Rick Stein has long held an affinity for Australia. The British celebrity chef is a regular visitor Down Under, going so far as to set up roots in New South Wales, operating the restaurant in Bannisters at Mollymook for the past eight years.

Now, Stein’s Australia empire is set to expand with the news that a second restaurant is in the works – one that will accompany the $7 million overhaul of the Salamander Shores hotel in Port Stephens. Bought by Bannisters Hotels in 2017, the outdated accommodation option is being given a total revamp that will see it become a four-star boutique hotel, complete with a Rick Stein eatery. It is expected to be a sister venue to the Mollymook property, with a Hamptons feel given to its 80 rooms, including six luxury suites and a penthouse. Fifty rooms will have bay views over the Karuah River with the remaining rooms offering forest and bushland outlooks.

“We’ll be offering barefoot luxury in Port Stephens,” Bannisters Port Stephens general manager Peter Bacon told the Port Stephens Examiner. “We’re really excited about the changes we’re making. It’s going to be spectacular when it’s done.”

“Everything about it is going to be special,” Mr Bacon said. “It will complement the Bannisters brand, but the hotel will be unique in its own sense. The lobby will be spectacular, the pool bar will be really special.”

The chance to expand within Australian shores was a no-brainer for Stein. ““It’s another beautiful stretch of New South Wales coastline, like Mollymook, and we can’t wait to be working again with General Manager Peter Bacon and Commercial Director, Alice O’Hara. My wife Sas has long been a lover of the Port
Stephens area, and even stayed in the old Salamander Shores hotel when she was 19. When we saw the landscape from the lookout above Nelson Bay we were filled with a sense of excitement to see an almost continuous vista of bays, headlands, peninsula and the open sea beyond,” he says, “I will be working closely with head chef Mitchel Turner designing a menu featuring local king prawns, Yellowfin bream, flathead, calamari and school whiting, not to mention the fabulous oysters.”

Stein’s restaurant will sit at the back of the hotel, above the existing tavern which will continue to trade throughout the refurbishment and well into the future.

Looking to get in first? We’ll be hosting a reader dinner at the venue later in the year with more details to come shortly.