Every year, how we eat out in Australia changes, depending on several factors. What’s happening in culture is a major factor, as is what food is available and what chefs at appointed at which restaurants.
For instance, lockdowns in Australia led to the popularity of Providoor, which delivered fine dining to your door, and many restaurants were forced to close. The Washington Post found that 72,700 bars and restaurants in the US shut forever in 2020 due to COVID lockdowns, a 95% jump from the previous year (there are no Australian stats).
Another example of the role of culture in dining habits: three years after COVID, with the cost of living rising, diners want more than just a meal out. This attitude prompted this year’s dining trend of ‘dinner and a show’, with new venues like Cardea and The Emerald Room offering a performance and a meal.
Dining trends can also depend on what food is available. Lennox Hastie, chef at Sydney restaurant Firedoor, said that his restaurant’s menu, like many, depends on what’s being grown at Australian farms at any given moment.
Finally, dining trends can result from what chefs are appointed at restaurants. In our interview with Danielle Alvarez for our Tastemakers series, the Miami-born chef said what she loves about Sydney dining is its scene of young chefs doing cool things. “They’re independent, creating delicious meals and being really bold,” Alvarez said.
Looking at those main factors, we can make informed predictions about what’s ahead for Australia’s dining scene. We’re starting to see these dining trends now, but we think they will be everywhere next year.
Bottomless Dinners Replacing Bottomless Brunches
Who thought free-flowing drinks throughout a limited time in the middle of the day would be a good idea? As anyone who’s ever had one too many at a bottomless brunch will tell you, it’s not that hard to do so. It’s almost impossible not to.
Enter the bottomless dinner. It works the same as a bottomless brunch, but allows for drinking at a more reasonable hour. It’s offered at Sydney’s The Royal in Paddington, but, in 2025, it’ll be more popular.
“Think of it as the new pres before heading out for the night,” says Brooke Fitzpatrick, Group Marketing Manager at PHMG, the group behind The Royal. “It’s perfect for groups as everyone can find something they love and it creates a fun, social dining atmosphere.”
More Variety of Non-Alcoholic Drinks
Many Australian restaurants and bars have started offering non-alcoholic drinks other than soft drinks and sugary mocktails. They’re serving their own non-alcoholic drink creations, like Sydney’s Yellow, which has a non-alcoholic set menu pairing that aligns with its ethos of exploring how to get the most out of fruits and veggies.
Other restaurants serve tipples from non-alcoholic drinks’ brands like Altina and NON. Founded in Melbourne in 2019, NON is now served at 250-odd Australian restaurants.
In 2025, the number of restaurants serving pre-made or their own creations of non-alcoholic drinks will exponentially grow. It’ll be the norm for venues to have at least three well-thought-out, non-alcoholic options and any venues that aren’t doing this will be left behind.
More Awareness of Carbon Calories
If you’re not familiar with carbon calories or climate calories, as they’re sometimes called, they’re a number based on how much environmental impact getting the food onto your plate had. To put it simply, the carbon footprint of your food.
For instance, if you’re eating a dish with a banana shipped from Brazil, it’s likely to have a much higher carbon calorie count than a dish with ingredients grown within Australia. The concept was devised to make us more informed so we can be more mindful when we eat.
The restaurants and bars at Crystalbrook Collection hotels, including Paper Crane at Crystalbrook Riley and Round House at Crystalbrook Kingsley, have icons on their menus that show what was involved in putting the dish on a plate. The icons share if it was locally sourced with ingredients from within a three-hour radius of the restaurant, uses ethical meats and was made with minimised waste.
In 2025, icons like these and carbon calories on menus so diners can get more of an idea of the behind-the-scenes of their food will become more common among Australian restaurants.
Indigenous Ingredients Replacing Common Ones
Indigenous ingredients like saltbush, red kangaroo and Davidson plum jam championed by Australian chefs aren’t new. What is new is that they’ll be used to replace existing popular foods. “I see chefs sprinkle lemon myrtle and chucking some finger lime here and there, but we’re not giving our native ingredients justice,” Indigenous chef Jack Brown told ABC.
Brown doesn’t want native Australian ingredients in dishes only at fine dining restaurants — he wants them used in everyday cooking. Wattle seeds in our lattes, warringal greens instead of spinach and bunya nut in ice cream. Trained in traditional French cuisine, Brown has experimented with making duck liver parfait with emu instead.
More Than a Meal
“Since Sydney lockout laws and COVID, the way the city has looked at where they spend their time and money has changed,” says Brandon Martignago, co-director of Harbour City Hospitality, which owns The Emerald Room, a dinner-and-show venue in Sydney.
“If you’re just wanting to eat and drink, people are realising it’s easier and cheaper to stay at home,” Martignago says. “Whereas if they want to go out, they’ll go to places that turn the night into an event.”
On top of more dinner-and-show options, in 2025, Australian venues will offer other immersive dining experiences. Sydney restaurant Luna Lu has an AI-powdered immersive underwater dining experience. At Bottega Coco, also in Sydney, you can learn to make pasta before tucking into an Italian feast. And Melbourne restaurant Shelanous taps into all five senses throughout a 10-course degustation menu.
Related: The Sydney Fine-Dining Restaurants Leading the Way in Non-Alcoholic Set Menus
Related: The Latest Croissant Hybrid Is Here, and It’s Japanese-Influenced
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