From Bangalay to the Blue Mountains, NSW restaurants are embracing native ingredients – saltbush-dusted lamb at an outback fine diner, outlandishly creative desserts at a coastal ice creamery or delicious cafe fare at an Aboriginal-owned eatery.
Mirritya Mundya Restaurant*
Where: Shoalhaven
Through dishes like kangaroo fillets with native thyme butter or rigatoni mixed with cinnamon myrtle and Warrigal greens, Mirritya Mundya’s menu shows off the diversity of the state’s Aboriginal ingredients. The casual Culburra Beach venue started off as a marquee in 2018 until owner and chef Dwayne Bannon-Harrison opened the permanent space in 2025. The charming venue serves dinner on Friday and Saturday nights and Bannon-Harrison also hosts cultural dinners and educational programs at venues like the Sydney Opera House and Bangarra Dance Theatre.
Must-try menu item: Aniseed myrtle Guinness kangaroo, bush honey Dutch carrots and native thyme mash.
Mirritya Mundya Restaurant, Culburra Beach - Credit: Mirritya Mundya Restaurant
Blak Cede Gunyah Cafe and Shop*
Where: Shoalhaven
Led by a collective of Aboriginal women, Blak Cede Gunyah Cafe and Shop cultivates traditional foods from Kareela Ngura, its community permaculture garden. The menu at this vibrant Shoalhaven cafe riffs on classics while incorporating native ingredients in each dish. That might mean fluffy Warrigal greens omelettes served with tangy bush tomato or pulled kangaroo burritos with smoked black bush beans.
Must-try menu item: Decol roll with native spice bacon, fried eggs, lemon myrtle mayo and native relish on a soft milk bun.
Bush Icecreamery
Where: Brunswick Heads
Two days a week, Wal Foster balances a Bush Icecreamery sign on a stool outside tiny Brunswick Heads cafe, Daily Counter, and serves an outlandishly creative range of ice creams and frozen treats that some have called the best in NSW. On the ever-changing menu, there could be creamy scoops of Ooray plum and pepperberry ice cream made from Northern Rivers Jersey milk or ice blocks made from local jackfruit, aged vinegar and three types of lime: finger lime, makrut lime as well as the familiar variety.
Must-try menu item: Roasted macadamia ice cream with miso-brown-butter cookies plus mugolio syrup made from bunya nuts.
Bush Icecreamery, Brunswick Heads - Credit: Bush Icecreamery
Bangalay Dining
Where: Shoalhaven Heads
A dense stand of windswept trees is the only thing separating Bangalay from the waves crashing on the beach. This worlds-away landscape is the inspiration behind the dishes at the property’s onsite restaurant, Bangalay Dining. Delightful combinations dominate the menu like slow-cooked pork belly with puckeringly tart fermented rhubarb or Murray cod loin with ‘nduja glaze and smoked almonds. Book a stay at one of the luxury villas where floor-to-ceiling windows look out over bushland and have all your meals at the award-winning restaurant.
Must-try menu item: South Coast bluefin tuna with beach mustard and bush lime.
Bangalay Dining, Shoalhaven Heads
Pipit
Where: Pottsville
The chef’s counter is the best seat in the house at Pipit. On any given night, acclaimed chef Ben Devlin will be at the woodfire grill, cooking up local produce and sustainable seafood for his six- or eight-course chef’s menus. The ever-changing offering combines Australian native ingredients with Asian and European cooking techniques, like grilled oysters with kelp shoyu or Mitoyo heirloom eggplant with native tamarind. Sustainability is at the heart of every practice: scraps are turned into condiments, spent bones form the basis of tableware and diners receive a map detailing the producers and suppliers of their meal.
Must-try menu item: Grilled pipis with chawanmushi, emu egg white and charred citrus oil.
Pipit Restaurant, Pottsville - Credit: Sabine Bannard
Warakirri Dining by Indigiearth*
Where: Mudgee
Warakirri Dining by Indigiearth is a five-course degustation celebrating Aboriginal culture and cuisine. Over four hours, diners experience a menu of bush tomato quiche, meaty wild barramundi and campfire-roasted kangaroo. Food is served alongside a program of storytelling, music and rituals that foster wider appreciation for Aboriginal culture and explore the millennia-old connection between food, land and spirit.
Must-try menu item: Campfire kangaroo, a dish that pays respects to how the protein has been cooked on fire for tens of thousands of years.
Warakirri Dining, Mudgee
Firescreek Botanical Winery
Where: Central Coast
Firescreek Botanical Winery makes award-winning wines from the extensive variety of botanicals grown on its regenerative, organic farm. Temperate rainforest surrounds this lovely Central Coast property where seasonality dictates the wine-making process. Depending on the time of year, the vast gardens flourish with raspberries, oranges, guava berries and elderflower. Visit the wine cellar, book a behind-the-scenes tour with the winemakers or learn about First Nations culture and taste bush foods as part of the Firescreek Aboriginal Storytelling experience.
Must-try menu item: Tasmanian raspberry and crisp apple wine.
Aboriginal experience at Firescreek Botanical Winery, Central Coast
EXP Restaurant
Where: Pokolbin
EXP Restaurant's intimate 28-seat dining room is the ideal setting for staff to guide diners through a menu of local and native produce. Kangaroo loin is brushed with pungent garum and wagyu fat while Rocky Point cobia fish is smoked in paperbark and served with mandarin vinegar and lemon myrtle oil. The kitchen is thoughtful about food waste, repurposing by-products into condiments, sauces and seasonings.
Must-try menu item: Rosella poached in semillon verjus served with strawberry gum sauce plus plum-and-lime curd.
EXP Restaurant, Pokolbin - Credit: EXP Restaurant
Arrana
Where: Springwood
Almost every dish on Arrana’s two degustation menus features Australian native ingredients. The restaurant is tucked away in an unassuming arcade along Springwood’s high street and serves dishes like citrusy Geraldton wax with scallops and white chocolate or white kunzea and Warrigal greens with chicken. Even the cola from the non-alcoholic drinks pairing is infused with wattleseed.
Must-try menu item: Striploin with pearl barley, onion and vibrant rosella.
Arrana, Springwood - Credit: Food Frenzy
The Old Saltbush
Where: Broken Hill
Located in the kind of rustic, late-1800s building that gives Broken Hill its outback charm, The Old Saltbush is an approachable fine diner with a menu focused on local and regional produce. That might include sticky pork ribs braised with wattleseed-infused honey or crisp-skinned barramundi in a lemon myrtle and bush tomato rub. The kitchen is a one-woman show, run by owner Lee Cecchin, a chef who travelled the world cooking for royalty, celebrities and political figures before coming home to Broken Hill.
Must-try menu item: Saltbush-dusted lamb rack followed by silky green ant panna cotta.
The Old Salt Bush, Broken Hill - Credit: The Old Salt Bush
Restaurant Amara
Where: Hawkesbury
Restaurant Amara has a strict food miles policy: produce must come from no more than one hour away from the Bowen Mountain property. The seven-course menu showcases the best of the native ingredients, like Murray cod with macadamia aglio bianco and desert lime or poached strawberries with milk sorbet and strawberry gum.
Must-try menu item: Bilpin apple, pepperberry and olive oil sponge.
Restaurant Amara, Bowen Mountain - Credit: Spicers Retreats
*These experiences and venues are Aboriginal owned.
Where to dine on native ingredients in Sydney
Where to dine on native ingredients in Sydney
FAQs
Where can you eat native ingredients in NSW?
Where can you eat native ingredients in NSW?
Native ingredients appear on menus like Restaurant Amara in Bowen Mountain, The Old Saltbush in Broken Hill, Blak Cede Gunyah in Shoalhaven among others.
What are some examples of Australian native ingredients?
What are some examples of Australian native ingredients?
Wattleseed, lemon myrtle, kangaroo and saltbush are examples of Australian native ingredients.
What Aboriginal-owned restaurants in NSW serve native ingredients?
What Aboriginal-owned restaurants in NSW serve native ingredients?
Mirritya Mundya Restaurant, Blak Cede Gunyah Cafe and Restaurant and Warakirri Dining by Indigiearth* are Aboriginal-owned restaurants that serve native ingredients.
