Fleet Restaurant (Brunswick Heads, Australia)
This stretch of lush landscape along the northern New South Wales coastline ought to be on any Australian visitor’s bucket list. Known as the Northern Rivers area, its unique topography sees a network of tidal rivers that wind through the flats between gorgeous beaches and leafy hinterlands. Byron Bay is the famous anchor town, but the tiny riverside community of Brunswick Heads has transformed in recent years, mainly thanks to Fleet, a slip of a restaurant on the quiet end of the town’s commercial district. There are only 14 seats, and they are hard to secure, but do so and you’ll be rewarded with everything wonderful about modern Australian dining. The tone is set by co-owner Astrid McCormack, who delivers some of the warmest and most gracious service I’ve ever experienced. Her partner, co-owner and chef Josh Lewis, executes a tasting menu that makes the best of the region’s beautiful produce and seafood, playing with contrasts and textures in ways both thoughtful and ingenious. The vegetal tang of a whole fresh radish is tempered with the sweet nuttiness of a honey-and-sesame-seed coating, as part of a flurry of small snacks to start. Raw oysters are nestled in sheep-milk yogurt and showered with shaved macadamia for a soft, tart, briny mouthful that is pure pleasure. Sweetbreads are turned into the world’s creamiest schnitzel, served as a “sanga” between soft rounds of white bread with a generous glurp of anchovy and mustard mayo. Fresh, delicious food; interesting and thoughtful drinks service; truly caring hospitality. These are the things that make eating in Australia wonderful, and Fleet is a glowing embodiment of them all. fleet-restaurant.com.au
“We were in Tokyo in January with the kids, and we had the most amazing time as a family. (We really loved the ramen shop afuri in sangenjaya and ate there three nights in a row!) When the pandemic first hit, there were ridiculously low-priced flights to Japan, so we booked some departing on boxing day this year. I can’t really see that we’re going to be able to go, but it was a nice idea!”
– BEN SHEWRY, ATTICA, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
