In the gleaming look-at-me tower that is Crown Sydney, the plush and hushed surrounds of a serious fine-diner have emerged. Chef Clare Smyth has been in the restaurant game for some 20 years. She’s the name behind Core, a London landmark with three Michelin stars, and this is her new Australian outpost, with harbour views everywhere and a pointy-end menu to match. Head Chef Alan Stuart, who hails from New Zealand but has been a key player at Core in London, has been working alongside Smyth to develop the menu at Oncore by Clare Smyth. Behind kitchen glass as you enter, white-jacketed chefs bend attentively over delicately assembled edibles – from petals to crisps to miniature dumplings and vegie discs. Your leather-topped timber table is an elegant pale caramel, your cream chair cleverly curved. Tableware is made from the finest bone china, embossed with a signature Smyth thumbprint. In contrast to its shiny casing, the restaurant is “nature” themed – natural wood, table bouquets, a twist of decorative branches across the ceiling. Flavours are classic, presentation is high on tweezer-action and there are no rakish Aussie-Asian or native Australian notes, or left-of-field local wines, in sight. Quite simply, this is serious, traditional, immaculate fine-dining in a special occasion room with breathtaking views. Crown Sydney, Level 26/1 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo. crownsydney.com.au/indulge/oncore-by-clare-smyth

Many chefs may have caught the firebug, cooking over the licking flames with flair and aplomb, but few have tamed the flames like Lennox Hastie at Firedoor. His is an offering of subtlety, premium produce and precision. Straight out of Victor Arguinzoniz’s fire-powered restaurant, Asador Etxebarri in the Basque country, Hastie ignited Sydney when he first opened in Surry Hills, and he continues to captivate today. Featured on Netflix’s celebrated series Chef’s Table, the restaurant brought finesse to Australia’s favourite pastime – cooking over fire. Hastie turns myriad different woods (apple, orange, olive and more) into embers in a kiln before transporting the embers to a grill where the extreme heat provides the platform for his skillful culinary interpretations of the best in-season produce. And although the menu boasts arguably the most incredible 172-day dry-aged rib of beef (it borders on blue cheese in flavor) Firedoor is mostly about seafood, vegetables and how to get the best out of them. 23-33 Mary Street Surry Hills. Firedoor.com.au

This Hunter Valley winery restaurant has fortified its position as one of the best in the country – and we’re not just talking wine country. If you’re looking for big, bold flavours with a silky-smooth finish, skip the semillon and the shiraz and go straight for a degustation at EXP. The fine-diner-meets-winery helmed by Frank Fawkner captures the region’s terroir just as well as anything in a bottle. First up is a sourdough crumpet topped with sour cream and Yarra Valley salmon caviar, and Petuna ocean trout with leek and wild fennel. Then, Paroo Kangaroo appears with an umami punch of black garlic, sesame and creamy corn. Pumpkin, roasted and caramelised, is given a salty kick with the creamiest jersey milk feta and gloriously tart and sweet muntries. This is beautiful dining, deserving of more than a side-note detour on any road trip. EXP. is a destination in its own right. 2188 Broke Rd, Pokolbin exprestaurant.com.au

Taralga is not the sort of place you stumble upon, and if you did, you might be completely unaware of the beautiful food offerings that lie within its quaint surrounds. The Southern Tablelands has been the forgotten cousin of the Highlands for many, but more adventurous journeys take us another hour down the freeway, to a region that deserves some road-trippin’ attention. The Argyle Inn was originally built in 1875 and sensitively restored five years ago to its former Victorian glory with a contemporary touch, including the hotel rooms upstairs. The restaurant is open Friday and Saturday nights, and for lunch on Sunday, and the menu changes often. Chef and co-owner Hugh Wennerbom is the farmer of Holmbrae chickens, served in many of Sydney’s top restaurants, and they often appear here – perhaps roasted and served with sautéed corn and leek. Their eggs enrich the hand-cut pasta that’s served with a ragù of duck, say. While you’re in Taralga, don’t miss another gem on the same street (you’ll need to stay the night after overindulging). Grand Ettie, whose cafe menu is scrawled daily onto butcher’s paper hanging from the wall, features hits inspired by produce pulled from nearby. A succulent lamb toastie or fried eggs come with black pudding and a generous grating of black truffle. Together these eateries put Taralga firmly on the foodie map. 80 Orchard St, Taralga. theargyleinn.com.au

The only problem with Muse Dining is that it’s not closer to where more of us live – but that’s part of its charm, too. This restaurant by chef and co-owner Troy Rhoades-Brown takes the the region’s produce to breathtaking heights. Indeed it is a restaurant that changes the perception of regional dining and could comfortably compete with any restaurant in the big city. Start with summer sweet corn chawanmushi, a savoury custard-like, soft-as-anything jelly served with braised local heritage pork and puffed sushi rice. Move onto pan fried Murray cod, summer peppers, romesco sauce, tomatillo, and nasturtiums so nutty and peppery they have surely come from the restaurant’s surrounds. The menu plays with Asian flavours without letting them overthrow the produce. It’s delicate, interesting, textured and considered. The pasture-raised heritage pork comes with creamy eggplant that has been charred and steamed, coral tooth mushroom and a hint of peppery togarashi. This place makes us consider the produce we eat, the earth, ad the beauty of fire, steam, water and earth. So it’s no surprise they called the restaurant what they did. 2450 Broke Rd, Pokolbin musedining.com.au

In the pristine hinterland beyond Byron Bay, in an unpolished cottage with surrounding edible gardens and a rustic deck overlooking an adjoining (excellent) wood-fire run bakery, is one of Australia’s best restaurants. Harvest is unafraid to push the boundaries of modern fare, and that means plates that entice, excite and challenge. A meal at Harvest is like a discovery tour of local Australian ingredients – think paperbark-smoked beetroot, kangaroo floss, clam butter and wattleseed custard. A wedge of sugarloaf cabbage is doused with charred kelp vinegar. Some of Australia’s best chefs have taken the helm at Harvest, – including, most recently, Matt Stone – and previously, Alistair Waddell, while David Moyle currently oversees the menu and appears regularly in the open kitchen. It’s delicious food, and the nook of a town that is Newrybar is worth exploring, too. Village 18, 22 Old Pacific Hwy, Newrybar. harvest.com.au

Ursula’s Acclaimed chef Phil Wood, formerly of Pt. Leo Estate and Rockpool, has opened his first-ever restaurant in the leafy backstreets of Paddington, and it’s already a local gem drawing in diners from all over Sydney. The pretty corner terrace is just one of many historic houses on Hargrave Street, the only giveaway being a doormat that reads Ursula’s and the soft sound of clinking glasses and good times within. The newly renovated space could just as easily be an art gallery. Each room reveals bright tonal contrasts – rich caramel walls in one room, powder blue in another – with theatrical light sculptures of folded metal that bend and shape light across the textured walls. The creativity doesn’t stop there. A crudo of snapper, scampi and tuna is paired with mandarin segments and a punchy pistachio basil pesto. A mussel schnitzel made from a battered hash of potato and shellfish deserves a place on every pub menu. The salty, crunchy slab is served with iceberg lettuce and a marie rose sauce, channeling classic prawn cocktail vibes. 92 Hargrave St, Paddington. ursulas.com.au

Head to Beach Byron Bay for its crisp fit-out, which perfectly highlights the sweeping uninterrupted sea views from the balcony. This beachfront Byron Bay institution has a new lease on life with the hiring of Barret Jones as its head chef. It’s a perfect fit for the New Zealand native, who is known for his produce-driven fare and commitment to sustainable and ethically-raised and sourced produce. The sunset light at dinnertime is ideal for indulging in one of the suitably strong seafood options, such as raviolo of Moreton Bay bug, cherry tomato and ‘nduja. This classic destination is a sibling restaurant of Sydney’s Firedoor, Brisbane and Sydney’s Otto, as well as Quay and Bennelong, all of which are owned by Fink Group. Clarkes Beach, 2 Massinger Street, Byron Bay, beachbyronbay.com.au.

Fleet is the fine diner that put sleepy Brunswick Heads on the map, and it continues to prove a foodie force to be reckoned with. The intimate restaurant owned by partners in business and life, chef Josh Lewis and front-of-house extraordinaire Astrid McCormack, is considered a must-visit for those trekking through Northern New South Wales. Diminutive Fleet has attracted enormous praise and many accolades since opening. A lot of restaurants now claim to source locally, but at Fleet it moves past the food to the Tasmanian oak stools crafted by local maker Martin Johnston, to the plateware by Bangalow’s own Anna-Karina Elias. And then there’s the food. The produce is simple, but damn Lewis can cook. Dry-cured snapper is shaved thinly by hand, accompanied by a tangy tangelo sauce, roasted witlof and confit fennel. Whole roasted baby Jerusalem artichokes are tossed in creamy sesame, which further their sweet nuttiness. Book far, very far, in advance to ensure a table. 2/16 The Terrace, Brunswick Heads. Fleetrestaurant.com.au

Chef Ben Devlin turned his sights to Pottsville after transforming Halycon House’s Paper Daisy into the nationally recognised restaurant it is today. Pipit reveals once again Devlin’s deep connection to the Northern Rivers and its produce. This is a minimalist space, but you can book kitchen stools for front-row seats to a spectacular show. Centrestage, you’ll find charcoal fire, where you’ll see Devlin roasting romanesco on the coals and drying squid at the chimney mouth. The menu focuses on local vegetables, foraged ingredients and sustainable seafood. He knows when to keep it simple (hello, raw crunchy wing beans), but can whip salted cobia into a fluffy frenzy and place pumpkin through a process of nixtamalisation, where it’s cooked in ash to improve flavour and texture. The sugarloaf stuffed with spanner crab mousse is Pipit’s most heavenly masterpiece. 8 Coronation Avenue, Pottsville. Pipitrestaurant.com