Australia holidays: Why foodies should skip Sydney and head to this NSW region

Jana Restaurant & Bar at the QT hotel is just one of many appealing dining and drinking destinations in Newcastle, just two hours' drive from Sydney. Photo / Destination NSW

Natural wine and snacky plates tend to be associated with Sydney or Melbourne dining, but Newcastle is changing. The regional centre two hours north of Sydney is best known for being a mining town, but it's now gunning to be one of Australia's best eating destinations as young chefs bring their fine dining training and big-city sensibilities to this beachside town.

Mike Portley is one of them. He has Sydney's Bodega and Adelaide's Africola on his resume. Newcastle is his partner Steph's hometown and where they decided to raise their young family. Their wine bar, Humbug, wouldn't look out of place in a big city.

The wine is natural, the snacks are sublime – think a salty Ortiz anchovy draped across a creamy parmesan custard, all sitting on a light-as-air Danish pastry - and pasta is a big focus.

It's the kind of place where you can pop by for a drink and a snack on the way to your next stop, settle in for dinner or grab a takeaway focaccia filled with prosciutto, mortadella, olive tapenade and honey mustard.

If Sydneysiders think Lock's Paddock looks familiar with its white subway tiles, open kitchen and charcuterie hanging over the bar, it's because owners Nick and Rebecca Sullivan ran popular inner-city wine bar Chester White Cured Diner. Its signature dishes, including a carbonara made tableside and cacio e pepe pasta served in a giant hollowed-out parmesan wheel, have also made the trip north.

Newcastle is just two hours drive from Sydney but offers a whole new world of dining options for keen foodies. Photo / Destination NSW

Michelin-trained chef Massimo Speroni moved down from Bacchus in Brisbane to open Jana, a modern Australian restaurant at the new QT hotel. It's a mix of inventive and classic as the restaurant finds its feet and tests out the market. A mojito sphere amuse bouche is a one-bite sensation that explodes with flavour, hiramasa kingfish crudo comes with a smoky, butterfly peaflower sauce that turned purple, squid-ink seafood gnochetti is a taste of the sea and the torta di rose, a rose-shaped cake served with zabaglione, channels Speroni's childhood.

Ape is the newest restaurant along the wharf. The team behind popular Japanese eatery Nagisa, opened the yakitori bar in July. All the produce is local, mostly from the nearby Hunter Valley, and the majority of the menu is cooked over charcoal.

Start with a Japanese negroni, a combination of gin, yumeshu and sake, with a strong citrus kick before tucking into some of the best chicken wings you've ever tasted, simply seasoned with Murray River Pink Salt and cooked over charcoal. Dry-aged salmon yakitori are seasoned with sancho pepper and wakame salt while meaty king mushrooms are brushed with a white truffle-infused cultured butter.

Romberg's is the rooftop bar at the Crystalbrook Kingsley, a 130 room five-star hotel in Newcastle, NSW. Photo / Destination NSW

In keeping with the growing eating scene, the drinking scene has also upped its game.
Romberg's is the place to be for great views and killer cocktails. The rooftop of Crystalbrook Kingsley has wrap-around views of Newcastle harbour. Signature cocktails make use of native ingredients such as Davidson plum, lemon myrtle and strawberry gum.
A coastal margarita combines Altos Plata tequila with wattleseed syrup, lime, saltbush, samphire and sea grapes. It may not have the salt rim you're used to, but these saline-heavy native ingredients are more than just garnish, so tuck in for that salty hit.

Modus Operandi is a craft brewery that started small in Sydney eight years ago and opened a larger space in Merewether late last year.

The light, bright dining space holds 300 and there are 36 beer taps, which pour the core range as well as limited-edition brews. After a lot of experimenting, the brewers have found a way to pour their zero-booze beer, Nort, on tap as well, the challenge being that it froze in the tap because it doesn't contain alcohol.

To celebrate the move northside, Modus created two new local brews. The Newy Crisp lager and Hazy are both light beers at 3.5 per cent ABV. The Hazy came about from Modus' sponsorship of the Newcastle Jets, because you can only serve mid-strength beer in local stadiums, but it proved so popular it's now part of the core range.

Earp Distilling Co was one of the first distilleries in the area, opening up two-and-a-half years ago. Its award-winning products include the signature #8 and Just Juniper gins, but it also produces dark spirits, limoncello and liqueur. The core rum range will be out in October and will be a sipping rum, akin to a good whisky.

Gin cocktails at Earp Distilling Co, in the New South Wales region of Newcastle, a great destination for foodies. Photo / Destination NSW

Product development happens in the Lab, which also doubles as a gin school where you can make your own gin.

Vera Wine is a boutique wine store that came about when Florence Diffey and Josh Di Stefano moved up from Melbourne during lockdown to the latter's hometown with their young family. Between them, they've worked at Melbourne institutions such as Gerald's Bar and Bar Liberty, and thought Newcastle was ready for a retail store that sold restaurant-quality wine.

They were right. It opened in April and was an instant hit, stocking a range of minimal intervention wine that spans classic drops to more esoteric styles and everything in between.

Newcastle Food Month, which takes place every April, is only two years old, but organiser Gus Maher is adamant that in a few years it will be the leading regional food event in the country, rivalling counterparts in Orange and Margaret River.

If Newcastle's new wave of openings is any indication, he could be on to something.
It also helps that the city's first five-star hotel, Crystalbrook Kingsley opened its doors late last year and boutique cool-kid QT arrived in June. Where the hotels lead, the travellers will follow, which means Newcastle is finally on people's radar as a delicious, beachside destination.

Checklist
NEWCASTLE
GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand, Jetstar, Latam and Qantas all fly direct between Auckland and Sydney. Newcastle is a two-hour drive or train ride from Sydney.
DETAILS
For more things to see and do in the region, go to visitnewcastle.com.au