A lot can happen in a year especially in the food scene of Newcastle which is coming in leaps and bounds. Since last year's visit in early 2024 there are new places to eat and drink. Find out more about what is new to eat in Newcastle from dining with an ocean view to a playful degustation, a Roman trattoria to a late night bar serving native botanical drinks plus changes to favourite restaurants and chefs!
Peregerin Merewether
Peregrin is part of the Newcastle Beach Hotel. On the ground level there is Larrie’s a retro designed takeaway fish and chips shop. On the first level is the pub and on the top level is the rooftop cocktail bar and restaurant Peregrin. The restaurant opened in February 2024 and has an expansive foot print with indoor and balcony seating that beautifully showcases the view of the rolling surf outside.
I can never go past a lobster or Moreton Bay bug roll and it ends up being my favourite entree. The Moreton Bay bug meat is covered in a light, crisp batter and paired with cos lettuce leaf, crispy onion rings, spicy mayonnaise and flying fish roe on a soft, warm bun. Make sure to get one per person because you won’t want to share it.
Another favourite is the butterflied prawns with a delicious fresh seasonal mango, chilli, charred lime and lime yogurt. The prawns are perfectly cooked and easy to extract out of their shell.
I also had to try the smoked yumbah abalone that is smoked and thinly sliced along with thinly shaved fennel, herbs, lemon and smoked sea salt.
There’s something about an ocean view that just entices me to eat seafood. And the market fish fillet is mahi mahi that is grilled on the charcoal with asparagus and lemon. It’s a simple treatment for a nice cut of fish and all it needs is some smoked salt to season it.
The tagliatelle is a fresh pasta paired with a halved Moreton bag bug with tomato, chilli and basil. The pasta has a silky and delicate texture to it and the Moreton Bay bug meat is perfectly cooked so that it is still soft and tender.
For Newcastle Food Month, Peregrin is partnering up with Wine Selectors for a Hunter Valley Wine Dinner on the 10th of April, 2025.
Sapori at Tailors
Islington is a suburb of Newcastle around 10 minutes drive from downtown Newcastle. The vibe here is a little Newtown with a range of op shops and casual eateries. Here you'll also find Roman restaurant Sapori at Tailors on Beaumont Street, a tiny restaurant so popular that you often see queues outside at night. They are not exactly new but they have been open since COVID.
Fabrizio and Francesca Virgili arrived from Rome direct to Newcastle when they came to visit distant relatives. They started to learn English but realised that if they returned to Italy they would lose the English skills that they gained. Then COVID struck and they made Newcastle their permanent home opening up Sapori at Tailors in a former tailor's workshop and tailors (hints of its past are interwoven into the decor).
There are a range of Roman specialties like Saltimbocca Alla Romana but pick anything and it's good. The smoked mozzarella, prosciutto and rocket salad is delicious as is the fried Mantovane or fried pizza dough-this is perfect for dipping in sauces.
Also make sure to order the Mortazza, a cross between focaccia and pizza and topped with mortadella, truffle paste and a gooey, soft burrata. You can thank me later ;)
For Newcastle Food Month Sapori at Tailors are holding two events: a Sapore di Mare dinner, pairing seafood dishes with exceptional Italian Wines on the 2nd of April, 2025. There is also an Exploring Italy dinner on the 30th April, 2025.
Roxanne
Roxanne is the newest bar in Newcastle. Housed in a former bank building (I swear you can still smell the money!) they serve up cocktails with unusual and clever combinations.
The cocktails use native Australian ingredients like native green ants, kunzea, lemon aspen, cinnamon myrtle, wattleseed gin and bush basil and are entirely unique. They are also open until 11 pm to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Flotilla
For one of Newcastle’s best dining experiences head to Flotilla in Wickham. Until recently the restaurant had their sister bar Vecina alongside the restaurant but demand for seats at Flotilla was so high that they expanded the restaurant across to where Vecina used to sit. Vecina is now moving elsewhere.
We slide into a comfortable leather corner booth and drink in the atmosphere. The Flotilla is a foodies favourite for foodies with guests of every age. Owner Eduardo Molina originally hails from Guatemala and is a gregarious host. Tonight we are having a sampling of The Flotilla's new snack menu. Flotilla is known just as much for its drinks as its food and we sip on Caribbean Holiday spritzes with white rum, mango, coconut, citrus and fizz and the Si Chef cocktail made with Calle 13 reposado tequila, suze, pineapple and mint.
The ocean trout rillette cigar is a must order. Finally diced ocean trout rillette is encased in a crisp, super thin pastry with chives at each end like a savoury cannoli. My only advice is two fold: eat this quickly and also, you will definitely want more than one per person.
One might assume that dousing raw Camden Haven oysters with hot sauce might be too much but the capsicum strong hot sauce really brings out the briney flavour of the oyster.
Another must order is the mussel beignet with a black mussel coated in a light squid ink beignet batter and deep fried and served with pickled eshallots underneath.
Also, the salt and vinegar deep-fried enoki mushroom fans are a must order. They have dabs of black garlic and Sichuan pepper sprinkled on them - pick them up from the gathered end and a nibble on the mushrooms for an umami flavour bomb.
Ajo blanco is a South American almond soup and here it gets clever accents of flavour through finally diced fennel and sliced grapes. The soup itself has a slightly grainy quality and yet is so creamy and moreish. Despite the amount of food that I’ve eaten, I polish this soup off.
The Hiramasa kingfish is light, luscious and absolutely lovely with flavours of blood plum and finger lime.
For Newcastle Food Month, The Flotilla is hosting a Harvest Feast with Thomas Wines on the 5th April, 2025.
Roundhouse
Roundhouse at the CrystalBrook Kingsley Hotel is undergoing a change in menu and chef. Chef Thomas Heinrich hails from Canberra and has worked at establishments all over the world. His experience is more in degustations and multi-course menus and from mid March they will be offering a 7 course tasting menu for $160 per person at the restaurant instead of à la carte. This is a glimpse into the menu.
There are four snacks to begin with. The first snack is a delicious spring roll sized morsel filled with prawn, calamansi and plum salt. This is absolutely delicious with marmalade and citrus flavours and pops from roe.
The next course is served in a scallop shell and is finally sliced scallop crudo topped with a dashi foam. This is so fresh and delicious and goes really well with the First Creek limited release Fiarno 2024
I was very intrigued to try the next snack. It is a lobster macaron with NSW lobster, chives, onion, capsicum and chilli aioli in a very delicate macaron shell. The shell is made deliberately less sweet and this snack has a nice interplay between savoury and sweet.
One of my favourite bites is the crisp pie tee pastry filled with beef tartare with horseradish cream and cured egg yolk shaved on top. It's one of those bites that you could easily enjoy half a dozen off, it's that moreish.
Halfway through the meal a fun Interlude arrives, dubbed a “halftime orange”. This harks back to school sports where you would get a slice of orange halftime. They issue a challenge to diners: there are six flavours in this jelly orange slice and you have to guess five of them.
(I’ll share the flavours right at the bottom of this story so as not to spoil it!)
There are three main courses covering fish, pork and beef . The first dish is a miso glazed Hiramasa kingfish sitting in a pool of smoked caviar and aged mirin beurre blanc. It is based on Nobu miso black cod and while the kingfish doesn’t have quite the same texture, it is delicious.
By this stage I’m getting very full and the next course is crispy pork belly with pickled beetroot, apple gel with beetroot and mascarpone purée pickled beetroot disc. To the side is an Eleven Madison Park chicken jus made of just chicken feet and chicken wings cooked for 3 days until glazed and luscious.
The final savoury course is the Angus Beef tenderloin cooked perfectly medium rare with a herb crust made with wattleseed, parsnip purée and port wine jus. It’s a sizable course and I can’t imagine anyone not being completely stuffed by the end of this.
Dessert is a classic chocolate pot de creme with a malted milk crisp made by their pastry chef who formerly worked at Quay.
For Newcastle Food Month Roundhouse are holding a Weekend Buffet Brunch every weekend during April.
Customs House
At Customs House they've had a change of chef and with that a change of menu. Chef Zek Kleitz hails from South East London. While the restaurant rooms at Customs House are classic and elegant, the best spot is in the terrace with view of the water. Head there on a Friday night for happy hour Mango Weiss cocktails for $10 each.
I've eaten my fair share of tomato salads and this one is gorgeous with smooth smoked ricotta dabs, candy sweet Heirloom tomatoes, crumbed black olive and fresh basil. The stand outs are the summer tomatoes and the ricotta's silky texture.
The Albrolhos scallops are enormous scallops served on the shell blanketed in a divine miso cream. Tip: order some bread for that gorgeous sauce.
The 24 hour chuck tail beef is both a visually eye catching dish with tender sliced steak under a blanket of the smoothest potato purée with crisp onion rings on a bed of caramelised onion. This is the sort of dish that you don't really make at home but rather eat out, preferably on that sunny verandah as the sun sets.
For Newcastle Food Month Customs House are having Rose Garden Party on April 5th and a Foodie and Wine trivia night on April 30th.
So tell me Dear Reader, which dishes did you like the look of the most?
Oh and the five flavours of the half time orange are: orange, carrot, allspice, beetroot and ginger!
NQN is an ambassador for Newcastle Food Month but all opinions remain her own.
Newcastle Food Month
https://newcastlefoodmonth.com.au/
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