It’s not every day Good Food orders fancy dishes like this, but we happily blew the budget for a buttery pasta, a dry-aged steak, an Opera House-shaped dessert and more.
Good Food team
Finding good food is a full-time job for the Good Food team, one we take seriously. So, when we decided to put a list together of the best things we ate in 2025, we realised we had enough for two lists: one for all the great things under $20 and then this one. Some dishes may require you to take out a line of credit, but we promise, it’ll be worth it. Enjoy.
Moreton Bay bug pasta at Ursula’s, $40
If your year looked anything like mine, it involved eating a lot of pasta – some of it very, very good, like Humbug’s crimped pillows of pumpkin agnolotti, spooned with sweet-savoury miso butter, and Flaminia’s paccheri allo scoglio, brimming with ripe tomatoes and springy, ocean-bright shellfish.
One bowl, in particular, stood out: Phil Wood’s Moreton Bay bug pasta at Ursula’s, in Paddington. Fresh tagliatelle is cloaked in a thick, glossy crustacean butter, built from a vermouth-spiked stock of bug shells, then emulsified with butter and parmesan. Chives are showered over the top, along with a lobe of Moreton Bay bug, charred just enough to deepen its flavour and coax out its sweetness. Simple. Elegant. Delicious. Best paired with one of Ursula’s excellent grower champagnes. Erina Starkey
Crispy coconut rice with mango makrut sorbet from Kiln, $26
Steep rice in sweetened and salted coconut cream and let it frizz in a deep-fryer: the result is a crunchy disc that tastes like a tropical hash brown. It’s highly snackable and a structural plank in Andy “Bowdy” Bowden’s stunning riff on mango sticky rice. Served with ultra-fresh scoops of mango and makrut lime sorbet, plus pools of pandan oil and coconut, it’s also presented with ribbon-like swirls of the signature fruit. Although the pastry chef has since departed Kiln, his tribute to neighbouring Thaitown remains. And because it’s vegan and gluten-free, literally everyone can enjoy this intensely summer-charged dessert. Lee Tran Lam
Dry-aged MB4+ 700-gram bone-in sirloin from Porteno, $195
No, I don’t usually order the most expensive steak, but yes, I would do it again from this stylish two-hatter. Porteno dry-ages its meat in-house, and this beauty chills for 28 days in the cold room, which sits behind a curtained window in the main dining room. The kitchen crew are masters at wrangling flames, and it’s exciting to watch them work the asada from the bar. My steak was expertly seasoned; the fat rendered to perfection. After 15 years, it’s fantastic to see this 15-year-old restaurant still at the top of its game in Surry Hills. Sarah Norris
Whole roast goose from Golden Sands, $93.60
Hurstville may well be the best suburb for poultry in Sydney. Admire the mandolin-like curves of the pei pa ducks at Golden Sun BBQ, savour the depth of the Nanjing salted duck at Mr Chao BBQ, tear into the squab at Hurstville Chinese Restaurant and Sun Ming. But the most memorable bird? It has to be the goose at Golden Sands. Taste of Shunde is renowned for it, but my money’s on this institution upstairs in Hurstville Times Plaza, where the skin is crinkled and burnished, the flesh is supple and rich and there’s a lingering sweetness, enhanced by a ramekin of spiced sauce coaxed from the cooking juices. David Matthews
The pig plate from Joe’s Tavern, $74
Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume residency at Bathers’ Pavilion was more than a bit special, and I will remember the precision and harmony of the UK chef’s marron with wax flower jelly, pike roe, mussel stock and buttermilk for a very long time. God, it was incredible. But to experience that you’ll have to head to Cartmel in England, where Rogan does more or less the same dish with langoustine, so I probably shouldn’t bang on about it too much here.
More readily available is the plate of pig in its many forms at Joe’s Tavern in Newtown. From the “parts and labour” section of the menu, you can expect crisp belly, crumbed chop stuffed with its own ham (its own ham!) and provolone, and confit shoulder wrapped in cabbage. There will likely be a Vienna sausage too, and one time the kitchen was out of the shoulder chou farci, so you got a small steak of maple-glazed ham instead. Everything is slicked with dark, delicious jus and then there’s a stonking good wedge of cheesecake for dessert. That’s living. Callan Boys
Pavlova from Bennelong, available on the $225 three-course menu
Could there be a more “Sydney” dish than the Opera House pavlova at Bennelong? Carefully assembled from crisp, curved meringue to resemble Utzon’s sails, it became a signature the moment Quay chefs Peter Gilmore and Rob Cockerill opened the restaurant’s current iteration 10 years ago. The dish has undergone minor renovations over the years but in its present form, the delicate “sails” are perched on fresh passionfruit and passionfruit curd, cream and vanilla brulee. Yes, it’s quite sweet. No, it’s not subtle. Yes, you’ll need to shell out for the full three-course menu to try it. But the result is unlike any other dessert. As one Good Food article first described it: “An unapologetic celebration of Australia, it’s the America’s Cup win, right there on a plate. It’s the bicentenary. It’s Ken Done. It’s the vibe of the thing.” Megan Johnston
Confit dodine of pigeon, radicchio and raisin from Porcine, $90
Porcine chef and co-owner Nik Hill’s ongoing dalliance with pigeon (or squab) continues to make the Paddington bistro stand out in a sea of French restaurants. The small, delicate bird is deboned (leg and wings left intact) and filled with pistachio, trompette mushrooms and duck gizzards in a delightful textural juxtaposition before being gently cooked in duck fat. The bird sits on a nest of wilted, glossy radicchio that soaks up the jus gras, and is finished with the subtle sweetness of a Pineau des Charentes fortified wine. It screams of the classic French technique and boldness that personifies Hill’s cooking. It’s also damn tasty. Kevin Cheng
Cassata siciliana at Osteria Mucca, $28
Somehow, my most beloved splurge dish of the year features two things I rather dislike: marzipan and candied fruit. Such is the magic of our Chef of the Year, Lauren Eldridge, that she can weave these two culinary enemies of mine into my favourite dessert of the year. Her cassata Siciliana at Australia Street’s new Italian joint is a sight to behold. Its verdant pistachio marzipan is topped with intricate-piped fondant icing and crowned with a shiny candied cherry. Beneath lies a sponge soaked with a minty splash of Liquore Strega, and ricotta swimming with chocolate chips. I think it’s so special, I have ordered it to-go so I can gift it to my friends for their birthdays. Isabel Cant
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