Restaurants in Darwin
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A
Cornucopia Museum Café
Appended to the museum and gallery, this café makes for a good stop while you're in the 'hood. Maybe share a trio of dips, commenting on how good a dip would be, while overlooking Vestey's Beach. Try a salad or pasta special, remarking on how special that collection of artwork you've just walked around is. It's also good for a late breakfast, for the children and for meaty mains.
reviewed
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Hanuman
Ask most locals about fine dining in Darwin and they'll usually mention Hanuman. Sophisticated but not stuffy or pretentious (you can wear a T-shirt), enticing aromas of innovative Indian and Thai Nonya dishes waft from the kitchen to the stylish open dining room and deck. The signature dish is oysters bathed in lemon grass, chilli and coriander, or the meen mooli (reef fish in coconut and curry leaves) but the menu is broad, with exotic vegetarian choices and banquets available. Killer cocktails, too.
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Yots Greek Taverna
With a prime deck overlooking the marina, Yots serves up classic Greek and Mediterranean fare from saganaki and souvlaki to moussaka and spanakopita, along with barramundi and prawn dishes. Try the Greco barramundi served on spinach with baked lemon potatoes and a caper sauce. There's a cheaper lunch menu, too, and a wine list travelling from WA to France.
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Buzz Café
This chic bar-restaurant furnished in Indonesian teak and Mt Bromo lava has a super multilevel deck overlooking the marina and makes a seductively sunny spot for a lazy lunch and a few drinks. Meals are Mod Oz, with some zingy salads and dishes to share. Aim for a deck table cantilevering out over the water.
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Vietnam Saigon Star
Darwin's speediest, shiniest Vietnamese restaurant serves up inexpensive rice-paper rolls, and beef, pork, chicken and seafood dishes with a multitude of sauces. Vegetarians are well catered for and there are good-value lunch specials.
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Crustaceans
This highly regarded but rather touristy seafood restaurant perches on the end of Stokes Hill Wharf, where diners can enjoy the sunset and views over fresh fish, mud crabs, lobster, crocodile and oysters.
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Stokes Hill Wharf
Squatting on the end of Stokes Hill Wharf is a hectic food centre with half-a-dozen food counters and outdoor tables lined up along the pier. It's a pumping place for some fish and chips, some oysters, a stir-fry, a laksa or just a cold sunset beer.
reviewed
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Nirvana
Excellent Thai, Malaysian and Indian dishes are only part of the story at Nirvana − it's also one of Darwin's best small live-music venues for jazz and blues. It doesn't look much from the outside, but inside the fortress-like Smith St door is an intimate warren of rooms with booth seating and Oriental decor. Enjoy a Thai green curry, nasi goreng (special fried rice) or fish masala with your tunes.
reviewed
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Moorish Café
Seductive aromas emanate from this divine terracotta-tiled cafe fusing North African, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern delights. The lunchtime crowd arrives for tantalising tapas and lunch specials, but it's an atmospheric place for dinner too – order a tagine of NT prawns, apple cider, local jewfish coconut and lime, or the six-course banquet ($42 per person).
reviewed
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La Beach
Looking for a seafood splurge? It's La Beach's speciality, as is adding a French accent to Top End water lovers. Expect pearl-meat starters, plus barra, buffalo and croc in an array of creamy sauces. And choose from a stellar selection of Australian and New Zealand wines - and Champagne, of course - to toast that magnificent over-the-water sunset.
reviewed
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Go Sushi Train
Pull up a stool at this hip sushi circuit, hidden down a lane off Mitchell St. Despite the obscure location it's hugely popular, especially on 'Super Sushi Saturday' (all sushi $4 from 10.30am to 3.30pm). Can't get enough of those eel-and-cucumber rolls...
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J
Saffrron
Saffrron is Darwin's newest (and best) Indian restaurant, a contemporary but intimate dining experience. The menu spans the subcontinent, from rich butter chicken to Kerala lamb curry or Madras whole NT snapper. There are plenty of vegetarian choices, traditional Indian sweets such as kulfi (ice cream), and takeaways available. Rather progressively, they use biodegradable furniture, cutlery, plates, bowls and takeaway containers.
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Roma Bar
Roma is a real local institution and meeting place for Lefties, literati and travelling types. Well away from the craziness of Mitchell St, with free wi-fi, great coffee and juices, and you can get anything from muesli and eggs Benedict for breakfast to excellent toasted focaccia and fish curry for lunch.
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Ducks Nuts Bar & Grill
An effervescent bar/bistro delivering a clever fusion of Top End produce with that Asian/Mediterranean blend we like to claim as Modern Australian. Try the red Thai duck shank and banana curry, barra wrap or succulent lamb shanks. Good brekkies and caffeinated brews, too.
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Char Restaurant
A dramatic makeover of the ground floor of the historic Admiralty House has delivered Char, a fairly recent addition to Darwin's culinary landscape. The speciality here is chargrilled steaks − aged, grain-fed and cooked to perfection − but there's also a range of seafood, a crab-and-croc lasagne and a thoughtful vegetarian menu.
reviewed
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N
Cyclone Cafe
Possibly the best coffee in Darwin is brewed at this unassuming Parap haunt. The decor is all rusty corrugated-iron (Cyclone Tracy's favourite projectile), the staff are upbeat, the coffee is strong and aromatic (try the double-shot 'Hypercino'), and there's some great breakfast and lunch fare: croissants, burritos, cheese melts and bacon-and-egg rolls.
reviewed
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O
Tim's Surf 'n' Turf
Squirrelled away on a city backstreet, Tim's is a long-standing locals' diner where you can enjoy good-value seafood, steak, schnitzels and pasta on a relaxed, leafy terrace (just ignore the faux waterfall). Mark what you want on the DIY menu with a pencil and hand it to the cashier.
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Rendezvous Cafe
The laksa achieves legend status at this institution for Thai and Malaysian cuisine, tucked away in a quiet arcade off Smith St Mall. The menu is also flexible enough to provide a bacon and eggs breakfast and good coffee.
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Relish
Hip hole-in-the-wall cafe with a good dose of acoustic music, local artworks and magazines. Gourmet melts, ciabattas, focaccias and salads dominate the blackboard and there’s good coffee and spicy chai.
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Seadogs
It may not front the marina, but the meals are cheaper at this popular local restaurant specialising in pizza, pasta, risotto and a few prawn and calamari dishes.
reviewed
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Indian Cafe
Cheap and cheerful, this hole-in-the-wall curry joint has $7.50 two-curries-and-rice meal deals, eat in or take away.
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Coles
A large supermarket in the town centre that's open 24 hours.
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Cornucopia Museum Café
Appended to the museum and gallery, this café makes for a good stop while you're in the 'hood. Maybe share a trio of dips, commenting on how good a dip would be, while overlooking Vestey's Beach. Try a salad or pasta special, remarking on how special that collection of artwork you've just walked around is. It's also good for a late breakfast, for the children and for meaty mains.
reviewed
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V
Parap Fine Foods
A gourmet food hall in Parap shopping centre, stocking organic and health foods, deli items and fine wine − perfect for a picnic.
reviewed
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Istanbul Cafe
Inside Darwin's old Country Women's Association building (not a scone or pavlova in sight), this Turkish joint serves up quick takeaway kebabs, meaty grills, dip platters, kofte meatballs and kick-arse Turkish coffee.
reviewed