08 October 2024
18 mins Read
The best restaurants in Bowral have become a beacon in the Southern Highlands for everyone from couples looking for a romantic escape to families celebrating special occasions. The little village is now on the map for its incredible cuisine thanks in large part to an influx of sophisticated holidaymakers and well-heeled tree changers who came here for a winter escape and stayed.
These days, the best way to experience the brilliance of a weekend dining out in Bowral is to bounce back and forth on multiple weekends away. Here is our guide to the best places to eat and drink in Bowral and its immediate surrounds.
Don’t be fooled by the name. Flour Bar is so much more than a bakery. In addition to the everyday indulgences on offer here, such as potato buns, herb and garlic focaccia loaves and sourdough baguettes, head chef Guy Hammerton and head baker Tim West know best when it comes to breakfast, lunch and dinner.
More than a bakery, Flour Bar is a perfect spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Image: Flour Bar/Christopher Pearce)
Flour Bar is all things to all people. Open from 6am for breakfast, it then pivots to lunch and dims the light for dinner. Put simply, it’s the best place in the Southern Highlands for a cocktail, glass of wine and elevated bar bites.
Have a tipple at Flour Bar. (Image: Flour Bar/Christopher Pearce)
The menu at Flour Bar is designed to share. Think cured meats and cheeses. Duck rillettes with pickled fruit paste and sourdough toast. Or mushroom ragu with gnocchi for something more substantial. This is made-from-scratch soul food at its finest. There’s also a takeaway bottle shop with more than 200 wines, as well as a deli inside an old bank vault with cheeses and charcuterie.
The menu at Flour Bar is designed to share. (Image: Flour Bar/Christopher Pearce)
Address: 386 Argyle St, Moss Vale
Best for: Taking your Hinge romance to the next level.
Dinah’s offers a contemporary take on the whole Escape to the Country experience. Like Osborn House itself, it’s both playful and unexpected and has burst into national prominence as one of the best places to eat in the Southern Highlands. Dinah’s, open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday, is tucked away in a pristine wooded pocket of Bundanoon, one of the Southern Highland’s most unsung villages.
Recharge after walking to one of the local waterfalls with a stay at this heritage house where, once you’ve arrived, you’ll never want to leave. Seasonal five-course set menus are the thing at Dinah’s, one of the best places for fine dining in the Southern Highlands. Enjoy a seriously dreamy outlook while enjoying share plates of kingfish crudo and seasonal citrus, Gundagai lamb backstrap and summer greens pesto with almonds and lemon all delivered with poise by the stylish staff.
It’s worth returning in the cooler months for the Osborn House Fire Feast.
Dinah’s is one of the best places for fine dining in the Southern Highlands.
Address: 96 Osborn Ave, Bundanoon
Best for: A casual meal in the heart of the Southern Highlands.
George’s is the more casual dining option at the sumptuous Osborn House, which dates back to the 1890s. This restaurant with rooms in the picture-postcard village of Bundanoon is known for its easy-going charm. But you don’t have to be a guest to dine at George’s, which is open for lunch and dinner and has a bar that operates between 3 and 6pm for casual bites.
Opt for a more casual dining option at the sumptuous Osborn House.
Forget dark nooks and heavy furniture. The interiors at George’s draw from a palette of earthy olives, timber, turmeric and thyme tones. Like Osborn House itself, the restaurant is both playful and unexpected.
Enjoy views over Morton National Park.
Take a seat at a table in the dining room or on the terrace, where you will enjoy views over Morton National Park. The restaurant offers everything from charcuterie to sandwiches and cheeseburgers. Keen hikers will also appreciate heftier mains such as truffled mac and cheese or wagyu Milanese.
The interiors at George’s draw from a palette of earthy olives, timber, turmeric and thyme tones.
Address: 96 Osborn Avenue, Bundanoon
What to order: Rigatoni vodka with spicy sauce, tomato cream and parmesan.
Best for: A social occasion
Head to Berida Hotel to sample elevated pub at its European-style bistro. Bistro Sociale is popular with those who have booked accommodation in Bowral and want to outsource lunch or dinner.
Book a table in Berida Hotel’s light-filled and elegant dining room.
Head chef Nathan Jackson changes the menu according to the seasons and it’s worth gunning it up the highway from Sydney for his house-baked bread with cultured French butter and cassoulet with confit duck, smoked pork, Toulouse sausage, white beans and tomato.
Earn brownie points with your Bowral buddies by booking lunch on the sun-drenched terrace where you can start with cocktails or a glass of local wine.
Step into the handsome boutique hotel. (Image: Destination NSW)
Address: 6 David Street, Bowral
What to order: Prawn linguine with spinach, chilli and garlic butter.
Best for: A stylish stay with the extended family.
Take a 1920s homestead in the Southern Highlands and apply a few splashes of colour to give it a thoroughly modern update. The restaurant, Ethos, at Links House has rounded out the experience of a stay at the Links House with a paddock-to-plate menu curated by acclaimed chef Jason Hughes.
While Links House is popular as a conference facility, it also attracts families and groups of friends who want to enjoy a bit of respite in the country. First-time visitors to the Southern Highlands will be reminded why this restaurant is included on every Bowral itinerary.
Try the duck breast with fig, honey, bitter greens and walnut. And, for something on the sweet side, opt for lemon curd with mascarpone and savoiardi biscuits.
What to order: Beef tartare, with capers and cornichons followed by lamb shoulder with fennel, cinnamon, couscous and dukkah.
Address: 17 Links Rd, Bowral
Best for: A special anniversary
Onesta Cucina is another reason to linger in this Highlands hamlet. The family-owned restaurant is known for its focus on hyperlocal food and a menu that changes with the seasons.
Check the restaurant’s Instagram ahead of your booking to see what takes your fancy. Will it be fried zucchini flowers with five Italian cheeses? Or perhaps the Mooloolaba king prawn insalata. The lasagna al forno is one to enjoy all to yourself. We can’t say we’d blame you.
Head to Onesta Cucina for moreish gnocchi.
Address: 5 Boolwey St, Bowral.
What to order: Start with the imported buffalo mozzarella with pickled beetroot insalata. Or the egg tagliatelle with white reef fish, prawns, squid and scallops flecked with herbs. ‘
Best for: Bowral locals who want to impress their big-city friends.
The Lotus Group have landed in Bowral. The restaurant is located within the stylish Park Proxi Gibraltar Bowral, one of the best places to stay in the Southern Highlands. Treat yourself to a mid-week getaway with a stay at this ‘restaurant with rooms’ known for its savoury dumplings, fresh seafood and kung pao chicken.
Indulge in contemporary Australian cuisine and street-cart Chinese food. (Image: Alana Dimou)
The menu at this atmospheric restaurant is a happy collision between contemporary Australian cuisine and the street-cart Chinese food that inspired it. Build your own Chinese banquet by ordering a mix of the duck pancakes, pork chops, crispy honey eggplant and duck fried rice.
Build your own Chinese banquet. (Image: Alana Dimou)
Address: 7 Boronia St, Bowral
What to order: Dumplings, of course. The flavour-filled parcels of dough are made fresh at the chic and edgy eatery each day.
Best for: Sophisticated city slickers.
Harry’s is named in honour of the renowned British horticulturalist and founder of the famed Chelsea Flower Show. Sir Harry Veitch was also known for dispatching nurserymen to foreign lands to find exotic treasures for his well-to-do London clientele. Like Sir Harry’s plants, the restaurant has grown quite organically and, in doing so, has won the hearts of Bowral locals.
Be surrounded by plants at this quaint Bowral restaurant.
Regarded as one of the best places to dine in Bowral, Harry’s is a hub for green thumbs as well as a space for lovers of provincial cuisine. First-time visitors to the restaurant will be struck by the book-lined walls and dramatic high ceilings. There are also vintage photographs of the botanists charged with collecting seeds from some of the world’s prettiest plants.
Harry’s on Green Lane is surrounded by as many beautiful plants and flowers as you’d expect in a nursery. The simple menu of dishes includes winners such as duck terrine. Or signature roast chicken drizzled in lemon myrtle oil. Don’t forget to peruse the nursery next door and Plantation Cafe. It’s open for two sittings from noon to 2.15pm seven days a week and for dinner Fridays and Saturday nights with two sittings at 6pm and 8pm.
Harry’s is a hub for green thumbs and a space for lovers of provincial cuisine.
Address: 15-17 Banyette St, Bowral
What to order: All of the above, as well as the ever-popular crab linguine. Hands down.
Best for: French fare
You will get a big bonjour et bienvenue at French restaurant Julian’s Bowral Brasserie. Located at the aptly named ‘Paris end’ of Bowral, Julien’s Bowral Brasserie has both indoor and outdoor dining.
Check the specials blackboard for oh-so-French dishes such as pork, veal and duck terrine. Or the seared scallops and Dijon mustard tomato tart. Head chef Julien Viel was born in France and holds his heritage close when curating a menu of classic French cuisine.
Address: 1 Wingecarribee St, Bowral
What to order: Start with assiette de charcuterie, snails in shell and chicken liver parfait. The herb-crusted lamb backstrap and duck confit a l’orange are also dishes that keep this Bowral bistro buzzing.
Best for: Lovers of Southeast Asian cuisine.
It’s eight minutes as the crow flies from Bowral to Mittagong. That’s where you’ll find Michelin-starred chefs Bongkoch ‘Bee’ Satongun and husband Jason Bailey, of Paste Australia. Together, the husband-and-wife team have devised an array of inviting dishes that deliver a series of roundhouse muay Thai kicks of flavour to the chops. The pair met in Thailand, where their first restaurant in Bangkok earned a coveted Michelin star.
Try the dishes from Michelin-starred chefs Bongkoch ‘Bee’ Satongun and Jason Bailey at Paste.
The so-called Queen Bee of Thai cuisine was awarded Asia’s best female chef by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. You might understand why when you enter the dining room where the fragrant aroma of spices fills the air. The unassuming decor in the dining room is pared-back, allowing the focus to be placed firmly on the food. Eating at this hatted regional restaurant is a thrilling experience thanks to Bee’s contemporary take on traditional Thai.
The menu is a contemporary take on traditional Thai.
What to order: Save your money on a trip to Thailand; the rock lobster with preserved plums, ginger, smoked pork stock and liquorice root is a must.
Address: 105 Main St, Mittagong
Best for: Romantics looking to impress a first date
Cheese etc is the brainchild of cheesemonger Hugh Nicholas, who started with a pop-up shop in North Sydney before relocating to the Southern Highlands and, more recently, the main drag of Bowral.
The cheese and wine are sourced from all over the world.
This is one of the most sophisticated places to eat and drink in Bowral. The cheese and wine are sourced from all around the world – some direct from farmers, some from major importers. And you will be spoilt for choice when you prop yourself up at the bar here where it’s easy to get ‘whey’-laid enjoying artisan cheeses ranging from brie to blue vein.
Settle in at the fully licensed space to enjoy local cheeses sourced from Pecora Dairy in Robertson or The Pines in Kiama. Alternatively, you can book in for a sommelier-led wine and cheese tasting. Or order the perfect platter for a picnic.
Order a selection of artisan cheeses.
Address: Shop 4, High Street, Bowral
What to order: The popular signature three-cheese toastie with a Highlander Pale Ale brewed in nearby Robertson.
Best for: Golfers who want to eat, play and stay.
Dormie House is the perfect country retreat. Built in 1934, this reimagined restaurant with rooms in the Southern Highlands is all cosy corners, roaring log fires and elegant interiors. Built in the 1900s, Dormie House overlooks the manicured lawns of the Moss Vale Golf Course, making it a great place to relax and unwind.
The Dining Room at Dormie is designed to enhance your luxurious getaway over a lazy lunch, an indulgent high tea in the Highlands or a decadent dinner. Savour garden-fresh veggies and slow-cooked beef cheeks with Paris mash, green beans, parsley and garlic. Wrap up the experience with date and macadamia tart with vanilla ice cream. There’s also the more casual option of bar bites such as cheeseburgers, toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and pork, tomato and fennel rigatoni.
What to order: Lamb shoulder, fennel, cinnamon, couscous and dukkah
Address: 38 Arthur Street, Moss Vale
Best for: Those partial to a good ghost story.
Taylor’s Crown Inn is open to the public and Highlands community seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is despite the fact it’s housed in a private members club. The Inn was built by convicts in 1844 using hand-hewn local sandstone in the vernacular architecture of a traditional English village. And it’s come full circle after morphing from a public house to a private house, art gallery, bakery, restaurant and back again.
In short, Taylor’s Crown Inn is a great example of the sophisticated culinary scene providing visitors with a different kind of Southern Highlands experience. The homey public house has lured visitors for generations and remains a mainstay of village life. Order corn-fed chicken with grilled cos lettuce, Caesar dressing with crispy pancetta and Mussett Farm mushrooms. Head to Hank & Molly’s, the bar named in honour of Molly the ghost to enquire about membership.
Sample sophisticated culinary offerings at Berrima Vault House. (Image: Destination NSW)
What to order: Chateaubriand with Robertson fondant potatoes.
Address: 11 Old Hume Hwy, Berrima
Best for: A uniquely Southern Highlands dining experience.
It’s worth dropping a pin on Berrima, just 10 minutes from Bowral, during your road trip around the Southern Highlands. It’s there you will find restaurant Eschalot, which has long been emblematic of the dining scene here. Housed in a heritage-listed sandstone cottage, the restaurant screams country charm.
Eschalot is housed in a heritage-listed sandstone cottage. (Image: Destination NSW)
Is it any wonder, then, that the tables are full of locals looking so smug? This is formal country dining at its best. Chef Matty Roberts shows off his technique with dishes that are like a succession of flavours, textures and temperatures while his wife Cass Wallace works the floor.
Make sure to either walk or get dropped off so you can enjoy the 10-course fine-dining banquet with paired wines and not have to drive back to your boutique accommodation.
Enjoy formal country dining at its best. (Image: Destination NSW)
What to order: If you’re not up for the ‘feed me’ menu, plump for the Southern fried chicken with honey and sriracha glaze. The king prawns with harissa butter and samphire is also a good bet.
Address: 24 Old Hume Highway, Berrima
Best for: Families and group gathos
Leila’s at the Grand is one of the best restaurants in Bowral. The Lebanese restaurant has found a niche in the Southern Highlands where the smell of slow-cooked meats and garlicky kofta stops visitors in their tracks.
The restaurant is run by Michael and Raye Abouchabake, who moved to the Southern Highlands nearly three decades ago to open Café Rocco, one of the best cafes in Bowral. Leila’s at the Grand pays homage to Michael’s mum, Leila, who did all the cooking at the sister café, three doors down in Bong Bong Street, Bowral, before she sadly passed away.
Everything on the menu at Leila’s would make Michael’s mum proud. The restaurant is housed in a section of the old Grand Hotel, which was developed into an arcade in the 1980s. Make your way through the menu of traditional Lebanese mezze starting with lubbye (a green bean stew) and shawarma with hummus.
Address: The Grand Arcade, 295-297 Bong Bong St, Bowral
For top-notch Lebanese, look no further than Leila’s.
What to order: Trust us: order the mixed grill platter, which reads like a list of Leila’s greatest hits including grilled lamb and kofta, tabouli, hummus, baba ghanoush, mixed pickles and garlic bread.
Address: The Grand Arcade, 295/297 Bong Bong St
Best for: Bookish types and road-trippers
It was likely Bendooley Estate that helped herald a new chapter for the Southern Highlands. The atmospheric bookshop has given road-trippers from Sydney and Canberra a reason to pull off the highway for the past four decades.
The grand Georgian homestead is tucked into the rolling hills. (Image: Destination NSW)
The Berrima book barn is of course best known for its collection of secondhand, rare and antiquarian books. But the grand Georgian homestead built on a tract of land granted to Governor Lachlan Macquarie more than two centuries ago also has a fabulous restaurant and bar.
The Bendooley Estate kitchen serves delectable dishes.
Start with a glass of wine and charcuterie plate in the cellar door then bunker down in the cosy book barn for Tuscan panzanella, or Margherita pizza with a mixed leaf salad on the side. Head to Leo’s Bar for a pre- or post-dinner drink.
From small to large plates, Bendooley Estate has something for everyone.
What to order: The slow-cooked beef short ribs with parmesan polenta, herb-roasted carrots, chimichurri sauce and parsnip crisps.
Address: 3020 Old Hume Hwy, Berrima
Best for: Galloping gourmands
Artemis Wines is not just for lovers of great wines. The estate also offers a lunch of light platters (think cheeseboards) on the lawn from Monday to Friday as well as the occasional pop-up BYO vinyl nights for holidaying hipsters.
Enjoy a glass or two at Artemis Wines.
The winery is known for its cool-climate wines and offers wood-fired pizzas on Saturdays and Sundays.
Artemis Wines serves up wood-fired pizzas.
What more do you need when on holiday in the Southern Highlands than a cheese plate and a glass of wine? Ideally located for those whose country boltholes are just minutes away.
Sit down for a cheese plate and a glass of wine.
What to order: Cheese and charcuterie.
Address: 46 Sir Charles Moses Lane
Best for: The best sushi and sashimi in the Southern Highlands.
Toshi’s is a Southern Highlands institution. The family-run restaurant has been going strong in Mittagong for more than three decades and is led by chef and restaurateur Toshi San. The thoughtfully curated menu is Toshi San’s love letter to Japan. It’s not the newest place in the Southern Highlands. But it’s endured for a multitude of reasons.
The Japanese proverb kuru mono kaeru ga gotoshi offers an insight into what to expect at Toshi’s. It translates to ‘relax like at home’, which is what this old-school place aims to achieve. Customers at Toshi’s come to be transported back to the Tokyo prefecture and there’s a patina and warmth here in this dimly lit dining room that cannot be contrived.
Expect the very precise kind of dishes that Toshi San has been cooking for decades and order a procession of them.
What to order: Spicy lobster roll.
Address: Beaumont Gardens, 60 Bowral Rd, Mittagong
Best for: A laid-back eatery serving classic Mediterranean fare.
Dishes like risotto al funghi, slow-roasted beef brisket with slaw and sriracha chilli mayo, and confit duck leg with a warm kipfler potato and watercress salad with juniper berry jus offer plenty for diners on the hunt for comforting country classics.
Josh’s has been built a fervent following since it opened in 2016,. Here, the soundtrack is heavy on pop and the menu is flat-out Mediterranean. What also leaves an impression on visitors is the warm, attentive service. This cafe by day, restaurant by night feels more like a friend’s home and is filled primarily with locals. It’s got chairs that recall your Mittagong mate’s place. Framed photos on the walls. And is BYO on Thursdays bro.
Josh’s is all about nostalgia, which guarantees you can have a good time here.
What to order: Pork belly with green papaya salad and orange caramel, ginger sauce.
Address: 9 Old Hume Highway, Berrima
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