Where Nigella Lawson Ate in Australia in 2025

Cook, host, food writer, “domestic goddess”. Nigella Lawson is known for many things, chiefly her fantastic taste in food and her flair for describing it. Be it for Vivid, Masterchef, a speaking engagement, or just for a vacay, Lawson loves Australia.

Each time she touches down Down Under, she makes a beeline to the country’s best restaurants. Lawson documents her visits and what she eats on Instagram.

Here’s a running list of the Australian spots Nigella Lawson has visited and loved in 2025.

Where Nigella Lawson Ate in Perth

Lulu La Delizia, Subiaco

Nigella Lawson’s love affair with Lulu La Delizia started last year. In 2024 she booked in on a recommendation from Matt Preston. Lawson says ever since that first dinner she’s been “feasting on the memory, in particular, of the orecchiette with prawns, baby zucchini, white wine, garlic and chilli ever since … I couldn’t book my return visit to Lulu La Delizia fast enough. And, oh, the orecchiette were as sensational as before: just bliss with every bite! And the same can be said of everything else I ate.”

Lawson feasted on “an only slightly eccentric order for two”, which began with anchovies on bread “followed by corzetti (which are a traditional Ligurian pasta shape, like stamped discs/coins) with basil, pine nuts and Parmesan, as well as the beige-but-beautiful and full-flavoured fazzoletti (named for the handkerchiefs the silky wide strips of pasta resemble) with rabbit ragù”.

Cape Lodge, Margaret River

On May 4, Lawson shared a picture of an “almost absurdly magnificent view from the dining room of beautiful Cape Lodge”. While she was there, she ate “luscious chicken liver parfait with a judiciously sharp rhubarb compote”.

Cullen Wines, Margaret River

“What does any wise person do on arriving in Margaret River?” asks Lawson on Instagram. “Why, go straight for lunch at Cullen Wines, of course! That’s my cure for jet lag and my recipe for deep joy.”

Lawson’s love of Cullen Wines is well-documented. “Some of you may remember my post from last year featuring these same glorious colours. I just revel in the blue of this sky, the green of these vines, and the exuberant red of the sun umbrellas!”

On the menu was a 2019 chardonnay pét-nat from the vineyard. And although Lawson says, “I am not natural wine’s biggest fan when faced with the funky-farmyard stuff, but I resolutely am when it comes to the beautiful, biodynamic bottles that Vanya Cullen makes. [It] was light, elegant, sherbetty but not sharp, and lusciously lovely.”

Following on from the “life-giving gorgeousness of the pét-nat”, Lawson began her meal with “perfect bread with their divine pipian, a hummus-textured spread/dip made of pumpkin seeds, grill-smoky tomatoes and peppers, and a kiss of garlic, lime and coriander”. She then “inhaled the tenderest little scallops with cauliflower and chicken-y juices (sounds odd; tasted heavenly), kohlrabi and nasturtium”.

Her third bite was “the crispy potato and celeriac terrine with wakame and brown rice miso. Now, I’m normally anti-froth-or-foam but this, for all it looks frothy or foamy, was just the most flavour-concentrated airy sauce, and the celeriac and potato, under its cap of cabbage, so meltingly velvety, that I panic about not eating it again.”

Her Sunday lunch was rounded out with “perfectly cooked Rankin cod with charred sweetcorn, XO mussels, snapper sauce and sunrose (these citrussy, succulent little leaves new to me, and a revelation) and the Arkady lamb rump with pumpkin, white polenta and (another first for me) kunzea, a native plant that tastes both fresh and honeyed at the same time.”

Her “pud” included “caramelised apple (from the tree near where we were sitting) and almond cake, with spiced oats and guava ice cream; honey mousse with macadamia, quandong and banana ice cream; and Cambray Blackwood blue cheese (which I’ve fallen in love with) seeded crackers, pear and walnuts”.

She went on to praise chef Ben Day, saying, “I know the descriptions and the presentation might give the impression of rarefied fine dining and, yes, the technique and attention to detail are of the highest quality, but everything just tastes of food, if you know what I mean. Ben Day’s cooking is exquisite, but it doesn’t feel fancy when you eat it, just full of joyous flavour.”

Where Nigella Lawson Ate in Sydney

After dining around Perth, she crossed the country, making a beeline for some of Sydney’s best dining rooms. Here’s where she’s been so far, what she ordered and what she thought.

Fratelli Paradiso, Potts Point

This 24-year-old classic is the restaurant Lawson reckons she’s eaten at “more often than at any other restaurant in Australia”. And she always makes sure it’s her first stop – it’s one of what she calls her “Rules for a Good Life”.

“Walking through the doors after a year away just felt like coming home,” she wrote on Instagram. “I love everything about this place: great people, great mood, great food … behold the beauteous Bombalaska! I don’t expect to eat a better pudding while I’m here, and I don’t need to: I’ll just keep on coming back for this! It’s got a base of hazelnut praline, and beneath the flame-bronzed Italian meringue is mounded pistachio semifreddo and lemon curd. I swooned with each spoonful.

“The delicious steps that led up to this were gratifyingly as follows: olive ascolane, my every-time, on-arrival order, those fat and juicy green olives stuffed, here, with sharp cheese before being breadcrumbed then deep fried; puntarelle, that bitter zig-zaggy chicory tangled with anchovies; Fratelli’s signature scampi spaghettini; and a magnificent pork chop with agretti (Monk’s Beard) and white polenta. Purring with pleasure, and planning when I can come back for more.”

Sean’s, Bondi

“Roast chook at @seansbondi epitomises the perfect Sydney Sunday for me,” Lawson wrote in another Instagram post. “Much happiness provided too by the exquisite cruditées and fennel chowder with blue claw yabbies that came first, as well as just dreamy dessert of crostoli with pistachio cream, kumquat, quince and persimmon.

“Of course, @seanmoran64 (and everyone who works there) radiating gorgeousness, as ever,” she continued. “And, oh, that blackboard of joy. I’m actually too full up even to write now, which explains why this is a short caption by my standards. And my heart is full, as well.”

Owner Sean Moran summed up our city’s sentiments in a comment: “Sydney loves you Nigella, and so do we. Thank you for always seeing the good in restaurants, especially this salty crusted show.”

Ester, Chippendale
“This time last week, I had the most wonderful meal of my life,” wrote Lawson of Ester, the Hot-Listed diner from chef Mat Lindsay. “I know I say it each time I go to Ester (and it’s always true) as each time is a fresh occasion for delight.” She began with “impeccable oysters” before moving on to “the now legendary fermented potato bread with salmon roe and a beguiling jelly-topped kefir cream; followed by madly good Sommerlad chicken dumplings, bulgingly plump and sensationally savoury in their rich, smoky broth”. She chased it with “exquisite pippies, in a liquid that tasted saltily like a gravy drunk on its own magnificent meatiness.” For dessert, she had a “superbly elegant but winkingly bright crèpe caramel.”

Lawson is such a fan that she says she’s already rebooked Ester for her last night in Sydney before going back to the UK.

Ante, Newtown
Earlier last month, Nigella Lawson commented on our ode to an Ante pasta, saying it was on her list. A week later, she was at the Hot-Listed Sydney restaurant ordering up a bowl.

“Boy, did I make the most of my visit to Ante last weekend,” her post began. “Ante is ostensibly a sleek, dark sake bar of uber chic hipness that is as much about the music as the drink and food. The friend I went with, knowing my aversion to noise (and I’m afraid I generally categorise music as noise) anxiously warned me, but there was nothing to mind on that front … even grandma here, who normally always asks for the volume to be turned down, was happy!

“And my ‘ostensibly’ above is just because, beyond all else, Ante is really a site of sensational food. Fried potato mochi were light as puffs and as meltingly dense as fondants (how that is possible, I don’t know). The chunkily chopped beef tartare with caramelised Jerusalem artichoke, smoky hazelnuts and a fluff of Comté cheese was, in equal parts, robust and exquisite. And then came the deep thrill of the pasta: casarecce with the sweetest prawns, peppy and aromatic kanzuri (a Japanese fermented chilli paste) and tang of pickled clementine, all bound in butter; and tagliatelle with fermented shiitake, again, velvety with butter. Charred baby leeks came in a bright, spiced sauce that made their smoky sweetness sing. The Murray cod with chicken fat (yes!) and spinach was so tenderly succulent (can’t avoid the word) contrasting with the almost austere, brittle crispness of its skin. Then came the melting, fatty richness of pork neck with vinegar-sharp, bitter puntarelle, salty with anchovy.”

Flour and Stone, Woolloomooloo
Like us, Lawson says she never needs an excuse to go to Flour and Stone. She posted about a pre-dinner party trip to the bakery, where she bought a trio of cakes: a pistachio-raspberry-rose cake, a pannacotta lamington cake and a Valrhona manjari chocolate cake. She described them as “total knockouts”.

She also picked up a cinnamon morning bun and a ham and cheese toastie for her “own private edification”.

Palazzo Salato, CBD
“Double anchovy joy!” began Lawson in her post about the Love Tilly team’s CBD pasta joint. She ordered “the anchovy-anointed stracciatella with little cubes of toasted bread that I’ve been thinking about ever since I had it here last year.” It was followed by an “absurdly luscious spaghetti with brown butter, salted anchovies and Aleppo pepper”. She topped it off with a vodka martini, which she said “acted instantly” to (here she quoted Frank Bruni) “blunt the day and polish the night”.

Anchovy at Baba’s Place, Marrickville
Lawson has a history with Anchovy. In her post, she recalled that three years ago she enjoyed one of the most “rapturous dinners” she’d ever had at the inventive Melbourne Vietnamese venue. She fell for “enlivening clarity and uplifting brightness of Thi Le’s food”. While in Sydney this time, Lawson snagged tickets for Le’s takeover at Baba’s Place. She particularly enjoyed “the perfectly pitched balancing act that’s [Le’s] prawn and papaya goi: this gorgeous tangle of green mango and papaya, chilli, lemongrass and plump, tenderly sweet prawns, alive with lime, topped crunchily with fried shallots, more crunch provided by the most fabulous prawn crackers, just danced on the plate!”

Smalls Deli, Potts Point
Lawson had been in Sydney for a while when she realised it was “past time for my customary pilgrimage to Smalls Deli.”

“Delayed gratification is not really my thing,” she said in a post. “But my patience was rewarded by this gorgeous creation, the Toto”. The sandwich was “outrageously good: spread with lemony butter bean purée and pesto, it’s bulgingly stuffed with mortadella and mozzarella, exuberantly sprinkled with chopped toasted almonds, and topped with peppery rocket.”

Saint Peter, Paddington
Lawson wrote she’d been “entranced by the memory and wonder” of her dinner at Josh Niland’s Saint Peter. As many people before her have posited, she says “Josh Niland is, simply, a genius. It’s a wearyingly overused term, but in his case it feels shabbily inadequate. His inventiveness, delicate touch, exquisite care, and joyful gift for flavour and texture just bowl me over. I always go to his restaurants with the highest expectations, and every time his food exceeds them.”

She raved about dishes including “the sensational oysters and the coral trout bone noodles with maitake mushroom broth.” She also enjoyed the “smile-inducing raw Robinson’s bream, with marigold ponzu, cucumber and purple daikon [and] the crazily wonderful fish charcuterie, an area Josh has made stunningly his own. On the night I squiggled a diagram to show what each was, but which I now (unsurprisingly) find indecipherable!”

She enjoyed other mains like “the salt [and] vinegar line-caught blue mackerel” and “the heavenly calamari, cut like tagliatelle, with a meaty, gutsy yellow fin ’nduja.” For dessert, she had caviar-topped canelés, “I know it sounds weird, but that rich saltiness against the sweet crunchy creaminess was sensational!”

Not usually one to be defeated by food, Lawson said, “I actually didn’t have room for the perfect, sherbet-sharp and upliftingly bright yuzu meringue tart, so took it back to eat it later!”

Additional reporting by Grace Mackenzie.