With a strong focus on sustainable seafood, natural wines, craft beers and native Australian ingredients, Fins sounds so very #2017. And yet there’s not a bearded hipster in sight or anything gimmicky about chef/owner Steven Snow’s Northern Rivers fine diner.

The obsessed surfer has been championing line caught fish and local produce for 25 years, and the restaurant’s maturity shows in the friendly and switched-on service.

Seafood is king and tropical, Asian flavours anchor the menu with Tweed King prawns dancing on a graphic plate of crispy turmeric rice cakes, barbecue corn with lemon aspen butter, kaffir lime dust, black tahini and bold dollops of chilli jam. Classicists should go for ‘Snowy’s fish’, the day’s catch, beaming over caramelised onion, green beans, fennel puree and local Kipfler potatoes, finished with a buttery lemon and riesling sauce.

The boldly named ‘World’s Healthiest Dessert’, which also features in the vegan tasting menu and is sugar, dairy and gluten free, is a trifle of chocolatey black sapote bavarois, fresh kaffir lime and coconut foam, young coconut sorbet, beetroot brownie, berries and cocoa crunch. Or go all out with profiteroles, spiced with tangelo sherbet, Buddha’s hand jam and raspberry kaffir lime.

The extensive drinks list also heroes Australian artisan producers including local legends like Byron Bay’s Brookies gin and New England’s biodynamic Jilly wines.

The colonial style timber louvres and fans are charming and cosy, and importantly shield the restaurant from the less glamorous resort style boulevard outside.

Exotic ingredients and progressive drinks aside, Fins is old school. And perhaps that, with Snowy’s passion, is the secret to keeping its loyal regional following.

Must eat dish: Local line caught fish of the day
Instagram: @finsrestaurant