Good luck on deciding where to shoot your negroni at this newly renovated old dame in St Kilda. With 12 bars spread across five levels, The Espy may be 140 years old, but she’s showing no signs of fading. Perhaps you’ll like the boudoir textures and colours of Mya Tiger Cantonese restaurant, with its jade velvet booths and swanky Colonial style, or prefer the bright garden terrace with its views out over the pier, all created by Melbourne design studio Techne Architecture.

Housed in a grand heritage-listed building in the heart of Brisbane CBD, this Chinese fine-diner brings together old and new, with stained wood paneling and leafy palms on the perimeter of the soaring room, and plush gelato coloured chairs and futuristic Arco Floor Lamps framing the tables.

When the weather is fine head to this summery rooftop venue, where it’s all about sweeping CBD vistas and peaches and cream vibes, which match perfectly with their fun, frosty, cocktails. For something more serious, you’ll find an extended list of shaken and stirred concoctions downstairs. 301 Swanston St, Melbourne. peaches.melbourne.

For those willing to face the weekend crowds, The Grounds of Alexander – the Sydney empire’s original HQ – is ground zero for foodie photo shoots. Picturesque plates? Tick. Industrial chic interior? Double tick. Meandering garden that’s a dreamy urban oasis? You got it. The downside? The inevitable photo bombers.

Nip in to Melbourne tipple institution The Everleigh on Gertrude Street for old-school elegance and delightful libations. American oak timber panelling, vintage tessellated tiles, gilt-framed Victorian portraits and taxidermy adorn the handsome space, which has waistcoated bartenders and a hushed drawing room ambience.

The perfectly layered sandwiches at chef Clayton Wells’ hip Chippendale eatery are of architectural proportions and well worth your feed. Wells has revived the muffuletta, a multi-layered sandwich pressed into a hollowed-out cob loaf loaded with cured meat, cheese, pickles and other deli-counter favourites including marinated artichoke hearts and olive tapenade, and it tastes as good as it looks.

Doot Doot Doot is the flagship restaurant at the Mornington Peninsula’s chic vineyard hotel Jackalope. When the sun sets and you can no longer see the lush vista through the windows – studded with the boutique hotel’s modern art collection – a twinkling 10,000 globe chandelier by Melbourne-based designer Jan Flook creates the surreal sensation of champagne bubbling above the otherwise all-black dining room.

The combination of gleaming white subway tiles, neon wall art and pastel pink plates by Genesin Studio has a fun K-Pop aesthetic that is the perfect backdrop for the mounds of dark golden Korean fried chicken (KFC) at Ban Ban. Be prepared to queue though for the perfect shot at this popular chiamek joint – a classic Korean offering that pairs fried chicken and beer – on Franklin Street.

Remember those high school art classes learning about complimentary colours? Red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange? It’s the latter combo that this Bondi institution masters with bright tangerine Aperol Spritz served against a backdrop of ocean and sky hues that fade from deep navy to brilliant turquoise. The fresh ocean colour palette is mirrored in chef Monty Koludrovic’s Italian restaurant when it’s time to come in from the breezy balcony.

Faro is part of Pharos, the newest wing at Hobart’s fantastical MONA art gallery. With a black margarita in hand and tapas dishes on the way, you sit in the company of legendary US artist James Turrell, or at least his sculpture Unseen Seen – a sensory deprivation chamber shaped like a giant pearl that rests in the middle of the restaurant, seemingly floating on the glossy, jet-black floor. The 10-metre-high ceiling is pitched like a tent with a floor-to-ceiling triangle-shaped window that looks over the Derwent River. It’s an awe-inspiring interior and you can pick your jaw off the floor when the food comes out.

El Cheeky Flamingo bar in Adelaide’s East End puts the rad into Radelaide. Drinks are of the bodacious Tiki kind and come in every colour of the rainbow complete with paper flamingos and maximalist Tiki garnishes. Pose with your Zombie, Mai Tai or frozen watermelon daiquiri in front of the banana-leaf wallpaper, then soak up all that rum, tequila and North American beer with one of their signature toasties garnished with a mouth-puckering pickle.

There may not be a single splash of Millennial pink or spearmint green at this much-loved all-day restaurant in West Perth, but the warehouse setting (in fact, it’s a converted garage) with high ceilings, utilitarian furniture and cool blue and white colour palette entice you to come for a lazy brunch of ricotta pancakes and linger on for a glass of wine at happy hour.

Part of the newly refurbed Newport Arms on Sydney’s northern beaches, Bert’s has a gracious old-world brasserie feel that transports you to the sunkissed French Riviera. The tangle of mis-matching bent cane furniture, plush banquettes, pastel hues and art-covered spearmint-painted walls overlooks the leafy Pittwater shoreline, while chef Jordan Toft’s plates hark back to the glory days of French bistro fare, think brioche toasts with butter and caviar to go with a glass of Provence rosé and a dozen oysters from the raw bar.

There’s an eclectic, thrift-shop appeal to Fitz+Potts, voted Brisbane’s Best Bar in 2016 and 2018, from the astro turf, coloured stools and shaggy tiki umbrellas on the balcony of this converted Queenslander, to the 70s beachhouse wallpaper and cane bar stools inside. The drinks menu is entirely Australian, with plenty of natural wines and craft beers to go with the all-vegan menu of burgers, jaffles, gyoza and bao.

You can thank Studio You Me for the understated, minty fresh fit-out at this justifiably hyped Melbourne cafe. The gleaming white walls and smooth marble bar where baristas turn out perfect flat whites, round after round, are contrasted by the calming green hues of pistachio-coloured chairs and hanging greenery. Although it’s housed in a frilly, white Victorian terrace in South Melbourne, there’s nothing old-world about The Kettle Black with its stark Scandi-chic cool and mod-Australian menu with equally effortless dishes such as scrambled eggs with crab on toast or coconut chia pudding.