase and served at a counter, delivers an array of small jewels both subtle and robust.

With its South West-driven menus, welcoming dining room and its tight restaurant team, de'sendent is as much for locals thirsty for adventure as it is for regional visitors hungry for a big night out.

Annual Restaurant Guide: Tasmania top 5

Annual Restaurant Guide: NSW top 25

Annual Restaurant Guide: VIC top 25

Annual Restaurant Guide: Queensland Top 15

Annual Restaurant Guide: Western Australia Top 10

Annual Restaurant Guide: Queensland Top 15

Annual Restaurant Guide: Queensland Top 15

Annual Restaurant Guide: Victoria Top 25

Annual Restaurant Guide: Victoria Top 25

Annual Restaurant Guide: South Australia Top 10

Annual Restaurant Guide: Victoria Top 25

Inside a dark industrial warehouse, a veteran restaurateur is highlighting bread and open-fire Mediterranean cooking, writes ELLIOT BAKER.

The team behind Fico trot out a chic new pasta bar which makes simplicity special.

As it sails into its third decade, this northern beaches benchmark furthers the argument that old school is the best school, writes MATTY HIRSCH.

Two of Brisbane’s finest hospitality talents bring glitz and glamour to the new (and improved) GPO building.

Where once Automata stood, you’ll now find a playful aquatic adventure fuelled by some seriously skilful cooking.

Melbourne’s Komeyui has a slick new Brisbane outpost and it’s bringing a little Zen interconnection to the everyday.

A Piedmontese trattoria promises to become a Fitzroy favourite with impressive dishes and wines to match.

Don't be deceived by the name. Wildflower is a class act, but would you expect anything less from the debonair rooftop fine-diner atop COMO The Treasury?

The nugget of rosemary-skewered kangaroo that opens your Bentley voyage might look simple, but a bite detonates a flavour-packed core.

Van Bone exemplifies destination dining, with every mouthful as uniquely Tasmanian as the stunning coastal views.

Chefs momentarily down tools to welcome guests and lead them to the dining room, where views over the gum-lined creek and single estate vineyard delight.

Old-school, theatrical hospitality is where Omnia shines.

The dramatic transformation that occurs as you step from hectic Lygon Street into the upholstered serenity of Kazuki's is one of Melbourne's great dining overtures.

A Piedmontese trattoria promises to become a Fitzroy favourite with impressive dishes and wines to match.

The team behind Pellegrino 2000 and Bistrot 916 go Americana with rollicking results.

It's time to live large at this glitzy multi-faceted restaurant.

Brisbane's Mr Vain is a call to party like it's 1999.

More is more at the sequel to Pilot – and Canberra dining is better for it.

An Italian-accented tasting menu licked by open flames sets a high standard for finer dining on the Central Coast

A rooftop party palace atop Sydney’s Ace Hotel blends nostalgia with hope for better times ahead.

Quite simply, this is one of Melbourne’s best places to be: a stylish bar-cum-casual-diner livened by wood fire and fermentation, curing and smoking, spotted gum and sandstone.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more unerring celebration of Western Australia than Hearth Restaurant.

Space is integral to the work of this organically certified, off-grid farm – and Arimia really is best considered as a farm with a restaurant rather than vice versa.

Energy pulsates through this New York-inspired Italian restaurant all seven days of the week.

Bring an open mind to this benchmark for innovative Levantine cooking. You’ll experience familiar flavours in novel ways and encounter ingredients not found elsewhere, thanks to tireless chef Adam Wolfers.

Surrender your credit card, this is A-list luxury.

The fact that Mr Wong – a walloping 240-seater offering 70-plus dishes and 40-odd pages worth of wine – continues to fire on all cylinders is a downright masterstroke.

A laneway lift takes you up to the Dining Room and Terrace, where serious cooking with share-plate generosity awaits

How easy is it to love Hubert? It all begins the second you step from an ordinary city street into this parallel universe heaving with life and laughter.

Chef Jason Staudt's dishes are the perfect match for this beachfront St Kilda icon.

Everything old is new again at this historic Paddington terrace, writes Karlie Verkerk.

The elevator pitch might be elegant share-style street food, but expect more.

A rich, multi-layered menu that draws from Lebanese, Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, and is boosted with an arsenal of techniques.

Come for the tasting menu, stay for the snacks.

This Canberra restaurant is soaring: confident, playful and polished.

From a softly glowing shopfront on the fringe of the CBD, Templo serves Hobart's best Italian food.

A Launceston restaurant that only gets better with age.

The elegantly refreshed Provenance has never shone brighter, promising diners a riot of colour, slow food and ceramics.

New riverfront lodgings means Otto is an even more alluring prospect for diners keen to push the boat out.

After nine years, Merivale's answer to Cantonese cuisine is still a CBD favourite.

Victor Liong's new-style Chinese food takes its cues from the lilting elegance of Cantonese, but heads off in its own unique direction.

With chandeliers, meticulously ironed linen, charming service and menus that riff on grand Roman ristorante, Grossi Florentino is one of the foundations of Melbourne's dining scene.

A Gold Coast diner that deftly balances the old-school and the on-trend.

Whether celebrating life's milestones or simply treating yourself, dining at the Drum is the ultimate expression of self-care.

Fleet, the exceptional Brunswick Heads fine-diner, is getting ready to welcome diners back in January 2022.

There's a lot more to Firedoor than just meat. Ignore the hype, trust the chef and enjoy the show.

A Hobart restaurant that embraces and interprets local produce with flair.

Expect magnificent flavours to emerge from this Hobart restaurant.

A thoughtful experience from beginning to end, peppered with creative surprises.

An utterly familiar menu of Italian perfection right in Melbourne's CBD.

Chef-owner Ben Willis continues to refine a menu that effortlessly drifts with the seasons.

It would be easy for this Byron mainstay to rely purely on its good looks, but chef Jason Saxby brings genuine substance to the table.

If you ever think the quirkiness will overwhelm, just trust the chef and know it'll all work out for the best.

With escape from reality at a premium, Gimlet's gorgeously renovated, high-ceilinged space is the perfect bolthole.

At Sáng, spicy, sweet and fermented flavours are combined with truckloads of texture and a refined touch, expanding the definition of Korean dining in Australia.

This agrarian fantasy is manifested in the diminutive town of Gundaroo, where comforting dishes are constructed under the historic tin roof of the 1865 Royal Hotel.

The shining jewel in Crown Sydney's dining portfolio, a'Mare promises a polished night out without the pretence.

An extensive drinks offering and clockwork service equals a leisurely dining experience at this Japanese diner.

Celebrating the immediacy of the land and sea, the entire Van Bone experience is uniquely Tasmanian.

A pub, a French floral name, a modern Japanese menu. It just works.

A menu shift to more plants has only amped up the sense of exploration.

At Scott Pickett’s smooth new clubhouse expect old-school French flavours, reworked for the modern day.

A modern Korean fine-diner offers twists on traditional dishes with finesse, with a rule-breaking bibimbap, red snapper hwe with karkalla, and Brussels sprouts kimchi.

With a focus on top-quality produce, the sum is greater than its parts at this Burleigh gem.

An off-the-grid property powered by solar energy, organic certification, plus a farm and winery. Arimia walks the sustainability talk.

The room's design might channel a big-city American version of a Parisian bistro but the menu is quintessentially Melburnian. Come for the bistro classics and high-detail cocktails; stay for dessert.

With Lee Ho Fook and Longrain alumni running the show, expect delights of the earthly and culinary kind.

If there's anywhere you want to trust with a "feed me" option, it's here.

With impeccable service, a mastery of Cantonese cooking and one of the greatest restaurant entrances in Australia, the Melbourne institution does all the classics without the stasis.

Chef Ben Williamson is heating up the city's dining scene once again, with flame- and smoke-kissed dishes that are innovative without being intimidating.