'Ten of the Best Regional Restaurants in Australia' - Travel + Luxury Magazine, The Australian, June 2023

The great Australian escape takes a delicious turn with this outstanding crop of destination-dining eateries peppered around the country worth hitting the road for.

REGIONAL AUSTRALIA has long brimmed with innovation and flavour. Incredible produce is plucked fresh from the ground or the ocean, or raised on land that’s sometimes just outside your dining table window.

Some of the latest culinary stars opened just before the pandemic shut down all hopes of a road trip; others emerged among the green shoots of recovery, ready to welcome travellers overdue for a home-grown adventure. Some are fine-diners with laid-back country warmth, while others are more casual, the setting an easy-going stage for good times.

From a heritage sandstone building to a restored haberdashery store and a hillside ode to Tasmanian coastal splendour, each setting is uniquely of its place. We say hit the road, stat.

2. ANTICA AUSTRALIS, CARCOAR, NSW

Antica Australis serves up food and stories each weekend in the tiny, film-set town of Carcoar, in the Orange wine region. Just like husband-and-wife team Kelly and Paolo Picarazzi, the experience is a joyful coming together of culture and cuisine.

She’s Australian; he’s from Ciociara, near Rome, from which he draws his recipe inspiration, realised with the bountiful produce of the area in dishes that are at once traditional and creative.

Housed in a restored heritage building, once a haberdashery, Antica opened three weeks before Covid hit, but survived and thrived (while Carcoar has also earned plaudits such as 2022 NSW Top Tiny Town).

The set menu is served to all diners at once, with Kelly recounting the history of each dish throughout the meal. It’s BYO, so visitors exploring the region can bring their discoveries.

Close relationships with producers yield everything from freshly picked hazelnuts – used in a heavenly hazelnutinfused risotto served with toasted hazelnuts and guanciale – to pasture-raised meat and local wines.

The end of the last vintage was celebrated “by throwing a lot of wine into the dishes”, says Kelly.

Think local sirloin steak with Angullong Montepulciano sauce and ethereal tiramisù featuring local pomegranate and See Saw prosecco.

Stovetop espresso and biscuits are served before you head back to reality. anticacarcoar.com