The List

THE OFFBEAT FOODIE TRAIL

Your Isuzu is a go-anywhere machine, so why not seek out an off-the-beaten track dining destination?

The Prairie Hotel

Where: Parachilna, SABest for: Gourmet feral fare

Almost 500km north of Adelaide and few hours south of Lake Eyre, Parachilna is an unexpected place. It's mostly famous for its iconic pub: a culinary delight with its own gallery and microbrewery, and a menu of top-shelf but unexpected fare. The Prairie Hotel’s roadside signs are famous in themselves, promising roo, camel and emu ‘on your plate’, but their garishness is, if anything, misleading. Sitting down to a repast of feral antipasto, smoked miso eggplant, buffalo Reuben sandwich and spit-roasted porchetta—accompanied by South Australian wines and in-house Fargher Lager—is a world away from your typical Outback menu of deep-fried things in bain-maries. It’s almost like a trendy inner-city boozer in the desert, with zero pretension, poseurs or ironic e-bike aficionados. prairiehotel.com.au

F.O.O.D. Week

Where: Orange, NSWBest for: A tasting-plate intro to the Central Tablelands

It sounds like an extravaganza for carrot fans, but  the Orange F.O.O.D. Festival is Australia’s longest-running food gala, having celebrated its 33rd birthday in April. Its 10-day program is full of highlights, from the opening Night Markets to the Sampson Street Lunch, held on a (closed) residential avenue on tables longer than the list of regrets of a middle-aged man at a Taylor Swift concert. As GQ noted in April, ‘quite simply, Orange is a must-visit for any budding foodie’. It’s also fun that it seems to have been named on purpose to irritate the sort of people who twitch when someone says “ATM machine”. (F.O.O.D. stands for ‘Food of Orange District’, making this, technically, the Orange Food of Orange District Festival.)  orangefoodweek.com.au

Paradise Bakehouse

Where: Moore Park, Bundaberg, QLDBest for: Aussie classics

If you earned a dollar every time you passed a roadside sign advertising ‘the best pies on the coast’, life as a grey nomad would pay for itself. But Bundaberg’s Paradise Bakery has the walk to back their talk, taking out Best Plain Pie in the 34th Official Great Aussie Pie Competition in 2023. No mango-drizzled marinated Himalayan yak pies here; their ‘simple yet mouth-watering’ Chunky Steak pie was declared the winner out of 1600 entries at the industry expo Fine Food Australia in Sydney. Pick one up for just $6.40.

Masaaki’s Sushi

Where: Geeveston TASBest for: Meeting a master

Is Masaaki Koyama Australia’s best sushi chef? The Japanese maestro moved to Tasmania in 2007 after falling in love with a local girl, using westernised fare to accustomise local palates to his food. Now he’s a sensation, with big city foodies (and internationals such as Rick Stein) making the pilgrimage to his door. masaaki.com.au

Banana Boogie Bakery

Where: Belair, SABest for: Speed scoffing

Pies are fine, obviously, except when they drip lava-hot gravy onto your hand, then crotch, during cornering. That’s why driving purists agree that the sausage roll is the best driver’s on-road snack. Baker Jason Spencer says his “really buttery, melt-in-your-mouth” house-made puff pastry is the secret to his sausage rolls, which were awarded the nation’s best in 2023.

The Enchanted Fig Tree

Where:  Kangaroo Island, SABest for: Magical realism

A seasonal pop-up wilderness dining experience open from November to April (check the dates!), the Enchanted Fig Tree is part Tolkein and part Alice In Wonderland. Chef Stephanie Vass showcases local ingredients (and Kangaroo Island Spirits) in a series of ‘rooms’ divided by the limbs and cascading foliage of a 120-year-old fig tree.

gastronomodining.com.au/locations/the-enchanted-fig-tree

Jamala Wildlife Lodge 

Where: Canberra, ACTBest for: Slight terror

Indulge in four-course African-themed gourmet dining with genuine, living hyenas and white lions separated from you by a sheet of glass. That’s the unnerving but exhilarating experience offered by Jamala Wildlife Lodge, in the nation’s capital, with a rotating seasonal menu served in their ‘Rainforest Cave’ room. Fare includes dishes such as native macadamia-crusted snapper or trio of wild mushroom risotto,  each paired with selected Australian wines and Moët. Who’d have thought you could munch away while being watched by something that would happily devour you? Actually this is probably pretty common at cabinet room lunches. jamalawildlifelodge.com.au

Tali Wiru

Where:  Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, NTBest for: Once-in-a-lifetime dining

Ever peered out across the billiard-table Outback flanks of Uluru in the gathering dark, marvelled at the electric ochre tones of The Rock (not Dwayne Johnson) and thought, ‘I could go yellowtail kingfish with yuzu pearls, fermented quandong salsa, scampi caviar and desert lime’? If so, the Australian Good Food Guide chef’s hatted, al fresco restaurant Tali Wiru has you covered. A four-course dinner is a substantial $440 a head, but few experiences rival this four-hour, 15-minute dining indulgence, served on a private dune alongside premium Australian wines. ayersrockresort.com.au/experiences/tali-wiru

Parker Street Project

Where: Dunkeld, VICBest for: Casual classics

Next door, the Parker Street Project’s upmarket sibling restaurant, the chi-chi Royal Mail Hotel, has a 30,000-bottle wine cellar and Executive Chef Robin Wickens’ eight-course degustation. But the more casual Parker Street is a find of its own, with modern classic, seasonal fare made with garden-grown and locally sourced produce. 

royalmail.com.au/dining/parker-st-project

Marrickville Pork Roll

Where: Marrickville, NSWBest for: The world's best sandwich

Nominated as Australia’s best by Masterchef host and banh mi obsessive Melissa Leong, this tiny hole-in-the-wall in Sydney’s inner west has lines of punters waiting with a sort of keening look more familiar to methadone clinics. Is the iconic crusty baguette plus cold cuts, páté and mayo, spring onion, chilli and the rest the world’s best sandwich? (Yes.) restaurantwebexpert.com/MarrickvillePorkRoll 

Belly up to  Bruny Island   

Where: Bruny Island, TASBest for: A tasty microcosm of the Apple Isle's artisans

South of Hobart and accessible by car ferry, Bruny Island’s 600 inhabitants punch above their weight in terms of artisanal produce. There’s the Bruny Island Beer Co., the Bruny Island Cheese Co., Australia’s most southern vineyard, Bruny Island Premium Wines, the Bruny Island House of Whisky, and even the Get Shucked oyster farm and restaurant. The latter may have missed the memo about naming conventions—would it have killed them to have worked a ‘Bruny’ in there?—but it does have a drive-through, so you can get shucking solo, or with a friend, without having to leave your Isuzu. “The world needs places like Tasmania,” says award-winning cheesemaker Nick Haddow. Try his Raw Milk C2, which won a Super Gold Medal at the World Cheese Awards 2023.  brunyisland.org.au