The best Blue Mountains restaurants and cafés

Tucked away in a garden setting behind the Woolies carpark, Lily’s Pad is a local gem with casual indoor and outdoor seating, excellent coffee, a fantastic selection of house-made chai and an extensive breakfast menu with seasonal offerings.

This long-established café on the main street in Leura, the Blue Mountains, has both indoor and outdoor courtyard seating. The vibe is cosy and friendly – just what you want out of a Blue Mountains eatery. The food includes delicious breakfasts (the usual suspects like eggs and mushrooms), great housemade salads and light lunches. In spring, sit in the window so you have a good view of the cherry blossoms that line the street.

Blaq restaurant, at the recently refurbished Kyah Hotel in Blackheath, is downright delightful. The 1970s property has had a serious glow-up, with kitschy-keen tropicana vibes, all pink and green with sexy curves and plush velvet accents throughout. The enormous jellybean-shaped bar dominates the dining room and while the high ceilings and glassed walls could easily turn frigid in the Blue Mountains chill, warmth is added both literally and metaphorically by a wood-burning stove that is tended by staff throughout the evening. If you're lucky enough to score a table nearby, it's a great spot to throw down a pre-dinner cocktail. Dinner is a choose-your-own-adventure arrangement, and we suggest you save room for dessert. Blaq is a long overdue and very welcome addition to the Blue Mountains dining scene and absolutely one for your next weekend away – a comfy bed in retro-chic surrounds is found under the same roof, after all.

Call us suckers, but as soon as we find out a restaurant kitchen revolves around an enormous wood-fired oven, we're whipping out our phones to make a booking. And when a venue is so bold to name themselves after that most crucial element, fire, then they'd better have the goods to back it up. Ates, or 'fire' in Ottoman Turkish is the name of the game at this cosy and casual piece of Blackheath history. The concise and considered menu changes seasonally. Hearty, family-style share dishes are offset by the more delicate 'fancy' snacks. The Turkish influence at Ates is subtle but clear when you look closely. This is approachable yet still high-end cooking.

Cinnabar, by former Ashcrofts owners Mary-Jane Craig and Corinne Evatt, is innovative and exciting addition to the Blue Mountains’ dining scene.

The high tea experience at the Hydro Majestic Hotel in Medlow Bath is so popular because the view of the Megalong Valley from their Wintergarden Restaurant is just breathtaking. Grab your posse, put on your prettiest frock and pamper yourself in a manner fitting the original vision of this extraordinary, historic hotel.

During the 1920s and ’30s, there were nine tea rooms in the Megalong Valley; today, there is just one, with its origins in the 1950s. The experience of a Devonshire Tea served is a tranquil rural setting beneath the rugged escarpment is timeless, offering an alternative view of the Blue Mountains.

Stop off for a slap-up lunch in Springwood at Arrana. If you’re in the mood to really spoil yourself, go for a multi-course menu, which marries bush ingredients such as finger lime, bunya nut, aniseed myrtle and Kakadu plum with influences from both Western and Eastern traditions.

This is pizza worth travelling for, the best in the Mountains. These are seriously good woodfired pizzas, made from organic wholewheat flour and free-range, locally-grown toppings and served with glorious views of the escarpment as a bonus.

Caffeine is taken very seriously at this busy mid-Mountains hang, with arguably the best coffee in the mountains. Each cup is made with double ristretto extracted from locale beans, with a different single origin guest roaster featured each week.