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 foodie trail well worth a meander across the border.
Stretching from Tweed through to Kyogle, the region’s best restaurants range from family-owned hideaways to hatted establishments. Here are 12 of the best Northern Rivers restaurants to plant your fork in.
Looking for Byron Bay Restaurants? Here are 16 of the best Best Byron Bay restaurants.
Looking for Gold Coast restaurants? Here are 23 of the best Gold Coast restaurants.
Tweed River House
Murwillumbah
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 house made toulouse—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. 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.
Harvest
Newrybar
A destination venue that has made its mark in the secluded locale of Newrybar, Harvest is well worth a detour from your usual Byron route. Located in a sprawling old Queenslander and surrounded by dreamy boutiques, here you can settle in for a long lunch on the verandah, pick up some goodies from the deli next door and enjoy a stroll through the gardens, all in one afternoon.
Constantly changing with the season’s harvest, the food here is next-level, and elevated even further by the delicious breads coming out of a centuries old wood-fired oven in a stone cottage out the back. Make sure you sample one of their house made digestifs after a feast of eggplant tempura, Byron Bay burrata, garden spaghetti and juicy sirloin. Book here.
Farm & Co Restaurant
Tweed Coast
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. With an ever-changing menu to match the seasons, begin your day with a farm tomato salad and end it with a wood-smoked lamb shoulder or a pan-roasted goldband snapper. There's a plethora of dining options to choose from—a $69 signature banquet is offered Thursday to Sunday, a $39 specialty coal BBQ dinner on Thursday nights, a classic dinner for $39 on Friday and Saturday nights, and a beautiful Sunday brunch for $39 on Sunday morning. You can also dig into a picnic box to enjoy on the lawn, or snag a $7 farm pass and enjoy your picnic across the acreage—make sure to say hello to resident pigs Hank and Pepe.
Pipit
Pottsville
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 short and long three- and eight-course lunch and dinner affairs.
With à la carte and seasonal menus available, expect next-level dishes like scorched bonito with eggplant, tamarind and tuna lap cheong. Or try the dry-aged duck breast with quince and anise myrtle. 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 time of booking.
Potager
Carool
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 minutes drive inland from Tweed Heads. With produce plucked direct from neighbouring farmers and producers wherever possible, book ahead of time to secure a spot on the sprawling wraparound deck. Dishes range from Bangalow pork belly and wattle seed crusted wild venison to vegan potato and garden sage gnocchi. All finished with warm saffron poached pear with bay leaf ice cream.
Taverna
Kingscliff
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 $45 per person 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. The spinach, feta, ricotta pie, with tzatziki, pomegranate and micro salad is also hard to go past. Enjoy the lot while the ocean breeze whispers through your hair.
Mavis's Kitchen
Mount Warning
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, Mavis's Kitchen twinkles with a kind of wholesomeness that spellbinds.
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. Rise and shine early enough to perhaps spy the chefs picking the day’s produce from the farm. Told you. Wholesome.
Paper Daisy
Cabarita
Inside the gorgeous boutique hotel Halcyon House and practically sitting on the sand dunes, is the white and blue-hued Paper Daisy restaurant. Award-winning chef Jason Barratt has seen Paper Daisy win 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.
Barrat prides himself on showcasing sophisticated simplicity in his cuisine, and creations like Bangalow pork shoulder with grilled rapini, Jerusalem artichokes and chestnuts, do exactly that. The extensive wine list is not to be scoffed at and 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.
No. 35 Kitchen and Bar
Cabarita
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 fried baby calamari, chilli and aioli, plus large plates featuring rigatoni, 12-hour slow cooked beef shin and whipped ricotta.
Surely you still have room for the Malfadine, pesto and buffalo mozzarella, while you’re at it. 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.
Cadeau Bar & Restaurant
Brunswick Heads
Blink and you’ll miss it. But tucked within Brunswick Heads’ main drag lies the type of culinary excellence that is well worth a road trip to the Northern Rivers. Venture through Cadeau’s cosy entry point to unlock Pandora's box of fanciful flavours. We recommend the chef’s selection banquet, where you’re treated to dishes like Brunswick River Rock Oysters with mignonette and lemon.
As well as Gruyère cheese malakoff, pickles and mustard. And let's not forget the melt in your mouth Angus beef with bullhorn peppers and green pepper sauce. Wait until you try sides like mixed market leaves with pecans and dad’s dressing. Book ahead of time for dinner reservations Thursday to Monday and Sunday lunch.
Pixie Food & Wine
Byron Bay
Neighbouring with 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 showcase 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 head chef Matteo Tine’s menu include the savoury sfinci with house pistachio mortadella, charred pineapple marmalade and radicchio, the barbecued octopus with salsa Bianca, Sicilian capers and pepper crisp, and lobster tortellini with saffron, buttermilk and caviar. Complement flavours and ingredients with pairings plucked from Pixie’s 120-strong wine list.
Karkalla
Byron Bay
Celebrating native foods and dishing up explosive flavours, Karkalla is an Indigenous Australian restaurant 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.
Plus seasonal dishes like papaya salad and native herbs. As well as decadent desserts like chocolate and wattle bavaroise with paperbark smoked ice cream. Make your Northern Rivers experience an unforgettable one at Karkalla.
The Hut
Byron Bay
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 fried sardines with herb mayo, fried baby Calamari with confit garlic and 200g swordfish, piquillo pepper salsa and eggplant purée. Can’t see how that’d turn out well inside a lunchbox. Featuring a dedicated vegan menu as well, make your highlight excursion of the year a trip to Northern Rivers’ own sun-drenched The Hut.
Image Credit: Brooke Darling Photography, Hayley Williamson Photography and supplied from venues