Where To Find The Best Northern Rivers Restaurants In 2025
Isabel Croker
Editorial Manager (AU + NZ) | Urban List
Eloise Luke
Contributor | Urban List
A coastal, hinterland or tree-lined road trip to feast on local delicacies? Yes, please. Known for its expansive coastline and lush valleys, the Northern Rivers is dotted with an impressive produce trail well worth a day-trip or food-focused staycation.
Stretching from Tweed through to Kyogle, the region’s best restaurants range from family-owned hideaways to hatted establishments. Here are Urban List's picks for the best Northern Rivers restaurants to plant your fork in.
The Best Northern Rivers' Restaurants At A Glance
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The Best Restaurants For Atmosphere & Charm
Dell's Mediterranean
565 Coolamon Scenic Drive, Coorabell Creek
Image credit: Dell's Med | Instagram
Set in the lush Byron Bay Hinterland, Dell’s Mediterranean brings Chef Ileisha’s love of simple, beautiful, produce-led cooking to the charming Coorabell Hall. Inspired by the warmth and ease of the Mediterranean diet, this community-driven spot is all about gathering your favourite people (kids, mates, fur babies) and settling in with a bottle of vino for good views, good times and great food.
Menus shift with the seasons and hero local ingredients straight from the markets, before being prepared fresh in the kitchen or freshly frozen for maximum flavour. Expect colourful, wholesome dishes that feel as sun-soaked as the regions they draw from. This restaurant operates as a pop-up, so you'll have to keep an eye on their socials for announcements and dates.
Insider intel
- Right next door is Cosmos, a delish coffee van and one of our fave cafes in Byron. They've been known to collab on events in the past, so keep both on your radar for summer plans.
Tweed River House
131 River Street, South Murwillumbah
Image credit: Tweed River House | Instagram
A stone’s throw from the Tweed River, this Northern Rivers bistro and bar boasts moody interiors and everything your sprawling lawn dreams are made of. A decadent greenery-lined restaurant, Thursday through Sunday, Tweed River House transforms into a lawn bar on Saturday and Sunday.
Partial to jazz dinners and music soirées, expect seasonal menus, bar food with all the trimmings—think fresh shucked oysters and marinated mussels—and seating areas galore. From the refined chandelier private dining room to the lawn bar and river verandah, there’s no shortage of locales for your next event.
Insider intel
- Awarded a chef’s hat in 2023, Tweed River House offers a wide range of dining options, including two, three, five and nine-course menus to suit any occasion.
Pipit
Shop 4/8 Coronation Avenue, Pottsville
Image credit: Pipit Restaurant | Instagram
A restaurant where local farmers, produce, and a coastal sense of place combine, Pipit’s fine-dining experience effortlessly pairs mouth-watering eats with community. Well worth your Northern Rivers culinary road trip, head to Pipit for select à la carte and six- and eight-course lunch and dinner affairs.
With à la carte and seasonal menus available, expect next-level dishes like long-tail tuna tartare with three vintages of green peas, pomelo and marigold oil. Or try the duck with native pepper and fennel seed salami. True to their communal ethos, Pipit’s talented team are flexible and can personalise dishes to allergies, dietaries and preferences. Just give them a heads-up at the time of booking.
Insider intel
- Their chef's counter set menu has just ten seats available on select dates, and features twenty-plus flavours served over 8 courses.
Taverna
22 Marine Parade, Kingscliff
Image credit: Taverna | Instagram
Dreaming of a Greek Island getaway, but are working on more of a $30 in the tank kind of timeline? Taverna is your answer to a taste of Santorini, a smidge across the New South Wales border. Firmly planted as the best Greek restaurant in the Northern Rivers, Taverna will woo you with its quaint exteriors and wow you with their Sunday night ‘Chef’s Sustainable Banquet’. Consider it your answer to not having to choose from their impressive menu.
We are just a tad obsessed with their Byron Bay halloumi, bush honey and fresh rosemary, as well as their zingy Spanakopita. Enjoy the lot while the ocean breeze whispers through your hair.
Insider intel
- The feasting banquet is always a safe choice—for $75pp, enjoy three courses of the best dishes the menu has to offer.
Paper Daisy
21 Cypress Crescent, Cabarita Beach
Image credit: Halycon House | Instagram
Inside the gorgeous boutique hotel Halcyon House (practically sitting on the sand dunes) is the white and blue-hued Paper Daisy restaurant. It's also won a multitude of accolades, including a Chef Hat, Best Hotel Breakfast and a spot on Australia’s Top 100 Restaurants list (AFR 2018). So yes, it’s seriously impressive.
The menu prides itself on showcasing sophisticated simplicity, and seasonal creations like mozzarella and heirloom radicchio salad with persimmon and pistachio do exactly that. The extensive wine list is also not to be scoffed at—why not spend the day and book in a lunch and day spa package?
Insider intel
- We recommend you jaunt over to the Halcyon House Bar post-dinner, which is home to the largest selection of Australian-made gins in the country.
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No. 35 Kitchen and Bar
35 Tweed Coast Road, Cabarita Beach
Image credit: No.35 Cabarita | Instagram
On the shores of Cabarita Beach is an Italian(ish) Northern Rivers establishment set to take your breath away. No. 35 Kitchen and Bar is your answer to seaside dining done differently.
No. 35 plates up coastal dishes like BBQ local king prawn with spicy ‘nduja butter, plus large plates featuring casarecce, 12-hour slow-cooked beef shin and rosemary pangrattato. Make sure you still have room for the choc chip and tahini skillet cookie, while you're at it.
Insider intel
- Drop in for No. 35’s happy hour from 5pm to 6pm Wednesday through Friday when you knock off early for your Northern Rivers adventure—you can score $10 snacks and palomas.
Pixie Food & Wine
139 Jonson Street, Byron Bay
Image credit: Pixie Italian | Instagram
Neighbour to sister restaurant, Light Years, Pixie Food & Wine is the sophisticated Italian hotspot snuggled within Byron’s Jonson Lane precinct. The perfect balance of modern-meet-relaxed dishes showcases local seafood with nostalgic dishes that shine with refined flavours.
Featuring dark red leather banquette seating, brown leather chairs and a marble-tiled bar, must-tries on the menu include the ortiz anchovy toast with smoked tomato butter and lemon, tuna crudo with fermented pineapple, lime, green chilli and capers, and risotto with peas, asparagus, zucchini, stracciatella and basil oil. Complement flavours and ingredients with pairings plucked from Pixie’s 120-strong wine list.
Insider intel
- Gluten-free folk, rejoice. There's also a separate, entirely GF menu.
The Hut
471 Friday Hut Road, Possum Creek
Image credit: The Hut | Instagram
Set within the grounds of an early 1900s school, we suspect that the crew at The Hut are here to make history, too. Much like school yard lunches, meals at The Hut are best enjoyed shared.
Though unlike said childhood tucker, these feature hand-filleted Spanish anchovy, ricotta and lemon zest, fried baby squid with piparras mayo and lemon and whole fish with cherry tomatoes, Taggiasca olives, roasted capsicum and pine nuts. Can’t see how that’d turn out well inside a lunchbox.
Insider intel
- Featuring a dedicated vegan menu as well, make your highlight excursion of the year a trip to The Hut.
The Best Restaurants For Seasonal Menus & Farm-To-Table
Farm & Co Restaurant
529 Cudgen Road, Cudgen
Image credit: Farm & Co | Instagram
Farm & Co Restaurant is probably one of the best-kept secrets of the Tweed Coast hinterland. Chances are you’ve seen pictures of their sunflower fields on Instagram or heard rumours of macadamia picking, but did you know they also offer an entirely seasonal, farm-to-table menu? Settled amidst the picturesque organic family farm in the heart of Cudgen, you could spend the morning living out your farm life dreams of flower picking and the evening dining on the freshest of farm-cooked meals.
When it comes to paddock-to-table dining, the table has never been closer to the paddock. At Farm & Co Restaurant, the theme is rustic, wholesome and good-quality food. A $69 signature banquet is offered Friday to Sunday, filled with ever-changing produce to match the seasons.
Insider intel
- Snag a $7 farm pass and explore the acreage—make sure to say hello to their rescue free-range chickens and pigs.
Frida's Field
76 Booyong Road, Nashua
Image credit: Frida's Field | Instagram
Frida’s Field is a 120-acre regenerative farm, hatted restaurant and dreamy event space tucked into the rolling Byron Bay Hinterland, just 10 minutes from Bangalow and 25 from central Byron. It’s the kind of place where long lunches stretch into golden afternoons and everything on the plate feels deeply connected to the land it came from.
Three set-menu lunches run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, each one shaped by what’s growing in the market garden, food-forest orchard and paddocks that week. Award-winning chef Alastair Waddell leads the charge with produce-driven menus that shift every six weeks.
The beverage list champions small-batch makers across wine, beer and spirits, with a lean toward natural and minimal-intervention drops. Seasonal cocktails star house-made syrups infused with ingredients straight from the farm.
Insider intel
- Exclusive hire is available for weddings and events, and those pastoral views are even better in person.
Potager
502 Carool Road, Carool
Image credit: Potager | Instagram
Tucked away from the main drag, reach multi-award-winning Potager via the scenic route. Read: the only route. And it’s just as breathtaking as you imagine. Snake through forest, atop mountains and arrive at one of the best Northern Rivers restaurants around. Don’t let the unfamiliar suburb fool you.
This farm-to-table converted country cottage is a mere twenty-minute drive inland from Tweed Heads. Dishes range from pumpkin carpaccio and Peruvian fish stew to pork and potato pavé with gooralie pork collar, garlic-miso sauce and radish leaf foam. All finished with a macadamia cheesecake with mixed bush berries and tawny sorbet.
Insider intel
- With produce plucked directly from neighbouring farmers and producers wherever possible, we recommend securing a spot on the sprawling wraparound deck.
Mavis's Kitchen
64 Mount Warning Rd, Uki
Image credit: Mavis's Kitchen | Instagram
Sitting pretty at the base of Mount Warning, Mavis's Kitchen is the kind of Northern Rivers restaurant you can’t just visit once—with its honest-to-goodness, country-style atmosphere and fit out.
Featuring adjoining cabins, extend your road trip leave and stay onsite to indulge in breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee and cake for good measure. Take a wander through the organic food gardens, orchard and creek, or simply claim a spot by the lake.
Insider intel
- Rise and shine early enough to perhaps spy the chefs picking the day’s produce from the farm. Told you. Wholesome.
Karkalla On Country
Bundjalung Country
Image credit: Karakalla | Instagram
Celebrating native foods and dishing up explosive flavours, Karkalla is an Indigenous Australian food experience that’ll delight your senses like no other. The brainchild of Mindy Woods, a proud Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia-bul clan, expect generous portions of wild-caught ocean fish with blistered sea succulents and kombu broth—showcasing locally sourced, seasonal produce and native Indigenous ingredients.
While they no longer have a physical restaurant, the idea has grown into an immersive culinary and cultural experience—you'll be dining on Bundjalung Country, nestled within a thriving regenerative native food forest.
Insider intel
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This three-hour, all-inclusive experience is located just a fifteen-minute drive from Byron Bay, but spots are extremely limited—so you have to get in quick.
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Main image credit: The Hut | Instagram
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