Where To Eat (and Drink) Right Now: Australia’s Best Openings in February

It’s a tough time for Australia’s hospitality industry. But the country’s chefs and restaurateurs continue to forge onwards, opening brilliant new spots we want to eat at, month after month. Broadsheet ’s city editors have picked the best of February’s openings to add to your local hit list, or to check out on your next interstate trip. Dig in.

Melbourne

Askal

Options for eating Filipino food abound across Melbourne in ways they previously didn’t – from west-side champions Migrant Coffee and Chibog to CBD restaurant Serai, gelato makers Kariton Sorbetes and casual eateries Ceree and Barkada Pinoy. The latest is Askal, a new Filipino restaurant led by John Rivera, a fine-dining chef who’s worked at Amaru , Sunda and Lume. Here, he’s cooking “unadulterated Filipino food” he says represents the country’s diverse and rich food culture “truthfully”. Even the deep red, gold and navy curtains are a nod to the colours of the country’s flag. The snack game is strong here; the menu opens with a doughnut topped and filled with oxtail kare-kare (a thick stew with peanut sauce) and rock oysters with aged pinakurat (Filipino vinegar) and green chilli relish. Follow them up with small plates like pancit palabok (a rice noodle dish) with calamari and preserved urchin, and sizzling pork jowl and abalone sisig (typically made with pork and chicken liver served on a sizzling plate). Standout larger plates include coal-roasted swordfish, and the dessert menu offers classics like halo-halo – a mix of shaved ice and seasonal fruits with an assortment of jewel-like jelly toppings and currently finished with a white peach and chrysanthemum sorbet. Diners are encouraged to eat many of the dishes with their hands, Filipino-style.

Sydney

Tita

Sydney’s Filipino options have also expanded in recent years. Tita, meaning auntie in the Philippines, is inspired by co-owners and siblings Kenneth Rodrigueza and Karen Rodrigueza-Labuni’s (also Donut Papi) untraditional tita Marlene, who they describe as supportive and modern. (There’s also a third co-owner, Christopher Palamara.) The diner is a take on a carinderia, a street-side or open-air eatery where the day’s food bubbles away in large pots over gas hobs. Here the concept has evolved into more of a cafe-style setting: order your breakfast or lunch at the counter, and it will be brought to you. Those familiar with Filipino breakfast fare will recognise the array of silogs, a portmanteau that comes from the dish’s ingredients: sinangag (fragrant garlic fried rice) and itlog (egg, which in this case is fried with golden-crisp edges). Protein – options include thinly sliced beef and house-made pork sausage – is added to the eggs-and-rice base. Then there are pandesal (fresh, buttery rolls) spread with cheese pimiento (starring house-made jersey milk kesong puti) or coconut jam, or stuffed with corned beef, ube (purple yam) and cheese. There’s also a series of breakfast buns, as well as sweets like ube soft serve, and exclusive Donut Papi doughnuts with Filipino flavours.

Brisbane

Chalong

Southern Thai cuisine is the focus at this stripped-back new eatery in Brisbane’s inner west. Chef Kantima Pachnoi’s dishes – many of which can’t be found elsewhere in Brisbane – are inspired by her upbringing in the Southern Thai province of Songkhla and her time in Phuket, and some of them, including gai gor lae (chicken skewers basted in a red curry paste) are made using family recipes. There’s also moo hong (Phuket-style soy-braised pork belly); Asian herb fritters with fermented chilli and cashews; slow-cooked dishes like lemongrass and tamarind beef ribs; and a beef cheek massaman. Cocktails are inspired by Thai flavours, including the house cocktail, which blends fresh pineapple juice with rum, red grapefruit, lime and chilli. And you won’t drop more than $75 on any of the drops from the approachable wine list.

Adelaide

The Thai Guy

Terry Intarakhamhaeng has channelled the buzzing food markets of Bangkok into his new restaurant, The Thai Guy. The owner of well-respected Adelaide restaurant Soi 38 is offering a contemporary snapshot of the Thai capital’s street food scene, merging timeless recipes with trending dishes on a menu featuring smoky skewers, sizzling hot plates and classic Thai curries. You might start with snacks like deep-fried roti swiped through a curry dip or crispy chicken wings with nam jim sauce before moving on to DIY betel leaf wraps clutching tofu, prawn or crispy pork, or skewers with grilled pork, chicken curry sausage or barbequed squid. A signature is the pad thai hotplate, a dish of pad thai wrapped in a thin omelette and served on a sizzling hotplate with a fried egg and your choice of protein, a dish Intarakhamhaeng says is all the rage in Bangkok’s street markets at the moment. Beers served at the simply decorated restaurant include classic Thai Singha and locally brewed beers by Mismatched.

Perth

Busselton Pavilion

The sleepy seaside town of Busselton, a couple of hundred kilometres south of Perth, has enjoyed an energetic spike with the opening of the Busselton Pavilion, a 500-capacity venue incorporating a central bar and open dining room, an al fresco area, a mezzanine and an attached wine store and bar with its own menu. It’s serving elevated pub fare made with quality produce, with many dishes – such as whole squid basted with culinary director Brendan Pratt’s (ex- Vasse Felix) renowned XO sauce – coming off a Rotisol rotisserie imported from France. Other key dishes to look out for in the maritime-inspired space include prawn toast made with leftover Rise & Co sourdough and Shark Bay prawn seconds, and beef tongue sourced from Dirty Clean Food, basted in tomato XO and served with roti and pickled onion. The 150-strong wine list naturally leans Western Australian, and a soon-to-launch in-house distillery will craft bespoke gin and vodka, before moving into vermouth and amaro.