Saint Peter at the Grand National Hotel

Nose-to-tail cookery – utilising every part of a whole animal, including offcuts and offal – went from a novelty to common restaurant practice in years, not decades. But it wasn’t until Josh Niland came along that the culinary world began to see fish as "more than just the sum of its fillets". His approach was so revolutionary, it changed perceptions seemingly overnight.

Niland's celebrated fin-to-scale philosophy is brought to life at Saint Peter, the Paddington restaurant that moved from a tiny space on Oxford Street to a heritage-listed hotel with 14 boutique rooms in 2024.

The scaled-up Saint Peter is split into distinct areas: a front bar with a nostalgic à la carte menu, a private dining room and the restaurant proper. The latter centres around a large open kitchen carrying on the spectacle of the OG, with stacks of ironbark for the woodfired grill and kelp hanging to dry. It’s here that the chefs prepare Saint Peter’s wildly inventive seafood dishes. A small semi-circular marble chef’s table gives five diners a front-row seat to the theatre and a 10-course tasting menu.

On the drinks front, Saint Peter’s cocktails are legendary in their own right, most notably the restaurant’s Murray cod fat-washed Martini. From wines to spirits, the rest of the beverage program emphasises Australian producers – but there’s also a section of the menu devoted to small and curious Japanese sake distilleries.