Restaurants in Northern Territory
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A
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.
reviewed
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B
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.
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C
Café Mediterranean Bar Doppio
Alice’s locals duck down this laneway for huge and wholesome home-style breakfasts (eggs any style, pancakes), pita pizzas, burgers, pies and salads. It’s also a favoured meeting place for well-made coffee or fresh-pressed juice, either in the shade of the covered arcade or inside with local-events flyers wallpapering the walls.
reviewed
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D
Hanuman Restaurant
You won't believe you're in the outback when you try the incredible Thai- and Indian-influenced cuisine at this stylish restaurant. The delicate Thai entrees are a real triumph as are the seafood dishes, particularly the Hanuman prawns. Although the menu is ostensibly Thai, there are enough Indian dishes to satisfy a curry craving. There are several vegetarian offerings and a good wine list. Book ahead.
reviewed
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E
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.
reviewed
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Casa Nostra
Step across the Todd River and into 1970s Italy at this old-school pizza and pasta joint. Madly popular on the weekends (bookings recommended) it is wonderfully cosy with red and white checked tablecloths, and plastic grape vines hanging from the ceiling. Order the famously delectable vanilla slice early as they run out the door. Note that it's BYO vino.
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G
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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H
Overlanders Steakhouse
The place for steaks, be they buffalo, kangaroo, crocodile or camel. And why stop at just one? Amid the cattle station decor (saddles, branding irons and the like) you can take the challenge of the Drover's Blowout ($65), four courses including a platter of Aussie meats.
reviewed
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I
Thai Room
Head to this arcade restaurant for perky Thai dishes and quicker-than-average service. The modest menu mixes its signature spices with a variety of veggie, meat and seafood dishes. The lunch specials are a bargain and it's BYO.
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J
Flavours of India
There’s no Bollywood drama in the decor of this humble family restaurant. While covering ubiquitous curries and tandoori favourites, the menu includes a smattering of non-Indian meals. There are several vegetarian dishes, and though fully licensed, BYO is also possible.
reviewed
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K
Sporties
It may not strictly be a pub, but with sporting paraphernalia adorning the bar (which serves cold beer on tap) it may as well be. Street seating provides pole position to spectate while hoeing into a focaccia or baguette, pasta, or a pub-style meat-and-three veg meal.
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L
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.
reviewed
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N
Katherine Country Club
Overlooking Katherine's nine-hole golf course, this boozy bistro is a real locals' haunt. You don't have to be a club member (or even know how to swing a club) − just turn up and enjoy big steaks, burgers and schnitzels and Aerosmith on the jukebox. 'The burgers are better at the Golfy!'
reviewed
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O
Red Dog
Join the throng at this Australiana-decorated place pumping out decent coffee and hearty breakfasts (eggs, pancakes or the whole-hog ‘bushman’s breakfast’), and a range of chicken burgers.
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Kakadu Bakery
Superb made-to-order sandwiches on home-baked bread walk out the door, plus mean burgers, slices, breakfast fry-ups, pizzas and basic salads.
reviewed
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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.
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Mimi Restaurant
The upmarket Mimi Restaurant delivers local produce, such as barramundi and emu prepared with bush fruits and spices.
The turn-off to the Cooinda accommodation complex and Yellow Water wetlands is 47km down the Kakadu Hwy from the Arnhem Hwy intersection. It's then 4.5km to the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre, a further 1km to the Yellow Water turn-off and another 1km to Cooinda.
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Q
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.
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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.
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Stockyard Gallery
This casual cafe is a little gem. There's a delicious range of homemade snacks (focaccia, sandwiches, cakes, muffins) plus fresh plunger coffee, divine mango smoothies and unusual bush-orange ice cream. The art gallery here sells Aboriginal art, jewellery and books.
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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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Tinh & Lan Alice Vietnamese Restaurant
This atmospheric Vietnamese restaurant is set in a market garden illuminated with lanterns. All the favourites – rice paper rolls, pho, salt and pepper squid – are deliciously prepared and the ingredients, growing all around you, couldn't be fresher. Follow the signs off Colonel Rose Dr; it's about 14km south of town.
reviewed
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Humpty Doo Hotel
The Arnhem Hwy branches off towards Kakadu 34km southeast of Darwin. About 10km along the road, in the small agricultural hub of Humpty Doo, the self-proclaimed ‘world famous’ Humpty Doo Hotel is a popular local (even with Darwin locals) serving up meals (mains $12 to $20), big Sunday sessions and weekend bands.
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