Time Out Sydney Food & Drink Awards 2025: Destination Venue Nominees

Ateş (pronounced “a-tesh”) means 'fire' in Turkish and, considering it’s one of the coldest Blackheath days on record on the day we visit, a cosy neighbourhood wine bar and restaurant featuring food cooked over flames seems like the right place to be. This little Blue Mountains dining room is warm in more ways than one – the terracotta-coloured walls give off welcoming vibes. There are house plants scattered around the dining room, like it's someone's home. The (mostly locally-sourced) produce is cooked in a 150-year-old ironbark-fuelled oven. The service is also warm and friendly.

Some of the most fun to be had in Byron isn’t on Main Beach. Head in the opposite direction from the beach (yes, really) to 139 Jonson Street, past a dramatic velvet curtain, and into Bar Heather. This Euro-style wine bar and restaurant is run by co-owners James Audas and Tom Sheer, who have a knack for all things low-fi vino. The wine list is excellent, filled with their favourite drops from Australia and Europe, broken up by region and with a focus on natural vino. But it’s the food that will really make your ears perk up.

Dining at EXP., Pokolbin’s dark and moody fire-powered restaurant by chef/owner Frank Fawkner, is an extraordinary experience. The multi-course menu is as much a love letter to the rolling green hills of the Hunter Valley as it is a display of Fawkner’s talent and flair. Nostalgic touches are threaded throughout the meal, service is intuitive, and the wine menu features all of the Valley’s greats. Take a seat at the bar and strap in for an extra-special meal – and one that will stay with you long after you return to the big smoke.

We're sitting at the wooden bench right in front of the chefs at Flotilla, Newcastle’s fine diner located in an industrial-looking area in Wickham. We say fine dining because it technically falls under that category, but there’s not a whiff of pretentiousness in the coastal, balmy air. To our left is a mural by Newcastle-based artist Annie Everingham – all sky blues, bubble-gum pinks and rusts – and the rest of the walls are painted-white brick and plywood. Trickling plants inject greenery, copper fixtures wink to Newy’s past, and local Andrew Bradley is behind the brown leather banquette seating and warm wooden tables with flickering candles. It’s the kind of dining room you can exhale and settle in for a good time. And judging by the packed and lively room, it seems everyone is.

The saying goes that good things come in small packages. It has never seemed more true than sitting on a stool one Sunday afternoon at Hey Rosey, Orange’s anchovy-tin-sized wine bar on Summer Street. Funky art and vintage posters dress the walls alongside vintage knick-knacks, jars of pickles and booze. There’s a retro lime-green light next to a record spinning vinyl hits and, down the back, a few tables of four. There’s a kind of effortlessly cool Melburnian magic to Hey Rosey, even though we're in the NSW countryside. But one glance down at the by-the-glass list makes it clear where we are. So yeah, we're crushing on Rosey, hard. She’s fun and sexy and serves dishes we want to come back for and wine we're still thinking about. Next time you see her – and we really recommend that you do – please tell her we say hey.

There’s a fruit plate on Pipit’s six-course seasonal menu that stops us in our tracks. Placed on a frosted glass bowl is a segment of jackfruit, a slice of crème caramel-like abiu, the white flesh of the mangosteen and magenta-coloured dragon fruit. They are exquisite: sweet, juicy and pure-tasting – better than anything you can buy at a corner shop – and capture the tropical beauty and spirit of the Northern Rivers perfectly. Though the same can be said about every course we have at Pottsville’s fine diner, located about a 30-minute drive from Byron Bay.

Perched on a hill overlooking one of the most magical beaches in Australia is where you’ll find Raes on Wategos. Built in the 1960s, the Mediterranean-style boutique hotel and restaurant is surrounded by lush, tropical bush, and features a whitewash facade complete with curves and arches – and it's without a doubt one of the country’s most lusted-after institutions. A long lunch here, and getting that shot along the tiled staircase, is as synonymous with Byron Bay as the Lighthouse and the Hemsworth brothers. But it doesn't rest on its good looks – Raes on Wategos serves up relaxed coastal elegance at its finest – and just like the surfers below, we’re frothing

The Milton Hotel is not your standard pub. Yes, there are the surfers and tradies, the cracking beers and a feel-good, casual vibe at this tavern located in the heart of Milton on NSW’s idyllic south coast. But you won’t find a chicken schnitty on the menu. There is, however, a smooth chicken liver parfait paired with a fruity chutney and house-made brioche. You also won’t find fish and chips. Instead, triangles of buttery Ulladulla-caught bluefin tuna are kicked into gear with a lime kosho (a Japanese-style ferment they make in-house), soy sauce and vibrant parsley oil.