Intimate dining restaurants are on the rise – here are 21 of the best

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Downsizing at a restaurant is rarely something to get excited about, that is unless it invites an elevated intimate dining experience.

Restaurateurs across the country are buying into a trend toward downsizing in order to offer a more intimate dining experience. It’s like stepping into someone’s home for dinner. Whether your idea of an intimate restaurant looks like a cosy table in a farmhouse or a Japanese-style omakase experience, we’ve rounded up the top dining spots for a truly memorable night out.

1. Allta

Allta Sydney interior
Allta embodies Korean culinary tradition and technique. (Image: Supplied)

Allta is a portmanteau of ‘all’, Korean for ‘right’, and ‘ta’, Aussie slang for ‘thanks’. Right. Ta. The two-hatted Korean fine diner in Sydney’s CBD offers just 12 ringside seats to watch Michelin-trained chef Jung-su Chang (ex-Jungsik, Seoul) ensuring everything is just so. Choose between a pairing of five Champagnes or premium blends of tea in the elegant space, which is all marble and handcrafted ripples of wood. One of many highlights of the 15-course degustation is guk bap, a beef shin soup served with oyster mushrooms and rice.

Address: 50 Pitt St, Sydney, NSW

2. Chae

Chef Jung Eun Chae developed quite the following when she opened her eponymous restaurant Chae in a one-bedder in Brunswick in 2019. The Good Food Guide’s 2025 Chef of the Year has many devoted followers who have covered the 60-kilometre distance from Melbourne to her new dining room in Cockatoo, in the Dandenong Ranges. There are only four sittings during the week, so you’ll want to be assured of a booking. Chae honed her skills at restaurants such as Cutler & Co and Lume and blends precision cooking with Korean flavours from her childhood.

Address: 33 Mountain Rd, Cockatoo, Vic

3. Omakase at Prefecture 48

The eight-seater omakase experience
This private fine dining experience is worth splurging on. (Image: Supplied)

The eight seats that line the counter at Omakase represent prime real estate at Prefecture 48. Enter through the noren divider to find master chefs Akira Horikawa (ex-Ginza Kyubey in Japan) and Tomoyuki Matsuya, a second-generation sushi chef working together to prepare each dish with an almost poetic precision. A dot of crayon-green wasabi here. A curl of sweet daikon pickles there. It’s an absolute showpiece of all that Prefecture 48 is about and is destined to be one of the best Japanese restaurants in the country.

Address: Level 2, 230 Sussex St, Sydney, NSW

4. Analiese Gregory’s farmhouse restaurant

Analiese Gregory new restaurant
The famed chef is bringing her culinary artistry to a much smaller audience. (Image: Adam Gibson)

There will be just 10 seats around the table at Analiese Gregory’s restaurant when it opens within the 110-year-old farmhouse she calls home in Huonville, Tassie, in 2025. For years, the NZ-born chef maintained a manic pace working at some of the world’s best kitchens (Le Meurice in Paris; Quay in Sydney) before leaving it all behind for a simple life in Tassie. Instead of the usual chef’s whites, Analiese looks like she’s stepped off the set of her TV series A Girl’s Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Wild Cooking. Follow Analiese on Instagram so you can secure a booking at the restaurant, set to be one of the hottest openings for 2025.

Address: Huonville, Tasmania

5. Emerald City

Expect a hush to settle as chef Joel Alderdice delivers each dish on the degustation menu at Emerald City. Check your assumptions at the unmarked door behind Cavanagh’s Whisky & Alehouse before being pulled in by invisible forces to the restaurant inspired by the chef’s favourite film, The Wizard of Oz. It’s an immersive sensory experience borne from an idea the chef (ex-Bar Liberty, Attica) has been percolating for years: to open a restaurant in his hometown of Healesville. Click your heels together: the intersection of theatre and the culinary arts at the intimate four-seater is magic.

Address: 207 Maroondah Highway, Healesville, Vic

6. Park Pantry

Grab a few of your besties and make a beeline to Park Pantry, one of the most intimate restaurants for dining out in Melbourne. The oh-so-petite South Yarra hang is the perfect spot for a pitstop for breakfast or lunch. It’s also a great place for travellers to get a taste of chef MarcAntoinie ThomasPierre Nicolaii’s jaunts around France and Italy. The European-style menu is complemented by a Euro-leaning wine list. Follow up your dinner with a walk in the park.

Address: 119 Park Street, South Yarra, Melbourne, Vic

7. Yakimami

You will feel as if you’ve been spirited away to a back alley in Kyoto at the 12-seater restaurant Yakikami in South Yarra. The intimate dining experience happens in the Josper Room, which can accommodate a total of 12 people. The intimate restaurant is adjacent to the venue’s main dining area and tucked away from the hustle and bustle. Order from the set omakase menu in the atmospheric restaurant as it includes Yakikami’s signature A5 Kobe wagyu beef. The 12- to 14-course feast comes with sake and a wine pairing

Address: 50-152 Toorak Road, South Yarra, Melbourne, Vic

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8. Sunny’s Kiosk

Group dining at Sunny’s Kiosk
Sunny’s Kiosk brings a refined dining mood to Merimbula. (Image: Supplied)

Sunny’s Kiosk, which is barnacled to a pier on the frayed edges of Top Lake in Merimbula, transforms into a wine bar at night in the warmer months. And it’s one of the best places to eat in Merimbula. It’s run by Tess Podger who brings a refined dining mood to Merimbula. Come here for a romantic date – either day or night – to enjoy the best of the South Coast on a plate. Think cured pork neck with radicchio, Eden tuna tartare and coal-roasted local squash and zucchini with stracciatella.

Address: 68 Lakewood Drive, Merimbula, NSW South Coast

9. Amuro

Think of restaurant Amuro as a stage, arranged so that diners are drawn into another world. The 20-seater eatery was inspired by the cult Netflix series Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, designed to promote “simple yet profound connections with others over the shared love of a particular dish". This little gem is one of the most romantic restaurants in Sydney, a space that feels more like a homey ground-floor Tokyo terrace than a restaurant. Don’t miss the boutique saké (nihonshū) and kingfish sashimi. If it feels exclusive it’s because it is: walk-ins are welcome.

Address: 2/255 Crown Street, Sydney, NSW

10. Besuto Omakase

Besuto Omakase interiors
The intimate eatery seats just eight diners and is designed around natural materials. (Image: DG Media)

The interiors of Besuto Omakase are designed to match the quality of the food at this Tokyo-style omakase in Sydney’s Circular Quay. Both Bar Besuto and offshoot Besuto Omakase celebrate Japanese excellence. The intimate eatery seats just eight diners and is designed around natural materials – leather and wood – that add to the moody ambience. The omakase restaurant is tucked away behind a hidden door in an industrial-style basement. To enter the restaurant, you go via the bar, which offers everything from happy hour highballs to whisky masterclasses. The omakase experience includes 15 small plates of what’s seasonal on the day along with sake and wine-pairing options.

Address: 3 Underwood St, Circular Quay, Sydney, NSW

11. Le Salon Privé

Le Salon Prive table interior
The menus are a love letter to French gastronomy. (Image: Supplied)

Le Salon Privé is the sidecar to La Lune in Fremantle, providing an intimate dining experience for groups between eight to 24 guests around one table or up to 30 guests around three tables. The salon offers two elevated offerings for guests who are keen to book a private dining room. This is a fun, French affair led by head chef Oskar Pinter who has built his reputation around bold French bistro fare. Make time to stop and smell the rosé at the restaurant which has a wall of wine as its backdrop and an elegant European vibe Factor in a post-prandial prance around Freo after indulging in the butter-poached Southern rock lobster. Bien manger.

Address:  73 George St, East Fremantle, Perth, WA

12. Sean’s Panorama

You will feel like you’re at your boho mate’s place in North Bondi when you duck into Sean’s Panorama for a feed. The homely destination diner is bright and cheerful with pendant lighting and a flotsam and jetsam of shells as well as paintings and photographs lining the walls. Expect fresh flowers on your table and a daily-changing menu that responds to the seasons. Although the restaurant seats 45, there’s also an intimate private dining room that can seat up to 12. Standout dishes include roast chook (iconic) and the linguine with rocket and chilli. Follow @seanmoran64 to see what’s cooking.

Address: 270 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, Sydney, NSW

13. O. MY Beaconsfield

O. MY Beaconsfield interior
O. MY Beaconsfield serve fresh and sustainable culinary delights. (Image: Supplied)

Diners at the intimate O. MY restaurant feel they’ve been spirited away somewhere very special. That’s largely due to the Bertoncello brothers, who are a big deal in Beaconsfield thanks to their generous hospitality and clever cooking. Much of chef Blayne’s menu is designed around the fruit, vegetables, eggs and honey grown at the nearby family farm. Start with a drink recommended by Blayne’s brother Chayse, who is both wine waiter and maitre’d, before embarking on your culinary journey at this temple to farm-to-table gastronomy.   

Address: 70 Princes Highway, Beaconsfield, Victoria

14. Luke’s Tour & Tastings at the Pylon Lookout

tour and tasting at Sydney Harbour Bridge
Soak up Sydney’s sun at Luke’s Table.

Sydney, on Eora Country, is a sprawling city, with hundreds of restaurants that represent its many diverse neighbourhoods. But it doesn’t get more iconic than dining with up to 20 guests at a time with chef Luke Mangan on the Lookout level of the southeast pylon at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Luke Mangan turns out the most dazzling dishes during the 90-minute experience, dubbed Luke’s Tour & Tastings at the Pylon. Work up an appetite by ascending the 200 steps to enjoy three-course menus that revolve around different themes. Make a booking at the BridgeClimb website to enjoy a feast with panoramic views.

Address: 3 Cumberland St, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW

15. Ah Um

bar at Ah Uhm
This 25-seater restaurant is acoustically optimised.

The peeps behind Perth/Boorloo listening bar Astral Weeks have opened a new intimate 25-seater restaurant dubbed Ah Um. Expect earworms aplenty at the dinky eatery which shares similar dining soundtracks chosen from mixes uploaded to Aw Radio (an online streaming platform launched by Astral Weeks). The Northbridge nook also offers some unexpected flavour harmonies such as Sydney rock oysters with a rhubarb mignonette and tuna crudo with grapefruit and pimento oil. Order the market fish, which arrives in a bouillabaisse with fried pommes. Enter via Astral Weeks.

Address: Shop 12/60–66 Roe St, Northbridge, Melbourne, Vic

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16. Pino’s Vino e Cucina

dining space at Vino's
Pino’s Vino e Cucina is snug and full of heart. (Image: Dan Allen)

Alexandria residents have been feeling smug about having Pino’s Vino e Cucina as their neighbourhood restaurant for almost a decade. The dimly lit restaurant in Sydney’s south is warm and atmospheric, designed as an ode to Matteo Margiotta’s family home in Rome, Italy. Margiotta (ex-Garfish, Cottage Point Inn) has been working with executive chef Cristiano Patacca since opening the venue in 2016 and the place operates like a well-oiled (pasta extrusion) machine. Start with tuna crudo and finish with strozzapreti pasta with white lamb ragu, anchovy and pecorino Romano.

Address: 199 Lawrence Street, Alexandria, Sydney, NSW

17. Restaurant Ka

dining table at Restaurant Ka
Guests are treated to an intimate and immersive dining experience. (Image: Supplied)

The chef’s table experience at Restaurant Ka in Darlinghurst is one that inspires an almost feverish loyalty from neighbourhood locals. The 10-seater private dining room is tucked away behind a hidden door in the backstreets of Oxford St junction. Outsource an intimate gathering by putting your trust in chef Zac Ng to curate a stellar eight-course degustation. Also worth celebrating in this culinary journey is the joy of learning about the inspiration behind each dish. The chef’s table-style restaurant has a set menu that changes frequently. Expect snacks such as pickled squid, bluefin tuna toro, spanner crab with silken tofu and coral trout with a shellfish emulsion and lotus root.

Address: 13b Burton Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW

18. Malin

dining table at Malin
Relish in a romantic dining experience at Malin.

Malin is a cosy double-storey site that is evocative of a Euro-centric wine bar. The kitchen at the 26-seat restaurant in Carlton North in Melbourne/Narrm, is led by chef Clement Pilatre, whose CV includes stints at Michelin-starred restaurants. Housed in a historic building not far from the city’s centre, the light-filled space wraps around an open kitchen where diners can watch Clement whipping up modern takes on French classics. Staples include mashed potato with vanilla, coconut and rum or the beef and oyster tartare smothered in Champagne sabayon and topped with caviar. Expect a cosy crowd of Carlton North creatives.

Address: 687 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, Melbourne, Vic

19. Ouzo

downstairs interior at Ouzo restaurant
The downstairs space at Ouzo is a walk-in-only area. (Image: Supplied)

Ouzo is split across two levels in the heart of Darlinghurst just steps away from Oxford St. While there’s a 100-seater restaurant upstairs, the downstairs space is a walk-in-only area with booth and bar seating that is perfect for casual drop-ins or pre-dinner drinks. The Mediterranean bar and restaurant was inspired by the recent travels of restaurateurs David Cooper and Brett Ayton (Tommy’s Mexican). The menu includes elevated bar bites such as paprika and garlic-marinated king prawns or lamb gyros or anchovy toast. If you’re after something more hefty, opt for the duck breast with plum sauce and burnt grape.

Address: 259 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW

20. The Paddock at Beechmont Estate

Dish from The Paddock at Beechmont Estate
Experience a couple’s creative approach to dining at The Paddock. (Image: Supplied)

Eating at The Paddock feels a bit like time-travelling to the past to visit your country cousins who lived on a farm in Queensland. The dining room appears appears cloned from the paddock-to-plate experience of our dreams. The charming hatted restaurant seats just 40 and is 45 minutes from the Gold Coast. Here, in the folds of the hinterland, seasonal ingredients get the special treatment they deserve from husband-and-wife team Chris and Alex Norman. Enjoy comforting country classics such as Brisbane Valley quail and mud crab tortellini.

Address: 422 Binna Burra Road, Beechmont, Qld

21. Etta

dining space at Etta
Etta’s food and vibes are both top-notch. (Image: Annika Kafcaloudis)

This warm and inviting eatery in Brunswick East may as well be in a dispatch about the best places to take your Valentine’s Day date to dinner. Etta has cornered the market on cosy. Etta has its devotees for the fact it has the feel of a family dining room and, depending on the crowd, it can either be all whispered conversations or filled with cheer and chatter. The overall feel is friendly and welcoming. The food is great, lo-fi wines lovely, service sharp and overall experience an absolute corker.

Address: 60 Lygon St, Brunswick East, Melbourne, Vic

Carla Grossetti
Carla Grossetti has written across print and digital for Australian Traveller and International Traveller for more than a decade and has spent more than two decades finding excuses to eat well and travel far. A prestigious News Corp cadetship launched her career at The Cairns Post, before a stint at The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald gave way to extended wanders through Canada, the US, Mexico, Central America, Asia and Europe. Carla was chief sub editor at delicious and has contributed to Good Food, Travel & Luxury, Explore Travel, Escape. While living in London, Carla was on staff at Condé Nast Traveller and The Sunday Times Travel desk and was part of the pioneering digital team at The Guardian UK.
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Inside Geelong’s glow-up from factory town to creative capital

    Chloe Cann Chloe Cann
    Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated. 

    Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.  

    Geelong cellar door wine bar
    Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

    Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct 

    Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.  

    Paddock Bakery andPatisserie
    Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

    At Paddock, one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand. 

    Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design 

    Paddock Bakery
    Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

    “A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.  

    And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

    Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.  

    As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.  

    The rise of a food and wine destination  

    boiler house
    Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

    Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco. 

    Woolstore
    The Woolstore is a new restaurant and bar housed within a century-old warehouse. (Image: Amy Carlon)

     The Woolstore, one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.  

    Woolstore menu
    Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

    Breathing new life into historic spaces  

    On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.  

    “We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.” 

    Provenance Wines
    Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

    The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

    While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.  

    handcrafted pieces
    Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

    The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”  

    A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”  

    Elizabeth Bell
    Ceramicist Elizabeth Bell has a store in Fyansford Paper Mill.