Barrenjoey House

Heritage-listed Barrenjoey House is a 100-year-old guesthouse and restaurant in Palm Beach in Sydney’s northern beaches. It was bought by The Boathouse Group (The Boathouse Palm Beach, The Boathouse Hotel Patonga) in 2018, and is the group’s first restaurant offering.

The menu offers the sort of fare you’d expect from a seaside diner – that is, a whole lot of seafood – but with a more sophisticated bent than your local fish’n’chip shop. In the bar, that’s oysters with fennel and apple; fried calamari; and kingfish ceviche with fennel, cucumber and jalapeno. On the main menu there are a few pastas, several fish options and all kinds of meat – chicken, lamb, beef and duck – simply done.

The flatbread list (yes, there’s a whole list devoted to it) sounds good enough to continue our love affair with flatbread, recently stoked by the version at Bondi’s Totti’s. There are the classics such as tomato, mozzarella and basil, but then there’s the broccoli with mustard and chilli, the lobster with béchamel, and the cured ham with fig and mozzarella.

The restaurant’s fit-out sticks to the nautical theme of The Boathouse family’s other venues – most especially the Boathouse Hotel Patonga, the Central Coast pub. There’s lots of white-painted wood, wicker furniture and exposed timber, with splashes of colour thanks to some pretty cool lampshades and throw cushions.

If you’re hoping to stick around, you can head upstairs to find Barrenjoey House’s guest-house. It includes seven guest rooms, a shared lounge area and a breezy outdoor terrace.