Where to go in Australia’s top foodie destinations, according to chefs

These hotel restaurants in Australia’s top food-loving cities are cooking up local flavour and drawing inspiration from near and far.

From Hobart to Sydney and Melbourne to Adelaide; every Australian city has its own culinary personality. Plating up local ingredients and sourcing the best produce from their neighbouring regions, these hotel restaurants are finessing flavours that showcase the best of their state. We asked chefs of Accor hotels restaurants to tell us where they go for the must-try foodie finds in their city.

1. Platform 818, Mercure Sydney

Located on a former part of the old Goods Line tunnel, which once ran through Sydney and onto regional NSW and beyond, Platform 818 at Mercure Sydney is quite literally built on history.

Executive chef Simon Harrison has taken this rich heritage and plated it up by sourcing ingredients once mainly transported by train, such as lamb from Junee and pork from the Murray Darling Basin. The menu at Platform 818 also features elements from the Sydney area and Harris says he often takes his chefs to the markets at 4am to source freshly caught seafood.

Enjoy some of Sydney’s best produce on the menu at Platform 818.

With Sydney being such a multicultural city, he encourages his team to bring their own culture to the kitchen, which plays out on the menu from dinner to the breakfast buffet, where you’ll find specialties of laksa, steamed dim sims and pork buns.

His advice for visitors is to follow their own palate when in Sydney. “The city has a wonderful seafood scene, and Australia is known for its exceptional quality meats. If you dined at Platform 818 today, our four-hour slow-cooked lamb shoulder with whipped Persian feta and pea gel would be a must-try,” he says.

The moody, stylish interiors of Platform 818.

2. Ten Stories, Swissotel Sydney

Executive chef John Pugliano of Ten Stories at Sydney’s Swissotel takes inspiration from his 18-year career spanning the globe, which he blends with a modern Australian culinary vision and a uniquely Sydney flavour. “The essence of the Sydney area is artfully translated onto the plate through a philosophy of simplicity and reverence for quality ingredients,” says Pugliano.

One of those ingredients is very local, indeed. Working with Sydney Bee Rescue Group, Pugliano tends beehives on the hotel’s rooftop, the inhabitants of which service the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens. This eco-conscious product lends a distinctly Sydney sweetness to some of the restaurant’s standout dishes, including Pugliano’s ‘The Beehive’, a dessert he calls an “edible artwork” made from Chantilly sponge, honeycomb gelato and meringue. It’s a must-try for guests and Sydneysiders alike, but if you’re visiting the city, Pugliano also suggests rock oysters and tiger prawns. “Wash it down with a crisp glass of Chardonnay and that’s Sydney!” he says.

Dine on Pugliano’s ‘The Beehive’ dessert.

3. Tesoro, Mövenpick Hotel Hobart

You’ll take a gastronomical tour of Tasmania when you sit down to dinner at Tesoro in Hobart’s Mövenpick Hotel. The ‘Chef’s Road Trip’ is the restaurant’s own version of a tasting menu and winds its way through some of the state’s most incredible produce.

While head chef Glen Tilly describes the fare at Tesoro as bringing an “approachable feel to Italian food” with its incredible sourdough focaccia and pizza, there’s no mistaking Tassie’s flavour on the menu with dishes such as a starter of briny, fresh local oysters with gin jelly and shallot vinaigrette, and succulent Cape Grim beef dry-aged in-house.

Dinner at Tesoro brings the Apple Isle’s flavours to you, Tilly also recommends a Tassie itinerary for gourmands that begins with cheese, honey and oysters, then carries onto lobster rolls washed down with whisky and chocolate.

There’s no mistaking Tassie’s flavour on the menu at Tesoro.

4. Luma, The Playford Adelaide – MGallery Hotel Collection

South Australian-born executive chef, Cameron Tabe is compelled to use as many local ingredients as possible on his menu at Luma in The Playford Adelaide. But with Luma being the Latin word for ‘light’, he says there’s also a strong European influence at the restaurant.

The two collide in Tabe’s favourite dish, the Mont Rosso souffle, which uses local artisan cheese from Section 28 to make the French classic. Tabe says he is extremely fortunate to have strong relationships with local farmers that enable Lume to use the highest quality produce.

Those dining in the restaurant must be sure to order pastry chef Olga Baranova’s bombe Alaska, which is lit at the table to add a touch of theatre to the final course.

Find a a strong European influence and local ingredients at Luma.

5. Edwin Wine Bar, Shadow Play by Peppers

“The menu engineering works backwards at Edwin Wine Bar,” explains executive chef Ritesh Patil of Melbourne’s Shadow Play by Peppers. Rather than deciding what he’d like to cook, he first identifies the ingredients that are in abundance and the most sustainable.

“Our menus here are micro-seasonal and we keep locally sourced produce at the heart of what we do,” says Patel.

So diners may find themselves slurping fresh mussels from nearby Port Arlington or savouring cheese from Victorian dairies and aged prosciutto from Daylesford – all washed down with a Victorian-only wine list. Whatever manifests on the plate it will be as local as possible and finessed with Melbourne’s multicultural flavours.

Edwin Wine Bar’s menu is based on what’s in season.

To learn more about the restaurants of Accor, visit all.com.